After childhood tragedy, Roughriders Thigpen finds footing in football

Tragedy followed Saskatchewan Roughriders running back Marcus Thigpen throughout his childhood, with the death of a close friend still weighing heavily on his mind.

“I took a van that (belonged to my) my ex-girlfriend’s mother and we were doing some joyriding,” Thigpen said. “We ended up at a park in Detroit and I was driving through a maze – a wooded area – and eventually ran into a tree and the girl in the passenger seat, Lacrecia (Daniels), passed away pretty much on impact.”

Thigpen said the two had been friends since they were seven-years-old. He still thinks about her every day and every time he takes the field.

“That’s one of the main reasons why I do what I do. (Lacrecia), my children and my faith. I got her tattooed on my back,” Thigpen said. “She never had an opportunity to go to college or graduate high school or have kids or get married or anything. I just want her to be proud of what I’m doing and just live my life as best I can for her.”

It was that moment that Thigpen said completely turned his life around.

“That really changed my life. It made me stop just doing dumb stuff and it woke me up.”

That moment wasn’t the first time the now 33-year-old would deal with life-threatening car accidents while growing up in Detroit.

When he was one-year-old, the car his mother, himself and his aunt were in rolled and flipped about 10 times. Luckily for him, he was in his mother’s arms at the time and not in his car seat and he escaped uninjured.

But it would appear his luck ran out when he was struck by a vehicle when he was a child.

“I flew in the air and I came down on my face and I was unconscious,” Thigpen said. “I was given a few weeks to live just because they thought I had some type of kidney and liver damage.”

Not knowing how much longer he would live, things were tough for him and his family.

“We were just sitting around crying, trying to figure out what was next or how we could get past it,” Thigpen said.

But luckily for him, the diagnosis ended up being incorrect and he was able to make a full recovery.

From the start, Thigpen had to overcome a tough family life.

“A single-parent home, my dad would be there but not really. We found out later after him passing that he had two different families,” Thigpen said. “He would be with my family during the day and then another family at night so it was tough. I was in the streets early just trying to help my mom pay bills and I was just doing things that any kid should not be doing at fourteen.”

He said every day was a struggle for them to know where their next meal would come from or if they would have heat in their home.

But after deciding to turn his life around, it was football that would ultimately allow him to escape the life he had growing up.

“Football was always my heart and soul,” Thigpen said. “I watched my cousin play growing up and it was always something that I wanted to do. Just watching our family go to his games and the excitement that they had for him, I’m like, ‘I want that too.’”

But it would take some convincing for his mother to allow him to put on the pads due to the past car crashes and his size.

“She finally got to a point where she saw I was faster than anybody and I wasn’t taking no hits so she let me do it and the rest was history.”

And Thigpen would make history during a long football career in the CFL and NFL.

Coming out of Indiana, where he also starred in track and field, Thigpen would sign with the Philadelphia Eagles as an undrafted free agent in 2009. He would be waived by the Eagles and then the Denver Broncos before coming north of the border to the CFL.

He was originally signed by the Roughriders to the practice roster in October 2009, but was among the team’s final cuts during their 2010 training camp.

But Thigpen would end up with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats that season and would do something no other player had done. In his first season in the league, Thigpen became the first ever player to score a touchdown five different ways in a single-season – A kickoff return, punt return, missed field goal return, rushing and receiving touchdowns.

Even after a decade of playing professional football, Thigpen says that’s still his crowning achievement.

After two seasons in Hamilton, Thigpen once again found his way to the NFL.

He spent two seasons with the Miami Dolphins before bouncing around the league for the next few years as a member of the New England Patriots, Dolphins for a second time, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Buffalo Bills, Indianapolis Colts, Oakland Raiders and the Bills for a second stint.

After all of that, Thigpen would eventually make it back to the first CFL team he had known and signed with the Roughriders in 2017.

“I finally made my way back here and its been a blessing in disguise.”

And he has former Roughriders quarterback Kevin Glenn to thank for it.

“I saw (Kevin Glenn) on Instagram and it was the game where he had thrown for over 50,000 career yards and I just saw the locker room atmosphere and the chemistry that they had so I wrote to him, ‘KG man, I want to play, I want to get back out there,’” Thigpen said.

A few days later, then head coach and general manager Chris Jones gave him a call and he signed a contract shortly after.

Even in 2019, the Roughriders continue to benefit from the spark Thigpen can provide. In a July 20 game against the B.C. Lions, Thigpen returned a kickoff 100 yards to give the Roughriders a 17-16 lead. The Roughriders would eventually win that game 38-25.

“To still be able to (play football) at 33, it’s attributed to my faith first and foremost and my work ethic,” Thigpen said. “People look at me and they see my size and they see my age but they don’t know all the things that I’ve overcome. That’s what keeps me going every day.”

Throughout his CFL career, Thigpen has accumulated 861 rushing yards, nine rushing touchdowns, 924 receiving yards, six receiving touchdowns, one punt return touchdown and three kickoff return touchdowns.

After coming from nothing and finding the success he’s had, Thigpen wants to inspire others to do the same.

He will be re-releasing his first book, Resist and Persist: Pushing Beyond the Limitations of Life, in August.

“After the career and just my story and the things that I’ve been through and had to overcome and endure in my life I just wanted to write about it to just inspire other people to try and reach their goals, reach their dreams and not give up,” Thigpen said. “I came from very, very humble beginnings and I know a lot of people that have been there and I just want to be able to give them that inspiration.”

Thigpen will be hoping to once again spark the Roughriders as they meet the B.C. Lions in a rematch on Saturday.

Kickoff is set for 5 p.m.

The Green Zone pregame show begins at 3 p.m.