A Quarterback Was Dropped For His Bad Grades, Until His Coach Took Him Home And Realized The Truth

Sam Greiner was a high school coach, who was passionate about his players. However, when he had to drop the star quarterback, due to his poor grades Sam would soon discover what was really going on with the young man.

Life’s Struggles

In many ways, life had been very tough for Braheam Murphy. When Braheam was just five years old, his mother passed away. After that heartbreak, family life had taken its toll.

No Support

Braheam’s father got re-married, and had another daughter. Braheam’s dad struggled to provide for his family, as he didn’t make a lot of money and it was hard to provide what his son needed.

Priorities Neglected

In fact, Braheam was actually pushed out.“My dad loves me, but he had to take care of my little sister,” Braheam told CNN in December 2017. “I’d rather have my little sister being taken care of more than me.

Escape Through Football

Braheam needed an escape from his difficult family situation, and found a love for playing football. Meanwhile, in late summer 2015 Sam Greiner was in his first year as head coach at Harding University High School, and he was in charge of improving the team’s dire situation.

Tall Order

The coach had his work cut out for him, he didn’t know if he could turn this team around, they had’t won even one game. Even more shockingly, Sam had so few players available to him, that it was a struggle to even fill out the roster.

Poor Grades Get In The Way

Sam was frustrated when he found out that Braheam’s poor grades meant that he had to leave the team. As the coach would later tell CNN, “The athletic director comes to me and is like, ‘By the way, Braheam Murphy and some other guys are not eligible [to play].’ And I was like ‘Braheam’s not eligible?’ I was blown away, because he’s so smart.” It didn’t make sense.

Refused To Give Up

After watching Braheam’s potential, though, Sam refused to give up on him. And as a result, he took the teen under his wing and would frequently offer him rides home. However, Sam soon came to notice something unusual about Braheam’s home life.

Worrying Situation

It came to his attention, that each time the coach dropped off the student it was at a different location. Consequently, Sam began to grow concerned about Braheam’s welfare. Little did he know, though, that the teen was practically homeless.

Homeless And Alone

Sam later explained how he had become aware of the situation to CNN. “I didn’t know it at first,” he said. “I didn’t know that Braheam didn’t have a home. Eventually, he just opened up to me, and he was like, ‘I have to stay with my sister from place to place.’

Heartbroken And Helpless

This broke the coach’s heart. He would go home each night to his warm home with his loving wife. He was a father, and felt for the young boy who had no roof over his head or any support. No wonder his grades were slipping, he had no one to care for him or his sister. He couldn’t sleep that night.

Nowhere To Turn

As time had passed, Braheam and his sister had spent less and less time at their father’s home. “A lot of times I’d stay at my friends’ houses,” Braheam explained. “We’d go back and forth.” Effectively, he said, he “couch-surfed.”

He Had To Do Something

When he found out about the teen’s living situation, it tugged on Sam’s heartstrings, and so he went back to his office to do some soul-searching. The coach decided to call his wife, Connie, to ask her permission to bring Braheam home for the night.

Short Term Solution

Fortunately, Connie agreed. So, the coach, quickly told the teen that he wouldn’t need to look for a place to stay for the night. Within a matter of hours after the phone call, Braheam was sitting down for a lovely home-cooked dinner with Connie, Sam and Charli and Journi, the couple’s two little girls. He hadn’t had this in so long.

How Could He Let Him Go?

The young boy was so grateful for his coach, for letting him in for the night and feeling like part of the family. He forgotten what it felt like to belong, to feel loved and to have a hot meal on the table for him. He went to school the next day with the coach, with a huge smile on his face.

But What now

Well that one night would eventually turn into two years. Now, Sam and his wife see Braheam as a son, meaning that their daughters also have a big brother. “Braheam just became a family member,” Sam said to CNN. “He’s been living with us ever since.” But that wasn’t all they did for the boy they now see as their own.

What Would Happen Now?/

The Greiner family didn’t just provide Braheam with a roof over his head. They also gave him something much more important – stability and the confidence to shine. Braheam explained to CNN, “When I have someone caring for me, I feel like it makes me do better in school and makes me want to do better in life.”

Only Time Would Tell

Over time, Braheam’s grades were transformed. Before long, in fact, he was an A-grade student and was able to play football once again. And working alongside his coach, the teen played a part in turning around the fortunes of his school’s football team.

Hoping For The Best

Since moving in with Greiner, Murphy kept his grade-point average over a 3.5. Greiner said so long as Murphy would score near 1,000 on the SAT, he would be eligible for a scholarship. Murphy got the happy call from Army coaches on the way home from spring practice, that they were coming to the game.

Team For The Win

In December 2017 Braheam even helped his side to win the North Carolina high school state championship, scoring a dramatic touchdown in the final minutes of the game. The moment was a special one for Braheam and Sam, and it became symbolic of everything that they’d achieved together.

What They Overcame

Describing the victory, Sam said to CNN, “It was just an amazing experience. We knew we could get there, but the situation of winning the state championship… What we overcame… And it all came full circle. Greatest moment ever to have your family experience that – it really was.”

Turned His Life Around

What’s more, Sam and Braheam’s triumph turned out to be the best leaving present that the teen could have hoped for. That’s because the young football player has set his sights on attending the United States Military Academy at West Point. And Braheam’s adoptive family couldn’t have been prouder of how his life has changed.

What An Achievement

Sam would later tell CNN, “[Braheam’s] doing a ‘family-tree changer.’ I never had an opportunity to go to West Point. He’s better than me. Connie is now trying to go to college, get her career in order.” The coach added, “Maybe, one day, we’ll be working for our own son.

Truly Unfathomable

The young teen could not believed what he had managed to achieve. From being homeless, and nearly failing all of his classes, to working extremely hard and getting himself a scholarship. Things like this he would never have thought could have happened to him.

What About His Real Family?

The teen maintains a relationship with his biological father and little sister. They even made it out to cheer for him at his Senior Night football game. Murphy said his father tells him he is proud of the man he is becoming. As are the Greiners. Thinking about his past three years, Murphy gets emotional. Of the Greiners, he said, “They’re my family. And I can’t imagine where I would be without their support.”

Hopes For The future

The biologist now hopes to share the footage she and her team were able to capture, in order to expand research and awareness of such actions from whales.

Altruism

Ms Hauser said: “There is a published scientific paper about humpbacks protecting other species of animals, by Robert Pitman. For instance, they hide seals under their pectoral fins to protect them from killer whales. They truly display altruism – sometimes at the risk of losing their own lives.”