It was another dream come true for former Oregon defensive lineman Kayvon Thibodeaux.
Atop of his many aspirations and dreams was to one day play in the National Football League which was realized in the 2022 draft when the New York Giants selected Thibodeaux No. 5 overall.
Next on his list of dreams was to one day buy a new home for his mother Shawnta, who raised Kayvon as a single mother in a tiny apartment that housed a total of seven family members.
“There were about seven of us ” explained Thibodeaux when describing his childhood home.
“My mom, her brother, their kids, their family.”
While it was definitely a close family and an extremely loving household, it was also a struggle to survive.
“I think a lot of people that live in these different communities around Los Angeles, around the suburbs they realize that you don’t really get the opportunity to live, right? Everybody’s kind of in survival mode because of the circumstance.”
But it was that circumstance that fueled Thibodeaux’s desire to lift his family out of their impoverished situation.
He did that through football with his tremendous talent as a defensive end. Thibodeaux began that dream at the University of Oregon and continued it with a significant multi-million dollar rookie contract with the Giants worth just over $31 million.
“You do all this, you work so hard to put everything on the line every day just so that your family can be happy,” said Thibodeaux.
“When I was in high school I had to live with another family and after that, I went to college so for five years of my life I never had dinner with my mom. We never sat at a table and never had a place for all the family to get together for Christmas. So now being able to provide that is a blessing.”
Now he and his mom can have whatever dinner suits them on whatever table they want and all of it has definitely been earned.
WATCH KAYVON THIBODEAUX SURPRISE HIS MOTHER WITH A NEW HOME