Bakersfield, California is a town of around 400,000 people, located roughly two hours north of Los Angeles.  It is often referred to as “Nashville West” because of its connection to country music.  Several famous country stars came from there, including Merle Haggard and Buck Owens.   

Orbin and Anna Love lived in a modest home there, raising their three daughters Emily, Kami and Alexis.  Orbin cherished his girls, but he also longed for a son.  Someone to whom he could teach his beloved game of football.  Someone he could mentor and develop into maybe following in his footsteps.  Orbin was a quarterback with a dream of one day starting under center in the National Football League.  But his football career advanced only to the point of being a running back for Bakersfield Community College. 

Upon realizing pro football was not in the cards, Orbin pursued law enforcement, and would go on to serve as a policeman in the Bakersfield police department for 26 years.  When Anna became pregnant with their fourth child, Orbin’s hopes for a son rose again.  On November 2, 1998, Anna did indeed give birth to a beautiful baby boy.  Orbin was over the moon and wanted to name the child after the most famous athlete in the world.  He wanted to name him Michael Jordan Love.  Anna wasn’t crazy about the boy carrying that name, and the couple settled on Jordan Alexander Love. 

As soon as the child was able, Orbin started teaching him everything he knew about sports.  Jordan was involved in baseball, basketball and football throughout his grade school years.  Not only did his dad never miss a game, he always volunteered to coach or be an assistant coach on Jordan’s teams.  The youngster showed potential in basketball in those days, and was a pretty good baseball player.  But that was not his father’s vision.  Nearly every day Orbin would go to work and brag to his fellow police officers “My son is going to be a quarterback, and one day he will be a star in the NFL”.  They would smile and humor him, if nothing else admiring his faith and dedication. 

Entering high school at five foot six and 130 pounds, Jordan was a bit small to be able to see over the defensive linemen.  But he could run and he had good hands, so some of his coaches tried him out at receiver.  But Jordan was a quarterback, his dad insisted.  Jordan wound up as the back-up quarterback on the freshman team at Liberty High School. 

Around that time, Orbin began to act strangely.  He had been on blood pressure medication.  His doctors had recently changed the prescription, and the new drugs seemed to be having an adverse effect.  He would often seem dazed and confused.  Orbin had always been a reliable fix-it guy.  One of those folks who could take almost anything apart and repair it.  But these days he couldn’t even seem to figure out how to remove a spare tire from it's bracket.  Anna was concerned and was keeping a close eye on him.   

It was on a Saturday morning when Anna had taken Jordan to one of his basketball games.  Orbin was to arrive later, just in time for tip-off.  He never showed up.  Anna immediately knew something was wrong.  Jordan’s dad never missed a game.  Never.  She left the gym immediately and drove home.  She found Orbin lying on the bed in their bedroom.  At the age of 51, he had used his service weapon to take his own life.   

There was no note.  In an article by Chase Goodbread for nfl.com, Anna was quoted as saying “I just wanted the world to know this was not depression, and to know that even though people would find out it was suicide, that it was because of the medication. There is no way Orbin Love would've ever considered taking his life. His medicine did this to his mind." 

Jordan had lost his father, his mentor, his motivating force.  He was fourteen years old.  The tragic loss caused him to question his pursuit of his father’s vision.  A few weeks after the funeral, he was sitting in the car with his mother.  Jordan told her he wanted to quit football.  Anna understood the grief, but she also didn’t want her son to make a rash decision.  She convinced him to play football for one more year.  After that, if he still wanted to quit, so be it.   

That year he worked hard to improve his footwork and throwing accuracy.  It rekindled his interest in the game.  It also didn’t hurt that he would grow nine inches taller and gain 80 pounds over the next three years. He would win the starting quarterback job for the Liberty junior varsity.  His confidence was growing in sync with his body.  As a senior on the varsity, he threw for 2,148 yards and 24 touchdowns.  He also ran for 806 yards and eight more scores.  He led the Patriots to the state semi-finals.  No small feat, considering this was California, the most populous state in the country, and a hotbed for high school football talent. 

Even so, the national recruiting services rated him no higher than a two star prospect (out of five stars).  He received only one scholarship offer.  It was from Utah State.  He accepted it. 

You know the story from there. 

This Sunday he will take the field as the full time starting quarterback for the most historically famous team in the annals of pro football, playing in the oldest and most famous rivalry in all of pro football.  Somewhere, in a precinct house in Bakersfield, a group of policemen will be gathered around a television, remembering that proud prediction made by one of their fellow officers years ago, and they’ll be smiling.  Of course, Anna will be watching too.  If Jordan Love becomes a star, it may surprise his critics, but it won’t surprise her. 

She had long ago caught the vision.  A vision formed by her husband before Green Bay’s quarterback was even born.