AP

NFL teams are huge operations that include not only the high-profile players, but also low-profile employees like janitors and secretaries and groundskeepers and parking lot attendants. Most of the time, the players are put on a pedestal, and the low-paid workers know they’re not supposed to bother the millionaire athletes.

And then there’s Washington running back Alfred Morris, who regularly interacts with the staff at FedEx Field. And that doesn’t just mean he’ll stop for a minute to sign an autograph or take a selfie. As detailed by Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post, Morris gets to every home game early so he can spend significant time hanging out with the stadium staff, getting to know them, talking to them as if their contributions to the franchise are every bit as important as his, and then joining them in a pregame prayer before he heads to the locker room and they head off to sell popcorn or show fans to their seats.

“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 told Steinberg. “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?”

Morris has been spending time with the people he calls his “Stadium Fam” since his rookie year, and now they’re used to catching up with him on Sunday mornings just like any two co-workers chitchat before work.

“My first reaction was, ‘Dang, this is Alfred Morris.’ You know what I’m saying?” a 45-year-old stadium worker named Campbell McKenneth said. “But seeing how cool and relaxed he was in talking to us, it made us feel cool and relaxed and easy talking to him.”

Morris has long been known as a good guy who isn’t impressed with himself, doesn’t much care for the trappings of fame and fortune in pro football, and rides his bike to practice. Add his pregame ritual to the list of reasons that Morris is a special player.