At some point in a game this season Matthew Golden will be asked to run a short crossing pattern. The ball will arrive high, requiring him to reach up to snag it. He will do this, knowing full well that, at the moment he makes contact with the ball, a safety will launch toward him, burying a shoulder into his abdomen. That has to be a pretty scary feeling. But not as scary as being a child and having your family get evicted from your home, and then watching it get condemned and all the assets repossessed. .
There will be times when a running play is coming to his side, and Golden, at 5’11” and 191 pounds, will be asked to block a 250 pound outside linebacker coming at him full speed. That might be frightening, but not as frightening as spending the night sleeping in a car with your mother in a Walmart parking lot.
Beat writers have asked the Green Bay Packers’ first round draft pick if he feels pressure to perform, what with all the hype over being the first receiver taken by the Pack in the first round in more than twenty years. Golden just smiles. Pressure? Really? Pressure is being in the eighth grade, and having the entire family depending on you to become a good enough football player to earn a college scholarship, because there is no money to pay for school. Or to pay the mortgage. Every professional football player will eventually deal with adversity because of things like injuries and poor performance. Golden can handle adversity. Because he knows real adversity. Like being forced to separate from your mother, and having to live with friends for three years, while she gets back on her feet financially.
It’s anybody’s guess how the rookie receiver out of Texas will fare this season, but you can be assured of a few things: He won’t be intimidated, he won’t give up, and he won’t take anything for granted. Golden’s salary this year will be $840 thousand dollars, with a prorated signing bonus of $2.3 million. That may be peanuts compared to what established players earn, but for Golden it means the redemption of his childhood and the renaissance of his family. It’s enough money to buy back the family property in Kohrville, Texas, a community so small it is not incorporated. It's about 30 miles northeast of Houston. There, on a five acre plot of peaceful land is where the home built by his great grandfather stands. Golden now has the ability to restore the property, bigger and better than ever. “Something I just want to do for my grandmother”, he said. He calls his grandmother “my best friend”.
It’s enough money to take care of his mother, who regretfully had to give up living with her beloved son for three years while she took a job an hour away. It was the only way he could remain at the same high school where he was a budding football star.
Some 22 year-old new millionaires may blow away their money on trinkets and lavish lifestyle. Golden won’t be one of them. He has commitments he will honor. He understands responsibility. He’s been shouldering it since childhood. His head is in the right place. He is precisely the kind of player you want in your locker room. Mature, unselfish, driven, and talented. Very, very talented. Already getting regular reps with the starters. Making at least one impressive play every practice. No one should be surprised. “I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life” Golden told the media upon his arrival in the NFL’s smallest city.
He is the kind of player you want to pull for. You want to buy and wear his jersey. You want his autograph on a football sitting on your fireplace mantel. You want your team to play hard? Golden will epitomize that.
“Knowing what it took to get here, I want everyone to know I’m coming here to compete”, he proclaimed.
And compete he will. But when it comes to life, he’s already won.