As part of my pre-Redskins-game prep, I just finished reading a Post article about Demetric Evans, a defensive lineman from Haynesville, La. who has been with the ‘Skins since 2004.  I never really knew much about him.  The article focused mostly on a tragedy he went through at age 12, when a classmate accidentally shot and killed his best friend while showing off the family gun.  Later on, during a brief stint out of football before he earned a spot with Washington, Demetric survived a carjacking at the hands of criminals who had killed other victims.

A fellow lineman and friend, Renaldo Wynn, said:

“With all the stuff that happened to him … a lot of guys would have been like, ‘I can’t do it.’ But making that team was nothing for him … And with the things he saw at 12, man, a lot of guys go to a life of crime or violence and could have easily retaliated or went the wrong way. But he didn’t. The adversity he went through in football is nothing like what he went through in life, and that was his motivation.”

This touches on an interesting aspect of human nature, in how people deal with adversity, particularly at a young age.  I’ve had setbacks and frustrations in life, and I’d like to think I persevere and use them as motivation more than anything, but I had it pretty easy as a kid — and certainly never experienced anything as severe as Demetric’s childhood ordeal.  Parents play a big role in how kids deal with challenges, no doubt, as Demetric alludes to in this quote about his single-parent mom, who worked nights when he was growing up:

“To this day my mom never complained about having to work that schedule … That’s one thing I always admired about my mom: She never made excuses.”

Clearly what’s important is an enduring mindset, not a specific reaction to the tragedy (they apparently didn’t discuss the event very much as a family.)  It comes down to how people make decisions, and how those decisions are impacted in the long-term by upbringing and in an instant by tragic events.

Do inspiring stories like Demetric’s alone do enough to motivate kids to make the right choices in life rather than the wrong ones when they face hard times?  Regardless, Demetric’s final quote of the article should be up on a wall at every school in America as far as I’m concerned:

“In life, man, everyone has something they can continue to go back to and make a crutch for why this is not happening, or why I’m not successful. I grew up without a dad and everybody’s got a sad story and all of that, but you know what, it’s all about you as an individual standing up and knowing what you are capable of and having confidence in yourself and really believing that you can do what you want to do, because this life, you can’t appreciate it enough.”

This mindset would benefit everyone, whether you’re a kid struggling to get through school, an undrafted rookie trying to make the NFL, or an entrepreneur struggling to launch a business.  Even though Demetric says talking about these experiences doesn’t do anyone any good, to the extent that’s he’s willing and able, I believe hearing his story could help a lot of people.  I’m glad he shared it.