Raiders’ Keisean Nixon values experience in Snoop Dogg’s youth league

He once played for the University of South Carolina. Before tens of thousands of rowdy fans in the prestigious Southeastern Conference, against the likes of Georgia and Florida.

He now plays for one of the most storied franchises in the NFL. One armed with three Lombardi Trophies, whose iconic Silver and Black colors are etched forever in football lore.

But Raiders cornerback Keisean Nixon still occasionally thinks about the team he didn’t make. The one based in his native Southern California.

Snoop Dogg’s All-Stars.

“I was hot. I was mad. I won MVP of the league in my division and didn’t make it to the all-star team,” Nixon said with a laugh. “But that just grew another chip on my shoulder.”

Nixon, 23, developed his skills in the Snoop Youth Football League, a nonprofit founded by the legendary recording artist and Long Beach, California, native that aims “to provide the opportunity for inner-city children to participate in youth football and cheer,” according to its website.

The league, known informally as the SYFL, began operating in the Los Angeles area in 2005 and has since blossomed into one of the best youth football organizations in the country — and a safe haven for its players and their families. Other notable alumni include Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver John Ross and Baltimore Ravens wide receiver and return specialist De’Anthony Thomas.

Snoop Dogg was not available for comment, per his publicist. But the league’s commissioner, Khalil Wadood, said Snoop Dogg cares for the players in the league as if they were his children.

“Not only was he a coach, but he was also a father figure off the field. Teaching us about life,” Smith-Schuster said of Snoop Dogg. “Playing in the (SYFL)honestly prepared me for middle school, high school and, honestly, until now.”

Establishing the league

Wadood as commissioner is tasked with overseeing 105 teams in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, to which the league expanded in 2016. But he was once a youth football coach in Nixon’s hometown of Compton, California, charged with coaching a team in the Orange County Youth Football League.

And coaching against Snoop Dogg — some 30 miles and 40 minutes away.

“The fees were extremely super high to play. The commute was a burden on families. We had a lot of kids with single parents,” Wadood said. “Some had one vehicle. Some didn’t have a car at all. … To take teams out that way, that was a strain and burden.”

Wadood developed a friendship with Snoop Dogg through coaching and spoke at length with the rapper about establishing a more accessible league financially for families in those situations. Those discussions resulted in tangible action. Wadood said Snoop Dogg spent more than $1 million to finance the SYFL’s inaugural season.

Contributions included equipment and uniforms for players and coaches from 45 teams across nine charter chapter throughout the Los Angeles area.

“He did it just out of the love and the caring of the families and the kids,” Wadood said. “Snoop is really hands-on and is doing this from his heart. That’s a big thing. The community, the families, the volunteers, the coaches, they believed in it.”

Young football players and their families initially flocked to the SYFL in part because of its proximity to Snoop Dogg, who is active as a coach and maintains a presence at league events. But the commitment of the league’s administrators and coaches helped it garner a reputation independent of its founder.

A reputation for competition. Perhaps the best on the West Coast.

“The SYFL was all the inner-city kids that were athletes. … No matter their backgrounds. No matter what type of money they come from,” Nixon said. “Snoop made sure every kid could play. It was cheap for kids to play, so it was athletes everywhere.”

Top SYFL teams travel across the country to compete against top teams from programs in other states, providing many players with their first look at life outside Los Angeles. The league’s infrastructure and framework are designed to prepare its players for high school.

“When we get these boys when they’re 8 or 9 years old, and we have them up until they’re 14, they’re ready to go to high school and they’re already polished,” said longtime SYFL coach Mark Binns. “They’re ready to go produce. They’re ready to go be good students and athletes.”

From the SYFL to the NFL

No, Nixon wasn’t an SYFL all-star. But make no mistake. He was one of the best players in the league, anyway.

Wadood said Nixon was “always a dog. Smart. A competitor.”

“He was just one of those kids that always played with a chip on his shoulder,” said Wadood, who noted that Nixon mentioned the all-star snub during their most recent conversation last month. “But he always felt like no one ever gave him his just due.”

Nixon’s experience in the SYFL prepared him to play at Bishop Mora Salesian High School in Los Angeles, where he earned scholarship offers from Pac-12 programs like UCLA and Washington — among others. But his recruitment stagnated when he broke his collarbone during his senior year.

So he enrolled at Arizona Western and blossomed in two years into one of the country’s top junior college cornerback prospects.

“That really fueled me, because like the SYFL, there were dudes that were the same year as me, going straight to college. I’ve got to go to (junior college),” Nixon said. “Everything happens for a reason. And if you stay on pace, the marathon, it continues.”

Nixon received more than 50 scholarship offers from Division I programs while playing at Arizona Western, and eventually settled on South Carolina, where he played as a reserve in 2017 and as a starter in 2018.

As a senior, he totaled 63 tackles and nine pass breakups before sustaining a neck injury in the regular-season finale. He wasn’t drafted in 2019. But he signed that April with the Raiders as an undrafted free agent and ultimately made the 53-man roster, finishing with 12 tackles in 14 games.

Nixon credits the SYFL with the development of his perseverance. He said he intends to return to Southern California after the 2020 season to host a free football camp for the SYFL and its players.

“When I think back on it, the SYFL really bred me to be who I am today,” Nixon said. “It made you a man. … It taught you how to be tough. Everybody really came from nothing.”

Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter