More than Moore

As a free safety, there is a lot of pressure on Rahim Moore to perform well.

Representing the last line of defense, it is Moore’s responsibility to let no one past him. If anyone does, more often than not, it results in a touchdown for the opposing team.

Moore also fulfills the task of being a vocal leader on the defense by directing the cornerbacks and putting them in the best positions to stop what the opposing offense is trying to do.

It’s a lot of responsibility for a 19 year-old sophomore who started playing the position his freshman year at Dorsey High School in Los Angeles.

But for Moore, who started all 12 games last season as a true freshman and is currently tied for first in interceptions (five) in Division 1-A football, that responsibility is what makes playing the position as much fun as it is.

“I like that tough responsibility,” Moore said. “Even though it’s a lot of pressure on me I kind of welcome it, too, because it lets you stay on your P’s and Q’s and also betters you as far as you know you have to get better each and every day.”

With the eyes of the fans looking to Moore as the difference between a UCLA defensive stop or six points on the board, it can be a stressful situation for anyone to be in.

But compared to the responsibility that Moore has off the field ““ coming from a tough neighborhood south Los Angeles where shootings are not unusual, setting an example for young people at Dorsey to look to and giving a single parent going through the pain of a son in jail a reason to be proud ““ the challenges on the field seem trivial.

Yet for Rahim Moore, it is those trials and tribulations he has overcome that make him who he is today and drive him to be the best player on the field.

“It was just a drive it gave me and let me know that I have to be a difference-maker in my family,” Moore said. “A lot of people look up to me, and I know my role of me having to succeed and wanting to conquer.”

Dorsey days

From his first game as a freshman at Dorsey High School, Moore knew playing free safety was the position for him.

Up until that time, he admits he was a running back guy, citing Eric Dickerson, Jerome Bettis and LaDainian Tomlinson as some of the players he idolized. In Pop Warner, he played running back, linebacker and even cornerback

But it was his safety coach at Dorsey High who noticed Moore’s ball-skills and his tendency to seemingly always be where the ball was and made the decision to move Moore to free safety. As the results of his first game show, it was the start of something special. Moore recalls the stats from that game against Narbonne High from memory without hesitation: 14 tackles, two guys knocked out and one broken facemask.

“Ever since then I said “˜This is what I want to do,'” Moore said. “I told myself “˜This is what I want to do and I want to master this position.'”

It didn’t take Moore long to excel at his new-found spot on the field, setting the L.A. City Section record for interceptions in a season with eight as a sophomore.

At that point, UCLA redshirt freshman cornerback Aaron Hester, a friend of Moore’s since the early “˜90s, knew that there were big things in store for Moore.

“That’s when I knew he was going to be something special,” Hester said.

Moore did not let his early accomplishments get to his head, nor did he become complacent with the success he had on the field. If anything, the success drove him to continually improve even more. He talks about forgoing a night out with friends so he could stay home to study for a quiz or a final. And then there were the nights in which the team lost, and Moore would go home and lift weights late into the night, reminding himself of the need to be stronger, faster and better.

“I knew that for me wanting to be a safety and wanting to do what I want to do, I had to constantly work,” Moore said. “You couldn’t probably tell if you look at me, but a lot of people don’t understand what I do in my spare time. I put a lot of work in, and when you see it pay off, it makes you go at it more.”

Hester agrees that Moore is constantly working to improve and does whatever it takes to be the best.

“He wants to be good so bad,” Hester said. “He has good study habits on the film. He’s just an awesome player. He’s always been a good player since we were little.”

One moment of pride for Moore as well as redshirt freshman running back Jonathan Franklin, a teammate of Moore’s at Dorsey, occurred on Sept. 18, when the two were present for the opening of a new turf and track at Dorsey High. Moore said that the saying around the league was that Dorsey’s field was only good for the first three weeks of the season and that their track was pushing 20 years. Thus, to be present when a brand new field was revealed was a special and touching moment for the two graduates.

“By us going back, it shows people that we don’t let the hype and everything get to our head,” Moore said. “We’re still the regular Rahim Moore and Jonathan Franklin. No matter how big we get, me and Jet Ski we always promised each other that we can go back and take care of Dorsey.”

A difference-maker

The date was Dec. 8, 2008.

Two days earlier the UCLA football lost at home against the USC Trojans, 28-7, bringing an end to a trying and disappointing 4-8 season for the Bruins.

It marked the start of the offseason for the Bruins, falling two wins shy of the required six to qualify for a bowl game. It signaled a time to rest after a brutal four-month season. It was time to recuperate.

Not for Rahim Moore.

By his count, the 2008 season was the only time in his life that he failed to reach a goal that he had set for himself.

Determined not to let a season like his first happen again, Moore returned to work the next Monday, Dec. 8, and began a stretch of workouts in which he was training six to seven days a week.

Little did he know that it was just the start to an emotionally draining off-season.

Moore talks candidly about growing up in south Los Angeles and of the things that he has seen and had to overcome to be where he is today.

“I used to see a lot of bad things and hear a lot of bad things, as far as shootings, hearing people die across the street or hearing somebody die up the street or around the corner,” Moore said. “Just by me going through what I went through and living in the environment I lived in, that also inspired me to keep doing good in college because I want to go from pretty much the ghetto to where I am now, and just to see how hard work pays off when you used to come from and now you’re here.”

The reality hit home for Moore this off-season when his older brother was incarcerated right before the start of this season.

Moore declined to comment on what the exact charges were and, instead, said that he “just made the wrong decision at the wrong time.”

Moore said he had the opportunity to talk with his brother during the summer.

“He just told me, “˜Rahim, keeping working hard, don’t be like me,'” Moore said. “He said, “˜I’m proud of you,’ He loves me. He started crying too on the phone. He just mad how he can’t be around me at this good time right now. I told him, “˜Whenever you do get out, I will take care of you.'”

Every week his brother’s girlfriend sends him newspaper clips of Moore’s games, and Moore said that his brother has had the opportunity to watch a few of his games on television.

While it is a difficult time for Moore, being without his older brother, it is all the more trying on his mother, a single parent of three children.

There are times when Moore will see his mother crying from the pain of having to see her first child behind bars. Wanting to make things easier for his mother, Moore has made an extra effort to do all he can to ease that pain with his play on the football field.

“I said, “˜I’m going to make you so proud this year. You’re going to think we’re both out there playing football,'” Moore said. “And I tell her that every week, and I tell her that I got a lot of game balls coming for her, I got a lot of wins going for her. I’m going to do all I can to make you happy and dry all them tears up to all smiles.”

This determination he has to do whatever he can for his mother is nothing new or unusual for Moore.

Calling her his “grand prize” and “angel,” Moore said there has never been a time when has talked back to his mother or mistreated her. Instead, he draws strength from the immense struggles she has had to overcome, such as helping to raise her brothers at the age of 19 or her not eating just to make sure that her kids had enough to eat.

Witnessing what his mother has done for her family, Moore said it makes it even more crucial that he succeeds on the football field and that he becomes the one to shoulder the responsibility of making life easier for his mother, brother and younger sister.

“It’s just tough, but I kind of like it though because it makes me work even harder,” Moore said. “I know she’s counting on me, but then she wants me to keep doing what I’m doing. I said I’m not going to disappoint my mom, and I’ll make it.”

Strength from a higher power

Prior to the start of a game, it is common for players to listen to music in order to get pumped up. Listening to genres that range from rock to rap, players use music as a source of inner strength.

Not for Moore.

Rather than music, Moore gets ready and prepares for the start of games by reading his Bible, which he keeps in his locker.

A deeply religious man, Moore said that his routine is to read Psalm 34:10, sometimes Ephesians 6:8 and the corresponding Proverb for the date. For example, he said that if the game is on the 11th, he will read the 11th Proverb.

Moore also writes a few scriptures on his cleats, a habit he started in high school at the suggestion of his mother’s best friend.

“Those are just to let people know what I am, what I’m about,” Moore said. “I don’t use it for style; it’s just sometimes it’s tough in the game, and I look down at the cleats, and it kind of makes me bring my head back up to the sunshine and realize that life is great.”

Rarely do you ever see Moore mad or sad. Franklin claims that he has never seen it before, saying that Moore constantly has a smile on his face.

“He’s one of those guys who you kind of know he’s going to be a leader,” Franklin said. “Just a leader, a guy people look up to, a guy people want to follow.”

Moore is known on the team as a jokester, someone who is constantly talking and cracking jokes.

Knowing the obstacles he has been forced to overcome, it may seem difficult to understand how Moore conveys such an optimistic and positive vibe. Yet according to him, he doesn’t understand how he could be any different.

“Some people always look at things they don’t have or what they went through,” Moore said. “They let that bother them. But you’ve got to look at the bigger picture, because if you do things now, it’ll pay off in the future. So what I do is everyday I just got so much joy to where I know what I’ve been through, but I still let that be behind me because it’s all about the future.”

What the future holds

In two short years, Moore has gone from a high school safety to a semi-celebrity.

Moore said it’s not uncommon for him to be walking down a street or out at the movies with friends and have people recognize him and ask him for an autograph.

It’s a life that Moore said he never imagined could happen to him.

Yet that life is just beginning.

Moore carries the weight of his community and his family on his shoulders. One day he hopes to play in the NFL, have a family of his own and give back to the community that raised him.

While he has started every game of his collegiate career and developed into one of the top safeties in the nation, Moore admits that it’s not enough, that there is much more to come.

“All that I do, I always think about my family and my mother,” Moore said. “That gives me motivation.”

His determination is seen in the 4 a.m. workouts and the extra weight-lifting sets. He understands what he must accomplish and what’s at stake if he fails.

Similar to how he is the last line of defense in a game as safety, Moore guards against problems that plague his family and community.

“It’s just being a difference-maker,” Moore said. “Seeing what your family does or how your family grew up, I did the same thing, but I flipped it around and took care of business. And that’s just who I am. That’s what Rahim is about. People who want to know who Rahim really is, that’s just what I’m about.

“That’s as simple as it gets.”