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Justin Renfrow is an offensive tackle for the Edmonton Eskimos of the CFL who was born and raised in Philadelphia. He played on the D-line for the University of Virginia through his junior year before transferring to the University of Miami as a senior, where he had 36 total tackles and one forced fumble in 13 games (and achieved status as an All-Academic athlete). After college, Renfrow had stints on five NFL teams: the Arizona Cardinals, Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers and Buffalo Bills. He has been in the CFL since 2017.
Renfrow has been quarantining back home in Philly as the CFL season remains postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The league is currently considering a shortened 2020 season in a bubble environment in Winnipeg, some 200 miles north of the North Dakota border. In his spare time, Renfrow has been working on his clothing brand, JR Football, and building on his partnerships and advocacy through Athletes for Care, an organization of former pro athletes that advocates for healthy lifestyles and alternative medicines, such as using cannabis and CBD for pain relief.
On the protests for social justice . . .
Being in Canada for the last three years, I was surprised to realize how bad the racial problem had been here in the U.S. My mom and I went to the grocery store and I’m noticing how rude people are; and it’s simple things, like someone pushing my mother. Seeing that after being gone so long and my mom telling me that things have gotten worse since I left. I thought she was making more out of the situation than it was, but when I came back I saw what she was saying—it was true.
For me, it has been an eye-opening situation. I’m glad protesting led to the arrest of George Floyd’s killer. I know people need to be out there for George. But I’m also very worried about the protesting and the fact that COVID was so bad here in the U.S. I’m scared to see what’s going to happen and worry there might be a big wave of sickness.
On why it’s so different in the U.S. . . .
I saw someone say recently that it’s a learned behavior, that it’s passed down. That’s definitely true—it is a learned behavior. You’ve got this handful of cops that keep doing this, but there’s a whole bunch of cops that are good and are doing good. I have close friends that are cops. My mentor in Calgary when I played for Stampeders was a retired New Jersey cop. There are good cops out there. But those handful [of bad cops], they got taught somewhere along the way to act like that. And we talk about it in football how when your peers are the ones that talk to you or discipline you, it means more than anybody else. And then I think about how the other cops, the ones that are supposed to be good, have just sat back and not said anything. I think if the other cops start talking, it’ll change things a great deal.
On the Athletes for Care initiatives . . .
After playing through the season with some significant injuries and only using CBD creams, instead of painkillers, it was life-changing for me. It helped my body, and it opened me up to a whole other world of medicine and ways to heal my body. I got back into yoga.
That also led to me becoming a spokesperson and using my platform to talk about many different things. I was already a spokesperson for the Boys & Girls Club, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and I feed the homeless once a week. In Calgary, I was also coaching two youth football teams. So I was already used to doing this kind of thing, but this is extending the realm and use of my platform. And I feel it’s important to use this platform for CBD because of the reason I switched over to it from painkillers: on the way to a football game one day, my body had a full rejection because I’d been pumped with too many pills. From then on I started using alternatives and it’s been going well.
Everyone is going to be done with football someday, and we want to have a body to be able to live forward, and to play with our kids. I was playing on injuries for four months and that really can put you in a great deal of pain. I only just finished recovering. Now I’m back running fully and I haven’t used painkillers.
On working with kids . . .
I try to do it in places where there’s not the best area for a kid to grow up. Being able to motivate kids to keep going and to excel and to also tell them to chase their dreams. That’s a big thing that I tell every kid: they can do things. I think that’s important to hear.
My parents told me and still encourage me to do all my passions, including volunteering. I’ve been able to donate to different organizations during COVID; have been feeding a family for a month. And I’m doing that through my clothing line that my parents said, ‘Go ahead and start and do the mission you choose.’ I’m also showing kids by example, which helps them receive the message. A lot of kids reach out to me after the fact and I try to answer as many messages as I can. I think it makes a big difference. I try to impact every community I play in.
On his clothing line . . .
It’s inspired by the things I like to wear when I’m training and working out, and there’s also some loungewear stuff. Every month we have special programs. This month we’re doing a mask—a Justin Renfrow mask—where a dollar from every sale is donated to one of the major Black Lives Matter organizations to try and help protestors. It’s always been a dream of mine but it really started because I wanted a way to raise money to be able to help these kids I was working with. This is the third year I’ve been doing it but I kind of wish I had started it earlier.
On daily routines during the pandemic . . .
I have the iPad, iPhone and computer pretty much going all day everyday—especially with the company stuff. I’m accessing Shopify on one phone, email on another, working on the computer at the same time. I hopped on a Zoom career day in the middle of the day, I’m doing FaceTime live interviews, Zoom calls for potential new business, or businesses I want to work with. Everything all the time is technology.
And I still find time to play Xbox with my son.
On his favorite games . . .
I used to be a huge PUBG guy; was playing so many hours and became friends with some of the guys. We still to this day talk on Instagram once in a while and check in with each other. I’ll go on and just broadcast and see them play while I play or while I’m typing an invoice. I definitely miss the hours to be able to give as much as I used to. COVID brought some time, so I got into Call of Duty: Warzone. But my son and I really bonded over NBA 2K because he’s loving basketball and I really am glad he’s getting into basketball because I don’t want him to play football. Well, I’m wishing that secretly.
Seeing him get better at 2K has been really good. It has given us so much time to just bond and has given him a break between doing his school work. Once he goes to bed, I get a little bit of Warzone in. I might have to get into Twitch soon.
On athletes using their platforms . . .
I’m seeing a lot of people out protesting. The big thing is: I want to see the people still be there in a couple weeks, or even a month or two from now. I want all this energy to stay there.
Remember when Colin Kaepernick was kneeling and people said, ‘Oh, you monkeys just like to play football?’ They were saying all that stuff and booing and telling us to stop kneeling. But this is what he was kneeling for! And it’s what, three or four years later? That’s what I think people need to think of and what athletes need to start conveying. Athletes have these big platforms. I’ve been trying to help people understand: When I [was a kid, I would] go to the field to play and it starts being 8 p.m., my mom would call or text me that I need to bring my butt home so the cops don’t bother me after dark. She texted me that!
That’s how athletes can use their platform: tell how it really is.
I got pulled over while being black three years ago 10 minutes from my house in Philly. They said I didn’t have insurance, but I did have insurance. And while I’m calling Geico, they’re standing there with their gunstraps unlooped. You’ve got to be careful.
That was something my dad educated me on: how to be with a police officer, saying ’yes sir,’ ’no sir’. As a black person, your parents have to educate you. In the fourth grade when kids call you the N-word, you have to get educated. I was getting punched in the genitals and called the N-word as a sixth-grade running back. But that just motivated me; I still ran for three touchdowns that game. You learn from that stuff.
When I was growing up, we moved out of the city to the suburbs and my friends from the city would be like, ‘Oh, you live in the nice houses’ or ’Oh, you live in the suburbs.’ And I’d be like, ‘I wish I lived where you guys do! I wouldn’t have people calling me the N-word and teachers telling me I wouldn’t amount to anything.’ A lot of times it sucked being the only black kid in the school and a lot of people didn’t understand that growing up. But it makes you better for the long run and prepares you for real life.
On his hopes for sports leadership going forward . . .
This isn’t a united nation, this is far from it. Everybody isn’t treated equally here. When you look at the national anthem, or what it says, it’s a lie. America is still the same place that the original Declaration of Independence was written for: the white male that owned land. And now it’s for the white male that has a lot of money—it’s still the same damn place. We haven’t really improved anything from our ancestors in terms of equality; all we’ve done is advance technology.
Now, you’ll go introduce the first-round draft pick but you won’t go make a live Instagram video denouncing social injustice against black people? You can go on Instagram and in a minute say that same one paragraph you had typed up and posted on IG. You can say that yourself and record it with your camera—that’s what we need from our sports leaders. It has to actually matter to you; and if it does, you want to express it to people. It mattered during the NFL draft for them to get on TV during COVID. So I ask again: When is the life of an African-American person going to matter enough?
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