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FRANK PASTORInstead of in West Virginia coal mines, the Storm's Kelvin Kinney has played on football fields all over North America.
Storm lineman Kelvin Kinney plays football almost 11 months out of the year.
In the past three seasons, he bounced from the XFL to the Arena Football League to the Canadian Football League to the Arena league to the CFL and back to the Arena league.
All with a 6-inch screw holding together the bones in his left foot.
But Kinney's mother doesn't believe he works hard enough. To her, work was what Kinney's father, Thomas, did in the West Virginia coal mines for more than 40 years.
Too tall to stand in the 5-foot-high mines, Kinney's father crawled to his job as a laborer with a pick and shovel for 10-15 years. He operated a buggy for the rest of his career.
Many of Kinney's uncles and cousins worked in the mines, too.
"I think there's a trait that runs in that family of hard work," Kinney said. "I think that shaped me."
One of Kinney's first elementary school trips was to an abandoned mine. Many of his friends quit high school to work in the mines.
Growing up in a mining family taught Kinney the value of hard work and discipline. Unlike other 16-year-olds, he wasn't allowed to stay up until 11 p.m. Kinney's upbringing taught him another important lesson: He wasn't cut out for a life in the mines.
"Coal mining was never in my repertoire," Kinney said.
Instead, Kinney went to college and pursued a pro football career.
At 6 feet 7, 278 pounds, he is one of the top pass rushers on a Storm defense that ranks first in the league in sacks (23). Kinney arrived from Detroit in an October trade for quarterback Scott Milanovich. At the time, there was some doubt as to whether Kinney would play in Tampa Bay.
Upset that Detroit fired coach Mouse Davis, Kinney vowed not to return to the Fury and was contemplating retirement or surgery to remove the pin from his broken left foot.
Kinney, a sixth-round pick of the Redskins in 1995, was injured while battling the Bills' John Fina during the '96 preseason. As Fina stepped on Kinney's foot, the top part stayed planted while the lower part rolled.
"When you look at the hole in his foot, it's amazing he can play at such a high level," Storm coach Tim Marcum said.
Kinney decided against surgery when he learned he would have a chance to win an ArenaBowl in Tampa Bay.
"All I've got to do is win a championship and I can walk away from this thing," Kinney said. "I thought it would happen in Edmonton (where he played for the CFL's Eskimos), and it didn't. Hopefully, it'll happen here."
Kinney is considering opening a private investigation business or hair salon when he's done with football.
"Football's given me a lot," he said. "I made a decent amount of money, set myself up for the future. I've been everywhere, just about every state. I've seen a lot and done a lot."
He's not finished. Kinney has a deal in place to return to Canada to play for the Toronto Argonauts after the Arena season.
"I think that's just a trait that I picked up from my family," Kinney said. "If it's out there for you, don't sit back and wait for somebody to give it to you. Go get it."