WASHINGTON — Vincent Fuller has something new to celebrate this Father’s Day: he has raised four healthy sons – and each of them made it to the NFL.
From their home in Baltimore, the four Fuller brothers went to Virginia Tech to play football for Frank Beamer. Vincent II, 33, is a retired safety who was drafted by the Tennessee Titans In 2005 and also played for the Detroit Lions. Wide receiver Corey, 25, was drafted by the Lions in 2013; Kyle, 24, is a cornerback who was selected by the Chicago Bears in 2014. In April, Fuller’s youngest, 21-year-old Kendall, was drafted by the Washington Redskins in the second round of the NFL draft. Like Kyle, he is a cornerback
The Fullers are the second instance of four brothers to all make the NFL, after the Browners in the 1980s, though the Gronkowskis joined them about a day later when youngest brother Glenn was signed by the Buffalo Bills as an undrafted free agent.
Fuller says neither the NFL nor a Virginia Tech legacy was ever in the plan for his sons; he just wanted to make sure they stayed on track to a good education somewhere. Once things worked out so well for Vincent, Fuller says, he and his wife Nina Dorsey-Fuller decided to “follow the same philosophy” with the other three boys eight years later.
A teacher for 15 years and a kids’ coach for 20 more, he switched to a new career in 2015, when he took over the Woodlawn Villager, their community newspaper that was in danger of going out of business after 30 years of publication.
Fuller spoke about what it took to raise four sons who would play in the NFL, how things have changed for him and his wife in Woodlawn since they moved there in 1992, and what Father’s Day is like in the Fuller household. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity).
Describe what makes each of your sons unique in a few words.
Vincent is very focused, driven, not distracted by things around him.
Corey… a lot of perseverance. Things don’t always come easy for him, but he perseveres.
Kyle… Wow. He might be the toughest one. He’s the toughest one because he’s focused, he’s a student of the game. He won’t accept losing. He’s going to do whatever he’s got to do to win.
Kendall is a combination of all of them. He watched them all. He is really a student of the game too, he’s a smart kid, very focused, and I think him and Vincent are so closely related because he doesn’t let anything distract him either. But being the youngest and just watching all of them and everything they’ve been through… he’s just extremely focused. Always been a winner. He came out the gate as a National Champion at 8 [years old]. And that was from watching all of them.
When did you realize the NFL was a realistic goal for Vincent?
After his junior year in college, I had people coming to me saying that there’s a chance that he might make it and play in the NFL. When I first started hearing it, it was farfetched to me. That was never our plan, we never talked about playing in the NFL or the NBA. My goal was for them to get a good college education so when people started telling me that I would say, ‘Yeah, OK ,’and just keep moving on. But it became reality to me when I started getting phone calls from agents who wanted to represent him. Then I said ‘OK, now I’ve got to pay attention to this,’ because it was something new that I had never been through before. I wanted to make sure I handled it as best as I possibly could. We sat down with agents, wrote up questions and made up a grading sheet for them.
How involved would you say you are in giving your sons career advice?
I try to let them make [those] decisions. Even when it came to what college they wanted to go to. I would give them my opinion, but ultimately I felt it was their decision. I never wanted them to come back to me and say “Dad, why did you make me go to this school?” Also, I felt that from the colleges that were recruiting them, all of them were good, and they had to make the best of it.
How were things different for you between your oldest, Vincent, and your youngest, Kendall? There are 13 years separating them, and Vincent didn’t come with the same expectations as Kendall, who was following three successful brothers.
My vision of my kids was for them to have better guidance than what I had and not make the same mistakes that I had because I grew up without my father so the guidance that I really needed wasn’t there for me. What was going on in the community didn’t really bother or affect me because the ultimate goal was for me to do the best thing for my sons. I didn’t really pay attention to a lot of things that was going on in the community.
Social media came into play; that was the major difference. When Vincent was coming out—he graduated from high school in 2000—social media really wasn’t that big. Five-star camps, Nike camps wasn’t that big. They had a couple of all-star games that I sent him to. When Kendall [who graduated high school in 2013] was coming out, they had all these five-star camps, the Nike camps. If you wanted to get recognized you had to be there, so I had to make sure that Kendall was there. Thank god I sent him to [Our Lady of] Good Counsel [high school] because one of the coaches they had made sure his best player was at these top camps.
When Kendall was coming out, there wasn’t a top camp in Baltimore, D.C. or Virginia that he wasn’t at. He was always competing at these camps. Whereas with Vincent, there wasn’t that many.
You say you didn’t let outside perceptions or anything like that affect you; what about the boys? Was it difficult to keep that outside noise from having an effect on them as they were growing up?
Not really. Our year would have three seasons: the basketball season mid-December to March 31, April to July 31 was track and field and then August to mid-December was football. So they would wake up and go to school, come home do their homework, go to practice, go to sleep, then do the whole cycle over again. Practice Monday through Friday, then games on Saturday – maybe on Sunday a little time to play the video games – then on Monday start it over again. Do that year in and year out, there’s no time for other things.
I talk to kids now and tell them we didn’t go on vacations. The only vacation we went on was the last week of July or first week in August, track Nationals. That was our vacation. If it was football National Championships, we had a weekend in Disney World. That was our vacation.
Vincent made it to the NFL and came back and said ‘Dad, we’re going to go to Miami,’ and we took four or five days in Miami. One of the kids came to me and said, ‘Dad, you mean we don’t have to play a sport?’ because that’s what we did. That was our life. It’s no mystery where they are today because the work was definitely put in. They put the work in. You got to work at your craft if you want to be successful. A professional whatever it is. You have to work at your craft and they definitely did it.
You’ve talked a lot about the importance of education. Vincent, Corey and Kyle all graduated from Virginia Tech before entering the NFL, but Kendall declared for the draft a year early. Do you think he will return to school to get his degree at some point?
I know he’s going to go back and get his degree. We haven’t talked about when it’s going to happen yet, but I know it’s going to happen. Vincent got two degrees, he’s in law school now. Corey and Kyle got their degrees and Kendall doesn’t have his yet because he had the opportunity to [enter the NFL] before he graduated, but there is no way he won’t go back. [His brothers] won’t let him do that. At this point, I don’t even have to say anything because they won’t let him do that.
How much football do you watch?
Hah! I watch a lot of football. I mean, I watch a lot of football. A lot of college, and NFL games since 2005. When Vincent left college, I had to start watching the NFL, then the other boys entered and it would be more and more games on Sunday as well as Virginia Tech on Saturday. God willing, it will be three games this year. So I watch a lot of football.
What is Father’s Day like in the Fuller household?
From year to year, it has been different because of the profession they are in. It’s not like every Father’s Day, we can all get together and be together. Sometimes I might have one, sometimes I might have two. There have been times when there wasn’t any. But the love was still there. If it’s just me and my wife, my wife and I will celebrate it together; same way on Mother’s Day. I can look at this past Mother’s Day, she had Kyle and Kendall. Each year’s different.
What was Father’s Day like 15 years ago, before any of your sons were in the NFL?
We were probably at a track meet. In fact, I know we were at a track meet. I know because I can recall: one of the assistant coaches would make all the little kids make up happy Father’s Day cards.
Home page feature photo by Nathan Rupert, edited and used under Creative Commons.