Family, football drive UCLA’s Barr
LOS ANGELES UCLA outside linebacker Anthony Barr, who might be the first defensive player taken in the 2014 NFL draft, has received, absorbed and applied so many lessons in his 21 years of life that one would think he is the product of educators. He is. His lesson plan expanded through the years. It was difficult and sometimes painful and confusing yet also rewarding and fulfilling.
At its core, it was usually about family, eventually about football and always about faith.
The faith came two decades ago from a 19-year-old single mother named Lori Barr, who had just broken up with a Notre Dame football star, running back Tony Brooks, the father of her young son, and had moved from South Bend, Ind., interrupting her studies at St. Mary’s College, to Harbor City, Calif., just south of Los Angeles, to take refuge with her parents.
“There was a feeling I had from the very first day with Anthony,” Barr recalls in an interview with USA TODAY Sports. “I told him from the time he could talk that he was a leader and that he was destined for greatness. I consistently told him that there was a great life he was destined to lead. I’m not sure why. It was intuition, I guess. I was just a kid. This wasn’t the life I had planned. But I looked at him as a blessing. All of a sudden, I was a 19-year-old mother. And I just told myself, ‘This is a gift.’ ”
She was right. He became a sturdy young man who stayed out of trouble
and became a good student at Loyola High School, a respected private Catholic school in the shadow of downtown Los Anglees. He chose UCLA, to the surprise of his Notre Dame-oriented family, and after a serpentine college career that started as a running back and rebounded from a lack of confidence, Barr, a 6-4, 248-pound senior, has put together two stellar seasons at outside linebacker that have made him an AllAmerican and a surefire first-round draft pick.
Some mock drafts have him slated as high as second, ahead of South Carolina’s much more publicized defensive end, Jadeveon Clowney.
NOT A FINISHED PRODUCT
Everybody at UCLA will miss his ability, tireless work ethic and engaging, soft-spoken personality, maybe none more than the man who helped turn his career around, UCLA linebackers coach Jeff Ulbrich, who played 10 seasons at the position for the San Francisco 49ers.
“It’s been fun to see this rather quiet kid of a couple of years ago become such a man,” Ulbrich says. “I’m just so happy for him and his family. He’s a guy who has absolutely deserved the success he’s achieved.”
And it’s just beginning, Ulbrich says.
“He’s nowhere near a finished product,” Ulbrich says. “I think he’s a guy who will continue to get better and will become a perennial all-pro in the NFL. I tell NFL people looking at him, ‘If you like what you see, you’ll love what you get.’ ”
UCLA coach Jim Mora, who encouraged Barr to switch from running back to linebacker when Mora replaced fired Rick Neuheisel after the 2011 season, sometimes can’t come up with enough superlatives when he talks about Barr’s play on the field and his character off it.
“He’s the best player on our team and the hardest worker on our team,” Mora says. “He’s a great leader who does it with his actions, his work ethic, his attitude, his commitment. In my opinion, and I haven’t seen everyone in the country, but there is nobody I’d take over Anthony Barr, and I spent 28 years in the NFL and I have a real clear understanding what they’re looking for from football character to personal character. He’s an A-plus in everything.” It took some lessons, though. As a boy, Barr grew up without a father around, as Brooks’ visits grew more and more infrequent and then stopped. But the Barr family, he was told, looked out for each other. No one got left behind or ignored. He and his mother shared a house with his grandparents and assorted other relatives. His grandparents, John and Jean Barr, Lori’s parents, had six children and 16 grandchildren. Anthony came to view his grandfather as a father figure and his grandmother as kind of a second mother.
“He never said much about his father,” Barr’s grandmother says. “My husband became very close to him. We’d do that for any of our children or grandchildren who needed help.”
Providing lessons was second nature to John and Jean Barr. They’re both retired, but he was a high school teacher and athletics director and she was a preschool teacher. In time, Lori, too, became an educator, a high school special education teacher and administrator.
Barr’s father, of course, had played at Notre Dame, as well as his uncle, Reggie Brooks. He had other Notre Dame alumni in his extended family, and they all figured Barr would stick with the Irish. But incoming Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly wanted him to play wide receiver.
“That kind of turned me off a little bit,” Barr says. “Coach Neuheisel said I could play running back, and it was close to home, so why not? Really, I guess I just wanted to make plays with the ball and score touchdowns and hear people cheering my name like in high school.” And date the cheerleader, too? “Right, all that good stuff,” he says.
LOST IN THE SHUFFLE
But the good stuff didn’t happen as a freshman or sophomore, when he basically got lost in the shuffle.
He took stock at that point. He knew the lesson to apply. “When life presents challenges, you just have to roll with it,” he says.
So when Mora arrived, he approached the meeting with him as an opportunity for a turnaround.
“I told him my story, how I was feeling, that I was kind of losing confidence in myself and I was asking what could I do to be a better player and maybe I should switch positions,” Barr says.
The next thing Barr knew, Mora was asking him to take a linebacker stance.
“I didn’t know what he was talking about,” Barr says.
Mora showed him how to stand as an outside linebacker in a 3-4 defense, which he was installing at UCLA.
“He said, ‘That’s your spot. You can make plays there. You can make money there,’ ” Barr says. “He was so passionate and crazy about it. I said, ‘OK, whatever you say. Sounds good.’ ”
He finished his first season at linebacker as a second-team All-American with 13½ sacks (second in the country) and 21½ tackles for loss (tied for fourth).
He also became famous for a signature highlight, a hard sack that ended the season for Southern California quarterback Matt Barkley (with a sprained shoulder) in UCLA’s late-season 38-28 victory.
Finally, Barr had done something for his Notre Dame family, for he had knocked Barkley out just before the USC-Notre Dame game the following week. Without Barkley, USC had trouble moving the ball, and Notre Dame won 22-13, clinching a berth in the Bowl Championship Series national title game.
“I’m sure my family was happy about that,” he says.
NOT ALL SMOOTH SAILING
Last year, life reared up with another of its challenges. His mother, who at the time was principal at St. Paul High School in Santa Fe Springs, pleaded no contest March 22, 2012, to charging $64,000 to the school credit card to pay for personal trips and shopping.
Fired from her job and awaiting sentencing, it was Lori’s turn to learn and deliver a lesson.
“There was nothing I could do to explain it,” says Lori, 41. “It was all self-inflicted. It was very stressful, because the outcome was unknown. It was a very difficult time for our family. But we are there for each other, whatever it is. Nothing was going to break us.
“I’ve tried to tell my sons, ‘So we make mistakes. What matters is who you become and what you do after the mistakes.’ ”
The case was resolved in June 2012. Lori made full restitution and was convicted of a misdemeanor instead of a felony, which allowed her to keep her teacher’s credential. She spent six days in jail.
These days, Lori is the executive director of Shelter 37, a non-profit founded by former UCLA and NFL player James Washington that provides life skills and job training for young men with troubled pasts. Last month, her case was expunged from her record.
Her son, seeing the journey his mother took, became closer than ever to her.
“Anytime a person you love is going through a difficult situation, it’s tough,” he says.
“I respect and admire her very much. Being able to go what she went through and being able to rise above that and be successful again. She’s taught me a lot. What not to do and what to do. How to carry yourself when you’re down.
“There are going to be times in life that aren’t easy, but it’s how you respond to them that matters. I think she did a wonderful job of responding.”
Barr did, too, emerging from a summer of family drama to put together another great season. His 10 sacks and 20 tackles for loss led a defense that helped the Bruins go 9-3. They finish the season Dec. 31 against Virginia Tech in the Sun Bowl in El Paso.
Barr plans to graduate this spring with a sociology degree, then, pretty soon, become a millionaire NFL rookie.
He doesn’t like talking about the money.
His grandmother remembers something he said, though.
“One time he told me, ‘I’m going to take care of my mom,’ ” she says. “That’s his goal, that everything is going to be OK for her.”
His mother doesn’t have any requests, though.
“My only wish is that he finds fulfillment,” Lori says. “The thing that would bring me the greatest happiness is for him to reach his full potential. It’s just like I always told him — destined for greatness. So what’s next?”