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(photo by Brian Murphy)

[Editor’s note: This season, the Washington Redskins have asked my brother, Joel Murphy, and I to occasionally write feature stories for the team’s official website, Redskins.com. This article, which was written by Joel, is our latest contribution, so please check it out.]

Like most Americans, the holidays are a special time for Washington Redskins fullback Darrel Young.

Growing up with his parents and his older brother David, Young remembers staying up until 11 p.m. on Christmas Eve to try to sneak a peek at his mom wrapping presents, then getting up at 3:30 a.m. and trying to wake the rest of his family so he could start unwrapping them as early as possible.

Family is very important to Young and, looking back, he realizes how special those Christmases together with the rest of his family truly were.

“I had a father and a mother and a home. They’ve been married for 30-plus years. Any time you have parents like that, they set a foundation,” he said.

Young remembers his house always being immaculately decorated. From the tree – which the 25-year-old insists has to be real – to the lights and ornaments, the Young household was filled with festive decorations. And it still is to this day.

“My dad does so much, I swear sometimes it looks like a Macy’s tree,” Young said. “Just the lights, the ornaments, he does the whole nine yards. My yard’s always lit up. We have reindeer. Every tree is decorated. The walkway is decorated with lights. The light bill is ridiculous for the month of December.”

Young still remembers the best gift he ever got on Christmas – a Mongoose bike that he had wanted for months. He was eight years old. To his delight, he found the bicycle waiting for him under the Christmas tree.

“I wanted this Mongoose bike,” Young said. “It was a chrome bike. I wanted it so much that I never rode it because I didn’t want anyone to beat me up and take it. I kept it in my room. I never rode it. I wiped it down every day. I was obsessed with this bike.”

To Young’s relief, the bike was never stolen. Sadly though, it also was never used.

“It’s still in my garage to this day. My dad and I cleaned out the garage when I was home during the bye week and we started laughing because I still haven’t ridden that bike,” he said.

Of course, Christmas isn’t all about the presents. At its root, the holiday is a special time to spend with the ones you love.

“My parents weren’t millionaires, but they were rich with love,” Young said.

The third-year pro remembers his house always being filled with holiday music. He remembers relatives playing dominoes and Spades and other card games. And he remembers his dad and his brother in the kitchen making delicious holiday fare.

“My dad will cook. He’s the chef. I’ll just eat until my stomach pops,” the fullback said.

On Thanksgiving, his father makes fried turkey, ham, stuffing, yams, macaroni and cheese, baked ziti, collard greens, sweet potato pie and cranberry sauce. Christmas is just as lavish a spread. But Young’s father’s true specialty is his barbecue sauce, which shines during Fourth of July barbecues.

“My dad has this barbecue sauce that’s amazing. If you don’t like it it’s because you’re different,” Young said. “I’m seriously thinking about marketing it. Every player that’s had it has loved it. Every person that’s had it has loved it. I have a big Fourth of July barbecue every year. People come there just for the sauce.”

When asked what’s in the sauce that makes it so special, Young couldn’t say. That’s because the recipe is a closely-guarded secret.

“He’ll take it to the grave,” Young said. “He won’t tell me what he puts in it.”

Of course, as the years go by and Young has gotten older, the meaning of holidays has changed for him. The presents and food become less important and it’s the time with family that starts to matter most.

“I understand family values more. Just being a little bit older, being on my own, I still love the fact that my family wants to be with me on Christmas and I want to be with them,” Young said.

He also enjoys a chance to give back to the two people who gave him so much growing up.

Click here for the full article.

(photo by Brian Murphy)

[Editor’s note: This season, the Washington Redskins have asked me to occasionally write feature stories for the team’s official website, Redskins.com. This article is my latest contribution, so please check it out.]

The mind of a child is a beautiful thing. An oversized cardboard box or a couple cushions from a sofa provide ample opportunity for a week’s worth of entertainment. In most cases, if someone asks you what you want to be when you grow up and you don’t know, you’ve got all the time in the world to figure it out.

Unfortunately though, that isn’t the case for everyone.

Take, for example, Washington Redskins receiver Joshua Morgan, who was forced to grow up much faster than he probably should have had to because of the tough Southeast D.C., neighborhood his family lived in.

If it was up to Morgan, he would have spent every waking moment of his childhood playing basketball, going to school and hanging out with friends.

“Don’t get me wrong, I had a lot of fun as a child and I was a straight A student, but growing up where I did in D.C. was just a rough situation,” he said. “I was forced to experience things like death sooner than you would have liked. Like having to go to my friend’s funeral when I was 12 or the fact that I lost three or four of my friends to gun violence before I even got to ninth grade. That stuff makes you grow up fast.”

How was Morgan able to avoid the same pitfalls and mistakes that too many of his neighborhood friends could not?

“Sports and my grandmother,” Morgan said. “My grandmother was the type of person who was always involved and always in my ear. We were in church every day of the week and she kept me out of trouble. Honestly, I had a lot of people  who saw something in me even before I did and they worked hard to keep me out of that element. I had so many people looking out for me and I tried to learn from other people’s mistakes.

“I had such a strong inner circle around me — starting with my grandmother, who was my main prayer warrior — and everyone had a hand in helping me out,” he continued. “Even the ones who were out there hustling on the corners in my neighborhood would tell me, ‘Man, you’re going to be the one to make it out of here. We’re going to keep you out of this and we’re going to keep you out of that. You don’t need to be out here doing none of this. Stay on that basketball court and you’re gonna get out of here. Just watch.’ I was blessed to have so many people in my circle.”

Anyone who saw him play back in the day had to admit that Morgan was talented on the basketball court. He was a slasher who thrived with the ball in his hands, in the mold of Miami shooting guard Dwyane Wade, and the 27-year-old readily admits he was convinced he’d be the next Michael Jordan — until he stopped growing at 6-foot-1.

“I could take a game over whenever I needed to,” Morgan said. “To this day, there are still people who believe I was always a better basketball player than a football player. I mean, everybody’s got their own opinion, but obviously I made the right decision by sticking with football.”

While Morgan’s first love was clearly hoops, it turned out he was pretty good on the gridiron as well. By the time he got to H.D. Woodson High School, he had learned to channel his explosiveness and passion from basketball into football.

“Once I saw what guys like Jerry Rice and Randy Moss were able to do at the wide receiver position, I knew that’s what I wanted to be,” he said.

Morgan was a diehard Redskins fan growing up — Art Monk, Doug Williams and John Riggins were his favorite players from the glory days — but he wasn’t able to go to games very often.

“We barely had enough money for groceries or to keep the water or heat on in the house, so I didn’t get to go to a lot of games. But I got to hear a lot of them on the radio and I tried to sneak in to a couple of them when I could,” Morgan said with a laugh.

Because Redskins game were such a rarity, football was more of a hobby or a way to hang out with friends than a possible career choice for Morgan. In fact, it wasn’t until his freshman year at Virginia Tech, when he had a breakout game in the 2005 Sugar Bowl against Auburn, that Morgan began to believe he truly had a shot at playing in the NFL.

Click here for the full article.