Sons pick off the passes, moms drive the buses

NFL moms don't need money, they just love the kids

By Andrew Dys - Andrew Dys

Around 6:30 every morning, in the dark like 105 other men and women making a living, the lady kids call "Ms. B." cranks up her school bus. "Miss Red" revs her bus to life. And "Miss Eva" and "Mrs. Hope," too. Most days a kid on the buses will ask for an autograph from one or all of them. Or a jersey. The brashest chaps ask for pro football game tickets in Nashville or Buffalo. The truly fearless ask for home visits.

But the autograph, the jersey, the fame belongs to their sons. Because at the Rock Hill school district bus garage and on these buses, these ladies are known as "The NFL Moms." All four have a son that played before, plays now or is expected to play this season in the National Football League.

The chances are small four mothers of pro players from one city of about 65,000 like Rock Hill would have the same job. "What are the odds, one in a million? asked Anthony White, assistant director of transportation. "A hundred million? More?"

Photo 1: Sons pick off the passes, moms drive the buses

Ann Burris is the senior member of this crew. Her son, Jeff, played for Buffalo, Indianapolis and Cincinnati before retiring to work in TV after starring at Northwestern High and Notre Dame. Yet, for 18 years, through the requests of her son who tells her she should and can stop any time, Ann Burris has driven a bus. She said plainly, "I like my job, and I love the children on my bus. Jeff understands that. All three of my sons do."

So, Ann Burris, whose NFL son made millions, drives a bus yesterday, today, tomorrow.

Mary Hope has a son, Chris, with a Super Bowl ring the size of the Hope Diamond. He was a star at Florida State and Rock Hill High. Yet, for seven years, hearing the same pleas to retire from her son who played for Pittsburgh and now Tennessee, she drives.

"I like my name on my check," Mary Hope said. "I enjoy this job, the children. Chris knows that."

Almost five years ago, Eva Simpson started driving a bus. Her son, Ko, became a Buffalo Bill a couple years ago after starring as a South Carolina Gamecock and Rock Hill High Bearcat. She still went to work before sun-up. Eva Simpson still does.

"Ko, he told me drive that bus till the wheels come off,'" joked Eva Simpson.

The newest member of the NFL Moms, for all of a few days now, is Cornetta Wilmore. She's not new to driving a bus -- eight years she has been behind the wheel with that signature red hair and smile. Her son, Jonathan Hefney, signed with Tampa Bay after a standout career at the University of Tennessee and Rock Hill High.

"I'm not leaving, either," Wilmore said. "And I'm staying in my other job in the middle of the day, too."

Wilmore works in the office at Finley Road Elementary School after her morning bus runs and before her afternoon runs.

If the four NFL Moms at the bus garage wasn't enough, another one, Vanessa Joseph, used to work at the transportation office. Her son, Jonathan, plays for Cincinnati.

These ladies were not strangers even before they worked together driving a bus. All grew up in Rock Hill, have known each other almost all their lives. Simpson, Wilmore and Hope all worked in the Celanese textile mill before it closed. Swing shifts, days, nights, on their feet the whole time. So their children could prosper, go to college, make fortunes.

One time, two of them were in the maternity ward of the hospital together for the births of other children.

Burris worked at Pharr Yarns for many years. For two of those years, she worked nights in the mill, then drove a school bus days.

"Slept four hours a day, maybe," Burris said.

These ladies enjoy the notoriety of famous sons. But what so many people at the bus garage talk about is not football, but what fine mothers all are. It is the talk of the breakroom, the parking lot. Burris has two older sons, both fine men with careers of their own. Wilmore has two terrific daughters. Hope, wife of Randy Hope, has another successful son and a daughter.

It is no surprise, no coincidence, that these ladies will not quit their bus-driving jobs. Or that their sons that are famous, and those children who are not, are successful. Work is all the NFL Moms know, is what they taught their children. And now some of those children did, or do, their work for big fat paychecks before 80,000 people on Sundays and millions on TV.

Most games, the mothers are in the stands.

Then, the mothers leave after ball games because the bus has to be driven the next morning.