Alfred Morris Connects With Stadium Staffers

The routine started during preseason when Alfred Morris was a rookie in 2012. He was the Redskins' sixth-round pick out of Florida Atlantic trying to find his way in the NFL. When a FedEx Field usher asked him to talk, Morris gave it a chance.

"He was just a normal person, treating me like a normal person," Morris says. "So I kept doing it."

And doing it and doing it. Morris is now in his fourth season and has two Pro Bowls under his belt. As the running back's accomplishments have grown, so has the population of the pregame routine.

Before every home game, early in warm-ups Morris drifts over to the corner of the stadium to meet with staffers. Guest service members, security guards, ushers and other employees join him. This is where Morris and his "Stadium Fam" catch up. The conversations are spontaneous.

"Fishing. The weather. The latest television shows. The previous day’s college football action. Family life. How his friends were doing at work," writes Dan Steinberg, who interviewed Morris and staffers for his column in The Washington Post.

The group has roughly 10 members, with some regulars.

"My first reaction was, 'Dang, this is Alfred Morris.' You know what I’m saying?" says Campbell McKenneth, a 45-year-old regular. "But seeing how cool and relaxed he was in talking to us, it made us feel cool and relaxed and easy talking to him."

Beyond game days, Morris makes it a point to learn the staffers' names and keeps in touch with them during the offseason. Organizing all-you-can-eat crab and shrimp meals at local restaurants has become part of the operation.

"He acts just like he's one of us," says Lorenzo Parker, 31, a guest services employee. "I just look at him like a regular friend. It's nothing different."

The 20-minute conversations end in prayer and then Morris is on his way. The staffers, male and female, of a variety of races and ethnicities, scatter to their Sunday positions.

Morris says these conversations help "quiet your mind, just have that little peace and just chill out before the game, before it gets chaotic. Because once that whistle blows, it starts, and it starts fast."

Keep it mind this is a guy who rides his bike to work, although, on a rare occasion, he will drive his cherished 1991 Mazda (with an ironic Bentley license plate).

"I mean, I’m a person just like anybody else. You’re a person; I’m a person; but just because I play a game, they elevate me," Morris says. "I’m a normal, everyday person; I just happen to play football in the NFL…I ain't no better than the next person. That's just the way I look at life, man. In God’s eyes, we’re all equal, so why should I act like I’m better than anybody else when I’m not?"

Steinberg points out the FedEx Field employees asked him to get permission from Morris before writing about them:

"I think it does say something for him," Parker says. "It just shows the type of character that he has."

-- Follow Jeffrey Eisenband on Twitter @JeffEisenband.