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C. J. Stroud is, without a doubt, the most successful of the top three quarterbacks of the 2023 NFL Draft class.
He completely turned around the fortunes of the Houston Texans, who were struggling to find their identity after trading away the embattled Deshaun Watson, leading them to a division-best 10-7 record and Divisional Round appearance. That has positioned him as a heavy favorite to win the Offensive Rookie of the Year.
However, all that might not have happened without a litany of tragedies that befell his family. On The Pivod Podast with Fred Taylor, Channing Crowder and Ryan Clark, Stroud said that he was almost never born following his eldest sister's death while she was a baby, followed by his mom's miscarriage:
"I'm a miracle baby. Like, I wasn't supposed to be here. My mom had a miscarriage before she had me.
"My oldest sister, Sarah, was born almost a year to the date I was born. Oct. 27, 2000. She passed away as a baby. And I think my sister Sarah opened up a door for me."
C. J. Stroud was embarrassed after his dad's arrest, recalls falling in comparison trap
Miscarriage and the infantile death of a sister are not the only tragedies in the Hallmark-worthy C. J. Stroud story.
His father, Coleridge Bernard III, is serving a 38-to-life sentence in California for various crimes and has been since Storud has attended middle school. That had led the second overall pick to be very vocal about his religious and sociolegal beliefs.
In the same episode, Stroud said that his father's incarceration hurt his self-esteem until he started connecting to his faith even more:
"I was embarrassed. I was really embarrassed as a kid because I've seen other kids. I said it in the other show when I while I was here, 'Comparison is the thief of joy.' I used to compare all the time.
"I used to be like, 'Man, I should live my life up with social media.' And that's the thing I like, through everything. God has always been right there with me even when I didn't know it."
C. J. Stroud has two elder brothers, Isaiah and Asmar, and an elder sister, Ciara.
