Qwan'tez Stiggers lost his father, left college and worked late-night delivery shifts. Now he's an NFL player with the New York Jets.
Some NFL stories start on draft night. Qwan'tez Stiggers' started with heartbreak. Just days into his college career, the New York Jets player got the news that his father had died months after a devastating car crash. At 18, he walked away from campus and went home to support his mother, Kwanna, and his 12 siblings.
The football dream looked finished. Stiggers took work as a delivery driver and washed trucks, pulling late-night shifts to cover the bills while his former teammates moved up the football ladder. He had a young child and was living with his girlfriend, now his wife, Cheyenne. Watching others chase the career he wanted could have pushed him in the wrong direction. He says it wasn't envy exactly. He simply wanted something better for himself and his family.
He wasn't carrying that weight alone. Cheyenne was dealing with her own tragedy after her teenage sister was killed by a stray bullet. Over the last six years, the two have leaned on each other to climb out of some very dark places, and that partnership became the foundation for everything that followed.
Now Stiggers is in the NFL, proof that a career can survive a detour of years, grief and graveyard-shift work. His message to anyone stuck in a similar spot is simple: you have to believe.
