A TELLING TALE
Conley’s myriad interests serve him well in expressing his voice
Chris Conley inspected the rooms of his family’s California home, a third grader seeking inspiration for the premise of a national contest for young inventors: Solve a problem in your environment.
The future Texans wide receiver searched the living room, the kitchen, the garage. His parents accompanied him, close behind.
Then, at last, a problem: three scooters heaped on the garage floor. It was a mess, an obstruction, a hindrance for any kid on the go. The scooters should be parked like the family car in the driveway.
Conley’s solution? Shelf brackets screwed into a wooden circle, which enabled the scooters to stand on their own. The invention made Conley one of 12 finalists to win a $5,000 U.S. savings bond plus a trip to the National Science Teacher Association’s awards ceremony in Chicago — a memory that still holds significance with Conley’s parents.
“Everybody has their strengths,” Conley’s mother, Christina, said. “He looks at things differently.”
It’s a story worth keeping in mind when talking to Conley, one of the NFL’s most unique players.
He’s a seven-year veteran who builds liquid-cooled gaming computers in his spare time, a gifted storyteller who’s directed several short films and plans on diving into the industry when his football career is over, a creator who’s embraced digital art as an emerging medium.
He’s also a 6-foot-3, 205-pound receiver who once set a since-broken NFL combine record for wide receivers with a 45-inch vertical jump, a lengthy 28-year-old passcatcher who led the Texans with four catches for 51 yards in the preseason opener at Green Bay and is entering a one-year deal with the franchise to be a dynamic second punch with star Brandin Cooks.
Talk to him about route combos and offensive schemes. Talk to him about non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as financial stocks and art forms and community builders. Talk to him about “Retribution,” the 26-minute Star Wars fan film he produced while still a star receiver at Georgia.
Talk to Conley about, well, anything, and a conclusion forms that those who know him best have understood all along.
“Chris is a guy you can’t fit into a single box,” said former Chiefs wide receiver Jeremy Maclin, Conley’s teammate in Kansas City from 2015-2016 who remains a close friend. “He’s a guy that likes to explore a lot of different things, and that’s what makes him him. He doesn’t try to be anybody else. He doesn’t try to fit into anything else.”
In the swelter after another Texans training camp practice, Conley discussed his most recent project: a YouTube miniseries, scheduled to release next week, in which he interviews the owners of some of Houston’s culturally iconic eateries.
Conley filmed the miniseries shortly after signing with the Texans in March. He wanted to understand a new city he only briefly visited while spending the last two seasons in Jacksonville, an AFC South rival. He also wanted to contribute and promote the things that make the state’s largest city feel like home.
“Houston’s a humongous melting pot,” said Conley, who attended North Paulding High just outside Atlanta. “Some of these stories — a lot of them were just beautiful — of people who have just given back to the city and the city’s continued to support them. Obviously, they have great food, but it goes beyond the food. It goes to the heart and the soul of these establishments, so I’m really excited to get it out there.”
Observing before he speaks
Conley has been an observer since he was born at Incirlik Air Base in Adana, Turkey, where he spent the first three years of his life while his father, Charles, served in the U.S. Air Force.
Christina, an English teacher, was initially concerned when Conley was slow to talk, only to be reassured by a pediatrician that Conley, the middle child of three, had an older brother who could speak for him.
No, Conley instead sized things up within the military family’s constant travels. The Conleys made an eight-day train excursion of the move to their first long-term home in Palmdale, Calif., and the family’s young thinker mulled over America’s wonders: How can a surging Colorado River form the Grand Canyon? How can million-year-old fossils and the bones of a 20-foot Torvosaurus turn up in Tucumcari?
Solve a problem in your environment.
Storytellers find personal voice in formative years, in experiences like Conley’s joining a local theater group as a kid, or acting out Bible stories in the faithfounded family’s impromptu dinner shows with his siblings, or geeking out with his father over Star Wars movies and comic books.
Those experiences grounded Conley once the moments to speak arrived, like when he petitioned solutions for college athlete issues to NCAA president Mark Emmert while serving twoyear terms on player committees. They provided a comfortable space for him to develop and express his deepest convictions.
“Now, this story is far from over,” Conley narrates over the final scenes of “Retribution,” which now has over 600,000 views. “No, it’s just getting started. Because as long as there are those who seek to promote evil and injustice, there will be others who will stand in their way, others who aren’t afraid, who will not cower even when darkness falls, because in loss lies a challenge and inspiration to achieve victory, to unite, to fight. And just know this: There is always hope. There is always light.”
Conley’s strong self-awareness and confident voice are what Maclin said made him the “perfect guy” to be one of the Jaguars’ leading activists in the middle of last year’s nationwide protests against police brutality and racial inequality.
Conley delivered a seven-minute speech on the steps of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office — a few blocks from a confederate monument that was later removed — and pleaded for the crowd to study the fullness of America’s history, speak out and join in peaceful demonstrations (as he’d later call upon the NFL’s highest-profile players to do), and pursue change for the marginalized people in their communities.
“Today we know that that change will come,” Conley told the crowd. “Today I’m surrounded by you, and I pray for you that you would abound in love and knowledge and deep insight.”
Solve a problem in your environment.
“I felt like I’ve always had a voice,” Conley said Tuesday. “It’s just learning how to express it, really. From a young age, kids have voices. Some of them don’t know how to express it. Some of them do naturally at a young age; but I feel like with time and with practice, you get better at expressing exactly what you’re feeling and thinking.”
Finding stories to share
An alarm sounds. Coffee brews. An egg cracks. A couple begins another morning routine in quarantine.
Pardon. Quarantime.
That’s the title of Conley’s 2020 short film, a five-minute production that follows an initially enthusiastic couple (played by Conley and his wife, Brianna) through the chaos of a repetitive cycle in isolation until reminders of deep feelings lead to reconciliation.
There’s no dialogue. Just smart camerawork, which includes a continuous shot of a heated argument, plus a five-instrument musical score commissioned by Conley during a period of the pandemic when musicians were hurting for work.
Davis Harwell, an Atlantabased film composer who wrote the score, said “Quarantime” demonstrates Conley’s skills as a director and producer, a “movie connoisseur” with command of the film-making process who can no longer really call his passion a hobby anymore.
“Sometimes you get folks who are not very music literate: ‘I want it to sound like (the 1985 film) ‘The Color Purple!’ ” said Davis, who’s composed film scores for TV dramas, documentaries and movies. “Chris was not like that. He was talking specific beats and emotions and different moments he wanted to hit.”
Davis, who first worked pro bono on “Retribution,” said Conley’s ceiling as a film producer “is incredibly high.” Jayda Imanlihen, the director of multimedia design and production at the University of Southern California, said she and Conley connect on a “film geek level” and have talked about storytelling and photography and the importance of behind-the-scenes roles.
Conley serves on the advisory board of Imanlihen’s organization, Black Girl Film School, which holds eight-week technical courses in Los Angeles for minority girls pursuing careers in the film industry.
Conley’s sister, Catherine, is currently breaking into the film industry, and Conley and Brianna are expecting the birth of their daughter in October.
“I found a lot of fulfillment in telling some of the stories I want
to tell, but when I was younger, I didn’t really know how to do that,” Conley said. “And there are people who are kind of taking up the responsibility and the helm to help girls learn that earlier, because they have a lot of impactful and powerful stories. And I agree with that. And I believe that. And I want my daughter to feel empowered in that way.”
Building rapport with Taylor
There’s a competitive sheet, a scoreboard of sorts tacked inside the Texans wide receiver room right now in training camp. Listed beside the name of every receiver are each of the player’s catches, his drops, his explosive plays — all of it calculating into a formula that ranks the receivers by an ultimate percentage.
Brandin Cooks is near the top of the list, free-agent signee Chris Moore said Thursday, which, considering Cooks has produced five 1,000-yard seasons and caught 40 career touchdowns, isn’t all that surprising.
Conley is right there with him, Moore said. It’s a promising sign for one of first-year general manager Nick Caserio’s initial moves in Houston, an indication that Conley, a former third-round pick, might be poised for a breakout season within an offense that’s in need of new firepower.
Kansas City drafted Conley in 2015 to build depth around Maclin. Conley fulfilled the role of No. 2 receiver and red-zone threat next to Pro Bowler DJ Chark as well while posting two straight 40-catch seasons in Jacksonville the last two seasons.
Conley is expected to do the same in Houston after Caserio let five-year Texans veteran Will Fuller enter free agency. In an offense that effectively no longer has franchise quarterback Deshaun Watson — who’s facing 22 civil lawsuits alleging sexual assault and is expected to be traded once his legal issues are resolved — a deep group of talented wide receivers is all the more important.
Offensive coordinator Tim Kelly described Conley as a “big, strong” receiver who’s been “diligent” in his preparation with quarterback Tyrod Taylor. The 31year-old starting signal-caller pointed out that he and Conley live in the same neighborhood and have already developed crucial trust.
“We got some time to spend together,” said Taylor, who has started in 47 career games with the Bills, Browns and Chargers. “He went out there (in Green Bay) and made some plays, some contested catches. He is a big target with strong hands. If you put it around him, more than likely he is going to come down with the catch.”
The Texans saw this firsthand last October. Conley hauled in a 51-yard pass from Gardner Minshew, setting up a 4-yard touchdown in what was eventually a 30-14 Jaguars loss. It was a bounceback game for Conley, who had to internalize frustrations from early-season mistakes.
Conley said he learned “things go your way or they don’t” in the NFL. He learned how to pause after mistakes and use his journey as motivation toward corrections. He learned to compartmentalize personal tasks from outside factors while playing for a franchise that lost 15 straight games and was the focus of constant media speculation until coach Doug Marrone was fired after the one-win season.
Solve a problem in your environment.
“I think I learned a lot about what not to care about in Jacksonville,” Conley said. “There was a lot of other things that were going on and, quite frankly, that don’t really have to do with my job. I’m just here to focus on my job to help the Houston Texans win in any way that I can, and whether things go right or wrong, I’m going to continue to work on this as hard as I can to help this organization win.”