Having his son back home was never a burden for Reggie. He thought of Mylan as his closest friend. They’d go to movies, watch sports and play Xbox together. Reggie was just as likely to receive advice from his son as he was to give it. Mylan was his confidant.

Hicks’s younger brother, Bralan, was also happy to have his big brother around. He’d looked up to Mylan since he was a toddler, when they woke up early on Saturdays to watch Power Rangers together. As he grew up, Bralan looked to his brother to help navigate the uneasy waters of adolescence. He got his style cues and advice about girls from Mylan. He got his butt kicked in NBA 2K. He got his favourite pair of Air Jordans and a row of beaded bracelets he never takes off.

Hicks was a cornerstone in his family’s full house. He was like a dad to his sister’s two young boys, Carter and Kaiden, whose biological father had never been in the picture. He babysat them whenever his sister needed an extra hand. He’d pull them around the house in a little wagon or he’d let them practice their tackling on him. Whenever he was out of town, Hicks would call in on Facetime to chat with his nephews. He’d make a mean face and hold up a fist, and the little boys would laugh before attempting tough guy faces of their own.

Every day back in his parents’ home, Hicks would head out that front door with his weighted ankles and orange cones, ready to “grind.” In August 2015, he took an opportunity to play with the Brooklyn Bolts of the short-lived Fall Experimental Football League, but the league fell apart before the regular season had even finished. Disappointed, Hicks returned to the house on Warwick and the Stoepel Park field. But late that year, he learned about another opportunity — this one with the CFL’s Calgary Stampeders.

When he signed his contract with the Stampeders in February 2016, Hicks was excited again. His frustration was gone, replaced by pure determination. There were no guarantees that he’d stay with the team or even get a chance to play. But Hicks wasn’t going to let those details get in the way.

Before leaving for the team’s rookie camp in Florida that spring, Hicks was working out at a Detroit gym called Total Performance, where he met Charleston Hughes, a veteran Stampeder from Saginaw, Mich. Hughes told Hicks to make sure he made it through rookie camp and earned a spot in Calgary because he was going to love it there. “It’s not like where we’re from,” Hughes told Hicks. “It’s nice there. You can go to Calgary and things will be awesome. You’re not going to want to go back home.”