49ers’ Bourne dancing on path to redemption
If Kendrick Bourne scores a touchdown in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game — and he just might, since he has the most touchdown receptions on the 49ers this season with six — don’t be surprised if he breaks out an oldschool “worm” dance in the end zone.
“If I score, I’m going to do it,” Bourne said this week. “I’ve got it down. I’m ready!”
Bourne is always ready. For an end zone dance party. A joke. A good time. On a team filled with high energy and good vibrations, he’s one of the leaders of positivity.
But why the “worm,” a breakdance move popularized more than a decade before 24yearold Bourne was born?
Because when his Eastern Washington team won the Big Sky Conference in 2016 the players convinced coach Beau Baldwin to do the worm, his signature move since sixth grade. Coach obliged. And he suggested it to Bourne this week, in case the receiver needed some in
spiration.
The retrodance move would not only add to the viral library of Bourne’s dances but would also be an homage to his interesting path to the NFL.
“It’s been a tough path, that’s for sure,” Bourne said.
“An exciting journey,” is how his mother, Luisa, explains it.
From a small charter arts high school outside of his hometown of Portland, Ore., to an FCS school in Eastern Washington, to an undrafted free agent acquisition by the 49ers, to occasionally Kyle Shanahan’s doghouse, to a key component of a potential Super Bowl team. That’s Bourne’s journey.
“I always knew I would have to work a little harder,” Bourne said, “in order to take advantage of my opportunities.”
Though he has matured, he has kept his childlike joy. Shanahan has compared him to his son, Carter, who just turned 10.
“I meant it as a compliment,” Shanahan said. “I just meant that he’s very innocent in a lot of things. He makes a diving catch over the middle in a huge, pressure situation and the way he gets up and dances it’s like, how is the pressure not getting to him? I bet you that’s exactly how he woke up out of bed today — and probably ate Froot Loops and watched cartoons.
“The guy is just the same all the time. The pressure doesn’t get to him. And he’s fun to be around.”
Bourne has been since he was the same age as Carter (whom Bourne calls “super cool” and predicts will be just like his father and working in the NFL in 20 years).
Bourne is the youngest of Luisa and Eric Turner’s three sons (he also has a younger sister) raised in Portland. Luisa was born in American Samoa and moved to Oregon at age 5 and is close to her large family, all in the area.
“Our family loves to dance,” she said. “It’s part of our culture.”
Bourne was always a dancer, loved to sing karaoke and was also the class clown. Once an elementary school teacher had to call Luisa because her youngest son had decided to show off by doing “his business” on the playground. But even that made the teachers smile.
“Ken has a way of making people just like him with his goofy self,” Luisa said.
But in high school, at a large urban campus, Bourne started to go down the wrong path. He was in trouble with the football coach and didn’t play his sophomore year; he was hanging around the
“Ken has a way of making people just like him with his goofy self.”
Luisa Turner, on her son, Kendrick Bourne
wrong people.
“We had to have some serious talks,” Luisa said. “He had to see me cry a couple of times.”
A local football coach had taken over a program at a small charter school 45 minutes south of Portland: Milwaukie Academy of the Arts. He asked Bourne if he would like to transfer. Luisa thought the change to a smaller environment with more oneonone academic help would be good. But she warned he would have to get himself there every day. So, starting his junior year, Bourne was out of the house every morning before 7 to catch the bus.
“It started to turn around his life,” Luisa said.
Bourne starred both in basketball and football and got offers from several programs in the Big Sky Conference. He was recruited by assistant coaches at Eastern Washington before Baldwin met with him to make the final decision.
“I remember how infectious his personality was,” Baldwin said. “I truly enjoyed being around him. It was a nobrainer.”
Baldwin, now the head coach at Cal Poly after a stint as offensive coordinator at Cal, said Bourne had the ability to be the program’s No. 1 receiver. But at Eastern Washington he was teammates with Cooper Kupp, the Rams’ top receiver, so Bourne was the No. 2.
“I thought he could play in the NFL, in the right place at the right time,” Baldwin said. “He had the ball skills, the talent, the understanding of how to get open, how to run routes.”
Bourne says Baldwin helped him grow up and believe that he could have a career in the NFL. The 49ers signed Bourne as an undrafted free agent in 2017. As a rookie he was late to a meeting and was in danger of being cut. He had key drops in the preseason, leading to speculation he was on the bubble to make the roster last August.
“Kyle is good at giving guys another chance, an opportunity to redeem themselves,” Bourne said. “I could easily have been just kicked out of the building, but it doesn’t work like that here. I just beat myself up about it, try to learn from my mistakes so I don’t go through that feeling again.”
But most of the time, Bourne isn’t beating himself up. He’s dancing and happy.
“Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been happy about life,” Bourne said. “I think about the good things in life, not the negative. That’s why I’m always in a good mood.”
Before Saturday’s game, he was pulling down touchdown passes in warmups, right in front of Jerry Rice, who inspires him (“came from a small program, ran slow in the combine”). He took the field with a teammate he grew up idolizing, Richard Sherman (“The Legion of Boom was the best thing I witnessed”). And he caught a touchdown pass to give the 49ers an early lead.
Afterward, he did a little happy dance.
Life is good for Bourne. If he scores on Sunday, get ready for the worm.