The Denver Broncos landed a great person, player and story when they picked Texas cornerback Jahdae Barron in the first round of the NFL draft.
After Barron got “The Call” from the Broncos and spoke to general manager George Paton, team owner Greg Penner and coach Sean Payton, the rookie did something Denver had never seen before. He asked to be put on speakerphone so he could address the entire draft room.
Barron later explained that he wanted to thank the team for changing his mother’s life. Techonia Davis worked two jobs to raise her kids. Now, after signing an $18 million contract, Barron will take care of his mother.
“They changed my mother’s life,” Barron said. “Any other team, they could have changed my mother’s life. They [the Broncos] didn’t pass on me. They took the opportunity, and they changed my mother’s life. So I just wanted to thank everybody that was a part of doing that because it was a collective group. They’re an organization. Me just being here already for a short period of time, it’s a culture here and I can tell, especially with the Texas guys here. They’re already telling me this is family-tight here, family-oriented here. So it’s just amazing.
“I just felt the need in my heart to tell everybody, ‘Thank you.’ I’m very appreciative of them just changing my life and then changing my mother’s life. Again, I said the purpose serves a purpose that’s greater than any individual in the room. So what they just did for me for my life yesterday, it just changed my mom, and my sisters’ and my brothers’ life forever. That was big on their part, so I’m very appreciative of them forever.”
During his introductory press conference, Barron put an emphasis on supporting his mother.
“My mom, she got me to this point, and it’s my job to take care of her for the rest of my life, and I’m going to do that,” Barron said on April 25. “I’m not wearing burnt orange anymore, but I’m still wearing orange. So I’ll most definitely take pride in that. I want to thank Broncos Country just for having me. I’m going to give you everything I have, day-in and day-out and just be committed to the process of what I’m doing without being attached to the results. I’m truly blessed to be here, and I can’t wait to get things rolling.”
Barron said his entire family played a big part in his life leading up to him entering the NFL.
“My mother [is] the strongest woman in the world,” the cornerback said. “Even on Father’s Day, I tell her, ‘Happy Mother’s Day,’ again. She gets two. She raised my two older brothers and me, and then eventually she had three beautiful daughters, so it was kind of like a weird transition. I was the youngest of the brothers, so I got to grow up with my brothers, and then I got to grow up with my little sisters. I have my little sisters here, Taleah, Tamia, Taziah and my older brother Trayvon, and my cousin Dejon, and then my mom, Techonia Davis. They all played a big part in my life, and I’m blessed to have them. My mom — she pushed me every single day, just what I was saying, just staying committed to the process. Whenever I got down, she made sure that she reminded me that I was staying true to what I said I would do long after the mood had changed.
“So just with that, just being committed. She was committed. All those things that she did, people look at it as sacrifices, everything she did just running me around from boxing training, basketball [and] football practice. It was an all-in investment. Like I said at the beginning of the interview, I’m going to invest that and I’m going to give her the world back so that she can just be a mother. I feel like over the years, she was just trying to make everybody happy as a mother, and that’s what you do, take [my] sisters to go here, take me here and things like that. Now she can truly enjoy just being a mother, not having to work two jobs and going to take my little sisters to volleyball practice. She can just truly be here what God called her to be as a mother and a provider. It’s going to be fun for her.”
The Broncos changed the life of not just a new player, but his entire family. It’s an amazing story that started with Techonia Davis being a great mother. Now it’s Barron’s turn to take care of her.
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