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Jessie Bates taking optimistic approach to unusual offseason

Bengals safety Jessie Bates is turning an unusual offseason into a positive

James Rapien

The sports world has been put on hold due to COVID-19. The NFL offseason is still on schedule, but players are attending meetings at home, not at team facilities.

Bengals safety Jessie Bates is thankful for the extra time with his loved ones.

"I'm able to spend unusual time that I wouldn't have with my family, with my nephews," Bates said on the Rapsheet and Friends podcast. "Being home in the atmosphere around my family has just been great for my mind and my soul. My mom never sees me home this much."

Bates, 23, has supported single mothers in the Cincinnati-area since the Bengals drafted him in the second-round of the 2018 NFL Draft. 

"It's just something that I'm very passionate about," he said. "My mom is my why to what I do in life," Bates said. "I try as hard as possible to shine a light on her because I know what she's instilled in not just me, but my family and my siblings. Her being a single mom growing up, I kind of take a lot of the core principals and the stuff that she's done to be successful in her life and put that into my life as well."

Bates wants what's best for his mom. He encouraged her to go back to college to get her degree in hopes of becoming a professor one day.  

"I also challenged her to go back to school and finish her degree so she can become a professor, so she finished that this weekend. We had a nice surprise for her. 

Bates is currently having a fence built around her house, which is something she's always wanted. He got to spend Mother's Day with his mom and the rest of his family. 

"I was able to cook and feed my mom and my sister. It's been an awesome, unusual time, but it's been great to hang around my loved ones."

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James Rapien
JAMES RAPIEN

James Rapien is the publisher of Bengals On SI. He's also the host of the Locked on Bengals podcast and Cincinnati Bengals Talk on YouTube. The Cincinnati native also wrote a book about the history of the Cincinnati Bengals called Enter The Jungle. Prior to joining Bengals On SI, Rapien worked at 700 WLW and ESPN 1530 in Cincinnati

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