Beasley triumphs over trials, tribulations
FAMILY DEATH SAND TOUGH ROOKIE SEASON SERVE TO FUEL LINEBACKER’ S FIRE TO EXCEL
The Adairsville High School football team began its season 0-2, so Vic Beasley Jr. went home. It was late last August, before the Atlanta Falcons became one of the NFL’s biggest surprises, and Beasley wanted to motivate the young football players at his alma mater in small-town Georgia, about 60 miles northwest of Atlanta. Perhaps he was speaking to himself, too.
Beasley, who had purchased three new sets of uniforms for the high school program, talked about being doubted and working hard to prove people wrong. And he shared his own recent struggles. His rookie year in the NFL had been disappointing. The former No. 8 pick heard talk he was a bust after he had just four sacks while playing with a torn labrum in his right shoulder.
That season came as Beasley struggled through a terrible stretch of his life. His older brother had died in a car accident in 2014, as Beasley decided whether to leave Clemson early and enter the NFL draft. During his senior year, his uncle and pastor, John Beasley Jr., died of cancer. And more recently, his father’s liver, beaten down from years of struggles with alcohol, fought cirrhosis. Beasley spent much of his rookie season commuting from the Falcons’ facility in the morning to his father’s hospital room at night. His dad died in April 2016. ‘He’s kind of a role model’
So Beasley — who, according to those close to him, tends to internalize his pain and never liked to talk about his father’s issues with alcohol — wanted the high school team to do what he planned to do, to turn any doubt and frustration into motivation.
“I had to stay positive and optimistic,” Beasley said last week. “I knew my dad wanted what was best for me. He was already proud of me, but he wanted to see me succeed at this level.”
Beasley has turned it into a season in which he has led the NFLin sacks and forced fumbles and has a chance to help the Atlanta Falcons win their first Super Bowl on Sunday. He already has made the people of his hometown proud. The main hallway in Adairsville High School has a bulletin board covered in brown lunch bags to track Beasley’s sacks.
“He’s kind of a role model for people that are older than him and younger than him,” said Kurt Scoggins, Beasley’s high school position coach.
After the Super Bowl, Scoggins’ wife wants to have Beasley over for dinner so she can learn how the soft-spoken man stays so positive. Part of it, his former coaches say, is he’s deeply religious — and they know that’s a cliché, so they have stories to back it up.
When Beasley was in high school, he was missing from an Adairsville practice. A coach found Beasley at home, sitting on his couch and reading his Bible because he didn’t have a ride. As a middle schooler participating in Adairsville football camps at Georgia Southern, Beasley spent his downtime in his dorm room doing the same.
“Maybe some people get two of them,” Adairsville coach Eric Bishop said of special players like Beasley.
But Bishop believes the Falcon’s star defensive player was the best kid he’ll ever coach. Making good on promises
Beasley played on offense and defense for Adairsville, and when the team’s two punt returners were injured during a game in his junior year, he stayed on the field for that, too. He’d never practiced returning a punt, but he scored a touchdown on his first try. His uncle called him “Superstar.” And even when he was a boy, his father called him “Man.”
“Not a day goes by that I don’t think about my dad,” said the linebacker, who added “Jr.” to the back of his jersey as a senior at Clemson to honor his father. “He has a piece of my heart. I’m just happy what he’s done for me, and the man he’s motivated me into being.”
Beasley set the career sack record at Clemson and became a two-time All-American. He earned an invitation to the NFL draft’s green room, reserved for only the best prospects. His family friend and former youth football coach, Norman Parker, thought health concerns would prevent Beasley’s father from attending. But he did, and Parker said that day was the proudest the father looked.
Before the NFL draft, Beasley bought a ruby sport coat, matching the Falcons’ dominant color, in hopes the team he grew up rooting for would select him.
They did, of course, and Sunday he’ll take the field at NRGStadium, hoping to make good once more on the promises he made to himself in front of a high school football team.
“Alot of people want to do stuff like him,” Scoggins said. “And a lot of us fail.”