How Shemar Stewart's dad helped him get to the NFL

On Friday, Bengals first-round pick Shemar Stewart stood at the podium at Paycor Stadium during his introductory press conference, looked out in the crowd toward his dad and thanked him.

“He taught me how to be a man,” Stewart said. “He taught me how to take care of my business and go about things the right way. A lot of things beyond football, he instilled in me. We’ve been through this whole ride together. I don’t think I’d be here without him.”

He’s talking about Moe Marquez, who isn’t Stewart’s biological father. Marquez met the newest Bengal back when Stewart was a freshman in high school.

Bengals first-round picks always bring family members to their introductory press conference. Stewart brought Marquez.

”My dad,” Stewart said.

“Our relationship wasn’t intentional,” said Marquez. “It just naturally grew over time. He’d come to the house hungry. Well here, eat. It just budded into what we have now. He calls me dad, and that’s my son. Nobody can tell us any different. Blood couldn’t make us closer.”

It’s almost like fate brought them together. Marquez was in his first year as an assistant football coach at Monsignor Pace High School. One day, Marquez was hanging out in the head coach’s office.

Marquez happened to be sitting closest to the door, and he opened it.

On the other side was Stewart, a freshman who was 6-foot-4 and about 210 pounds and full of raw potential.

“First, I don’t let him in,” Marquez said. “I look at the head coach and I say “Who the (heck) is this?” The head coach says, ‘It’s one of your guys.’”

Marquez opens the door again and makes a promise.

He tells Stewart, “I’m going to make you the best player in the country.”

“From then on,” Marquez said, “He just stuck to me.”

“He taught me how to be a man,” Stewart said. “He taught me how to take care of my business and go about things the right way. A lot of things beyond football, he instilled in me.”

Stewart didn’t play sports until he was a teenager. He was still very new to football when he was a freshman on the high school football team, and he didn’t hit the ground running on the field.

“I tell everybody — he’ll probably be mad at me, but he’ll get over it — you’ve got to look at his freshman highlight film,” Marquez said. “It was a deer in headlights. He doesn’t know how to use his feet. He gets blown off the ball. It wasn’t who you see today.”

As Marquez coached Stewart into a five-star college recruit, he also helped him out off the field.

Stewart said, “I’ve fought through a lot of adversity… I’m not from the best background financially. It took a lot to get me to this point.”

Marquez said that the adversity that Stewart faced was a lot.

“There are some things that we’ll probably never speak about,” Marquez said. “At the end of the day, he has been through a lot for a kid who’s going to be 22 in November. You speak to him, and he’s still maturing because he never got to be a kid. He had to grow up really quick, especially in Miami. It’s not easy. As a family, we pulled together. This is the product.”

Marquez is beaming with a big smile as he stands in the Bengals’ locker room, right between the lockers that belong to Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase.

Marquez is looking at Stewart’s locker and his new No. 97 Bengals jersey.

“He’s phenomenal,” Marquez said. He’s going to be great for the city (of Cincinnati). He’ll be a role model.