There was a time in Adam Hayward’s life when football no longer seemed important.
He had played the game since he was 6 years old, became a star at Marina High School in Huntington Beach, Calif., and was entering his third season at Colorado State University.
That’s when his life took a dramatic turn.
“I lost my mom to breast cancer,” says Hayward, a new Walden Lake resident and linebacker for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “I just kind of lost it and walked away from everything.”
Hayward quit football, his life consumed with anger and destructive behaviors.
“My mom was my best friend and losing her left a hole in my heart,” he says. “I was angry and disappointed and blamed God for it all.”
Instead of football practices and late-night gym sessions, Hayward filled his nights with alcohol, drugs — all to forget the pain.
“I was doing that every night,” he says. “I didn’t care for life very much at that point.”
After a yearlong downward spiral, Hayward reclaimed his life.
“This wasn’t how my mom raised me,” he says. “She wouldn’t like the example I was setting.”
When it came to his football, there was no bigger fan than his mother. With his dad working nights and not around as much as he’d like, football was the passion that brought Hayward’s family together.
“I figured out that football is what I loved and that I wanted to keep playing,” he says. “My mom would come to all my games and yell and cheer. She was my biggest fan. I decided to keep playing in her honor.”
DREAM COME TRUE
After taking a year off, Hayward needed a fresh start. He would have had to start over at Colorado State, and coaches there wanted him to play safety, which didn’t suit the linebacker’s big frame.
Eventually, he found a home at FCS member (formerly I-AA) Portland State, where he played linebacker. He became Defensive Player of the Year in the Big Sky Conference and was one of the top linebackers in FCS. Leading up to the 2007 NFL draft, teams began looking at him, but the reality of playing professionally still was unknown.
“Taking a year off, I knew I had to work that much harder than everyone else,” he says. “At 10 o’clock at night, I was doing sprints and drills, while everyone else was sleeping. I just felt like I had to keep working and make up for everything I lost.”
Hayward was drafted in the sixth round of the 2007 draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
This fall, the Plant City resident will enter his seventh NFL season with the Bucs. Hayward credits his newfound faith after turning his life around as a reason for his success.
“How do you explain someone that should have died or went to jail being in the NFL for seven years now?” he says. “That’s not a coincidence.”
COUNTRY BOY
Hayward may have grown up in California, but he is a country boy at heart.
After moving to Florida, he developed a love for hunting and fishing. He drives a pickup and often sports a camouflage hat and a deer- or duck-hunting T-shirt.
Unlike many of his teammates, Hayward isn’t a fan of football or other team sports. On days off, if he isn’t enjoying the outdoors, he’d rather be watching outdoor sporting shows than football, basketball or baseball games.
“If it’s not a duck-hunting show or some type of hunting or fishing show, then I’m not watching it,” he says.
Hayward had lived in the Tampa area since being drafted by the Bucs, but the country lifestyle became a reality after meeting his wife, Angela Rumore Hayward, of Antioch.
The couple met through a mutual friend three years ago and attended church together.
“Right there, we thought, ‘This is it,’” Hayward says. “We hit it off and have been best friends ever since.”
The couple married June 8, 2012. When Angela got pregnant with their daughter, 4-month-old Jaslyn Faye, the Haywards decided to move to Plant City, from the Westchase area of Tampa. The Haywards now live in Walden Lake.
“That just solidified moving back here,” Hayward says. “She’s not about city life. She moved to the city for me, so it was only fair that I move out here with her to raise our family, and I’m loving it.”
Hayward also says he and Angela wanted to be close to his in-laws, who still live in Antioch.
“I knew (Plant City) was a little country town and was quiet, and that’s what she was used to,” he says. “Just the fact that her family was here was big, and I really love her family. Her mom is the biggest blessing we have, with helping out, and her dad is awesome. He and I hit it off immediately.”
It was through his father-in-law that he grew an interest in beef cattle ranching, an industry Hayward hopes to tackle on full-time after his football career is over.
“You always have to think about life after football,” he says.
Living outside of Tampa is also an escape for Hayward. When his responsibilities with the Buccaneers are done, Plant City has become his refuge to get away from the sometimes stressful and demanding lifestyle of being a professional football player.
“In Tampa, it’s all about football, where out here, it’s all about hunting and fishing,” he says. “Out here, I get an off day, and I can go hunt, where in Tampa, you couldn’t do that. To have that escape is nice, so I don’t burn myself out.”
GIVING BACK
Hayward does a lot of work with local charities, including working with ministries for inner-city kids who are fatherless.
“I just try to work with young men and try to teach them about life and Jesus Christ and the outdoors,” he says.
Some of the non-profits Hayward has worked with include Idols Aside, Respire Haiti, 4KIDS of Tampa and Score International, which has taken him on mission trips to Costa Rica and Haiti.
Through everything, Hayward’s faith powers him.
“I was in a bad, bad spot and finally made that step of going to church and over time giving my life to God and Jesus Christ,” he says. “It’s helped me out so much because it takes that stress off me. Things that I can’t do, or can’t fix or can’t change, you can just leave it up to God.”
This fall will be Hayward’s seventh season in the NFL and his second as Tampa Bay’s captain on special teams. He was also named the Buccaneers’ Man of the Year in 2010, along with being named the Ambassador for the Florida Suncoast Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
“I’ve been able to minister to so many people and do so many things with cancer, after losing my mom to it,” he says. “It’s awesome to see the power and the things that God can do.”
Contact Matt Mauney at mmauney@plantcityobserver.com.