Jerome Baker – December 8, 2021
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Wednesday, December 8, 2021
LB Jerome Baker
(Congrats on your nomination for Walter Payton. How much pride and pleasure do you take in giving back?) – “A lot of pride. Just growing up, that was what was instilled in me as a kid, so that’s a credit to my parents and my community. I’m definitely happy.”
(Just one football question for you. How much would you say you’ve played inside over the last couple weeks? Obviously we’ve seen you on the edge more beginning against Baltimore. How much do you think you’ve actually played inside the past month?) – “I don’t know. I really don’t keep track, but yeah, I’d say these past few weeks I’ve been everywhere. On the edge, I still do my cover of the running back, I’ve still been dropping into coverage. I’d say these past few weeks they’ve been using me different ways and I’m definitely happy to play in this defense.”
(I wanted to ask you – congrats on your nomination. I wanted to ask you about your work helping Haiti. Can you talk a little bit about your relationship with that community that is a community here in South Florida?) – “When I moved down here, I didn’t really understand the different communities here, but I made a point to really just learn and meet new people and just really learn. I quickly learned that the Haitian community – they’re just beautiful people. I truly love them. Their food is amazing. It was just one of those communities that they just welcomed me in and I definitely just wanted to help so when I heard about it, the first thing I thought was ‘what can I do to help?’ And the Dolphins, they did a great job helping me and making sure I did the right thing and making sure that my help is really doing well for them so yeah, shoutout to the Haitian community and shoutout to the Dolphins. They’ve truly helped me a lot so I appreciate them.”
(When you were younger, did you ever run into a professional athlete and have a really cool experience or really like “man, I’m never going to act like that guy”?) – “So a cool experience, I’d say one cool experience I always go back. Chris Chambers, he used to have camps back up in Cleveland. It was like every year, he used to have it at Collinwood, I think – whatever the school was – and I remember sitting in there. I’m hearing him talk. I was like, ‘one day I’m going to play in the NFL and be just like him.’ And he had this fastest kid camp, like a board or whatever and I won it one year. Fast forward, fast forward years later, I end up working out in his gym and I told him like, ‘you probably don’t remember, but when you had those camps, I was one of those little kids.’ And it was just like a cool experience of years later just to see – I remember that camp, I remember everything I was going through, everything he said – and just to see me in the NFL now, it definitely is a cool experience. I had a few things like that. I used to go to Ben Wallace’s camp. So it’s definitely cool just to look back and see all those camps, see all those experiences I had. That’s why I try so hard to bring that to other kids and have other people experience that.”
(Can we see your trophy?) – “Yeah, this is cool. This is a cool one right here. So I actually just put together a little trophy case. My mom takes all my trophies, so I’m finally starting to get my collection back and this is definitely an honor to have.”
(Do you remember – and obviously that’s a huge honor for any player – but were there times in your career where you were like, “I would love to be nominated for that one day?”) – “Actually it was earlier this year and I remember just talking to my friends and I’m one of those people like if I speak it into existence, that’s when I feel like it could happen. I said like, ‘I want to be nominated. I want to win that award.’ I didn’t really care about Pro Bowl and all that. It was to have that award, I feel like that’s a very special award. That was the thing. I definitely said it and just to be nominated is definitely an honor.”
(Is that something growing up that you told yourself that “if I get to a place where I can help others, I’m going to do that?”) – “Yes. That’s been instilled in me since I was a little kid. My dad, he had a non-profit called Men of Central. He started that when I was 7 (years old) and honestly it was truly just my family. It was me, my dad, my mom, my sister and that’s how it was. We used to go to parades and he used to have these big banners. You would think it’s a hundred people with us, but it was only me and him holding it up and my sister and my mom was in the car riding along. And that slowly built up to him having a great organization. So when I got old enough, that was like my mission. I wanted to do the same thing. He had the blueprint and it was my job to make it better. So shoutout to my dad. He definitely instilled that in me and I’ve been blessed my whole life. Just to give back, it’s always been one of those things where if I can give back, I definitely want to do it.”
(Any plans for the bye week?) – “Just relax. That’s my main thing. I’m just going to relax and just take it all in. It’s been a long few weeks. It’s been its ups, it’s had its downs, but just relax, get back on track, get my mind right and come finish strong.”
