CLEMSON – Three days before his 11th birthday in January of 2017, Ashton Hampton watched with baited breath as two planes touched down in his hometown of Tampa, Fla.
In the first plane, top-ranked Alabama, the lone undefeated team at the time, thanks to the talents of 10 future first round NFL Draft picks. Names like quarterback Jalen Hurts and safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, names that Hampton had come to look up to as a budding Pop Warner champion.
Hampton stood on the runway, dressed in his best Pop Warner jersey, and waited for the plane door to swing open, eagerly hoping for a chance to talk to some of his favorite Alabama players as they prepared to play for a national championship at Raymond James Stadium.
Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban killed his hopes.
“Alabama was the first team to get there and I’m really excited,” Hampton said, recollecting on a recent episode of Clemson Athletics’ Two Right Turns podcast. “I love the Alabama players. I’m really excited to talk to them, but Nick Saban, he wouldn’t let them talk to us and interact with us. As a kid, my feelings were kind of hurt a little bit… I had a list of players I wanted to talk to, get a picture with, get an autograph, but they wouldn’t let them talk to us.”
Hampton did not have time to sulk in sorrow for long, however, before the second plane yielded everything his fifth-grade heart desired. Shortly after receiving the Saban-engineered shaft from the Crimson Tide, a second plane door swung open. Inside, it revealed a sea of orange, purple, and wide smiles.
Clemson, Alabama’s competitor in the 2017 College Football Playoff National Championship Game, had touched down in Tampa. And contrary to Nick Saban, head coach Dabo Swinney wholeheartedly encouraged the support.
“When Clemson got off the bus, the energy was completely different,” Hampton recalled. “The players were happy, they were smiling, they were talking to all the fans, all the kids.”
As Clemson’s Tiger Rag blasted and Swinney told media members that “the two best teams are here,” while sporting a purple-striped tie, one familiar Tiger player, the last off the plane, caught Hampton’s eye
“I’ll never forget it was Ray-Ray McCloud that got off the plane last because he was from Tampa,” he said. “He’s taking pictures with everybody, smiling because like this is his city. And that was something that really meant a lot to me.”
Hampton got his fix of autographs and pictures from McCloud, a future NFL standout, and others as he watched the roster roll out. His younger sister and father, Alonzo, who is currently the head coach at the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff, stood beside him, also getting their first tastes of Clemson’s energy.
After the players exited, one more familiar face, cornerbacks coach Mike Reed, greeted the Hampton family for a picture. As shown on Two Right Turns, the snapshot shows Reed, one of Alonzo’s former teammates, bending down to stand beside Hampton in a yellow jersey that reads ‘Jaguars.’
“I need this picture. I’m not gonna lie,” wide receiver Tyler Brown chimed in as the image flashed on the podcast.
Reed and Alonzo Hampton played together on the NFL Europe’s Frankfurt Galaxy team in 1999, winning the World Bowl together as co-defensive backs. The pair stayed in contact nearly every day, according to Hampton, and in that moment on the runway, during Reed’s fourth season with the Tigers, one interaction sparked the beginning of a decade-long relationship.
“(Reed) got off the plane, I talked to him for like one of the first times and it was just from that moment on we just built a relationship,” Hampton said. “He’s just pretty much been like a second dad to me. I can call him whenever. I can probably call him right now. He’ll answer. We can talk about whatever.”
In the end, that relationship, and ultimately Hampton’s first impression of Clemson, paid off six years later, when he committed to play cornerback for Reed, Swinney and the Tigers. He picked Clemson over 20 other school’s offers, including one from Alabama.
Nearly a decade since his first introduction to Clemson, Hampton is entering his third season with the Tigers, and is looking to take a step up after veteran Avieon Terrell left Clemson for the NFL Draft. In Hampton’s first two years, the former Freshman All-American broke up 14 passes, caught three interceptions, and notched 3.5 tackles-for-loss in 17 starts.
As young Clemson fans, or even opposing fans, ask for autographs from the star defensive back, he thinks back to his time on that runway as a Pop Warner Champion.
“Especially us being Clemson football players, the impression that we could have on people is just amazing because the platform that we truly have is something that we might not realize,” Hampton said. “Especially us being like young adults right now from age 18 to 22, 23, You don’t know the effect you could have on a 10-year-old kid by just speaking to them.”
Three days after getting his feelings hurt by Alabama players and smiling as Reed and McCloud provided redemption, Hampton got to watch Clemson come back to beat Alabama for its first National Championship in 35 years.
It was a better 11th birthday present than any kind of autograph.
