Toronto Argonauts running back Cory Boyd at practice Nov 17, 2010 at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga. The Argos will meet the Montreal Alouettes Sunday in the CFL Eastern Final. (Moe Doiron/The Globe and Mail)Moe Doiron/The Globe and Mail
For Cory Boyd, the reminders of a turbulent past are always close at hand.
There's the No. 3 he has worn on his football jersey since his high school days in homage to a cousin who was gunned down on the street in the tough New Jersey neighbourhood that Boyd himself was fortunate to escape.
There are the numerous tattoos decorating his body, including one that is a tribute to his mother, who was jailed for drug dealing and died in prison at 40.
"I always tell people I look at things as if I'm starring in a movie and that it's not always going to be like this," Boyd says. "The movie would carry a PG-13 rating, maybe some R.
"That's just my life."
Boyd's starring role these days is as a hard-nosed running back with the Toronto Argonauts, whom he will lead into the CFL East Division final against the Alouettes in Montreal on Sunday.
With religion now the focal point of his life, the 25-year-old Boyd appears to be at ease discussing the hair-raising circumstances of his life during a chat over a late lunch this week.
Boyd's only stipulation was that he choose the restaurant - a Red Lobster outlet near his Mississauga home.
"How's Cory Boyd doing up in Canada?" the voice of Steve Spurrier, Boyd's coach at the University of South Carolina in his final two seasons there in 2006 and 2007, booms over the telephone. "I really enjoyed coaching him. We all knew he was from a difficult upbringing back in New Jersey. But he was fine when he was with me."
Boyd burst into prominence in his rookie season with the Argos, grinding out a league-high 1,722 combined yards from scrimmage, including 1,359 rushing, the second highest total in the CFL.
It's been a remarkable turnaround for the former high school and South Carolina star who said he was contemplating a career in the adult-film industry in 2008 after his NFL aspirations with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Denver Broncos flamed out.
"I was looking to become a porn star," Boyd says of that desperate period. "I was so broke and I always promised myself I would never be so broke as I was with my mother growing up."
Boyd grew up in Orange, N.J., attended Orange High School and lived in what's known as 108 Projects, a notorious, government-subsidized housing development where crime was rampant.
"It was definitely difficult," says Jason Green, the athletic director at Orange High, who also grew up in the neighbourhood. "The shootings and the drug dealing, it was just part of everyday life. I remember one time there was a shooting, we didn't even duck down under the table [at home]we were so used to it."
Boyd, an only child, lived with his mother, Crystal Boyd, a drug dealer whose lifestyle moved her in and out of jail. She died in prison after suffering a massive heart attack in 2006.
One of Boyd's earliest memories as a child was sitting in the dark at home in his dingy apartment, the power shut off after his mother failed to come up with enough money to pay the power bill.
Gun play in the neighbourhood was a common occurrence and touched Boyd at an early age when his cousin, Willie Graves, who had earned a full athletic scholarship to play football at Villanova, was shot dead on a street corner in 1996.
Boyd raced from his home and discovered Graves, near death, sprawled on the street corner.
"No kid should have to grow up the way I did," Boyd says. "But at the same time, it's helped me to achieve my peace. I've been able to learn who I am and why I had to go through all these things."
Boyd's way out was an athletic scholarship to South Carolina, but even then he had trouble adapting; he was kicked off the team for the 1995 season for inappropriate behaviour. "Just bad mistakes," Boyd says. "I just found myself doing things that I wasn't supposed to do."
Boyd completed college as only the second South Carolina player to amass more than 1,000 yards both rushing and receiving. The Buccaneers selected him in the seventh round of the NFL draft in 2008.
An early-season knee injury, a fight with a teammate, followed by a charge of marijuana possession convinced the Bucs to give up on Boyd, and the Broncos signed him to their practice roster.
The Broncos waived him in March of 2009.
Broke and having lost his Denver home, Boyd said he was scanning the newspapers to see if he could get a role in the adult movie business when he instead landed a job counselling young offenders.
After a year away from the game, Boyd started getting the itch to return to football and his agent contacted the Argos this year.
Jim Barker, the new Toronto coach, recalled Boyd from his South Carolina days and Boyd wound up signing a two-year contract.
"He's just a good back for our league," Barker says. "You don't know a player's character, you don't know what's in a player's heart until they come out and they do it for you.
"All you can do is look at their skill set. And we have a lot of players who come through here with the right skill sets and the wrong heart."