ASHBURN, Va. -- The best game of Washington Redskins running back Chris Thompson's career coincided with his parents watching him play in the NFL for the first time.
Thompson’s parents, Cynthia and Maurice James, live in Greenville, Florida, about 45 miles east of Tallahassee where he played college ball at Florida State. But the NFL games conflict with church and his parents don’t like to miss. They tried to attend games in the past, but Thompson was never active. He was on Sunday, rushing for 53 yards and adding another 24 through the air in the Redskins' 23-20 win over the Eagles. It was his best game and his parents were there; it's likely the only game they'll be in town for this season, barring a trip here during the holidays.
This is his first-person account of what it meant to have his parents in town:
On the week: “It was the best week I’ve had in a long time. This was their first game watching me play live because they don’t like missing church, which is totally fine with me. But I’ve just had a good feeling and felt good all week. For everybody, just to have family come back and watch you play, it means everything.”
On why they attended last week: “They’ll miss one Sunday out of the whole football season to come up so they decided they wanted to come up for one week. They wanted to take a vacation; they needed a break from work so I wanted to come up and at least support me for one game. This happened to be the week and I thought it was a pretty good week for me.”
On previous misses: “My first year they had planned on coming to the Chicago game, but that might have been my second week on the inactive list and that was the week I decided I had to go have my shoulder surgery done. That was the week we decided I needed to get it done. Last year they came down for the Dallas game to help me move and spend Christmas with me. But I was inactive from that game because Roy Helu had come back from his injury.”
On them not missing church more to watch his games: “I’m perfectly fine with it. As long as I can see them one time during the season, that’s good enough for me. I don’t want them to miss church because when I’m home, I’m not missing any Sundays either….They can’t watch the games either. They didn’t buy the [NFL] Sunday Ticket so down there it’s always the Miami and Jacksonville games.”
The overall experience: “It was great, man. My mom hugged me and said she was happy that I had a great game and happy that we won, too. She didn’t want me going home quiet; I don’t like to talk to anybody at all after games. She cooked for me too. Candied yams, cornbread, cabbage, short ribs and mac and cheese. She hooked me up really good.”