Kam Curl, the former seventh-round pick out of Arkansas, is living a dream without ever straying far from his roots.
MUSKOGEE, Okla. — Two hours east of Oklahoma City, down a green strip of I-40, past hay bales and fields of cattle, oil-rig outlets and Braum’s ice cream parlors, past billboard after billboard after billboard evangelizing God or a casino or the dangers of fentanyl, just north on U.S. Highway 69, sits a small, blue-collar city.
The banquet hall thundered for Curl, a safety for the Washington Commanders, whose trip home for this ceremony and to host a youth football camp For most of the offseason, Curl had been in Dallas, working out at a state-of-the-art facility with skills coach Christian White, better known on Instagram as “Flight.” But in this gym, which Venters called “the Lion’s Den,” there are only a couple pieces of equipment, the paint everywhere is faded or chipped, and the seat coverings on the stationary bikes is fraying, exposing yellow foam. It was 91 degrees outside, and cooling fans sat idle — though that was on purpose.
As they walked toward the stadium, they could see a sign listing Muskogee’s football state titles. The most recent was 1986. Curl shook his head. The pain from 2016, when he dreamed of a storybook senior year, when the Roughers blew a commanding lead in the state semifinals, still felt fresh. Washington’s staff has extreme trust in Curl — “If Kam flew the plane to the away game, I’d feel good about it,” defensive backs coach Brent Vieselmeyer said — but that has sometimes been a double-edged sword. Coaches have used him to plug holes all over, occasionally even as a 6-foot-2, 198-pound middle linebacker.
“[My contract’s] somewhat personal,” Curl explained later in an interview. “That’s my money, so I'll keep that to myself.” Then De’Jon “Scoota” Harris, a close friend and a reserve linebacker for the Commanders, came out of nowhere with a basketball.
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