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Heavy-Hearted Youboty Returns to Bills
by Chris Brown, Lead Journalist Last Updated: 9/6/2006 3:23 PM ET
It's been a difficult three weeks for Bills rookie cornerback Ashton Youboty. Mourning the loss of his mother has been very trying for the 22-year old who is the oldest of four children. Jeannet Youboty had cancer and was in declining health, but the suddenness of her passing on Aug. 17 at age 47 is what hit her family the hardest.
And it hit no one harder than her oldest son Ashton. The rookie cornerback was trying to get his NFL career off the ground as he made his way through his first training camp, but there were three younger siblings who needed him.
"It was eventually going to happen," said Youboty of his mother's passing. "I had to tell myself that. But at the time when I was trying to get my career going it has been tough. I've got my younger siblings looking up to me and asking me questions that I have to answer, that I didn't think I'd have to answer at this time. It's all part of moving on up and I have a lot of big decisions to make."
His father is "in the picture in his own way," as Youboty put it, and Buffalo's third round pick wouldn't call himself the sole provider for his family. He has aunts and uncles helping him, his two brothers and sister.
But financially he's at least partially responsible for providing for his family. His younger sister is in college on partial scholarship and doing well. His youngest brother is still in high school in Texas. And his other brother is living with him and enrolled at Erie Community College.
Yousif Youboty is on ECC's football team which plays its games across the street from Ralph Wilson Stadium. It was Ashton's decision even before his mother's passing to have his younger brother live with him and attend school in Western New York.
"He had a couple of situations where he made some bad decisions in high school," said Ashton of Yousif. "He wanted to walk on at the University of Houston and I just told him it would be better if he came and lived with me. My mother was working a lot and couldn't watch him that much. So I was just helping my mother out to take some stress off of her, but things happen."
Many would think that with an NFL career to focus on there's not much time to worry about keeping someone else on the straight and narrow, but for Youboty it's a non-issue.
"My career is first and my whole family is supporting me with that," said Youboty. "I don't mind having my younger brother around. He's always been around and looked up to me so I can help him out."
Youboty is a subscriber to the belief that things happen for a reason. His mother was the same way.
"Even on draft day when my mom was right next to me with me going to the Bills she told me that everything happens for a reason," said Youboty. "Even with my mom I'm not asking for answers right now. I know if she was here she'd want me to go on and perfect my career."
The cornerback is glad to be back working with the team and is grateful for the time the organization gave him.
"The team supported me," he said. "They told me to take my time and whenever I was ready to join the team they'd be here with open arms. I'm here and I'm ready to start helping the Bills."
Of course after three weeks of down time Bills head coach Dick Jauron realizes he likely won't have Youboty as an option in his secondary for some time.
"It's great to have him back for him and for us," said Jauron. "On the football side of it we just need him to get back into the learning and in football shape. He's not in any kind of football shape right now. It will take a while to get him back in shape and back into the scheme of things. On the personal side it's probably good for him to be focused on something else. He's back to work."
Youboty doesn't deny that being on the field is an escape right now.
"Football gets your mind off of things," he said after Wednesday's practice. "You start to get stressed out, but once I get out here that's all I want to do. Being out on the field at least I have other things to think about and get some of the memories out."
And while the memories are still painful, Youboty is still paying tribute to his family's matriarch recently changing his number to the one he wore in college, 26. A native of Liberia, Youboty and his family left Africa when he was four-years old and emigrated to the United States. But to his mother 26 meant something.
"She was a cultured woman and she taught us about our heritage," said Youboty. "The 26th is our country's independence day and it means a lot to my mother. Since I was drafted by the Bills she was behind me to get that, and it just happened to become available."
He honored her further by taking her body back across the Atlantic ocean to her native country for proper burial.
"She was a queen over there," said Youboty. "And here for that matter. I gave everybody a chance to pay tribute to her because she was big on family and she helped out a lot of people during her time."
Now he believes the best way to pay tribute to her is to become a successful professional all while supporting the family she left behind.
"I can't wait," said Youboty. "I'm just doing what I can to help the team in any way so I'm looking forward to running out with the team (Sunday)."
http://www.buffalobills.com/news/news.jsp?news_id=4107
Youboty carries mom's spirit inside
9/7/2006
By BOB DICESARE
Rookie cornerback Ashton Youboty rejoined the Buffalo Bills on Wednesday, his mom close to his heart, just as she's always been.
About three weeks have passed since Jeannet Youboty died, unexpectedly, at the age of 47. She was a heroic woman, the rock of the family, possessing strong convictions and a fearless air. She'd maintained an intense loyalty to her Liberian roots, which was evident whenever she visited Ashton at Ohio State and fixed meals for her son and some of his teammates.
"A lot of different kinds of food, and a lot of curry," said rookie safety Donte Whitner, Youboty's college roommate.
Jeannet would do anything for her children. Anything. And in 1990 that meant tearfully breaking her family apart. Liberia was being ravaged by civil war. The civilian death toll was mounting. Rebels were evicting people from their homes, bringing a simmering chaos to a boil. Fleeing the country was the lone guarantee of survival, but evacuation was something not easily arranged.
Circumstances darkened. Desperation set in when the youngest of Jeannet's four children took ill. If she couldn't get Ashton's 5-month-old brother out of the country the baby was likely to die. Her options were ice cold: The two of you, yes; all of you, no.
"I refused [to go] the first time," Jeannet told the Dayton Daily News in 2004. "I refused the second time. The third time, my baby was sick. There was no hospital open, no clinic. I ran out of food for the baby. I didn't have breast milk. . . . I was forced to come.
"I cried until they calmed me down. I didn't know if I would see my [other] children ever. But you can cry until you cry blood - it doesn't mean anything to them."
Jeannet settled with relatives in Philadelphia, safe, secure and riddled with anguish. Would the others make it out? Would she ever see her husband and their three elder children again? Almost a year later they were reunited in Philly before relocating to Houston, a family once again.
"It was freedom - free at last," she said. "I saw my kids were alive. We cried. We cried. We cried. This time, I cried with joy."
Ashton inherited Jeannet's strong sense of family. He's living here with his brother, Yousif, who'll be attending Erie Community College and playing a little football. It was an arrangement they made months ago, to ease the burden on Jeannet and distance Yousif from troubles he'd encountered at home.
"He had a couple of situations making bad decisions in high school and he wanted to walk on at [the University of Houston] and I just told him it would be better if he would come and live with me because my mother was working a lot and she couldn't watch him as much," Youboty said. "I was just helping my mother out, [putting] less stress on her."
Youboty isn't sure what caused his mother's death. She'd been battling cancer, yes, but there was no inevitability about her condition.
"That was actually the part that hurt the most," Youboty said. "It was so sudden. I knew she was sick. I knew eventually it would happen. But the suddenness of it is what's really hurting the family because she was really young."
The strangest thing happened when Youboty returned to the Bills. Jeannet had always wanted her son to wear No. 26, in celebration of July 26, 1847, the day Liberia was founded by liberated American slaves and declared its independence. But the number belonged to safety Rashad Baker, who was waived in the final roster cut. Youboty was wearing it on Wednesday.
"I really wanted the number," Youboty said. "It meant a lot to my mother."
e-mail: [email protected]
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20060907/1054701.asp
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