METAIRIE, La. – Darius Victor's older brother, Kevin, was always his greatest motivator and his harshest critic.
Six years after Kevin was shot and killed as a robbery victim, that remains as true as ever.
“Honestly I say a prayer and I’m like, ‘Kevin, look out for me. And when I’m doing wrong, yell at me,’” said Victor, an undrafted rookie running back with the New Orleans Saints who said he’ll often give a chest-tap on the field to God and his brother, “just telling him thank you for everything.”
“I hear him in my head, like, ‘Stop running soft’ or, ‘You should have hit that hole harder.’ I’m really like talking to myself in my head during the game,” Victor said. “I’m my hardest critic because my brother isn’t here anymore, so I feel like it’s my job to critique myself so hard.”
Victor is a long shot, no doubt about it, despite his 3-yard touchdown run in Saturday night’s 13-0 win over the Houston Texans and his team-leading 101 rushing yards in the preseason. He went undrafted and unsigned as a free agent out of Towson, earning only minicamp tryouts with the New York Jets and Saints before the Saints called him back and signed him to their 90-man roster early in training camp.
But Victor has always been something of a long shot -- ever since he spent the first five years of his life living with his family in a refugee camp in the Ivory Coast before they were all able to move to America together.
“I don’t really remember too much. But I’ve watched the documentaries, movies, my parents tell me, and it’s like, ‘Wow.’ I look at it, and I’m like, ‘Dang. This is where I came from,’” said Victor, who grew up in Hyattsville, Maryland, as the middle child of seven siblings. “And my parents were fortunate to make it out with me, because some people they get a chance to get out, their parents stay behind and stuff like that. So it’s a blessing that we all came together.”
Victor has also had to battle the stigma of being undersized – a self-described, “5-7 on a good day and 225 [pounds].”
But he runs with a powerful style that has turned heads throughout training camp.
Victor has embraced the “bowling ball” references that he has gotten for years -- as well as the sudden influx of “Ironhead Jr.” references he is hearing from Saints fans who remember their beloved Craig Heyward so fondly.
“I tell people, I’m bruising. I mean, I make good cuts and stuff, but when I do go downhill, you actually feel it. So the bowling ball, it fits. I walk down the hallway and hear ‘bowling ball,’” said Victor, who ran for more than 1,000 yards as both a sophomore and a junior before he was limited to just four games as a senior because of injuries.
Victor said the touchdown run was “an amazing feeling,” and he shared his emotions on social media.
I'll always remember this moment, and never forget what it took to get here 🙌🏾🙏🏾 #KG1st #BlessAllPpl #AllGod pic.twitter.com/gIMWEaikmU
— Darius Vito (@yungvitov) August 28, 2017
“It felt great, man. It was a big hole, great blocking and I just hit it,” Victor said. “It was kind of surreal, thinking about it so many times, what I’m gonna do or how it’s gonna feel.”
But Victor also fumbled later in the game -- something he vowed to coaches he wouldn’t do again.
Most likely, Victor, who is known by his middle name of “Vito,” will wind up on New Orleans’ practice squad. But you’d better believe he’ll spend Thursday night’s preseason finale against the Baltimore Ravens trying to make the Saints’ decision as hard as possible.
“A lot of people I know that love this game don’t play it anymore,” said Victor, who said he’s the only one from his group of friends and teammates who graduated from Towson still playing. “It’s so much motivation. I’m running for a lot more people than myself. I just want to make everyone proud, myself proud, my family proud. It actually helps me when I’m playing this game.”
