By Claire Kramer
W
hen C.J. Mosley was 11 years old, he left school with some bad news. His fifth grade report card wasn’t up to his family’s standards, and now, he had to tell his father. The conversation, though, went better than he anticipated.
“We had a big game that Saturday, and he didn’t let me play because of my grades,” Mosley explained. “That was just one of the small things he did to let us know that without our grades, there wouldn’t be any sports.”
“I thought I was going to get in trouble on the way home, but he just talked to me, and I thought everything was fine,” Mosley recalled.
Mosley grew up, he said, in a normal, middle class family with his parents and his younger brother, Jamey. His father worked in a hospital and then in a shipyard, where he now serves as a supervisor. He also owns his own business. Even after both sons earned their education and a roster spot at the University of Alabama,
Then, Saturday rolled around: the day he always played football. His father, however, had other ideas.
and even after one made a name for himself in the NFL, ‘resting on their laurels’ had no place in the Mosley family vocabulary. “That kind of example just shows that no matter where you are in your life, whether you’re at the top or the bottom or the middle, hard work always pays off,” Mosley stated. From his father to his grandfather, Mosley said he was taught what 2018 BALTIMORE RAVENS GAMEDAY | 11
matters most. “One thing my dad always said: ‘No matter what you’re doing, don’t disrespect the last name,” Mosley recalled. “My granddad was really big on the ‘Mosley man,’ head of the household, doing the right things and setting an example.” The message was clear. Be a man first. Do the right thing. Work hard. Make your family proud. It all began far beyond the field, but the grass between those white lines only helped solidify the upbringing from which he came. Mosley gives credit for his foundation in football work ethic to his first coach, Coach Vestor Womack, with the Navco Park Vikings in Mobile, Alabama. Charged with leading a team of 10and 11-year-olds, Coach Womack kept his high standards.
“He was one of those in-your-face coaches. He was with those kids who didn’t know where to run, left or right,” Mosley recalled, a smile emerging on his face. “He definitely motivated a lot of guys, whether they made it to the NFL or not. I know he definitely put a lot of priority into discipline.”
“I didn’t want to leave anything on the table at Alabama. I wanted to give everything I had on top of my education, and it pretty much worked out well,” he added. Some might call it betting on himself. In reality, it was a continuation of the priorities he’d always known, and the ones he then looked to pass on to his brother.
This discipline led him to success at the University of Alabama, where, after his third year, draft experts projected him as a second-round pick, with some potential to be taken in the first round. However, he hadn’t worked this hard in the classroom and on the field to sign off just yet. “My main reason for staying my fourth year was because I wanted to get my degree. I wanted to do that for me and for my parents, because they put all the work in to get me
where I was at the time,” Mosley explained. “Also, I wanted to prove to myself and to the NFL that I could be an every-down linebacker.
Jamey chose to walk on to the football team at Alabama. He’s now a redshirt senior, having earned a scholarship during his sophomore season. “One of the first talks we had was, ‘Just keep your head on the right path, because things will work out.’ I always told him that he is definitely a hard worker. That’s one of the gifts that he has,” the older brother shared. “I told him that through this process, it would definitely build him up more as a man.”
“I always remind him of that, that work ethic beats out talent any day.” Now, as Mosley enters his fifth year in the NFL, and as he looks to help lead the Ravens’ defense, the priorities stay the same. Be a man. Get better. Lead
by example. Work hard. And, if his past is any indication, the constant mission will take him where he wants to go: to be a Mosley man for himself, his family and his teammates.