Huge shoutout to Kenny for allowing me to interview him for this piece, you’re the absolute best Ken!
Kenny Irons: A True Auburn Man
Written by Kaitlin Kiernan for Sports Reporting at Auburn University in Fall 2020
When you think of great Auburn University running backs, many personalities may come to mind: Bo Jackson, Kerryon Johnson, Tre Mason or Cameron Artis-Payne. But there is one name that few people may think about: Kenny Irons.
Irons’ father had a dream of him and his brother playing football because he got injured early on and was not able to play the game. He lived his dream through Kenny and his older brother David. “It was a dream of my father’s because he could not play when we were young because he got injured early on,” said Irons. “So, I believe that he lived his dream through us, through his kids. I did not really like the sport and the process is what I did not like but I knew how much joy it brought my father so I continued to play because it brought him so much joy and made him happy, so I did it.”
Kenny Irons is from Camden, New Jersey, right across the Delaware River from Philadelphia. Camden – known by many as the poorest city in New Jersey – has a poverty rate of 35.5%. He has an older brother, David Irons, who was also an NFL cornerback. They are the nephews of Gerald Irons, a former NFL linebacker and Leroy Jackson, former NFL running back.
After visiting the South a few times, Irons’ father decided to move the family to Georgia right before Kenny and David started high school. “We lived in the East-Point area by the airport at first, but after out place got broken into a few times, we moved up to Gwinnett,” said Irons.
Iron’s attended Dacula High School in Dacula, Georgia. He earned PrepStar All-American, Sporting News Top 25, Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Top 11, Gwinnett County Back of the Year, and also played in the Georgia-Florida High School All-Star Game.
Out of high school, Irons originally went to the University of South Carolina to play for renowned head coach Lou Holtz for two years. After being at South Carolina for one season, the political aspect of college football kicked in, and it became clear to him that his future was not with the black and garnet; therefore, he decided to transfer to Auburn University, where his brother was attending and playing football.
“One of the main reasons I did not go to Auburn at first was because I knew that was where my brother was going,” said Irons. “Growing up, we did everything together. We had that close bond and I was always known as David Irons’ little brother. I kind of wanted to create my own identity and that was the main reason why I went to South Carolina. But at the end of the day, we had a bond that could not be broken.”
Kenny Irons knew he would not be able to transfer if he said he was going to another Southeastern Conference school, so he told South Carolina that he was going to transfer to an out of conference school like University of Southern California or Texas. After he told them this, the university granted him his transfer papers and he then transferred to Auburn and had the opportunity to play for Head Coach Tommy Tuberville.
When he got to Auburn, Irons assumed that he was on scholarship. Then about two months after being at Auburn, his dad received a tuition bill. “I told my dad to not worry about it and that I would handle it because I did not want anything handed to me,” said Irons. Irons and his father then had a meeting with Tuberville, and there were no open full-ride scholarships available on the team at that time.
“He was like son, you don’t have time to earn a scholarship they are going to kick you off campus,” said Irons. His dad came down to Auburn and they sat down with Tuberville, who then granted him a scholarship.
Coach Tuberville said to Irons and his teammates, “If you mess up, you got to pay the price. I will be your friend on the field all day, but outside of here discipline is more important than anything.”
During Irons’ time at Auburn, his team never lost to Alabama. He credits this accomplishment to the discipline that was instilled in them by Coach Tuberville and the mindset that he taught his players to always be playing hard.
After his time at Auburn, Irons was drafted to the Cincinnati Bengals with the 49th pick in the 2007 NFL draft.
“The help came from the character building and being held accountable for your actions helped me with my transition to the pros. Going to the NFL, there is no coach or nobody that is going to hold your hand or tell you have to be at meetings. If you miss a meeting, you are fined. You do not show up for practice, you are fined. You are late, you are fined… Coach Tuberville instilling that discipline, and the understanding that look, you have to hold yourself accountable. You have to present yourself in a way that you want others to present themselves to you. With Coach Tubs teaching that, at the end I would always go back to those core values that he held,” said Irons.
Irons’ father started a company called Irons2Impact, which started as a charity to help kids in the local community. The name Irons came from their last name, the number two was for
Kenny and his brother and “impact” stood for their want to make impact on their community around them. As the brothers were playing in the NFL, “the company started to kind of fall off, and when David and I left the NFL that is when we picked it back up because we knew how big it would be,” said Irons. “When we started it back up, we wanted to make it more of a business. So now we partner with NFL players and we help with financial advising, as well as still helping out in our community.”
Along with the business, Irons also travels around the Atlanta area doing speaking engagements and some motivational speaking, as well as host camps and trainings for kids that cannot afford football camps. “A lot of NFL players do these camps, but they cost maybe $50 or $75, but a lot of inner-city kids cannot afford to pay that. So, we created a free camp, but we still have the same talent and level of play there. This creates a greater impact in the community rather than forcing kids and to have to spend maybe $200 on a football camp,” said Irons.
“Going through the NFL, I faced a lot of challenges. I met a lot of people that were not genuine people. They all wanted to be around me because I was in a phase of my life where I was partying a lot. I tore my ACL; I was going through a deep depression and I really did not care about life anymore. I got addicted to pain killers and muscle relaxers. I kept taking the pills until I felt that numbing feeling, I did not care about what the consequences were. After I tore my knee up, everyone disappeared and when I was living in Birmingham, I really felt like I was alone. At that point is when a lot of things changed for me. Close friends of mine would only then hit me up and say their rent was due and they needed some help.”
Irons then moved to Atlanta, and started to make some real changes, both mentally and physically. He started getting into the training world and that helped him get out of the depression he was in. “I knew how I was growing up and how driven I was, but I felt like I had lost that,” said Irons. “To get out of that mental depression, I started training and working out and running a lot. I knew how I was growing up; how athletic I was and how driven I was and at some point, in my life I lost it.”
He then heard about Barry’s Bootcamp and that a studio was opening in Atlanta. Irons interviewed with the CEO and got an email saying that he did not get the instructing position; however, three days later, the former NFL back received an email saying that a spot opened up and they wanted him to come and teach. “A month later we flew up to New York for training and I knew that I was bad, and I thought I was going to be the first one to get fired,” said Irons.
“My main reason for taking the Barry’s job was to find a new social circle, maybe find more genuine people to surround myself with, and I was able to find that,” said Irons. “I found people that were not looking for anything, they just want you to be your true self.”
While Irons experienced the highs and lows that come with being a professional athlete, he proved that through hard work, persistence and a good surrounding crowd that there is always a way to overcome any adversity that life throws at you.