ASHBURN, Va. -- He was just a kid when Hurricane Katrina devastated his city, sending Rob Kelley’s life on a nomadic journey. It destroyed his parents’ homes; it helped him grow and taught him how to overcome -- a trait he continues to use. He was a poor kid left with nothing except perspective and an opportunity.
Katrina altered the lives of many in New Orleans, including the Washington Redskins' rookie running back. Thing is, for Kelley, it was just another obstacle -- just like being from the Upper 9th Ward’s Desire area -- and just like being suspended for a time at Tulane. It shaped his life and led him to where he is now, but it didn’t deter him. Several teammates from back in the day are dead; a few, like Kelley, made it to the NFL.
“His toughness, being from a tough environment, helped him to deal with anything anyone brought to him,” said Skip LaMothe, who coached Kelley for two seasons at O. Perry Walker in New Orleans. “That was one of the things that probably kept him from going in the wrong direction -- and he had a passion for football. He had a major passion.”
The Redskins are benefitting from that passion: Kelley, a tough runner, has rushed for 421 yards in five starts -- and gained 524 yards overall. Maybe few saw this coming, but others who have known Kelley a long time did. It goes back to Katrina.
Devastation
Kelley’s parents both lived in the Upper 9th Ward. His father owned a house, according to Kelley, while his mom rented one. At the time, Kelley was a seventh-grader practicing with the varsity at the Desire Street Academy, a school run by former Redskins quarterback Danny Wuerffel. Before the flood, coaches gathered the players and told them to anticipate a brief shutdown. Kelley’s family evacuated before the storm.
“No one imagined it would turn out like it did,” said Brett Bonnaffons, then a football assistant at Desire.
Kelley’s family, like everyone else in his area, was displaced. He went to live in Dallas with his mother and two of his sisters. Two other sisters traveled to Houston with his dad. They left a life behind.
“We lost so much stuff, our houses, our memories,” Kelley said. “I don’t have any baby photos.”
Thus began the nomadic tale: They lived in Baton Rouge for a couple of weeks, staying with an aunt before his mom found a house in Texas and sent for her kids. Thanks in part to Wuerffel’s connections, the school reopened in October at a 4-H camp in Niceville, Florida. There were 10 cabins, a pavilion and a shelter that served as classrooms and a building turned into a school. Of the original 150 boys, Bonnaffons said school officials gathered approximately 90, finding them in several states -- including Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma -- and then driving them to Florida.
“At that age, I wasn’t worried about a house and stuff like that,” Kelley said. “I always saw momma crying but I never understood what was going on. I should have, but I was worried about my friends. I was like, ‘I’ll never see my friends; I have to make new friends.’ But my momma cried all the time about it.”
"When Katrina happened, I left home for three years. It mentally prepared me. I had to learn to look after myself."Rob Kelley, Washington Redskins RB
In Florida, Kelley roomed with nine other boys in a cabin with a ceiling fan but no central air. Kelley was just a kid with other boys his age trying to enjoy life.
“It was hard on my parents. We lost everything and now their son is away in Florida,” Kelley said. “It was the first time I got a cell phone and they called me all the time. But I was just out there having fun, running around, playing football and going to school. ... When you get older, you see how it stressed out your parents and you’re like, ‘Now I understand what they were going through.’”
But one of his good friends from childhood, Jarred Micken, who was with him in Florida and is currently a high school assistant coach, said, “It’s kind of hard not seeing your parents all the time. We had the choice to leave on weekends if you wanted to, but it was still hard and being somewhere you’re not from.
“But a lot of people supported us and took care of us while our parents were wherever they were at. That helped us a whole lot. And football helped us, too. That kept us out of those negative things and that molded Rob into the man you all are seeing.”
Indeed, it forced Kelley and the others to mature in a hurry.
“I had to have people wire me money and the older guys were like, ‘Give me some money.’ They were hurting, too,” Kelley said. “Everybody was out for themselves and you had to watch yourself. People were stealing. It was a group of guys who lost everything out there and were trying to play football and chase their dream and ain’t really got nothing.”
Growing up fast
There were five-hour bus rides -- one way -- to every game as they continued to play in Louisiana. When Kelley visited his family in Texas, he traveled alone on a bus for 12 hours.
Kelley encountered situations that kids his age typically didn’t.
“One time, they lost my luggage and I didn’t know how to handle it,” Kelley said. “My mom was like, ‘You’ve got to go fill out this form.’ We had to talk about this stuff over the phone. I’m like, ‘This is the stuff you should be doing.’
“In my eyes, it’s like I’ve been on my own a long time. I had parents, but in reality, I was always on my own because growing up, I’d be at my mom’s or dad’s or grandma’s house. When Katrina happened, I left home for three years. It mentally prepared me. I had to learn to look after myself.”
When Kelley was a seventh-grader, Bonnaffons mistook him for a scrawny ninth- or 10th-grader and figured he was just practice fodder. A year later, Kelley had developed into a tough eighth-grader, pushed in part by the previous year’s events.
By this time, the academy had relocated to Baton Rouge but remained a boarding school. Kelley became a backup varsity back. He improved in the classroom.
“I don’t know if it was because of his upbringing or because of the stuff he went through during Katrina,” Bonnaffons said. “It was rough, not because there were all these problems and fights, but because kids were emotionally burned out. I don’t know if that hardened him or not. But when he came back as an eighth-grader, he was running and working out and reading and doing everything he had with a purpose.
“People were scared to tackle him, even as an eighth-grader because he’s so physical. Even at 180 pounds, we had a 225-pound linebacker he was going to try to run over. He failed more times than not because that linebacker was very good, but he never quit.”
Inspiration
That determined mindset is what led him to keep plugging: at O. Perry Walker, a school on the west bank of New Orleans where he transferred for his last two years; and at Tulane, where he was suspended because of academics and then after he was charged with simple battery and simple robbery. Charges were later dropped, but he ended up missing an entire season, sitting in the stands in tears before games when teammates would visit.
When Kelley returned last year for his final college season, he had lost his standing on the depth chart. Kelley stuck around, propped up by the belief of coaches and relying on his toughness. There were doubts about his ability to learn. He was told to cut his long hair. His response: Get to know me; don’t judge me by the locks.
“Nothing made me more proud,” Bonnaffons said, “than when he called to say he was graduating from Tulane because of what he had to fight through to get to that.”
The football success stories out of Desire include other NFL players such as DeAngelo Peterson, who once spent time on the Redskins’ practice squad in 2012, and Lavar Edwards, now a linebacker with Indianapolis. Micken said for Kelley, playing in the NFL “is overwhelming for him now. I don’t think it’s hit him yet.” Several players signed at Division I schools. And there are sad stories -- Bonnaffons said he attended four funerals from boys at the school. Kelley said of former teammates, “A lot of them are dead.”
“A whole bunch of teammates died off that [O. Perry] team, too,” Kelley said. “I kind of feel chosen. I had so many moments [where I] could be like, 'F--- it.' I could have graduated and said, 'F--- it, I’m not playing football anymore.' [But] I honestly think all that stuff was meant to happen and made me a way better person.
“People text me all the time like, ‘Man, you are an inspiration.’ I don’t feel that. But people noticed.”
Yes, they did.
“Rob is one of those ones the light went on for,” Bonnaffons said. “The thing I loved about Rob, even at Tulane, is that he knew, ‘I’m not going to let anything else affect what I do’ especially where he came from, bad things happened. It was a good place to learn how to be a man.”
