YAZOO COUNTY, Miss. — A cacophony of barking, baaing, and neighing reverberates across an acre of farmland that represents the backyard of Kenny Gainwell’s trailer home. Standing in the middle of his family’s yard, the second-year Eagles running back is sporting a beat-up pair of team-issued Nike trainers. The once-white sneakers are now dusty and brown, full of dirt and dried mud.
Gainwell’s shoes make a crunching sound as he walks toward a large dry freezer. Inside the container is a multi-month supply of whole corn poultry feed. He fills an empty water jug and tosses the cracked corn pieces to the ground, where dozens of chickens flock for feeding time.
“This right here,” Gainwell says, “is my home. I’m a country boy. A real country–.”
Before Gainwell is able to finish his remark, he’s interrupted by a screeching cry. While a majority of the farm animals are gathered together, there’s a goat isolated several hundred feet away. The lone goat is stuck underneath a scrap of haywire, presumably after it attempted to escape the fenced yard.
Gainwell immediately drops the jug and accelerates toward the perimeter of the backyard. Suddenly, it’s as if he is back on the football field. He jukes his way through multiple piles of manure left behind from his family’s horses. He’s not holding a football, but he has his arms tucked and cradled while he hurdles over stacks of grass and hay that stand between him and the weeping animal. Within seconds, Gainwell has lifted the fence’s wiring and saved the baby goat.
Following this hectic sequence on a steamy afternoon in mid-July, Gainwell rejoins the rest of the animals near the center of the yard. While chewing on a toothpick, he hops on top of an old, rusty tractor. He kicks his feet up on the steering wheel.
This version of Gainwell is not one that many close to him see or know. Even fellow tailbacks Miles Sanders and Boston Scott were unfamiliar with Gainwell’s Southern upbringing when prompted recently.
“Kenny lives on a farm?” Scott said. “What?!”
Indeed, Gainwell grew up in the countryside in Yazoo County — just a few miles away from his cousin and current Eagles teammate Fletcher Cox. The duo are separated by nearly a decade in age, but Cox, 32, serves as inspiration for Gainwell, 23, and the entire Yazoo region. To get a better understanding of Gainwell and Cox’s upbringing, The Philadelphia Inquirer visited their hometown, located in the heart of the Mississippi Delta.
“Yazoo is a real small town,” Cox said. “A real small town full of rich memories, and dreams that, unfortunately, don’t always become reality for a lot of kids.
“Fortunately for me and Kenny, we made it out of Yazoo.”
‘A humble mentality’
Ahead of the scheduled meetup, Gainwell’s father, Curtis Sr., issued a warning.
“You ain’t gon’ find us on GPS,” he said.
Tucked away from any semblance of a main street, multiple strips of dirt lead into the Benton section of Yazoo County. Gainwell doesn’t consider this area an RV park, although a majority of the neighboring homes are affixed on cement bricks. Even from inside an SUV, the rocky roads that represent Gainwell’s driveway offer a bumpier ride than a wooden roller coaster.
After several attempts at off-road circling across patches of mud and grass, we finally locate Gainwell’s trailer. The rectangular mobile home is equipped with two narrow bedrooms, a modest-sized living room, and a bathroom. The family’s property, in which Gainwell’s parents, Curtis Sr. and Monica; his grandmother, Mary Gibson; and his older brother, Curtis Jr., reside, generously spans about 400 square feet. While the indoor space itself is small, the surrounding yards are enormous.
His childhood home offers a drastic contrast to Gainwell’s three-story apartment in the Queen Village neighborhood of Philadelphia.
“When I pull up to them dirt roads, I know I’m back at home,” Gainwell said. “It’s like I’m a kid again. I just try to keep a humble mentality. You know where you come from, but at the end of the day, I really know where I come from.”
According to recent data, Yazoo City’s population is about 11,000. Gainwell estimates his high school graduating class was about 100 students. He guesses that less than half of his peers attended college. In 2020, financial news outlet 24/7 Wall Street ranked Yazoo City as its ‘Worst city to live in America.’ The study compiled its rankings by measuring affordability, economy, quality of life, and community. Yazoo is about an hour away from Mississippi’s capital city of Jackson.
Gainwell and Cox don’t agree with Yazoo City’s ranking among the ‘worst places to live,’ but they both acknowledge they’ve had childhood friends who succumbed to alcohol, drugs, complacency, and crime.
“Growing up in Yazoo, you see a lot of players and athletes that could’ve taken the next step,” Cox said. “But the biggest thing you really wonder is why? Why didn’t they take the next step of playing at a Division I college? Why didn’t they take a path to becoming a better person? I think it comes down to being scared, falling into a pit, and not being able to separate yourself from trouble because trouble is easy to get into.”
Because of their disparity in age, Gainwell wasn’t close with Cox early on. They grew up in neighboring towns — Cox in Yazoo City and Gainwell in Yazoo County — so a majority of their interactions were limited to family gatherings around the holidays. Still, Gainwell always looked up to his older cousin, who many locals described as a rising star before Cox departed for college at Mississippi State.
“Fletcher and Kenny are giving us opportunities that we’ve never experienced before,” said 17-year-old Qwanzarius Ward, a senior slot receiver at West Marion High School in nearby Foxworth, Miss. “They fought through all the hardships. They built confidence in themselves to keep on going. They for sure inspire me.
“I look at Fletcher and Kenny and think, ‘If somebody like them made it, I can make it, too, if I keep grinding.’”
Ward was one of the 100-plus participants at Gainwell’s inaugural youth camp that he hosted in July at his alma mater, Yazoo County High School. Gainwell is following his older cousin’s lead. Upon Cox’s arrival into the NFL as a 2012 first-round pick, he incorporated his own offseason youth camp at Yazoo City High School.
“You get a lot of kids who say I want to be like Fletcher Cox or I want to be like Kenny Gainwell,” Cox said. “I try to tell those kids, ‘Don’t be like me. Be better than me!’ ”
Cox, one of the Eagles’ longest-tenured players and arguably one of the most impactful players in franchise history, has turned Philadelphia into his second home. Given the team’s investments at interior defensive line, though, Cox’s future with the Eagles beyond this season remains hazy. He is playing on a restructured one-year deal worth $14 million. Cox is taking a daily approach, but he acknowledged a lot will be up in the air over the next several months.
For now, he’s soaking in every moment with one of the NFL’s best teams. With two regular-season games remaining, the 13-2 Eagles are on the verge of clinching the NFC’s No. 1 seed and aspiring to make a Super Bowl run. Along the way, Cox is serving as a mentor to Gainwell and several other younger teammates.
“Wow, to have that ability to just be able to pick the brain of somebody that’s super talented and been super productive for a long time like Fletch, that’s huge,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “How great is it to have Fletch explain [defensive concepts] further because you’re the one who’s done it at a high level. It’s a huge, huge advantage to have the players like Fletch ... to be able to give the insight of what’s worked for them the past 10-plus years in the NFL.
“I always talk about these leaders on our football team. I can’t say enough good things about them because that’s how they go about leading. That’s why [Cox] has a “C” on his chest is because that’s what he does, day in and day out.”
‘Turn this into a gift’
The weights clattered to the floor. The ensuing sirens buzzed across town.
While lifting weights in preparation for his freshman year at the University of Southern Mississippi, Curtis Jr. felt a sudden pain jolt across his body during the summer of 2013. Before he could react, he dropped and lost control of all of his nerves. He laid motionless across the gym’s concrete floor. With what was later diagnosed as a ruptured blood vessel that caused bleeding inside the brain, Curtis Jr. had suffered a rare hemorrhagic stroke at age 18.
“It’s really hard to put into words how much that hurt,” Gainwell’s father said. “Because when it hurt us, it hurt the whole Yazoo community.”
Curtis Jr. was transported to a local hospital, where he underwent four separate lifesaving surgeries on his brain within 24 hours. At the time, Gainwell was about to enter the eighth grade. While he was still maturing into an adult, he realized immediately that his older brother was in serious trouble. While he waited outside the operating room with his parents and younger brother, Kory, Gainwell got down on his knees and prayed.
“Kenny is the type of guy who will never really show his frustration,” his father said. “You’re never going to know he’s upset or he’s sad about something. But that day Curtis had his stroke ... oh, man, it crushed Kenny.
“The bond that my three boys have, it’s just a special thing. With Curtis being the oldest, he was always a good mentor to them. They were really close, really tight. They stuck together.
“But Kenny and Kory are looking at their brother and seeing he can’t do the things he used to with them. To be able to run outside, run through the woods, jump through ditches, climb trees. They look at their brother and they’re like, ‘We don’t have that anymore.’ ”
Miraculously, Curtis Jr. survived his stroke. Doctors informed the Gainwells that it would be a long road to recovery. Nine years later, Curtis Jr. is still partially paralyzed. He moves around at an extremely slow pace and can lift his arm only a couple of inches.
Despite dealing with physical aftereffects, Curtis Jr. is now in a much better place mentally.
“I went through a lot of pain, a lot of sorrow, a lot of depression,” Gainwell’s older brother said. “I was crying every single day for about three years. I asked, ‘Why me?’ I see my brothers being athletes on the field, and I kept wondering, ‘Why can’t I play anymore?’
“Then, one day, I told myself, ‘You know what, I’ve got to turn this into a gift that I have so I can motivate others.’ I was tired of being heartbroken for myself. I have to think about the next person: ‘How can I help them?’ ”
When Kenny Gainwell left home for his freshman season at the University of Memphis in 2019, Curtis Jr. simultaneously returned to school. He attended nearby Hinds Community College, where he completed journalism courses and received a certification in television and radio production. He also worked at the school’s TV station, WHUC News 7.
Meanwhile, Kenny Gainwell quickly developed into a star under then-coach Mike Norvell. As a redshirt freshman at Memphis, Gainwell rushed for 1,459 yards and 13 touchdowns and caught 51 passes for 610 yards and three touchdowns. His 2,069 all-purpose yards were the most by a freshman across the FBS.
Heading into the 2020 season, Gainwell was a preseason Heisman Trophy candidate, an award eventually claimed by former Alabama and current Eagles receiver DeVonta Smith.
Gainwell opted out of his sophomore season, citing COVID-19 concerns with a handful of family members dying from the disease, and focused on training for the NFL draft. The Eagles selected him in the fifth round with pick No. 150 in 2021.
Whenever Gainwell steps onto the football field, he represents his older brother, whom he counts as his biggest inspiration.
“He motivates me every day,” Gainwell said. “He motivated me so much, seeing him go back to school and get back on his grind. That meant so much to me. He’s trying to do everything he can, so I try to pay that back and put on for the both of us and our family. There’s always that little feeling of missing them and missing home. But they know the objective, they know what I’m here to do.
“They’re proud of me, but I have to keep giving them a reason to be proud.”
‘A very unique role’
Gainwell finished his rookie season with the third-most touchdowns on the team (six) behind Jalen Hurts and Boston Scott.
In Year 2, Gainwell’s role has been limited by multiple factors, including Miles Sanders’ Pro Bowl-level performance, the addition of star wide receiver A.J. Brown, and the continued emergence of DeVonta Smith and tight end Dallas Goedert.
Like any player, Gainwell would love more touches, but he’s cherishing his role. While Sanders is the clear starter, Gainwell is the team’s featured tailback in its two-minute and goal-line packages. Sirianni counts Gainwell’s shiftiness and pass-catching ability as plus attributes during those crucial scenarios. Assistant head coach and running backs coach Jemal Singleton also noted Gainwell has improved in pass protection, another key responsibility in the two-minute offense.
“Kenny has been tremendous,” Hurts said. “He has a very unique role on this football team. He’s thrusted into different situations. Obviously, Miles is starting, but with Kenny coming in and having different responsibilities, he does a good job preparing for it. He’s always putting in extra work when everybody else is off of the field.”
Added Scott: “Kenny is always willing to learn. He’s always willing to hear what people have to say, and not everybody is like that. Not everybody is willing to listen.
“Being able to see him grow over time, he can do it all. He’s a complete back. He’s hella talented. Continuing to see him mature in the aspect of pass protecting, run game, catching the ball — it’s been really amazing to watch. What’s really special about him is he’s a great teammate, him as a person. He never has a frown on his face — ever. He’s always smiling.”
Said Cox: “If I see him doing something in practice, I’ll give him a couple of words of encouragement to help him take the next step and be a better player. You try to make that message strong because that’s blood.”
Fueled by his family and Southern roots, Gainwell remains eager. On game days, he has made it a point to be one of the first players to run out of the tunnel. Coincidentally, Cox, a five-time team captain, also is typically one of the first Eagles to take the field. Together, they always have Yazoo on their minds.
“It’s a great moment to be next to somebody I always looked up to when I was a kid,” Gainwell said. “To be running out of the tunnel with him, it’s special. It feels good to run out first, you’re the first that everybody sees. Coming from the small city of Yazoo, that’s a big moment for us Yazoo boys.
“I think the biggest thing is that you have to believe that you can come out of a small town.”
