After getting cut by seven NFL teams, Breon Borders making impact for Titans | Estes

Titans cornerback Breon Borders doesn’t mind sharing his story.

What he went through growing up, he's actually grateful for it now. It helps explain how he got to where he is, and how he broke a depressing cycle in his family and hometown. It's a story of tough lessons met by a tougher mentality. 

A short memory, staying confident and positive, not feeling sorry for himself — these things have been useful for an undrafted NFL fringe player who’s been cut by seven teams in about three years.

“I feel like I’m ready for anything that comes in my life,” he said.

And Borders is hopeful that his eighth team is the charm. Because in his fourth NFL season, he's finally getting a real shot.

He went from joining the Titans' practice squad in Week 3 to the COVID-19 list to, not long after that, his largest role as a pro. With Adoree’ Jackson injured and Johnathan Joseph released, the 25-year-old Borders has started at cornerback opposite Malcolm Butler the past three games.

“Hopefully, this will be the team for him right here,” said Yvonne Bennett, Borders’ grandmother.

The Titans have needed Borders. They've heaved him into the fire, too, quickly promoting him ahead of some more experienced defensive backs. 

On a team that keeps demonstrating resiliency, Borders has fit in.

“I wish Breon could verbalize to young men today that think they want to play pro football what he’s had to go through from team to team, but there’s a reason he keeps turning up,” said David Cutcliffe, Borders’ head coach at Duke University.

“… He went through a lot of tough times growing up. God is good is what I think when I hear about Breon doing so well.”

'She was my world' 

Borders is from Statesville, North Carolina, a town of fewer than 30,000 about a 45-minute drive north of Charlotte.

Former NFL linebacker Vinson Smith was from Statesville, but Borders grew up idolizing wide receiver Randy Moss. From a young age, Borders would point to pictures and tell his family that’s what he was going to do one day.

Those aspirations didn’t change over the years, even as much around Borders did.

“My immediate family went to prison for drugs when I was 7,” he said. “That kind of devastated me. ... It was like a drug chain. My family was just real heavy into drugs. When one person went down, everybody went down.”

From birth until almost 7, Borders was raised by Bennett. Her daughter — Borders' mother — was young. He wasn't around his father much, he said.

Three short paragraphs in the Charlotte Observer in 2002 described the event that upended Borders' childhood. A cocaine conspiracy case in Statesville, the Observer reported, resulted in prison sentences for four family members, Bennett included.

"She was my world," Borders said of his grandmother. “She was my everything. When she left, I feel like she left kind of suddenly. It didn’t really hit me the first or second day. But the third day, I had to go live with my aunt. It was hard, but she instilled my core values in me that I still hold on to today. And, I’m grateful for that."

Borders credits Sandra Reid, his great aunt and Bennett’s sister, for keeping him on the right track. Bennett returned when he was 14, and Borders went back to live with her. During that stretch, Borders was separated from his brother — who lived in another home — and most of his family.

“Even though it’s a messed-up situation, I feel like that situation prepared me for life," Borders said. "For seven years, I didn’t see my mom, dad, my grandma, my brother. From 7 to 14, it was a huge lesson that I had to overcome. When I did, I felt like I could get past anything.”

Reid had kids of her own, and she was disciplined. She told him he’d better be on the porch when the streetlights came on.

When Borders’ grades slipped in middle school, Reid benched him for a football season, she said.

“I know that he missed his grandma,” Reid said. “I know that, because we talked about that. And he did. But still, he was OK, because we were all a part of his life.”

Years later, he did so well in the classroom that he ended up being able to attend Duke. Clearly, football skills didn't suffer, either.

"The actual work isn’t easy," he said, "but to make the decision to work and do what I need to do, I mean, it was easy. I’m trying to honor the sacrifice that my grandma made for me."

Borders’ NFL success is a growing source of pride in Statesville. It has long been a source of pride for Bennett and Reid, on and off the field.  

“Even without the football,” Bennett said, “just the fact he went to Duke.”

Rising to the occasion

As a freshman in 2013, Borders played in all 14 games for Cutcliffe’s Blue Devils.

In the ACC Championship Game that season against eventual national champ Florida State, Borders intercepted Jameis Winston twice.

“He just could rise to the occasion,” Cutcliffe said, “and I believe that’s what he’s continued to do in his professional career. If you give him a shot — a legitimate shot — he’s going to rise to the occasion. And he’s always got a smile on his face. He’s great in a locker room. He’s just good people.”

Borders started every game for the next two seasons. As a junior, he played the most snaps on Duke’s team and led the Blue Devils in interceptions for the third year in a row.

His senior season was going ever better until he was sidelined late in the year by a staph infection. He ended up losing about 30 pounds, “and I’m already not the biggest guy,” said Borders, who is listed by the Titans as 6-foot, 189 pounds.

That ordeal likely impacted his draft stock. The Raiders signed Borders in 2017 after he wasn’t selected. He ended up making their practice squad, beginning an NFL odyssey from Raiders to Bills to Texans to Jaguars to the Washington Football Team to Steelers to Dolphins and now the Titans.

“Every time one team lets him go,” Bennett said, “it just really breaks my heart because I know he loves football so much. He’ll say, ‘Well, another team will pick me up. Don’t worry about it.’”

“I’m trying to look at it in a positive way,” Borders said. “I’m visiting all these different cities, meeting all these different people, learning from all these different coaches. Of course, I want to be grounded somewhere, but I’m grateful to continually get picked up. I’m doing something right if I’m getting picked up over and over again.”

Though Borders was signed to the Titans' practice squad in Week 3, he said he didn’t actually get into the team’s building until about four weeks later. He had to quarantine for COVID-19 initially because of contact tracing. Then as the team fought an outbreak, he learned he'd caught COVID-19 himself.

“I had a slight headache for maybe a day or two, but it wasn’t bad at all,” said Borders. The worst part might have been having to spend weeks quarantining in a hotel in a new city, all the while logging into virtual meetings and trying to learn the Titans’ defense.

When the time came to play, though, he was ready.

“He’s come in here and he’s learned the defense,” Titans secondary coach Anthony Midget said. “He’s met extra with us to pick up the scheme. Every opportunity he’s gotten, he’s taken advantage of it. That’s why he’s out there playing for us now.”

Back home, Titans fans are being created quickly. Among them are Borders’ two young children — 3-year-old son Breon Jr. and 1-year-old daughter Ashley — who are still in Statesville.

“They’re young," he said, "but I have to figure out how to teach them those same lessons and values that I was taught, but not with the same experiences.”

He misses them, and he’s hoping that if his time on the Titans becomes more permanent that they can move to Nashville.

If that happens, Borders’ story will become more well-known — and an inspiration to those who run across it.

“I’m unbelievably proud,” Cutcliffe said. “He is proof (of) what we all need to think about right now when we want to complain about 2020. … The more I learned about what he had to overcome in his youth I just became a fan. It is a valuable lesson that through difficult times the opportunity to grow is there." 

Reach Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.