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During the NFL draft and beyond, core life values drive Lions GM, says Brad Holmes' mom
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- During the NFL draft and beyond, core life values drive Lions GM, says Brad Holmes' mom
It is not surprising that Joan Holmes Mosley had a special interest in day one of the NFL draft, given that her son, Brad Holmes, is executive president and general manager of the Detroit Lions.
However, instead of being a part of the record first-day draft crowd, which was estimated to be 275,000 fans, Holmes Mosley watched the event on television from more than 1,000 miles away at her home in Tampa, Florida.
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"For everyone else, the draft is fun and exciting. But for my son, this is his job and it's a stressful time for him," Holmes Mosley, who reported that she watched the draft with her husband Herbert Mosley, after turning on the TV precisely at 8 p.m. EST, explained. "Going back to when Brad started scouting (2003 with the St. Louis Rams), he always has been extremely serious about the draft. While Detroit was making history by hosting the draft, I knew Brad would be spending all of his time in the draft room, so I decided to sit this one out. And I like seeing the draft on television better anyway."
Joan Holmes Mosely says she is the "proudest mom ever" due to things beyond football that have been accomplished by her son, Brad Holmes, executive vice president and general manager of the Detroit Lions.
Leading up to the Lions' selection of Alabama defensive back Terrion Arnold with the 24th pick in the first round, as Holmes Mosley was closely watching the draft broadcast — including the many highlights that were shown of top prospects performing during their college days — she had some flashbacks of her own.
And in each instance that her mind took her back in time, Holmes Mosley said she could feel a strong connection to her parents and the core values they taught that were eventually passed on to the man she knows so well, who was doing his "job' in the Lions' Allen Park draft room.
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"My parents' background really created the whole culture for our family," the 72-year-old Holmes Mosley said about her mother, Edna Bradley, who was a school teacher; and her father, Luther Bradley Sr., also an educator, who traveled from South Carolina to Muncie, Indiana, where he was a trailblazing athletics coach and later a longtime school administrator. "They grew up in the Southern, post-Jim Crow era when Blacks were still basically denied access to everything. So, when you're told you can't have something, you want it that much more and education was very important to them.
The family's commitment to education can even be seen through what Holmes Mosley calls her "family code name," which may be spoken and written as "Dr. J" or "Dr. Jay," by family and close friends to recognize her doctorate degree in educational leadership. In fact, all of Holmes Mosley's siblings are college educated, including Lucinda Barron, who positively touched many students in the family's home state as a professor at South Carolina State; Melody Haynes, who has applied her master's degree to work in banking; and Holmes Mosley's two brothers — former Detroit Lions defensive back Luther Bradley and Grammy nominated rock percussionist Everett Bradley, who earned undergraduate degrees from Notre Dame and Indiana, respectively.
More: Ex-Lions 1st round NFL draft pick, uncle of Brad Holmes: Detroit is place to be
By focusing on education and hard work as a family, Joan Holmes Mosley (left) says she has enjoyed many happy moments with her daughter Tara Gibson, who holds a management position with the FAA, and her son, Lions Executive Vice President and GM Brad Holmes.
Then there are the college degrees earned by Holmes Mosley's children from North Carolina A&T, where Brad Holmes graduated cum laude with a degree in journalism and mass communications; and where Tara Gibson earned an industrial engineering degree, which she now puts to work in her management position with the Federal Aviation Administration. Add to that the degrees obtained by the children of Holmes Mosley's siblings and there is more than enough to compose a robust team of scholars.
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But Holmes Mosley says there is more to her family's approach to life.
"My father was an 'Education or nothing' type of guy, so there was never any question of if you were going to college, it was always 'When will you go?'" Holmes Mosley, whose professional journey in education included being the assistant dean of the graduate school at the University of South Florida, said. "But just because we were educated doesn't mean we were privileged. Our parents taught us that we had to have a work ethic to go with that education, and we made sure that our children worked as they were getting their education. We have all followed that principle and it makes a difference.
"That's why Brad is a workaholic today. He can work all day and all night because he worked hard growing up. Sometimes I say, 'Brad you have to get some sleep,' when I see cups under his eyes. But that work ethic is pretty much a systemic value system in our family; it's just built into our psyche."
During the late morning Friday, Holmes Mosley said she was looking forward to tuning into the coverage of day two of the NFL draft, and she was prepared to be in front of her set an hour earlier at 7 p.m. EST. But there is another activity on the horizon that Holmes Mosley revealed that she is looking forward to even more — and in this instance, Holmes Mosley will be able to work directly with her son, perhaps as early as June, to help others be winners in life.
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"I guess you can call this breaking news, because Brad is starting a foundation," Holmes Mosley said about the future "Brad's Beyond Ball Foundation," which she says will assist at-risk student athletes in the Tampa, Florida area. "I'm so excited about helping Brad with the foundation because he wants to inspire athletes at the high school level. He wants them to be great in their sport, but more than that he wants the young people we will be working with to be great beyond sports, because that's how Brad used sports."
Holmes Mosley said it is that dimension of her son, along with other things about him that may be lesser known to the football world, that makes her feel like a mother to a champion even when the draft or games are not taking place.
"Brad's beyond a football general manager," she said. "He's a great father and a great husband and just an all-around good guy, and that makes me the proudest mother ever."
Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and a lifelong lover of Detroit culture in its diverse forms. In his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up reading as a child, he is excited and humbled to cover the city's neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at stalley@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @STalleyfreep. Read more of Scott's stories at www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/ . Please help us grow great community-focused journalism by becoming a subscriber .
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: A focus on education and hard work set Brad Holmes on a winning course
