With mom in the stands, Providence's Kwity Paye impresses despite Colts loss
FOXBORO — The result wasn’t what Kwity Paye wanted.
That’s the reality of professional football. Playing well individually never outweighs how the team performs.
But in terms of everything else surrounding this unseasonably warm Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium, the former Bishop Hendricken star had every reason to smile. It was the type of occasion his mother, Agnes, might have envisioned when she fled civil war in West Africa for a better life just a short drive south from here.
Not this game specifically, of course — soccer would be a more likely athletic pursuit in their native Liberia. But her son is safe, secure and thriving in the second year of his NFL career with the Indianapolis Colts. There is nothing a mother could want more.
From refugee camp to Colts:These moments launched RI's Kwity Paye's NFL football career
“It was cool seeing my mom,” Paye said following this 26-3 loss to the Patriots. “That was her first game seeing me play. Seeing friends from back home, it was amazing.”
Paye collected a career-high eight tackles, his fourth sack of the season and his sixth tackle for loss. He competed like a man who had someone to impress. You don’t need to ask who that might have been — she was sitting in the front row behind the visiting bench, surrounded by familiar faces.
Kwity Paye:Top NFL prospect and his mom, Agnes, promised a better life for their family
“I heard them screaming,” Paye said. “I tried not to pay too much attention because I wanted to be focused on the game. But I heard them for sure.”
That voice has been the constant in Paye’s life – his guide, his protector and his strength. A standout career with the Hawks, his college years at Michigan and a first-round selection in the 2021 draft – there is one underlying motivation for all of it. It was on a recruiting visit to Notre Dame where Paye peeled back the curtain for the first time to high school coach Keith Croft.
401‼️ https://t.co/YD8iAaPy9T
— Kwity Paye (@OfficialKwity) November 6, 2022
“He opened up to me about a lot of things that I was not really aware of,” Croft said a couple of hours prior to kickoff. “A lot of things, quite honestly, since college, as he’s gotten older and more mature, he’s talked about more in the open.
“You could tell early on with him that his family was a big focus for the rest of his life. He really wanted to give his mom a better life. I think he understood the American Dream.
“He understood that if you came here, worked hard and were a good person that you could really change the trajectory of your family. And he’s doing that.”
“Any way I can support seeing David Duke on the Nets, and seeing [Jeremy Peña] do his thing with the Astros. I try to support any way I can because we’re such a small state. People tend to overlook us.”
— Kwity Paye on fellow pro athletes from Providence
Paye’s physical ability and intelligence have made for a strong combination as he navigates that mission. He’s clearly improved since playing in 15 games as a rookie — he wasted no time displaying that on Sunday. Paye stopped J.J. Taylor for just a 1-yard gain in the backfield and overpowered Yodny Cajuste for a sack off the left edge on the Colts’ third defensive series.
“As you go through the first year, towards the end of the year, things start clicking,” Paye said. “You start to pick it up. You start to get comfortable.”
He’s not the only son of the city to enjoy some time in the spotlight this weekend. Paye sent some early Twitter congratulations Sunday morning to Classical High graduate Jeremy Peña, the first rookie position player to win Most Valuable Player honors in a World Series. Peña and the Astros closed out the Phillies with a victory in Saturday night’s Game 6, capping a dream debut for the shortstop.
“Any way I can support seeing David Duke on the Nets, and seeing (Peña) do his thing with the Astros,” Paye said. “I try to support any way I can because we’re such a small state. People tend to overlook us.”
Paye was on a private charter late Saturday and enjoyed dinner at a Federal Hill restaurant with several teammates. His downtown hotel was a world away from the uncertainty that clouded parts of his childhood. A four-year contract with more than $13.6 million, a home in the Midwest, making good on a promise that Agnes would quit her multiple jobs and retire immediately – it's all come true.
And it’s here where we should take a step back and marvel. This life that started in a refugee camp in Guinea, fleeing tribal chiefs and warlords who enlist teenagers to fight one another with automatic weapons. This daily struggle to find something better, this work that never seemed to end, this optimism that, for some reason, never seemed to find bottom – this moment that was an eternity into the distance.
“She’s been doing her thing,” Paye said. “She’s been traveling since she’s been retired – she just came back from Trinidad. I’m happy to see her living the life she’s supposed to be living.”
The scoreboard that really matters — how we fulfill ourselves, how we maximize our short time here, how we uplift and better one another — says Agnes Paye’s son is doing the same.
On Twitter: @BillKoch25
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This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Indianapolis Colts' Kwity Paye, of Providence, impresses in return
