On a quiet July morning at the Training Camp of the Kansas City Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes, NFL MVP and a face of a new golden era for American football, stopped to greet an unexpected visitor. He knew him from a chapel in Houston, where his paths had crossed once. Both born in Texas, both Quarterbacks in universities of Division I. But while Mohamses became the best player of his generation, Damon West disappeared in the deepest shadows of the US criminal system.
Today, at 49, Damon West is not just a survivor. He is a university professor, author of Superventas and one of the most wanted speakers in sports and corporate environment. But its history began with a loud fall, as was its addiction to methamphetamine, added to its participation in an organized criminal network, and a 65 -year sentence for leading a wave of robberies in Dallas.
The quarterback that lost everything
Damon West grew obsessed with the NFL. During his adolescence, he even worked at the field staff of the Dallas Cowboys, holding the headphone cable of the legendary coach Jimmy Johnson. Played as quarterback at the University of Northern Texas, and For a moment, the dream seemed attainable.
But his career was truncated after a shoulder injury, and then a tear of the Achilles tendon. It was then that the void was filled with drugs. First cocaine and ecstasy, later, methamphetamine. What followed was a self -destructive spiral that led him to work on Wall Street to live in the streets, leading a criminal gang to finance his addiction.
Damon West.
In 2008, after two years fugitive, he was captured by a Swat team while smoking methamphetamine on his sofa. Thus the “Uptown thief” fell, as the media nicknamed. His organization had stolen properties valued in more than one million dollars, including a engagement ring belonging to a woman whose fiance died in Iraq.
A judge compared him to Hannibal Lecter for his ability to manipulate and operate in the dark. It was sentenced to 65 years, which in Texas is practically equivalent to life imprisonment.
Blood on showers and leadership from darkness
His arrival in prison was brutal. When refusing to join a gang, as he had promised his mother, Damon paid a high price. “They gave me brutal beatings. Many times it was in the showers. Without cameras, without guards … and all the blood that spills is cleaned very easily,” he revealed.
But in the midst of that brutality, he found something that would change his life. A man named Muhammad told him about the metaphor of coffee grain. “Life is like a pot of boiling water. You can be a carrot that softens, an egg that hardens … or a coffee grain that transforms water,” West explained. That message transformed it. From then on, he chose to be the coffee grain.
He learned to survive not with violence, but with respect. Played basketball on a court where whites were not welcome. Nine against one in his first game. He ended up bathed in blood. But he won respect. And when it ceased to be an objective, it began to teach other prisoners, to give tutorials, to build a new leadership from within.
Damon West's second life
West was released in 2015, after spending seven years after bars. His redemption history has made him a reference. He graduated with a master's degree in criminal justice, wrote several books and today travels 300 days a year giving talks to companies, universities, the army and sports teams.
Damon West.
Teams such as the Dallas Cowboys, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Minnesota Timberwolves, and even the Clemson, Alabama and Ole Miss university powers have invited West to share their message. This summer, Andy Reid, coach of the Chiefs, took him to St. Joseph, Missouri, to talk to his team after the defeat in the Super Bowl. “My boys need to listen to your message. They will make them better men and better players,” Reid said.
