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Poverty. Violence. Guns. Knives. Drugs.
As a kid, Sherrod Baltimore was surrounded by it. His life could have gone in a much different direction. But here he is, a fighter, a man of strong faith, a football player — a talented defensive back hoping to become an Ottawa Redblack.
This is a 24-year-old with a story, with a past he doesn’t run from and with a bright future he’s trying to write.
Baltimore doesn’t know whoh his dad is and doesn’t really care to know. His mother Sharisse was on welfare and the family moved from home to home — 12 times, maybe more — in Washington, D.C. Paying the bills or putting food on the table was never easy. At age 12, Baltimore lost two of his teeth when he was pistol whipped and robbed.
“I come from the struggle, I come from nothing, I come from poor,” said Baltimore, one of the newcomers on hand for the Redblacks mini-camp which wraps up Saturday morning at TD Place. “When you grow up in poverty, you could go left or right. You take a path. It’s basketball, football, rapping, you work for the government or you live in the streets. I took the right path.”
At one point, he lived in a small house with his brother, sister, grandmother, grandfather, mother and two uncle. Later, while his mother was looking to find her way, eventually winding up in homeless shelters, Baltimore moved out, winding up with his uncle Lenox who has been an inspiration along the road of life.
“My uncle, it’s not even like he’s my uncle, he is my big brother,” said Baltimore. “He used to live in the hood, he was the first one to move out. He was like: ‘Bro, this is what it looks like, you’re going to get out.’ I live with him in Virginia. He showed me a different world. When I saw his house, I said: ‘Bro, you’re rich.’ He made me appreciative of things like this, things like being here on a football field. I just try to do the right things. I don’t want to do the wrong thing, I know that would make him upset.”
As a high schooler, Baltimore was all-state as a basketball point guard; he was also a quarterback, helped by his coach Peter Quaweay in his transition to defensive back.
“Drugs, crimes, killing, rivalries — you have to stay away from that,” said Baltimore. “I was going to football or basketball practice, that’s how I stayed with it.”
What Baltimore could do on a football field attracted the interest of several schools and he picked the University of Maine and played four seasons with the Black Bears.
Said Baltimore: “Going to Maine, that was God talking to me, that was the total opposite of where I’d come.”
The Redblacks noticed the skillset and dedication and invited him to camp.
How keen was he? Said Baltimore: “The day after I signed, April 4, they sent me film. By April 5, I knew the playbook. I watch the film every day. Study. That’s how you win. I’m about technique, alignment, assignment.
“I’m hungry. I’m not going to talk too much, I’m going to show you all what I can do. I’m going to make plays. They told me they need DBs so I’m coming in here ready. Opportunities like this, I’m blessed. I’m thankful for little things — like waking up and we have breakfast.”
On Baltimore’s chest, stomach and arms are tattoos — reminders of the people who are important to him, along with verses from The Bible. The Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. In earth, as it is in heaven.”
The words — messages like The Grind Don’t Stop and Walk by Faith, not by Sight — inked into his body are important to Baltimore.
“Everything on my body means something to me, it’s motivation for me,” he said. “I’m a walking billboard.”
He still has friends from “the hood,” guys he hopes to motivate.
“I have homies, some of them live in the streets,” said Baltimore. “I text them in the morning, a motivation text, something like. ‘How are you doing? Bro, you’re going to be good this morning.’ “
And from his mother’s darkness, the shutters have opened a crack — there is now light.
“She went away to figure things out,” said Baltimore. “She’s still struggling to make it. But she’s got her own house, she’s on Section 8 (housing). I love my mother, that’s my heart.”
On a Friday, in a city that’s still new to him, Baltimore pauses, dreadlocks flowing down his back, smiling, laughing, so desperately wanting an opportunity to be part of the Redblacks brotherhood. From his story, from his emergence from “the struggle,” there is a message to others who fall into the vacuum of hopelessness.
“You can beat the odds, you don’t have to be a statistic where you come from,” he said. “I can tell you, you don’t have to be from poverty to be in the struggle, but you can win. You have to be patient. Keep working, don’t give up on your dream. Believe in yourself. Football, this is what I dream of doing. I’m made for this.”