Lattimore explains irony in “Scream My Name”
GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) – Byrnes High School and Gamecocks’ legendary running back Marcus Lattimore just released his first book titled “Scream My Name,” but he explains how fans no longer screaming his name has led to finding himself off the football field.
“Hello, South Carolina,” Lattimore said at the start of his virtual interview with Palmetto Sports Reporter Carmine Gemei.
Lattimore is re-introducing himself to the state not through athletics, but through poetics.
“I swear with my hand on a South Carolina Gamecock football Bible,” Lattimore recites in a poem on his Instagram account.
Now he’s running with a new purpose. Lattimore moved out West and is teaching poetry in Portland, Ore. at clinics for people recovering from substance abuse.
“It’s been really perfect,” Lattimore said. “What I do, I find fun. What I do, I find as a challenge.”
He’s tackling his own challenge of finding himself outside of football.
“The transition is scary,” he said. “You have to be okay with becoming a beginner again.”
Lattimore is beginning his book-writing journey with a memoir and the meaningful title; “Scream My Name.”
“I fell in love with that dopamine that comes from loud fans, screaming fans,” Lattimore said. “I remember literally walking into a room and people start clapping”
Countless fans screamed his name as Lattimore became a High School All-American while winning three state championships at Byrnes in Duncan.
Then as a Gamecock, he earned SEC Freshman of the Year and Freshman All-American honors among several others.
Three years after arriving in Columbia, he earned a spot in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers before injuries sustained in college quickly caused those screams to fall silent.
“That was a transition for me not having people scream my name,” Lattimore said. “I just didn’t know how to live without that because all of my value was summed up into that.”
But Lattimore leaned on a lesson from an old coach.
If you live for the cheers, you’ll die by the boos,” he said. “I can’t let my self-worth be determined by how much attention I have, how much fame I have. So, don’t really scream my name. Haha.”
Marcus Lattimore’s book, “Scream My Name,” is available now on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. He said he’s already working on his next book, which will include poems about other SEC players, coaches and venues from his legendary days as a Gamecock.
