SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – Most know high-jumping Najee Harris for his explosive speed and athleticism on the football field.
To Tianna Hicks, he’s still her baby boy.
“I’m at home going ‘look at that, that’s my son playing for the NFL right there!!! That’s my baby!!’ I just lost it, like that’s my baby!'”
Hicks says she had an inkling early on that her son would be an athlete, but she never expected him to dominate the way he did in pee wee football.
“When he was like 6-year-old you hear these guys going ‘there’s this little boy over there he’s hitting, he’s cracking ’em!’ I’m looking and I’m going ‘oh that’s my son they’re talking about!’ He used to run around just sacking people it would be hilarious.”
Harris put it all on the football field, leaving behind instability at home.
The family struggled with homelessness throughout Harris’ childhood. Hicks worked hard to support 5 children.
“They were my motivation. They kept me alive. They kept me from some serious depression. Those 5 kids are the only thing that kept me going.”
One of the places the family temporarily called home – the Greater Richmond Interfaith Program Shelter.
GRIP provides housing, meals, employment help, and more to families in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Hicks and her kids stayed in one small room.
“Trying to live in a shelter with 5 kids, trying to give them some type of normalcy. Just to keep them all motivated and going that was my challenge. It was the toughest thing to do.”
Grip made such an impression on Harris that he went back on NFL draft night and threw a party for kids at the shelter.
“I had no idea he wanted to throw a party there, I didn’t know he even wanted to go back. I didn’t expect him to open up about that, it’s personal, very personal, it’s something they tried to hide all their lives.”
Harris was selected in the first round by the Pittsburg Steelers.
He quickly made a name for himself as an elite NFL running back. He’s now using that power for good.
“He’s a fun guy, he’s humble. He’s such a philanthropist. He just has all these ideas that he wants to do. He was like ‘hey can we just buy the building?’ I was like ‘we own the building you don’t need to buy the building…'” said Nicole Jones, GRIP executive assistant.
In October, Harris partnered with Lowe’s to sponsor major shelter renovations – replacing all of the flooring, painting, fixing up the playground, landscaping, and more.
Next up – Harris is buying computers for the shelter’s teen room and helping replace washers and dryers.
Hicks says she’s incredibly proud of what Harris has accomplished on the football field, but she’s even more proud of the loving and caring man that he’s become.
“It lets me know I did something right… it makes me feel like you know my prayers, praying to God asking that you guide and lead my children in the way that you feel fit, my prayers have been answered.”