“It’s like he came in immediately yelling and barking. “I remember my dad being a staggering figure in our home,” Daiyan said, laughing. The sudden proximity was a tad much to the kid looking up to that father standing over him, day after day. They’d run and giggle and picnic on the barely edible prison food. On some trips, the boys would convince Dad to play football, wadding up a sock to serve as their pigskin. Daiyan and his two older brothers, Michael and Jabari, would visit regularly, tagging along behind Stacey. I ain’t never going to be gone away from you again.”ĭaiyan had known his father only as property of the California penal system. “Dad,” the little boy said, “when are you going back home?” “It helped him and it helped me too, because it took a little bit of the wild out of him.”
#GOLD DUNGEON AETHER FREE#
The prison time afforded Eugene uninterrupted hours to read and study and sketch the life he’d pursue once free again. “Daiyan” is a Muslim name, meaning mighty ruler or protector.
Long a Christian - even when he was rolling in the streets, Eugene carried a small Bible in his back pocket - he poured himself into Islam. The family remained intact, if not together, Stacey encouraged by the changes she began to see in Eugene. County jail, standing on opposite sides of a glass partition, in a hasty ceremony that might or might not have been permitted by law enforcement. In 1992, Eugene and Stacey were married in the L.A. The simplest solution was marriage, and more than 30 years later, Stacey said she’s pretty certain she was the one who proposed. She didn’t want to do that to their children or to herself, the prospect of starting over with someone else less appealing than the reality of persevering with her first choice, a challenge she called “not easy but doable.” Stacey, the product of a single mother who saw the value of a two-parent home in her grandma and grandpa, said she never considered leaving Eugene, even though the couple remained unmarried.
“The criminal got to be lucky 100,000 times.”Ĭhargers How a grueling cancer battle taught Brandon Staley he can overcome Jacksonville fiascoīrandon Staley watched his parents battle cancer and then had his own bout, but the Chargers coach believes the experience can help him be a stronger coach. “The police don’t got to be lucky but one time. One night, he and a partner were caught in a sting when Eugene arrived at a meeting with a gun, intent on strong-arming an officer he mistakenly thought was a drug dealer. So he began to steal, once busted with a stash of gold chains so extensive that he made another vow - to never wear jewelry again. Calling himself “really a momma’s boy,” he never did drugs and has no tattoos, fulfilling promises he made to his mother.īut even while redirecting his life, Eugene had more debts than ways to settle them.
Still, not all of Eugene reflects the streets. He vowed to stop dealing drugs, to stop hustling, to distance himself from a life in which he was shot when he was 14 and then shot six more times over the years, including in both shoulders and legs. In exploring another man’s life, he described himself as exploring his own. The criminal got to be lucky 100,000 times.”Ī few years later, on a drug-selling trip to Chicago, Eugene finished reading “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” a book he says he related to unlike any other. story, all right, a stuffed and twisting script come to life right in the shadow of Hollywood. “Daiyan’s my example to the world,” Eugene said. He’s still known by most people as “Big U,” though the kids he mentors on the local football field call him “Coach U.” Eugene is a hulking, hollering 6 feet 5 with a reputation twice that towering, dating to a time when he became, as Wiz Khalifa once declared, rap music’s “godfather.”Įugene also is a multi-cellphone-wielding, Range Rover-maneuvering entertainment executive who produces documentaries, managed Kurupt and launched the career of Nipsey Hussle.īut it’s in his youngest son that he has found his greatest achievement, this icon of the ’hood making his biggest moves at home. Chargers Analyzing Chargers draft picks: How will they contribute next season?īreaking down the Chargers’ 2023 NFL draft picks and how they might contribute on offense, defense and special teams next season.
0 kommentar(er)
