Long before Jeremiyah Love became one of the NFL’s most talked-about rookies, his family was trying to understand what made him different. A resurfaced clip featuring his parents sheds light on the routines, social struggles, and behavior that shaped his childhood.
This concern eventually became a lesson in letting Love grow on his own terms.
Jeremiyah Love’s Parents Saw Something Different Growing Up
Love’s childhood was not always easy to understand from the outside. The future Arizona Cardinals star described himself as “odd” and remembered growing up largely on his own in a September 2025 interview for ESPN’s “College GameDay.”
“Coming up as a kid, I always, I guess you could say, odd, really. Like, I did things on my own. Didn’t really have any friends growing up,” Love said.
His father, Jason Love, noticed that his son often kept to himself. School eventually made those differences more apparent, particularly when everyday routines became difficult.
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“He kept to himself a lot, so he was pretty adventurous,” Jason said. “But when we started school, we started to notice certain things about Jeremiyah that was a little different. It took us 20 minutes to get him ready for school because he would just become dysfunctional.”
His mother, L’Tyona Love, initially interpreted the behavior differently.
“At first, I just thought he was being difficult, and then I realized he couldn’t concentrate if things weren’t just the way he liked them,” she said.
POWERFUL: #Cardinals 1st-round RB Jeremiyah Love grew up showing signs of being on the autism spectrum and was often viewed as “different.”
His familys story of understanding, supporting and embracing him along the way is incredibly powerful.
Beautiful. pic.twitter.com/8U1EbtQyTy
— MLFootball (@MLFootball) August 17, 2026
The family eventually sought medical guidance after noticing these patterns. Jason recalled that a doctor encouraged them to focus on helping Jeremiyah adapt instead of trying to change his personality.
“The doctor advised us to just continue to let him be who he is and learn how to adapt to it and encourage him,” Jason said.
The family wondered whether Love might have autism spectrum disorder, but the available account does not indicate that he received a formal diagnosis.
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Love Turned His Particular Nature into Part of His Game
As Love grew older, the traits that once worried his parents became something he could understand and use to his advantage. He has acknowledged that he always knew he had certain tendencies, but he did not view them as something that had to define him negatively.
“I always kind of knew I had some tendencies, but it didn’t really affect me because I’m a totally accept the type of person that I am,” Love said. “I feel like that particularness about myself has helped me to be a better football player. It gives me a lot of power over my own life.”
This mindset followed him through Notre Dame and eventually to Arizona, where the Cardinals selected him No. 3 overall in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Jason took the advice once given to him to support Jeremiyah rather than change him. That advice was, “Don’t try to change him, let him change the world,” as he mentioned in the same interview.
What once seemed like a difference became one of the defining parts of Love’s identity. Now, the message his father gave him as a child has followed him all the way to the NFL.
