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April 24, 2019

Mini Camp Report | Football a bigger purpose for Joe Este

Winnipeg Blue Bombers defensive back Joe Este (30) defends wide receiver Josh Stewart (83) during a team mini-camp at IMG Academy in Bradenton Florida on Wednesday, April 24, 2019. Photo by Tom O'Neill

BRADENTON, FLA. – Joe Este hunkers down on a set of bleachers, just a few yards away from the field where he has just completed his first session as a prospect of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The midday sun has already pushed the mercury to 28C, and the 40 Bomber prospects in attendance here at the IMG Academy worked up a healthy lather over the course of a spirited 75-minute session.

In that respect, Joe Este is no different from any of the other players trying to earn an invitation to training camp and a paycheque in the Canadian Football League. He wants what every player wants: a chance to earn a living at the game, to see his name stitched on the back of a jersey and run out of the tunnel to the throaty roar of fans at a home game.

But Este is also playing for a bigger purpose. Bigger than him. Bigger than the game.

He’s playing for Zachary and Christopher, the now nine and 10-year-old sons who were abandoned by his sister three years ago, forcing him to become their guardians while he was still in university.

He’s playing for his son Joseph, Jr., now six months old. And he’s playing for his mother, who he also took in when she became homeless.

Winnipeg Blue Bombers defensive back Joe Este (30) stretches before an afternoon workout at a team mini-camp at IMG Academy in Bradenton Florida on Wednesday, April 24, 2019. | Photo: Tom O’Neill

“It’s not about me anymore,” began the soft-spoken product of Kenner, LA in a conversation with bluebombers.com. “Every time I look up, I see them. (Zachary and Christopher), they’re not here right now, but I see them. I see them right now sitting down in front of you and me talking and playing around.

“And so when I’m on the field it’s about what I can do to provide for my family. It’s not about ‘me’ anymore, it’s about ‘we’ and I put all of them before anybody.”

The chapters of Joe Este’s football story are compelling enough – he’s a 5-11, 200-pound defensive back who worked his way from Copiah-Lincoln Community College, to the University of Tennessee-Martin, to a stint with the Tennessee Titans and now to his shot with the Bombers.

But it’s what Este has soldiered through along the way that had one Bomber staffer referring to him on Wednesday as ‘saintly.’

About a month prior to enrolling at UT-Martin, Este got a phone call from his mother, Candrice, who had been looking after Zachary and Christopher as her daughter, battling through her own issues, had suddenly disappeared and left the boys behind.

Health issues had caught up to Candrice and she needed help with the boys.

She needed Joe.

What Este did next is not only ‘saintly’, but worthy of a Hollywood script. He immediately began adoption proceedings for the two boys while trying to balance school and football. He got help from countless folks along the way, but somehow made it all work.

This tale would only become more complicated early in 2017 when Este got another call from his mom. Unbeknownst to him, she had been homeless for almost two years, living in her truck in the parking lot of a casino. She was at the lowest of lows and she needed help.

She needed Joe.

Winnipeg Blue Bombers defensive back Joe Este (30) defends wide receiver Josh Stewart (83) during a team mini-camp at IMG Academy in Bradenton Florida on Wednesday, April 24, 2019. | Photo: Tom O’Neill

Este bought his mother a bus ticket to come and join him. And when he and the two boys went to the bus station to pick his mom up, she was unrecognizable, having lost so much weight, the worn-out clothes just hung on her body.

Joe promised to help her, too, and in effect now became the guardian to his sister’s two sons and his own mother as she worked to recover.

And all through this, he never surrendered his dream of playing pro football, all the while living a day-to-day existence.

“My mom… she is my rock,” said Este. “That was tough, man, seeing her like that. She had to struggle her whole life and was living the same way my nephews did, maybe even worse.

“When I found out that stuff about her… I had already taken on a heavy load and that just crashed everything. I had to rebuild myself. No man wants to see their mom like that. Thankfully, she’s good now.

“You know, I’ve had to grow up fast,” Este added. “I was 18-19 years-old and I’m doing dad stuff. I had friends who were going out and I wished I could do it. I had to do things that I wasn’t quite ready for. I had to make it work.

“But look, I’ve always had a passion for kids, for sharing and loving. I’ll give you the shirt off my back if it means I can see it makes somebody else happy.”

The Bombers have been chasing Este’s services for over a year. He attended a free agent camp last spring in Atlanta before the National Football League Draft, and following his release from the Titans, was back on the club’s radar.

All that – the daily pursuit of his dream through training, practising and working as a math teacher to help make ends meet – has been the ‘easy’ stuff for Este. It’s the stuff he can control. But the rest of it… there is no playbook for what he’s had to work to overcome.

“Trying to raise boys and not having a father in my life – I’ve had father figures, but not a father – it can be a challenge,” Este said. “I ask questions. I see how other people do it. I don’t try to imitate it, but take things from different people and try to put it in my life.

“Now I just go at it every day. I go at it one day at a time. I can’t for tomorrow. I can’t look for next week. And I can’t look back at what I did yesterday. All I can do is work on today and what I need to do to better myself for tomorrow.”