I hope Dwayne Haskins knew how much he was loved. How happy it made people to see his bright smile. How the Pittsburgh kids were likely deeply affected by a member of the beloved Steelers who said he had worries too.
I hope he knew he was so much more than his talents, than his career, than football.
Based on some of the stories that have come out since Haskins’ death on Saturday, it appears that last part was true. Haskins was human first and foremost, a kind young man who volunteered his time for charity events, an introvert who made a name for himself playing the position where the limelight was brightest, someone who insisted hug a reporter and pray for her when she was in tears over her grandmother’s recent death and trying to do it quietly, away from the busy dressing room.
He had spoken of his personal growth, the kind we all experience after we leave college, that time where we think we know everything and figured it all out, only to realize pretty quickly that we do damn don’t know. Haskins lived through that period in public, with the heft and expectation of having been a first-round pick, our culture was so obsessed with the draft and rankings—as if either of them were indicative of anything—and a bit blind to it The fact that Haskins is past football is an extraordinary achievement in itself.
We cannot be able to see athletes as anything other than commodities or transactions, rather than children who may be overwhelmed, scared, or homesick. Or maybe all of the above and too nervous to tell anyone feels like fumbling around a bit, on the field, off the field, and it’s starting to snow. And that if someone doesn’t step in to help, they might not get to play, might not start, might forget so few get into the damn NFL, what so few can ever say they did, and that there are people who love them for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with football.
The story goes on
I hope Dwayne Haskins knew how much he was loved.
Dwayne Haskins was so much more than the headlines he made. Just listen to his coaches and teammates after his death. (Bob Donnan/USA TODAY Sports)
I hope his family and friends will come for the small consolation of kind words and tweets posted after his death that Haskins himself heard while he was alive Trainer and teammates say what a great person he was. How much affection they had for him. As appreciated his friendship. How they admired his work ethic.
That they hadn’t figured they’d have much time to tell him in the future and that they’d told him on a random Tuesday, gotten over any embarrassment they might have felt and just told him .
Others have forgotten all this, with frightening consequences. Racing to be first to the news by a few seconds, striving to feed the content beast, consistent with how gamers have long been viewed as something other than humans, these distilled People all about Dwayne Haskins from the moments after his death to their belief that he was a Disappointment in professional footballthat he should be characterized in an obnoxious way for not doing things the way they would.
If you first saw Haskins and the other men of the NFL as people, you wouldn’t need to apologize for portraying them as anything less.
It is tragic that too much of the discussion has centered around callous tweets and appalling alleged “analysis” rather than the young man – the son, the husband, the brother, the teammate, the friend – who was working to create the best version of ready to be yourself, that bright smile.
Maybe Haskins would have been a starting quarterback again one day, maybe he wouldn’t have been. It really shouldn’t matter. The kids at Fulton Elementary, who were minutes from the Steelers’ practice facility last month, didn’t care that Haskins wasn’t the team’s star quarterback. He was a Steeler, period. And he took the time to read to them and answer their questions, and returned the embrace of the one who threw her arms around him.
One family, one team, multiple communities — they’ve all lost a man who by many reports was kind, considerate, and worked to achieve his dream.
I hope Dwayne Haskins knew how much he was loved.