The Pittsburgh Steelers evidently aren’t done adding talent to their roster. They reportedly signed former Kansas City Chiefs RB La’Mical Perine on Thursday. That’s their second running back signed this week following Jonathan Ward on Tuesday.
Perine was drafted by the New York Jets in the fourth round in 2020 and played two seasons with them. He then played three games in 2023 with the Chiefs and was active for all three playoff games as well. But who is he?
Football Bloodlines
A lot has been made of the Steelers looking at players who come from a football family. CB Joey Porter Jr. is one of the most notable cases, and Perine is another one. His biological father, Terrance Perine, played a season at Auburn before transferring to Jacksonville State. His stepfather, Jimmie Haywood, played defensive tackle and middle linebacker in high school and played junior college in California for a season.
Perine’s cousin, Samaje Perine, was a record-setter at the University of Oklahoma. Despite only playing three seasons for the Sooners, Samaje left with the school record for career rushing yards (4,122). He also set the single-game NCAA rushing record in 2014 with 427 yards against Kansas. Steelers fans are also familiar with another cousin of La’Mical’s, LB Myles Jack.
La’Mical’s mother, while not a football player, was also an athlete. She played basketball and also was a state champion in shot put.
Two-Sport Athlete
Perine may have excelled on the football field, but the Mobile, Ala., native credits part of that success to his other high school sport: basketball. He was part of the 2014-15 Theodore Bobcats basketball team that made it to the state semifinals for the first time in program history.
“It helps with conditioning,” Perine said per an article from AL.com. “With both sports, you do a lot of running, and I play running back and get 30 carries a game, so it really helps.”
It certainly did as Perine ran for over 3,000 yards and 30 touchdowns in his final two seasons of high school football.
Turned Down The Opportunity To Stay Home
Perine grew up in Alabama, yet he went to the University of Florida. He turned down offers from Mississippi State (coached by Dan Mullen, who later became his head coach at Florida) and then, late in the process, Nick Saban and Alabama.
“Coach Saban offered me my senior year of high school,” Perine said to Saturday Down South at the 2019 SEC Media Days. “But he offered me last minute. I felt kind of disrespected by that and so I had to stay loyal and stick with my commitment, which was to Florida.”
The other big Alabama school, Auburn, never offered Perine. Per the official website of the Florida Gators, Perine went to an Auburn camp to get a look during high school but was told he was too slow.
“We were there for that heartbreak,” Perine’s mother, Sabrina Haywood, said. “We knew he would never forget it.”
Perine never did. And as a senior against Auburn, he ripped off an 88-yard touchdown run to cap a 24-13 win over the very team that told him he wasn’t fast enough.
LAMICAL PERINE 88 YARDS TO THE HOUSE.
THE SWAMP IS ROCKING. pic.twitter.com/ZkbQ30mtsd— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) October 5, 2019
Paid To Get A Look From Florida
Speaking of recruiting, Florida was not the first team to recruit Perine (that was Mississippi State). But Perine was serious about Florida. So much so that he paid to travel to Florida for a camp to be looked at by the coaching staff.
As part of Perine’s recruiting process, he took a 14-hour bus ride from home to attend a recruiting camp in Florida, per the Gators’ official website. Not only did he make that trip himself, he paid for it himself, per his official bio on the team’s site. That’s dedication and desire.
Senior Bowl Back Home
Perine was invited to the Reese’s Senior Bowl after finishing his Florida career. It was a chance to play one more time at Ladd-Peebles Stadium, a field that he got to run on as a senior in high school. He did not disappoint, scoring the game’s opening touchdown on a 16-yard catch from now-Los Angeles Chargers QB Justin Herbert. He finished the game with seven carries for 62 yards and two catches for 17 yards. He was named the South team’s Outstanding Player.
