A-list actor looks back on Commanders playing days

Cut by the Washington Commanders, a future movie star painted his way through NFL locker rooms.

Washington Commanders helmet on the bench against the Atlanta Falcons. | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Many dream of making an NFL roster. For Terry Crews, that dream was real, until it wasn’t. At 27, Crews was released by the franchise now known as the Washington Commanders. And just like that, his football career was over. But even after the NFL cut him, he still found his way into the locker room.

Long before we saw him on the movie screens in Friday After Next, White Chicks, or The Longest Yard, Crews was navigating the harsh truth that his NFL days were over. So he turned to the other passion that had always run beside his love for football: painting.

Trading in his pads for a paintbrush, Crews walked back into NFL locker rooms, not as a player, but as an artist, pitching custom portraits to different players throughout the league. For seven years, his artwork helped support him and his wife, Rebecca, until Hollywood finally called.

Crews was reminded just how far he’s come when former Washington running back Brian Mitchell sent him a photo: a 27-year-old Crews proudly standing next to the portrait he painted of Mitchell. It brought the memories of his grind and the sheer will to keep going, despite the uncertainty.

His art left a mark beyond the locker room walls. ESPN reporter John Keim recently shared on social media that Crews designed the cover of America’s Rivalry: The 20 Greatest Redskins-Cowboys Games, a book by Keim, Mickey Spagnola, David Elfin, and Rick Snider. “He’s very talented,” Keim said of Crews.

The Commanders may have cut him back in the day, but Terry Crews proved long ago that his gifts stretched far beyond football.

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