Alfred Morris Hangs Out With Stadium Security and Guest Services Before Games, Calls Them His "Stadium Fam"

I love Alfred Morris, part 100. He drives his old car, he parks his bicycle in his player’s spot at the practice facility, he runs harder than any RB I’ve seen, and is just an all around good dude. And today we learned via the Washington Post Alf just likes hanging out with the security guards and guest services people before games, shooting the shit, just having regular water-cooler chat and making new friends.

It’s a tradition he started during preseason of his rookie year — before he became one of the most productive running backs in the NFL — when an usher asked him to stop by and chat. The rookie obliged.

“He was just a normal person, treating me like a normal person,” Morris recalled. “So I kept doing it.”

The group grew, and the conversations became a fixture of his game days. Morris learned all the staffers’s names. He kept in touch with them during the offseason. They started meeting up for all-you-can-eat crab and shrimp feasts at local restaurants. He calls them “my Stadium Fam,” and if you think there isn’t peace and happiness at FedEx Field on fall Sundays, you’ve never observed these 20-minute sessions, which start with laughter and end with a prayer.

Well, fishing. The weather. The latest television shows. The previous day’s college football action. Family life. How his friends were doing at work. Just the usual stuff NFL players discuss with stadium staffers two hours before kickoff.

“We just talk about regular things, regular life,” said Lorenzo Parker, 31, one of the guest services employees.

Morris, though, appears to be everything you could hope for in a local star: a late-round pick who borrowed his touchdown celebration from a youth baseball team, cherishes his ancient beater of a car, uses his prime parking space in Ashburn for bicycle storage, has refused to complain about his woefully low salary, and has gone out of his way this fall to praise Matt Jones, the rookie who already is eating into his starting role.

Even asking him about the sessions feels crass, as if he has any reason to explain being pals with his co-workers. Still, he tried.

“I mean, I’m a person just like anybody else. You’re  a person; I’m a person; but just because I play a game, they elevate me,” Morris said. “I’m a normal, everyday person; I just happen to play football in the NFL. … I ain’t no better than the next person.That’s just the way I look at life, man. In God’s eyes, we’re all equal, so why should I act like I’m better than anybody else when I’m not?”

Just love a guy who doesn’t put himself above anyone else just because he plays in the NFL. I wouldn’t be able to do it. There’s a certain sense of “I’m one of the best athletes in the entire world” sense of entitlement you get from playing in the NFL. Alfred Morris somehow has kept that off of him. He’s a former 1600 yard running back who would rather hang out with Bob the usher than anything else 2 hours before the game starts. Great guy, great story. Hopefully he sticks around, even if Matt Jones is taking away his starting job. Nobody has been more dependable than Alf the last few years, and apparently nobody has been a brighter light on a team that won 7 games over the last 2 years (this season’s win not included).