LAKE BUENA VISTA — Ever so slowly he smiles. This is not the grin of a carefree 17-year-old but a cautious opening, a small window of opportunity for a stranger to probe a soul that must feel like it has been around for a few hundred years. The off-the-field world of Nu’Keese Richardson is a very private place, shared with only a chosen few that make up his inner circle and rarely with an outsider.
On the football field, there is pure joy. There he is in his element, a place where he can cut loose and use what can only be described as God-given gifts. He runs like the wind that bends the cane fields that surround his hometown of Pahokee, the reigning capital of “The Muck” thanks to three straight state high school football championships.
It is called “The Muck” because of the rich, black earth where you can throw a seed in any direction and it will sprout from the earth quickly. It is also a sad place of dead end jobs, rampant disease and unimaginable poverty. It is a place where football is the one constant ray of hope for its ability to rally the community and to provide an escape for kids like Nu’Keese Richardson, whose athletic skills have evolved to such astonishing levels that college coaches from every corner of the country come calling.
Nu’Keese Richardson has his escape ticket, a football scholarship to the University of Florida where he will enroll next week to begin his freshman year a semester early, following the footsteps of his close friend Janoris Jenkins, who left “The Muck” last January and found stardom as a freshman cornerback for the Southeastern Conference champion Gators. Richardson will play wide receiver at Florida, where his quick feet and slippery elm greased hips offer instant comparisons to the electric Percy Harvin, college football’s most dangerous and elusive offensive force.
He is ready to leave Pahokee, ready to allow football to open doors of education and opportunity, but no matter how far he wanders from “The Muck” he will always come back, drawn by a heart that has experienced far more pain than any young man should ever have to endure.
There are two very large places in Nu’Keese Richardson’s heart that nobody else can ever have. One is reserved for his mother, who died when he was eight. The other belongs to Norman “Pooh Bear” Griffith, his best friend and Pahokee teammate who was murdered senselessly back in October when he was trying to leave a high school dance to celebrate a Homecoming win over Jupiter.
To understand why Nu’Keese Richardson runs, then take a moment to feel his pain. If you can understand grief that never goes away, then you can know why he runs. Grief is the 50-gallon drum of gasoline that is tossed on the competitive fire that burns with white-hot intensity in his belly.
Grief is his motivation. It is his reason to do the remarkable things he can do with a football in his hands.
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An hour or so before every football game, Nu’Keese finds a quiet place, preferably outside so he can look up to heaven. Alone with his thoughts, he carries on a conversation with his mom.
“I know really I’m probably only talking to myself but after I talk, I feel like she’s there with me,” said Richardson Wednesday afternoon after practice for the Under Armour/ESPN All-American Game at the Wide World of Sports complex on the Walt Disney World property.
He was just a little guy when his mother died but the years haven’t diminished her memory. He thinks about her every single day and wishes she could be here to see how he’s grown, both as a young man and as a football player.
“She was so young … really so young,” he said. “I miss her. I’ll never stop missing her. I know she would want me to do good and always like do the right thing and stuff like that.”
His mom was so special that he shares a little bit of her every time he scores a touchdown or makes a big play on the football field. He doesn’t let many people see his private side, but he is willing to make one small concession.
“Every time I make a play, I look up and I know she’s looking down at me,” he said. “I say, ‘That’s for you, Mama!’ I think she’s proud of me. I really want her to be proud of me.”
* * *
Griffith’s death grabbed the entire community of Pahokee by the lapels and shook it until the foundations trembled. This is one of those small towns where there are no secrets and a stranger is quickly identified because everybody knows everybody. Charged with murder were Willie Felton, age 16, and Carl Lee Booth, age 17 — babies killing a baby.
The whole community hurt because “Pooh Bear” had a ticket out of “The Muck.” He was a gentle soul who understood that college football was his vehicle to an education so he took academics seriously. He played tight end and linebacker and he was a vital part of two state championship teams.
As it turned out, he was the inspiration for a three-peat.
“He wasn’t there with us on the field, but he was in every heart,” said Richardson, who celebrated Pahokee’s state championship win over Trinity Catholic three weeks ago. “We dedicated the rest of the season to him. We had to win state. We couldn’t let him down.”
When Griffith was killed, shot as he and friends drove to the local McDonald’s after feeling uneasy about some of the people trying to crash the Homecoming dance, Richardson was devastated. He wasn’t sure how he could make it through the rest of the season.
He found inspiration in Griffith’s mom. Jackie Griffin showed him how to be strong in the face of crushing adversity and unrelenting grief.
“She’s such a strong woman,” he said. “I don’t know how she did it but she gave us this inspirational speech and it brought tears to our eyes. She’s such a strong woman and she gave us her strength. She made us all stronger when she talked to us about carrying on and letting his memory live in us. We went out to win a championship for him.”
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Some people think Richardson chose the University of Florida over Georgia, Florida State, Miami and a flock of other schools because of his close friendship with Jenkins, who made freshman All-America and is regarded by some experts as the best freshman corner in the country. Richardson says Jenkins had a part in his decision but there were other factors that weighed heavily in the final choice.
First, there was the atmosphere in Gainesville.
“It kind of reminds me of my hometown because in Pahokee everybody loves the football team and it’s like a family,” said Richardson. “In Gainesville, everybody loves football and the Gators. I kind of felt at home right away. I wanted to be in a football town and there’s no football town like Gainesville.”
The second reason is the legacy of Florida football. Richardson is well aware that he will follow in the footsteps of so many great players.
“There are always big shoes that you have to fill at a school like Florida,” he said. “You are a legacy to someone great that played like maybe before you were born. You go there and you try to do your part. You want to carry on the tradition of great players who played before you.”
The third and most important reason is the atmosphere that Urban Meyer has created with his football team. Richardson felt the need to be a part of a family and he found what he was looking for with the Gators.
“(Tim) Tebow, Percy (Harvin) and all those guys introduced themselves to me and I was shocked that great athletes like that would know me,” he said. “I see these guys play on television and everybody knows them because they’re Gators and I’m just some guy from a little town called Pahokee. Now I know why they say it’s a family at Florida and I want to be part of that. That was icing on the cake.”
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In a few more days, Nu’Keese Richardson will leave Pahokee to start school at the University of Florida, joining Jenkins and Belle Glade’s Deonte Thompson as the ambassadors from “The Muck.” He feels the weight of responsibility on his shoulders already.
“Deonte, Janoris and me … we’ve got a responsibility,” he said. “We got to do good so we can open the door up for some other guys from down here to follow us.”
So he will run — for his mom, for Norman Griffith, for some kid from “The Muck” that hasn’t even suited up for a high school game yet — and every step of the way, he will feel the pain. Sometimes it hurts so bad and yet it hurts so good. It’s what keeps him running.