Hardrick rides roller-coaster to success

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This article was published 02/11/2023 (694 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

To hear Jermarcus Hardrick recount his humble beginnings — which included growing up in a trailer park in the smallest of Mississippi towns, where he found himself in trouble more often than not — you start to get the feeling he’s talking about a completely different person.

That’s because he is.

As a young and confused teenager, Hardrick said he was angry at the world for everything he didn’t have — a biological father who supported him, enough money for the basic essentials, just to name a couple. It’s a far cry from the man he is today, someone who is known among his Winnipeg Blue Bombers teammates as a positive and warming influence in the locker room.

To truly understand where Hardrick is, fresh off earning the West Division nomination for the CFL’s most outstanding offensive lineman award, you first need to know where he’s been. It’s an up-and-down journey with plenty of twists along the way, and it’s taking that rocky road that makes him appreciate what he has and what’s still to come.

“Football actually saved my life. I don’t want to come out like a bad ass or anything, but I’d be so bad, some days my mom would just pick me up from school and just drop me off at the police station,” Hardrick, 33, said following the Bombers closed practice Thursday.

“When I go home and I talk to kids that have been sent off or had to go to detention centres and things, I was really that kid. And once I stopped blaming everyone and started taking accountability, my life got better. It didn’t get perfect. It got better.”

Hardrick grew up in a trailer park in Courtland, a small town in Panola, Miss. that, according to a 2021 census, has a population of fewer than 500 people. He was raised by his mother, Delores, with help from his stepfather James Calvin.

He first met his biological father, who was in and out of jail, when he was 15 years old, and while they connected for a bit, his father’s penchant for trouble kept them divided until his death in 2015. Hardrick was one of 17 children his father had with different women, several of whom he wouldn’t meet until much later in life.

Hardrick found out about his father while hanging out at the Boys and Girls Club, where he met a kid named Mario Lewis. Hardrick couldn’t quite understand why he felt such a bond to Mario, but that would all make sense a short time later after finding out that Mario wasn’t just a friend but his half-brother.

The two were almost inseparable, their closeness leading to a new nickname for Hardrick, Yoshi, a play on the Super Mario Brothers characters and a name he still goes by today.

“I knew football was my way out,” Hardrick said. “For me to still be doing it and getting recognized, that means a lot.”

Hardrick started playing football at 13, first at South Panola High School, where he would go on to win three 5A state championships. By grade 11, he had committed to Auburn University but would later have that offer pulled because of academic issues.

Because of his grades, Hardrick had to take a much tougher route to professional football, including spending two years at Fort Scott Community College in Kansas. Although he was making plays and turning heads, he still had a lot of anger inside.

“I had the wrong mindset. I always thought the poorest person was the toughest, and so I was always the poorest guy wherever I went and felt like I had to prove how tough I was,” Hardrick said. “I used to get mad that people had dads. I’d get mad that people had rides home. I used to get mad because I lived in a trailer and would hear people say up and downstairs — that sounded like a movie to me. I got a lot of trouble from that, from jealousy, envy, and not having things other people had.”

While Hardrick was still figuring things out emotionally, he always possessed the physical tools. At 6-5 and 317 pounds, Hardrick’s presence on the field started to turn some heads at big name colleges.

He would originally commit to Louisiana State University, but ended up going to Nebraska, where he would star for the Cornhuskers and meet his wife, Samantha. Together, they have three children – Jermarcus Jr., Santana and Lyla.

Hardrick is an emotional guy, but he’s especially gripped when talking about his mother, who he watched work two or three jobs at a time and skip meals to keep the electricity going. Whenever she told Hardrick she loved him, it was a lightning rod through his body.

“Two things make me emotional: my upbringing and my family,” Hardrick said. “The sacrifice my wife made ever since college, man. Been through it all. Been to an Arena team that folded, and we had to drive 16 hours after we’d just had a baby three days ago. She was in Saskatchewan with me for a year, B.C. with me for a year. I’ve been cut six, seven times, and she’s right there.”

Hardrick doesn’t have a crystal ball at home, so he has no idea if he’ll be crowned the league’s top O-lineman over Toronto’s Dejon Allen during Grey Cup week later this month. He’s got greater goals in mind, including helping lead his club to a fourth-straight Grey Cup and a third league title over that stretch.

That doesn’t mean he won’t soak up the moment, win or lose, with his wife and family by his side. He knows he’s come a long way, and he’s proud of the ride that got him here.

“I just want to see (my wife) with heels on and the kids dressed up, no matter what happens,” he said.

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jeffkhamilton