CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Somewhere in a Sacramento, Calif., home, inside a box tucked away in the back of a closet, rests a manila envelope that Carolina Panthers linebacker Shaq Thompson can't bring himself to open.
It has been a little more than a year since his mother passed, a little less since that envelope arrived, and Thompson and his three brothers don't want to read her autopsy.
"Nah, we're going to wait 'til everybody's ready," Thompson said.
Patrice Thompson, Thompson's mother, died in her sleep Oct. 14, 2019. She was 57.
Her death was unexpected. She made breakfast that morning. She watched Shaq's football game, a Panthers victory over the Buccaneers in London, on television with her family midday. She took a nap after the game.
And then, just like that, she was gone. She never woke up.
Shaq Thompson and his mother lived more than 2,600 miles apart when he moved to Charlotte from Sacramento, but they talked by phone daily. She was his biggest supporter, attending almost all of his football games since he was a small boy. When her boys made long touchdown runs, she'd sprint in front of the stands, trying to keep pace alongside them.
She was Thompson's world. And as the baby of the family — the youngest of four boys — he was hers, too.
When she died, he decided to honor her legacy by doing what she did best. Giving.
Thompson, 26, is the Panthers' nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. The award is one of the most prestigious in football as it honors a player for his volunteer and charity work, as well as his play on the field.
Thompson was nominated because of the leadership he showed this past offseason, said Riley Fields, the director of community relations for the Panthers.
"It was how Shaq has stepped forward this year on his own to make a difference in both the Charlotte region and his home city of Sacramento, California," Fields said. "When we looked at the volume of work that he's done through his own efforts, and the different causes that have been really important to him, I think he became really a clear nominee."
Last summer, Thompson was one of a number of players who marched the streets of Charlotte to peacefully protest social injustice and police brutality. He was also part of a group that met with the then-Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department chief Kerr Putney in an effort to bridge the gap with police and the Black community.
And when the COVID-19 pandemic began, he helped deliver meals to families living in motels and to healthcare workers working overtime. That was only a small sample of what he has done.
His motivation? Mom, who was known around Sacramento as Ms. Patty, or Momma Patty.
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Patrice Thompson was a single mother of four boys — Syd'Quan, Ricky, Le'Arthur and Shaq. Shaq's father wasn't around, so she shouldered that role, making sure her boys had enough food on the table and clothes to wear.
She was a protective mother. When Shaq was about 5, she moved the family to a nicer neighborhood to ensure they stayed on the right path to college.
But her motherhood extended beyond her blood. She helped raise Shaq's half-brother Demitri Green, and gained the nickname "Momma Patty" because she was a mother figure to all.
"Being young, too, I'm not going to lie, we didn't really understand it at first, but as we got older, we realized she was like a people-person," Ricky Thompson, Shaq's brother, said. "People just loved her. Her energy, when she came into a room was just positive energy all the time."
And she loved to cook.
Her specialty was her famous chicken. Ricky Thompson said when he and his brothers were in middle school and high school, before their football games, his mother would tell their teammates that if they'd win, she'd cook them chicken. That was enough motivation.
"I ate probably a cadrillion, trillion, damn, chicken growing up," Shaq Thompson said. "I'm talking about every day, and it never got old."
Chicken that was, "made one damn way, and that was her way. Fried to perfection."
Four people interviewed for this story confirmed Thompson's assertion, including Myesha Johnson, one of Patrice Thompson's childhood friends.
"I can confirm that," Johnson said with a laugh. "I was her sous-chef. Her chicken is bomb."
Patrice Thompson didn't have much money herself — she worked for the California state government for most of Shaq's childhood — but she'd give her last dollar to a person in need. If someone needed a place to stay, she'd open up her home to them. If a neighbor needed help moving, she had four strong, football-playing sons who could help.
"Sometimes it didn't even feel like your mom the way she was helping everybody out," Shaq Thompson said. "It felt like you had to share your mom, share your house, share your food, and just after a while, it got to be the norm.
"I just remember all of that stuff, and once she passed it kind of just clicked."
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It was clear to Shaq Thompson the impact his mother had on their community in Sacramento when more than 200 people showed up to her funeral.
Calvary Christian Center's event room was packed. Standing-room only as people waited outside to get in. Most of them there were people she cared for and touched. Shaq Thompson said he knew in that moment that he wanted to start a foundation and emulate her.
"When she passed away, I kind of just found my purpose in life," he said. "I want to do this because my mom would have probably loved to do this and would have enjoyed this."
The foundation, the Thompson Legacy Fund, honors his mother's mission in life. He started it in 2020, though the COVID-19 pandemic delayed some of his immediate plans. This year, through his foundation, Thompson hopes to support youth in Sacramento and Charlotte with a focus on dental hygiene and dental care.
Thompson said he never went to a dentist because the family didn't have dental insurance. He had one crooked tooth, causing him low self-esteem throughout his school years. He finally got it fixed when he got to the NFL, but he was only able to do it because he finally had money.
Thompson's foundation plans to partner with local dentists in both Sacramento and Charlotte to provide free dental care for children whose families cannot afford it. They plan to serve at least 150 children in each city this year.
Grant High School football coach Mike Alberghini, who coached Shaq Thompson and his three brothers in high school, said he's not surprised to see what his former player is doing.
He said when Shaq was in high school, he'd visit kids in the hospital. That was his mother's influence, Alberghini said, adding that he continues to give back to Sacramento.
"He's donated money to the program, does things to help kids. He's around, comes to our practices," Alberghini said. "He'd tell kids the right way to live and to do the right thing. He's been a high moral kid his whole life."
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A picture of Shaq's mother sits on one side of his Panthers locker. A picture of the entire family sits on the other side. Before every game, he looks at the photos and tells his mother he misses and loves her. He wishes she was here.
But he can still hear her words and what she told him as a child.
Don't be a follower. Be a leader.
Her words helped him through a tough 5-11 season for the Panthers this past fall. Thompson was second on the team with 113 tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss and two forced fumbles, all career highs in the first of a four-year, $54 million contract extension he signed in December 2019.
But what impressed Panthers coach Matt Rhule most this past season was Thompson's leadership on and off the field, and who he was as a person and father of two.
"He wants to speak and listen to other people, and at the same time present what he believes in," Rhule said. "He's someone that I trust, and someone that I believe in.
"I think his impact on these communities will only grow as the years go on."
Thompson said he was surprised that he was nominated by the Panthers because he doesn't give back for the recognition; that's how he was raised. But he was also honored because he knows the award's prestige and the work of those who have won it.
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That envelope with the autopsy remains sealed at Ricky Thompson's Sacramento home.
The family will open the envelope when they are ready, but for now their emotions are too raw. In some ways, they are afraid of the answers.
When Patrice Thompson first died, the brothers questioned: "Why?" As if it was their fault they didn't foresee her death happening with signs of sickness she may have shown. She was dealing with some health issues, Shaq Thompson said, but he isn't sure what those were.
"She didn't tell us," he said.
The Thompson brothers say mom never wanted her boys to worry. Their focus, she'd tell them, should be toward achieving their dreams.
But they never expected her, a grandmother to 13 kids, not to be here for their successes. And while the brothers say they've accepted her death, it still doesn't feel real. How could we not see it?
"When we're all ready, we'll get together and we'll open it," Ricky Thompson said of the envelope. "Just not now."
"I don't think anybody is ready," Shaq Thompson said.
For now, Thompson will keep doing what he's spent the past year focusing on — helping communities that need it.
Being named Walter Payton Man of the Year, "would mean everything," he said. He knows his mother would be proud.
But if he doesn't win it, that doesn't change anything. He'll continue to give back, because that's Ms. Patty's legacy.
