Bengals' Dre Kirkpatrick: The hard way every time

GADSDEN, Ala. – Dre Kirkpatrick sits comfortably behind the wheel of a luxurious black Dodge Ram underneath a Bengals bucket hat with hair escaping down to his shoulders. He slithers across his hometown on a humid, summer afternoon only those who live in Alabama truly understand.

Life looks different here than the 25-year-old remembers. He can't help but acknowledge the changes. The roads reconstructed. Stores torn down. Schools consolidated or abandoned.

Yet, as Dre turns off Ewing Road into Oakleigh Estates, the rough streets that molded him, a sense of comfort, understanding and nostalgia emerge.

"This is The Oak. Best neighborhood in America," he said with a smile and a laugh.

No appraisers would agree with his assessment, but Dre's sentiment expands beyond home value. This neighborhood serves as motivation.

The Oak symbolizes the outgoing personality he's become, tragedies weathered and a place he never wants to be forced to return.

"That was a drug house, that was a drug house, that was a drug house," Dre said, rapidly pointing at residences surrounding him while standing on the front lawn of the light blue ranch home where he was raised. "Just had to deal with a lot of adversity growing up in this – adversity you had to overcome."

In many respects, life hasn't changed any since. Adversity followed his path north from the University of Alabama. After he arrived in Cincinnati as a first-round pick in 2012, he touted his nickname "Swag" and boasted plans to start at cornerback as a rookie. The next two years he fell to the back of the depth chart, derailed by injuries, veteran competition and inexperience.

Prior to last season, whispers surfaced using the dreaded phrase "first-round bust." Returning to Gadsden and The Oak brought rounds of questions about why he wasn't playing for the Bengals.

Questions about his snap count drained him to the point he issued a directive to friends and family.

"Don't call me or ask me no more about why I'm not playing because if y'all keep doing this, how am I supposed to be ready?" Dre said.

Then Monday Night Football happened.

Riding a streak where his play in practice and small portions of games allowed him to supplant veteran Terence Newman as a starter down the stretch last year, Dre picked off future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning twice. This included a pick-6 to put away a playoff-clinching victory against Denver and one of the Bengals' greatest wins at Paul Brown Stadium.

The world watched. Gadsden watched. The Oak watched.

"It felt like I was drafted all over again," Dre said.

With that, for him, the switch flipped. The same switch that allowed him to overcome being arrested and expelled from junior high. The switch for him to block out sleeping one house away from where three kids were shot in a drive-by. The switch that accepted one of his best friends being killed by a car when he was 10. The switch that helped him embrace having a son as a freshman in high school. The switch that confidently illuminates the city of Gadsden and beyond with a contagious, caring personality that is bringing the community together.

That light comes powered by his pastor father, relentless working mother and a neighborhood where many talented kids didn't make it out. Dre did. But his mark on the league has been minor flashes.

Until now, he says. He's well known around these neighborhoods, but if this season goes as he plans, D'Andre Lawan Kirkpatrick will become a household name across the country.

"Explode," he says from underneath the bucket hat, interjecting himself into the conversation. He accentuates each syllable. "You can say it: Ex … plode. That's what's going to happen."

'The prodigal son of Gadsden'

When Dre returns to Gadsden, he often likes to roll in what he calls "undercover" to avoid a mass of friends and others blowing up his phone. That's why he drives the rental truck this day, one night before the third edition of his football camp for young kids takes place at his old high school.

Riding around in his new Audi R8 or any other of his noticeable cars, he is easy to spot. Cars and shoes are admittedly expensive hobbies that accentuate his flash. Even as a teenager Dre owned about a dozen pairs of quality kicks.

"Rotation shoes," he calls them. Today the rotation blows past triple digits.

Cars fill a portion of the driveway at his parent's house in Gadsden. Despite the flash, his attitude toward his rides offers unique insight to his small-town pace.

"I like to drive fast cars, but I won't drive fast," he said. "I've always been a slow-lane guy. I just cruise."

On Sundays in Gadsden, that means cruising to the United Christian New Beginning Ministry to listen to his father preach.

"Every Sunday. Front row," he said. "When I go, I still sit in the front row. He don't like for me to come into town and do something, then have to leave right back out. He want me to make sure at least you come to church then go about your business. He wants me to come support him like he supports me."

The story of Dre and his motivation can't be told without understanding his relationship with his parents, Charles and Kimberley. His mother's work ethic helped drive his spirit and fueled his decision to make the first item of business after being drafted to buy his parents a house and yank them out of The Oak to the upscale side of town by Gadsden Country Club.

"I said it's the only time you can pick something and I don't even care how much it cost," Dre said. "I won't be mad about how much it costs. One time. This is your only chance so make it count. She did a good job, though. She didn't go overboard. It felt like home the moment we walked through the door."

Dre, in his mind, always owed it to them.

"I cry," Kimberley said. "It's just amazing. I just cry when I think about it."

Growing up with three sisters and the son of a pastor meant more than just singing and playing drums in the church choir. It meant a father always serving as what Dre dubbed "the police patrol." When any trouble stirred up, whether at school or elsewhere, they found Charles.

"Any problem, call 'Rev', he'll take care of it," said Courtney Walker, parks and recreation director in Gadsden, and someone who oversaw a young Dre at Thompson Rec Center.

The most serious call came when police pulled up to General Forest Elementary School and Dre sat in his eighth-grade classroom in possession of marijuana.

He'd be taken out in handcuffs and expelled. Little did he know it would lead to the moment that changed his life.

Charles, heartbroken but searching for an answer, told Dre to pack clothes in a bag.

"It kind of scared him at first," Charles said. "He thought I was going to take him off and put him in a camp somewhere and he would never come back."

Instead, Charles thought Dre needed to get away and said he'd drive him anywhere he wanted. Dre chose New Orleans. Upon arriving, Dre begged his dad to buy him a scalped ticket to the Saints game, but Charles wasn't interested in forking over the full amount for both. He bought one and trusted Dre to go by himself as Charles settled into the hotel room.

"He just busts through the room and says, 'Daddy, I know what I want to do,' he said, 'I am going to play pro football.' I said, 'For real?' He said, 'Dad, I had an out-of-body experience. I could just see myself out there on that field playing pro football. I was out of my body.' He's been headed that way ever since."

Football became his out. He played for the first time midway through a game for Gadsden City High School as a freshman, picked off a pass on each of his first two plays and never looked back. He'd return to the Superdome in New Orleans to win a national championship in 2012. That same year, the Saints won the Super Bowl.

Dre returns to Gadsden now as royalty, where hundreds of kids flock to his camp each summer hoping to replicate his rise. Billboards promoting the event are splattered across the town, his shining moment against Denver serving as a backdrop.

Driving by one of the billboards, Dre can't help himself. He parks the truck off to the side of the road, steps out and pulls out his phone for a photo. He can't help but cherish the moment.

"That's the coolest thing right there, man," he said.

Pride blossoms out of not only where he's from, but also into a desire to leave a lasting impact. He soon wants to buy the local Boys & Girls Club and refurbish it. A team works with his 21 Kids Foundation finding causes around Gadsden where he can make an impact. He beams talking about how kids love his camp.

Dre's former peewee football coach, Lamar Ragan, and his wife Kelly enrolled their son at the camp. They've seen Dre evolve from a kid who was "ejected from more games than probably any player I ever coached," to someone he says is "like a son to me" for the loyalty he shows in caring about his hometown.

Dre sits on a chair in their living room, laughs, tells stories about the old days and gives high-fives to their baby, Sophia. For them, the NFL cornerback gracing their living room still acts like the kid they met 15 years ago, the one who never met a stranger.

"You are like the prodigal son of Gadsden," Kelly said.

'He hit it on the head'

Three years into his career in Cincinnati, Dre has yet to reap the rewards of other first-round picks. Carolina linebacker Luke Kuechly has won Defensive Player of the Year and New England defensive end Chandler Jones racked up 11.5 sacks in 2013 before Dre even moved off special teams.

"It was really hard to watch him come in and be disappointed because he thought he was going to play, he didn't play. He thought he was going to start, he didn't start," Charles said. "He would come in and be so down we would have to try to lift his spirits up and encourage him."

Dre logged only 43 defensive snaps his rookie season and increased that number to 363 in 2013, most of those due to late-season injuries for corners Leon Hall and Terence Newman.

Looking back on his frustrating path now, he sees why this actually was laid out perfectly. And it was shown to him, of all places, at the Gadsden Applebee's. A stranger walked up to deliver the message.

"He said, 'My girl told me who you was and I've been a big fan of yours all your career,' " Dre said, recounting the story. "The best thing ever happened to you was when you got drafted to the Bengals because you were set up to fail but you overcame. Cincinnati made you who you was today. You had to sit and you had to watch and you were either going to fold under pressure or bounce back out of it.'"

Dre knowingly nodded as he paused in telling the story.

"He hit it on the head."

Dre praised the mentoring he received from Newman, Hall and Adam Jones along the way and admits now they deserved those snaps.

"I can be honest to you and to myself, I wasn't ready," Dre said. "I wasn't ready. The game was different, that game was a lot faster. The maturity level, I needed to sit down and I needed to really learn football. I really needed to learn how to study, really needed to learn how to break film down. If they would have gave that to me, I feel like I probably would have gone out there and embarrassed myself."

'He is so focused now'

During the first Organized Team Activity this offseason at the practice field adjacent Paul Brown Stadium, one-on-one drills took place between cornerbacks and receivers.

A.J. Green would step up first. Dre pushed to the line in front of him. Whenever Green rolled through the rotation again, Dre made sure to hold back or skip forward to assure he went against the Bengals' Pro Bowl receiver.

This was a bold act for a player who has taken more than 50 percent of his team's snaps in a game only seven times in three years.

"I want what A.J. got. A.J. got the city, A.J. got the fans, A.J. got the Pro Bowls," Dre said. "I want what A.J. got. What is this guy doing to be where he is at in his career? And what can I do to get where he needs to be? I just feel like I have to attack the best. I want what he's got. Point-blank period."

More than ever in his career, the opportunity is there for him to take and he's betting on himself.

His new marketing team has him making appearances on ESPN with Dan Le Batard, Sirius NFL Radio and live in a New York studio on The Rich Eisen Show. His personality shines on each as he tells stories. He hopes to be the total package, but his story as a player with everything to lose and everything to gain sells.

The starting job is open. The Bengals exercised his $7.5 million fifth-year option in April for the 2016 season.

The front office approached Dre about a long-term extension, but his camp wasn't interested. They have full belief his value will skyrocket after 2015.

Dre picked off six passes in limited action the last two seasons. He's proven opportunistic. He leads the NFL in that time frame for most interceptions per snap. He's yet to prove he can show the same effectiveness over a full year.

The difference between top 10 and middle of the pack cornerback money could amount to around $5 million per year. Dozens of millions are at stake for Dre to back up his talk immediately.

Though, according to him, chasing cash doesn't fuel the fire as much anymore.

"When I first got to the league it was all about money. Money, money, money, money," Dre said. "I could care less about money. I want to win."

Such comments would be hard to imagine from the player who entered Paul Brown Stadium a brash rookie in 2012.

"He's really grown a lot as a person, aside from football," said Bengals defensive coordinator Paul Guenther. "What it takes to be a good pro and the consistency you need to be a good pro. I think he has figured that out."

Dre would sneak in workouts at the University of Alabama after midnight this summer. He spent days watching cutups of the best in the game such as Arizona's Patrick Peterson, Seattle's Richard Sherman, New York's Darrelle Revis. He studied every aspect.

Those around him can't help but notice the obvious.

"He is so focused now," Kimberley said.

The next step of Dre's quest starts with the open of training camp Friday. He's not just thinking about earning the top corner spot on the Bengals. Ever bold and ambitious, he thinks about leading the next generation of the organization.

"When you think of the Patriots, what's the first thing come to your head? Tom Brady. You think of the Ravens? Ray Lewis. Think of the Bengals who do you think of? A.J. Green. If he's in my era, why can't you think of Dre Kirkpatrick? That's what I want. … This is how I wanted it set up. I didn't want to be you automatically get the glory because you went to this school, you were drafted in this spot."

Dre desired adversity, even if he didn't know it. Makes sense, it's all he knew roaming the streets of The Oak. There were moments the last few years when he didn't know if this adversity would be too much for him. That still might be the case. Or he might "explode."

From bust to boom, he hopes. He's betting on himself.

The truth begins unveiling itself over the next six months.

"That's why I know I'm in the perfect position," he said. "You got to go take it. I want to take it."