Family major part of O.J. Howard's journey to NFL draft

O.J. Howard will have family and friends all around him Thursday eagerly awaiting the inevitable.

“Like he say, it’s not if the phone rings, but when the phone rings,” O.J.’s mom, Lamesa Parker-Howard said. “We’re just waiting on that phone call.”

They won’t have to wait too long.

Howard, 22, is a projected top-10 NFL draft pick. Blessed with size, speed, freakish athleticism, good hands and smarts, the former University of Alabama tight end is a special talent.

“He’s certainly one of the top five, six, seventh players in this draft,” ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. said.

Howard also possesses character, is respectable, kind, a hard worker and humble. Combine those attributes and Howard is an NFL team’s dream – extremely talented with no off-field issues.

“If I was involved in a pro football (franchise), I’d want to hire players that I could be proud of,” said Autauga Academy’s Headmaster Gene Canavan, who was Howard’s math teacher at the private school.

“I’d want to hire players who can not only play, but also can represent the team. O.J.’s exemplary character and traits were evident in 10th grade, and before, and the man hasn’t changed.”

All that stems from a family that taught him morals, values and to have a positive attitude.

“I was raised the right way,” Howard said. “My parents, when I was in trouble, they spanked me. I knew right from wrong at a young age. As I got older, it was only right to have that instilled in me. It’s easy to get in trouble, but hard to get out of. That was one of my biggest mottos and still is to this day.”

So it only seems appropriate for Howard to skip the trip to Philadelphia, where all the other potential first-round selections with gather on Thursday night, to stay home with his family for the draft.

They’ve all been part of this journey.

“This will be an once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said Howard’s great aunt, Cathy Davis.

Mrs. Howard hasn’t missed O.J.’s games since he was 6 years old. She and Howard’s dad, Kareem, even braved wintry conditions to get to Indianapolis to watch their chiseled 6-foot-6, 251-pound son run the 40-yard dash in an impressive 4.51 seconds at the NFL Scouting Combine.

“I’m like, just keep on running, baby, just keep on running,” said Mrs. Howard, who with Howard’s dad wore shirts at the combine that read, ‘Working Toward Gre88ness.’

To her, he’s still just O.J., but when that phone buzzes Thursday, tears are sure to overflow from Mrs. Howard – and everyone else.

“We’ll all be crying,” Howard’s aunt, Sharon Parker said. “I want to cry right now. I’m so excited.”

Early Day 1 pick

Lamesa Howard saw O.J. run the wrong way with the ball in youth games, but turn around and still score. Years later, Howard is in a place she envisioned him being.

“I always pushed him to be better than he was the day before,” she said. “I knew if we kept pushing him, he could be in this position. His dad said you can do and be anything you want to be.”

Kiper and fellow ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay project Howard to go quickly in the first round. In an earlier mock draft, McShay had Jacksonville selecting Howard fourth overall.

If that happens, Howard would top Riley Odoms as the highest a tight end has ever been drafted in the modern era. Denver picked Odom out of Houston with the fifth pick in 1972.

“From a character standpoint, the maturing that he went through,” McShay said. “The ability to stretch the field vertically, the ability to create after the catch and then the improvement he’s undergone as a run blocker and even in pass protection at times, O.J. Howard is one of most complete prospects.”

Last Wednesday, Howard spoke to students at Valiant Cross Academy in Montgomery about choosing the right path. His message left an impression.

“It was very motivating to us because he’s still living his dream,” 12-year-old Bryant McMeans said.

McMeans hopes his favorite team gets Howard, but he’ll likely be long gone by the time the Pittsburgh Steelers make the 30th overall pick.

“You talk about speed for a kid that size, tremendous athleticism, big hands, long arms,” Kiper said. “He’s got it all. He is a matchup nightmare.”

Dreams reborn

Howard isn’t the first athlete in the family. There have been several including his uncle, Terry Parker, who was the same height as Howard, and played basketball at Alcorn State.

“They were looking for him to go pro,” Sharon Parker said.

He never got that chance.

Parker died at age 19 from a head-on collision with a drunken driver coming home for Christmas in 1984.

Mrs. Parker admitted to shutting down emotionally after that, but O.J. helped rejuvenate her by being the mirror image of her brother in mind, body and spirit.

“O.J. reminds me so much of him,” she said. “His humbleness. He’s very humble. My brother was very quiet. Reserved. Very professional. Tactful. It’s like God put my brother in him.”

So watching Howard play on TV excites her so much, she runs down the hall and shouts in the house.

“I didn’t want nobody calling me when the game was on,” Parker said. “‘You know the Alabama game is on. You don’t have no business calling me. What do you want, because I’m watching O.J.’ ”

Howard has embraced his auntie living out her dream for her brother through him.

“They always talk about how great of a guy he was,” Howard said. “I look at that as me being the guy who is next. It means a lot to me.”

Grits, eggs, bacon, biscuits – or toast

Growing up next door to his aunt and across the way from his grandmother, Lauretta Parker, Howard would rise early in the a.m. for Parker’s breakfast – and sneak back home.

“I’d say, ‘Don’t let your mama know you’ve been over here because they’re sleep,’” Parker said and then laughed. “So I’d say, ‘You go on home, get back in the bed and go to sleep like you haven’t eaten.

“He was full when he went back home now.”

She’d also notice Howard playing “catch-me-if-you-can” in the yard.

“I’d say, ‘That little boy got a lot of speed,’ Parker said “I’d say, ‘O.J. is fast.’ Nobody could outrun O.J.”

The rest of the nation saw that speed in the 2016 College Football Playoff title game. Howard scored twice on catches of 53 and 51 yards, and had a career-best 63-yarder in the 45-40 thrilling Alabama victory over Clemson.

“He has such a unique skill set,” said former Tide offensive coordinator, Lane Kiffin, who is now the head coach at Florida Atlantic. “They don’t make guys that size that run that fast. There are not many in the world that exist.”

As a youth, Howard wasn’t perfect by any stretch. Parker’s son, Dr. Antonio Gardner, called Howard a “sneaky” kid, hence the daily breakfast routine.

Howard was the ideal kid, too.

“He was always mature for his age,” said Gardner, 29, who credits “structured environments” like school and sports for helping Howard “mature a lot faster than most of his peers.”

Preacher man

Years before Parker Sawyers played Barack Obama in the 2016 film, ‘Southside with You,’ Howard portrayed the nation’s eventual 44th president in a black history program in Prattville.

“He went up and he said, ‘I am a senator from Chicago and I will be elected president,’” said Valiant Cross Academy’s Head of School, Anthony Brock.

Davis thought Howard was going to become a preacher. She remembers him coming home from church and telling everyone what the preacher said.

The sermon wasn’t the only thing being repeated.

Gardner recalls riding to practice and O.J. having the gospel song, “Ooh Wee Another Blessing,” by The Williams Brothers and Lee Williams on replay mode in their grandmother’s car.

“I kind of hated that song after a while,” Gardner joked. “I’m like, ‘Who put him in charge of the radio?’ ”

Dreamy reality

Instead of a preacher, Howard grew into a young man among boys in becoming a high school All-American and five-star recruit.

Dr. Gardner didn’t see Howard play much. Busy handling his collegiate studies. So all the talk about Howard going to Alabama wasn’t fully registering with him.

“When he signed, I was like, ‘O.J. signing with Alabama?’ ” Gardner said. “I was like, ‘OK, maybe they accidentally signed the wrong person,’ but it was the right O.J.”

Not only did Howard wind up in Tuscaloosa, he enrolled early after taking a self-study course, under Canavan’s supervision, to get an extra credit in physics to graduate in December.

“That impressed me,” Canavan said. “He took a major course. It wasn’t basket weaving.”

The family irony of Howard going to Alabama is Gardner was there at the same time for three years.

Earning his master’s and doctorate from the university, Gardner was a graduate assistant for its department of health science.

He didn’t meddle in Howard’s day-to-day affairs but did his part to keep “little cousin” grounded.

“I wanted him to grow on his own and be an adult on his own,” said Gardner, who is now an assistant professor of health promotion at Mississippi State University.

“So letting him get out there, make his own mistakes, but also give him decent advice. ‘Hey, you probably should do this. You probably shouldn’t do this.’ ”

So as important as the draft is, Gardner is thinking beyond Thursday.

“It’s about making sure he keeps a leveled head and is able to make a valid contribution to the league and have a sustainable career,” Gardner said.

Patience paid dividends

Howard didn’t put up the numbers at Alabama to match his immense talent. He had just 14 catches for 269 yards and two touchdowns his first year, but Davis was OK with that.

“I knew they weren’t going to let him play his freshman year,” she said.

Howard’s sophomore season was also lackluster – 17 receptions, 260 yards, zero touchdowns. This had his great auntie wondering if she should make a trip to Tuscaloosa to have a conversation.

“I even asked, ‘Do I need come up there and talk to Nick Saban about not letting you play?’ ” Davis said.

Howard eased her concerns with words that would define his college career.

“He’d say, ‘I’m just waiting on my chance,’ ” Davis said. “‘I’m going to get my chance.’ ”

Howard’s time came in the 2016 title game when he erupted for a career-high 208 receiving yards and those two scores on five catches in earning offensive MVP honors.

“My mindset was, they’ll put him in when it gets critical,” Parker said. “… And when the games got tight and critical, who did Nick throw out there? O.J. Howard. Make a miracle, O.J.”

Howard returned for his senior year to graduate and improve as a player. Howard accomplished both, but still didn’t have a great final season in terms of statistics.

“We tried early in games (to get Howard the ball),” said Kiffin. “Sometimes it’d work. Sometimes? They coach defense, too.”

Howard finished his senior year with 45 catches for 595 yards and three touchdowns.

“I said all year he should be catching six, seven, eight passes a game,” Kiper said. “He wasn’t even targeted that much. Do you blame that on the system? Do you blame it on the young quarterback (true freshman Jalen Hurts) who was more of a runner than a passer?”

Saban admitted Howard should’ve had more production relative to his ability.

“We didn’t have the complementary people around him to make that happen,” said Saban during a Sirius XM NFL Radio interview. “It was through no fault of his that he didn’t have the production.”

‘I’m good’

Playing with six different starting quarterbacks, Howard ended his college career with 1,726 yards and seven touchdowns on 114 catches. To put those numbers in perspective, Trent Taylor (Western Kentucky) and Zay Jones (East Carolina) each had more receptions, yards and touchdowns last season than Howard did in his entire time at Alabama.

“I know teams would try to take him away, but sometimes, we’d miss him, too,” Kiffin added.

Close to the midway point of last season, Kiffin, knowing Howard could’ve left early for the draft, wanted to talk statistics – and NFL future – with the talented tight end.

“I brought him in just to tell him, ‘Hey, you’re still going to get drafted really high no matter how many catches you have because they’re watching the film,’ ” Kiffin said.

“‘They see you running routes. If the quarterback misses you, he misses you. If you’re double covered, you’re double covered. You’re going to kill the combine and be a really high draft pick.’ ”

Howard’s response once again showed the character his family raised him to have.

“He’s like, ‘Coach, I’m good. Whatever it takes to win,’ ” Kiffin said. “He didn’t complain one time ever throughout all that. I know he would hear a lot, people in his ear saying, ‘You should be getting the ball more.’ Unbelievable kid.”

‘Just fans’

Kiffin was also right about the combine.

Not only did Howard run that 4.51 40, he bench pressed 225 pounds 22 times and posted the fastest time of any tight end on the 3-cone (6.85 seconds), 20-yard shuttle (4.16) and 60-yard shuttle (11.46).

It took everything in Mrs. Howard to keep her from screaming for joy inside Lucas Oil Stadium after her son ran that 40, but she took a page out of O.J.'s book and kept cool.

“I’m just trying to hold it in,” she recounts. “The people next to me were like, (whispering), ‘Y'all know anybody here?’ I was like, ‘Nah, we’re just fans.’ I wouldn’t dare let them know we were his parents.”

O.J. Howard has worked very hard for this. So as the draft draws near, emotions are swirling inside him.

“I’m a little bit excited, a little bit nervous,” Howard said. “I’m excited that it’s about to come up, but I’m nervous about where I’m going to go. It’s an exciting process. I’m ready for it.”

So is Howard’s proud family. They’ve all been part of this journey.