Pittsburgh, PA – November 1, 2025 – Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jaylen Warren arrived 45 minutes late to Saturday’s walkthrough. The reason? A red-eye flight from Oklahoma after spending Halloween night trick-or-treating with a 12-year-old boy he met two years ago at a community food drive—a child who lost both parents to a house fire in 2023.
Warren, 27, left Pittsburgh Friday evening without telling coaches. He landed in Oklahoma City at 3 a.m., picked up the boy—whom he calls “LJ”—and spent the night handing out candy in Clinton, OK, the same small town where Warren grew up in a trailer with his single mom and three siblings.
“LJ asked if I’d be his big brother for Halloween. I wasn’t missing that,” Warren said quietly after practice, still wearing a faint smear of face paint on his wrist.
Head coach Mike Tomlin had initially planned a standard fine—$15,000 for an unexcused absence. But when Warren explained, Tomlin waved it off.
“Tell the business office to stand down,” Tomlin told reporters. “Some things are bigger than football. Jaylen’s one of the good ones.”
The story began in 2023 when Warren’s Jaylen’s Way Foundation hosted a back-to-school giveaway. LJ, then 10, showed up alone with a social worker. Warren gave him cleats, a backpack—and his phone number.
This Halloween was the first since the boy entered foster care. Warren dressed as a pirate; LJ went as a mini-Steeler. Photos circulating on X show the two high-fiving under porch lights, Warren’s 5’8” frame towering protectively.
Teammates weren’t surprised. “That’s just Jay,” said TJ Watt. “He’ll block a linebacker with the same heart he uses to block for kids who don’t have anybody.”
Warren, an undrafted success story who’s rushed for over 1,200 yards in his career, is in a contract year. But money isn’t what drives him.
“I know what it’s like to have nothing,” he said. “If I can give one kid a night where he forgets that—just one—then I’m good.”
