“Yes, sir.”
“This is a good look. Proud of you.”
“Preciate it, Coach.”
Miles slapped my shoulder. “Look at you being all community leader and shit.”
“Nigga, what?” I laughed.
“I’m serious. This is big.”
“Yeah, it is,” I countered.
A woman from the city got on the mic first and started thanking everybody who had anything to do with the project. Then another man got up there and said the same shit with different words. By the time they called my name, I was more than ready to get it over with.
The crowd clapped as I stepped behind the mic. I looked out over everybody, then down at the first few rows where a bunch of kids who were wearing jerseys and some had footballs. Some of them had on Cannons gear. A few had on Generals shirts because Trey’s big-headed ass couldn’t let me have one event without his team showing up somewhere.
I adjusted the mic and cleared my throat.
“I’m not about to be up here long because y’all already heard enough people talk.”
A few people laughed, and I saw Sasha close her eyes like she was praying I didn’t say the wrong thing.
“I just want to say I appreciate everybody for coming out. This center has been something I wanted to do for a while, and it means a lot to see it finally getting started. A lot of people look at sports and only see the money... fame... the endorsements, and all the stuff that comes with it. I get that because that’s the part everybody sees.”
I looked toward the kids again.
“But before any of that, sports gave me somewhere to put my energy. It gave me structure. It gave me people who stayed on me when I needed it. It gave me something to chase. Everybody doesn’t have that, and everybody doesn’t have somebody pushing them in the right direction.”
My mama was watching me with tears in her eyes, and I looked away before she made me lose my train of thought.
“This center is for the kids who need somewhere to go after school. It’s for the kids who want to train, learn, study, compete, or just be somewhere safe. I’on care if they end up in the NFL, the NBA, college, trade school, or owning their own business one day. I just want them to have options.”
The applause started, but I kept going.
“This ain’t just a Titan Samuels thing, either. A lot of people helped make this happen. My team... my coaches... the city, and everybody who believed in it before there was anything out here but dirt and paperwork.”
I glanced toward my mama, pops, then my sister.
“And my family, because they stayed on my ass enough to make sure I remembered where I came from.”
That got a laugh out of the crowd, and my mama pointed at me about my choice of words.
“So, yeah. I appreciate y’all. Let’s get this building up so these kids can stop looking at a sign and actually have somewhere to go.”
Everybody clapped, and I stepped away from the mic before I got talked into saying more. Sasha looked relieved, which told me I must’ve done better than she expected. My mama was crying for real now, and my sister was still recording, which meant it was going online if she wasn’t already live.
After that, they lined us up for pictures with the shovels. Me, my parents, my sister, Trey, Sasha, my agent, Coach Briggs, afew teammates, some Kinetiq people, and a couple city officials all stood in front of the banner while photographers shouted directions.
“Titan, look this way.”
“Over here.”
“One more.”
“Smile.”
I looked at one of the photographers and frowned. “You getting paid per picture?”
