Before every game, Rhamondre Stevenson had a ritual. Just a simple text. “Reading a text from you and Dad,” he once told his mother, Juran, during an interview on the New England Patriots’ YouTube channel, “just telling me good luck and do my thing out there—that’s the only ritual I have.” That brief exchange, repeated dozens of times across stadiums and seasons, was a kind of lifeline. . But earlier this year, that ritual was broken.
Robert Stevenson, the man who had been sending those messages and standing behind his son’s unlikely rise to the NFL, died at 54. The family has not publicly disclosed a cause of death. Robert was not a public figure. There were no media clips of him on draft night, no postgame interviews, no sideline appearances. He lived in the margins of his son’s career, but never far from its foundation. “They believed in me more than I believed in myself,” Rhamondre said of his parents. “Them always pushing me to be great, telling me I could actually do it, and putting that thought in my head, it made me believe it at one point.”
It’s been almost two months since the tragic passing of Robert, but the absence has become louder each day for Rhamondre. He has been missing from the field since then, sidelined not by injury but by something less visible and far heavier. And his recent Instagram story is a testament to how much the RB misses his father. On Wednesday, Rhamondre posted a photo to his Instagram story, and in it, he stood between his parents, Juran and Robert Stevenson, their arms around each other, their smiles easy. “Man we miss you down here pops,” he wrote.
That belief his parents had didn’t come easily. After high school in Las Vegas, Rhamondre’s grades kept him off a college roster. He took a job at Walmart, then made sandwiches at Jimmy John’s. He was 18, earning $10 an hour, and football felt farther away by the day. Back home, his parents were quiet with their worry.
“My husband and I, we talked about it a lot,” Juran Stevenson said. “If that was us, we probably would have given up. Because he had to do a lot of work. I mean, it was a lot of work.” They never said any of that to Rhamondre. What he saw was support. What he heard was encouragement.
Eventually, he enrolled at Cerritos College, a junior college in Southern California. There were no athletic scholarships. Tuition and housing had to be paid out of pocket. Juran took on two full-time jobs—72 hours a week. Robert dipped into his retirement savings. It wasn’t sustainable, but they didn’t think about that.
Cerritos led to Oklahoma. Oklahoma led to New England. The NFL dream became real. But even after the breakthrough, the routine never changed. Rhamondre would look down at his phone before every game. A message from his mother. A message from his father. Something simple. Something certain.
And now that same belief that his parents had is something Rhamondre sees in the words of his team and coach Mike Vrabel.
Patriots coach gives update on RB
After having a successful draft in April where they drafted Will Campbell and RB TreVeyon Henderson, the Patriots started their OTAs on the 19th of May. However, there has been a notable absentee, Rhamondre, who has not yet joined the team and is still dealing with the loss of his father. But his absence does not worry the Patriots’ Head Coach, who in the presser shared an update and showed strong support for the RB.
Mike Vrable, while talking about Stevenson and the current situation, said, “We’re extremely excited to have him with us, have been in constant communication with him and obviously thoughts and prayers are with him and his family as they heal and they grieve and want to be a part of that to help him and get to know him.” Talking about any meetings he has had with the player, Mike said, “I met him early on, and then he went back, and now those conversations have just been over the telephone.”
Mike is mighty impressed by Rhamondre and the effort that he put in last season, despite the team’s bad performance. “When you start to evaluate just this season and you watch the effort that he played with, when he didn’t have the football, he played extremely fast without the football,” Mike had said. Pointing at what the future holds for Stevenson in the team, Mike commented, His ability to step up and protect is taking care of a teammate, is protecting the guy with the ball… You always saw him downfield when he didn’t have the ball. So he’s going to be a large part of what we do.” Making it clear that Rhamondre Stevenson will be an integral component of the team and possibly the number 1 starter.
This is also an important season for Rhamondre, considering that this is his fifth season in the NFL. Meaning that this is his contract season, and anything he does during this season will define his future with the team moving forward.
The post “We Miss You”: Mourning Rhamondre Stevenson’s Tribute to Deceased Father After Mike Vrabel’s Patriots Update appeared first on EssentiallySports.
