I was so fortunate growing up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
I appreciate it so much because it gave me such a cool understanding of
different social classes, different ethnicities...
You can definitely say that I started to realize the privilege that I had.
That’s why I’m out here in the community.
I’m here to try and level out the playing field.
My first love for football came in the backyard,
watching TV with my dad in the living room.
It started at home.
All the parents in the comunity kind of raised all the kids.
They know a community is needed to help grow everybody.
The classrooms brought all of us together, to kind of appreciate each other.
A lot of kids lack confidence.
I was definitely one of them.
I lacked confidence in school, which I tried to make up for in sports.
What got me through that was the family, the support,
the teachers that actually cared.
I wanted to make sure that the people here in Kansas City felt my support,
as much as I feel their support on game days and throughout the week.
What I’m doing in the community through Eighty-Seven & Running, my foundation,
is making sure that the kids all have the tools and the outlets
to be whatever it is that they want to be.
We’re like a family here.
So once you get to know everybody,
they just become your family.
I feel like a community raised me.
So having that community for kids,
having that community for the development of the youth in the right direction...
it’s just so important for kids to feel comfortable with where they are in life,
feel confident in who they are,
and at the same time just flat out enjoy their lives.
I just love being myself
Coming here every day and do school and seeing faces that I haven’t seen before...
it’s just all beautiful and I just love it.
I feel like it’s important because it gets children, like me,
the chance to do different things.
Like, had it not been for Travis Kelce for funding our first Lego robotics team,
I never would have gotten interested in robotics or coding.
I can’t even think of what a legacy is, or like,
“Oh, I want my legacy to be that.”
Wake up and try to have the right intentions,
try and do things the right way with a genuine mentality.
Just try and make these kids as happy as I was.
Or as I am.