CHICAGO — Army's starting quarterback almost quit playing football after his first few practices in fourth grade.
And Chicago's Ahmad Bradshaw has his mother to thank for making him stick with it.
"She said I wasn't going to quit anything," Bradshaw said of his mom, Kizzy Collins. "After a while, I started to love it."
Collins, an elementary school clerk, placed her son in the Mightymen Youth Football League in grade school to keep him busy and out of trouble.
Bradshaw, a Bronzeville native, said he's seen plenty of violence and turmoil growing up on Chicago's South Side. He witnessed a man fatally shot at 47th and Michigan, a few blocks from his home at 44th and Prairie. He also saw a man robbed at gunpoint near the Green Line station at Prairie and Calumet while he was coming home from a Gwendolyn Brooks Academy football practice.
"Lot of times I saw stuff like that, people robbed and beat up," Bradshaw said. "A lot of violence. It was a rough area. She knew what was happening to kids in our neighborhoods, and she didn't want that to happen to me, so she gave me something to do."
Collins said living in Chicago gave her son toughness and drive, making him "the person he is today."
"It is a rough city at times, but it is where he grew up and met most of his best friends," Collins said. "Chicago is very important to him, this is where he was raised."
Bradshaw, whose Black Knights (0-2) host Wake Forest (1-1) on Saturday at 11 a.m. (CBS Sports Network), was named Army's starter prior to the season. He leads the team with 272 rushing yards, 112 passing yards and 20 total points, including three touchdowns.
Army head coach Jeff Monken said the 5-foot-11 dual-threat quarterback "has played really well" this season.
"He is going to ... improve the more he plays, and that is one of the things that is encouraging going into this week is that I think he will get better," Monken said.
Being Army's No. 1 QB already comes with privileges, Bradshaw said. One is talking to West Point's superintendent, Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen Jr., who occasionally checks up on Bradshaw to see how he's feeling.
"A lot of people know me and respect me and admire me," Bradshaw said. "It's pretty cool when you have 3-star generals talking to you. Obviously you wouldn't get that at other schools."
Bradshaw said it's an honor representing Chicago's South Side and his country every time he takes the field with the Black Knights. When the sophomore graduates in 2018, he'd like to serve as a field artillery officer.
He wakes up most days at 6:30 a.m. at the scenic West Point campus, which Bradshaw called "the perfect fit for me." When he played his first set of downs more than a decade ago, Bradshaw never envisioned himself in the rolling hills of eastern New York.
"I was just out there trying to compete," he said. "Football has taken me a long way. It's been amazing."
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