Ja’Mori Maclin has been battle tested from a young age, but turning to his faith in God during mental health struggles has kept him alive.

After being born in St. Louis Maclin faced his first bit of adversity as the third oldest of 13 siblings in his household. 

This led to Maclin having to grow up fast and feeling like he had to become a father around six years old.

These challenges led Maclin to turn to football and his relationship with God. 

“God definitely placed football in life because that was the only thing keeping me away from trouble in my home,” Maclin said. “Anytime I go to football, I’m like having the best time of my life and when I go home it’s like ‘ah this sucks.’” 

He credited some good coaches who took care of him and further kept him out of trouble. 

Maclin is currently around 365 miles away from Kirkwood High School, in Kirkwood, Mo., where he finished his career with 2,029 yards and 22 touchdowns. 

In his high school years, Maclin was also on the basketball and track teams before arriving on campus at Missouri to start college. 

The wide out redshirted his freshman year after just appearing in three games before appearing in just two in his second season with the Tigers. 

This led to Maclin heading into the transfer portal where he landed with North Texas.

In his second season with the Mean Green in 2023, he broke out and had the best year of his career, hauling in 1,004 yards and 11 touchdowns. 

However, while things were going ok in his career, there was another fight that Maclin was fighting, and that’s the battle within. 

He began facing mental health battles that had him in a major struggle. This led him to turn to his faith once again to save him.

“My faith in God, that’s the thing that really saved me,” Maclin said. “If it wasn’t for God, I probably wouldn’t even be here right now. Three, four, five years ago I was wanting to take my own life. Having that relationship with God definitely matured me and it’s definitely helped me persevere through things.”

After earning American Atlantic Conference Second-Team honors, Maclin hit the portal again and landed in Lexington as a Kentucky Wildcat.

His first season in blue and white was not quite what he expected, as he was not an essential part of the offense. 

In the modern day of college sports, where it’s about money and being the focal point, Maclin could have jumped in the portal again, but he did not and chose to stay in Lexington. 

“Got a lot of love for Ja’Mori Maclin, I think he represents this program in a big way,” Offensive Coordinator Bush Hamdan said. “He certainly had some tough decisions this offseason and I don’t think there is any one player myself or the staff would like to see have a big year than him.” 

However, the unexpected loyalty in the era of players profiting from their NIL deals revealed a greater purpose for the receiver on and off the field. 

“Being able to be a leader for these guys and being able to help these young guys, I feel like that is more important than anything in the world,” Maclin said. “Me chasing my dreams and making a bunch of money, that’s not what really matters, it’s about helping the people around you.”

That mentality has become infectious to those around him, especially younger receivers on the team. 

“J-Mac is someone I look up to a lot,” Wide Receiver Hardley Gilmore IV said. “J-Mac is someone you need in your life. He’s going to make sure you stay on point, make sure you’re doing everything right, make sure you aren’t slacking, he keeps it real with you and that’s someone you need in your life.” 

While Maclin is trying to be that for people around him, his cousin Jeremy Maclin was that person for him. 

Maclin considers Jeremy as a second father to him and always took great pride in telling people that his cousin was in the NFL. He also credited Jeremy with helping him with the mental side of the game.

Jeremy spent eight seasons in the NFL and wore the number nine across his chest every weekend just like Maclin does.

Maclin said it is to keep that lineage and honor someone who meant so much to him and wants to be that same role model for his siblings. 

“That’s why I take life very seriously now when it comes to my faith and how I approach life outside of football,” Maclin said. “I care about my siblings, and I want them to be able to look up to their big brother one day and know I’m doing something good in life.”

When the helmet and shoulder pads come off, Maclin leaves practice, opens his bible, then turns on his camera. 

“I do preach a lot and tell people about the word of God,” Maclin said. “I get on TikTok live and I just preach to people and most people know me from that as well. It’s just about informing people about God and Christ, that’s what I do with my life.”

Outside of preaching, Maclin also enjoys fishing and watching his favorite movies like “Hancock” and “Cat in the Hat,” not the cartoon one. 

Maclin also makes content on YouTube and TikTok teaching young kids how to play wide receiver. 

The clips began as a way to get his name more out there for recruitment purposes, but then people started sending him messages asking how to do what he was doing.

“Man, it means a lot to me, I’m just blessed to be able to steward what God has given me and that’s a platform like social media,” Maclin said. “Just being able to impact people in a small way, that’s my way of serving people.”

While Maclin might be able to run routes quickly or catch passes over defenders, what makes Maclin an anomaly is his unselfish nature to serve others. 

Before meeting with the media, Maclin spent around 20 minutes after practice playing football with a youth team the program was hosting, and that is how he wants to be remembered. 

“I know the landscape of college football is all about money and making it to the NFL, but this is the biggest blessing, being able to impact people who come and watch you at practices and you’re just having fun with them,” Maclin said. “They are going to remember that for the rest of their lives. They are not going to remember you by freaking how many touchdowns you had, I think it’s always about what type of person that you are.”