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‘The Childhood Trauma is Messing with My Head’: Will Kansas City Chiefs star L’Jarius Sneed Break his Family Curse?
The Kansas City Chiefs cornerback L’Jarius Sneed has suffered a lot throughout his whole life. And now that he is living a life he needed to live, the trauma of his past haunts him and makes him feel inferior and insecure. And the burden that he carries with an infectious family tree does not make him feel any better.
L’Jarius is the only member in his family to break the curse his family has been haunted for generations. He is the only one in his family to make it big enough in life. But now that he has all the stardom and limelight, his messed up childhood memories have been repeating rewind in his head all the time.
An unusual childhood of the Kansas City Chiefs cornerback
The cornerback rarely had the affection and the presence of both his parents, as both of them were serving terms in jail when L’Jarius needed them the most. Father Non Sneed had L’Jarius when he was in jail, serving for attempted murder. And at the tender age of just one, he also got parted from his mother for 51 months.
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Though L’Jarius lived with his maternal grandmother, but when asked who raised him, he says, “my two brothers,” without any hesitation. His oldest brother, TQ Harrison, changed his diapers, cooked the meals, and walked his brother to school. Even to this day, Harrison talks about L’Jarius as more like a son than his brother.
#Chiefs CB coach Sam Madison praises L’Jarius Sneed’s ‘relentless’ tackling https://t.co/ma65xxbxi4 via @thechiefswire
— Charles Goldman (@goldmctNFL) November 19, 2021
L’Jarius was just six when, during his walk back home from school, his mother surprised him, as she had been free six years before his father. And with that, a long path of weekly one-hour meetings with his mother was over. Now he could have dreams of having a family again. And so he waited to the day his father came out of prison as he made plans for what he would do with them together.
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But fate had other plans as his father decided to divorce his mother and move to Dallas, shattering the hopes of the 12-year-old who was waiting so long for this day. But when his father did not arrive, he knew that his old man was gone for good.
The Sneed family history is murder convictions, drug arrests and generational imprisonment.
L’Jarius is the man chosen to break a curse.
It’s a weight. “The childhood trauma I went through is messing with my head.”
The story behind a rising Chiefs star:https://t.co/7tGplBIEwx
— Sam McDowell (@SamMcDowell11) November 19, 2021
L’Jarius Sneed breaks the family curse
But last year when L’Jarius signed his rookie contract with the Kansas City Chiefs, he was offered a personal chef, but he chose to pick his father who had gone to culinary school during his time in jail. He forgave his father for abandoning him as he said, “We’re straight now,” L’Jarius says. “Like it never happened, you know? I forgave him. He is my father, you know? He brought me into this world.”
However, it is not just his father or mother who has served time in jail. Sneed’s paternal grandfather has spent almost 50 years in the Louisiana State Penitentiary for burglary that led to a resident being killed. However, earlier this year, he was granted parole.
This is the best thing #Chiefs I’ve read all season. Do yourself a favor and read it. You’ll root a little harder for L’Jarius Sneed after. https://t.co/j6vmKFF0oO
— Charles Goldman (@goldmctNFL) November 19, 2021
Along with that, two of L’Jarius’s uncles have been jailed on drug offenses and the same happened to his great uncle, too. Even L’Jarius himself spent a night in jail with the charges of possession of marijuana however, the charges were later dropped. Non says, all the men on his side of the family have been incarcerated.
His teammate in the defensive backfield, Tyrann Mathieu, says, “I think the whole world will know his name by the end of the season.” Yet here he is now, sitting on top of the AFC West as the Chiefs stare at their much-deserved spot on the playoffs.
In the recent Chiefs game, L’Jarius secured a sideline pass and dedicated it to his mom who was watching him from the sidelines, as was his father and his two brothers. “Look at him now,” she says. “My son, he could’ve had this curse all his life, but he’s not what the statistics say about him. He’s not what the past says about him. Look at him now.”
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The post ‘The Childhood Trauma is Messing with My Head’: Will Kansas City Chiefs star L’Jarius Sneed Break his Family Curse? appeared first on EssentiallySports.
