Demaryius Thomas and his mother Katina Smith share a dream that the Broncos wide receiver will still be playing football in 2017, when she is out of prison and can watch him in person.
Thomas’ mother and grandmother have been incarcerated for half of his life for trafficking cocaine, and they won’t be out of prison soon. (Smith’s 20-year sentence came in part because she wouldn’t testify against her mother.) Lindsay Jones of the Denver Post recounts a recent visit by Thomas to visit his mother in a remarkable, moving story that also details Thomas’ upbringing.
With his father in the army, Thomas was taken in by his uncle and aunt at the age of nine. He used his mother and grandmother’s experiences to motivate him.
“I never want to go to jail,” Thomas said. “Never, ever.”
Thomas didn’t hide when NFL teams asked him about his past. Rather he flipped it into a positive for his ability to persevere.
“He didn’t let those things and those conditions affect the type of person he became,” Broncos coach Josh McDaniels. “He made the right decisions and ended up in the right place and created a bright future for himself.
