Roger Farmer experienced many changes in his life when he was nine years old and his family moved from Barbados, West Indies to Brooklyn.
One was sports.
"The thing about not being born in this country, you're always playing catch up. So as a kid, I was always trying to catch up to the culture," Farmer said. "The differences were huge. And then when you started playing sports, you're still playing catch up because those guys were born into it. I was more or less introduced into it."
And with his siblings and extended family more interested in cricket and soccer, Farmer wasn't introduced to football right away. But when he was, in true Brooklynese – fuhgeddaboudit!
"I went to one of the premier high schools, as far as athletics, in Brooklyn, Thomas Jefferson High School," Farmer said. "And I became infatuated with football when I first saw a Thomas Jefferson High School game. I was like, 'Wow, I want to do that.' It was an incredible thing to see. The big orange wave, as we would call it. But when I first saw Jefferson play, that's when I fell in love with it."
After playing tight end and defensive end in high school, Farmer went to Eastern Arizona College where he played football and basketball before transferring to Baker University in Baldwin, Kansas, where he was a wide receiver and named NAIA All-American his senior season after setting three school records with 59 receptions for 1,216 yards and 18 touchdowns.
And when he wasn't chosen during the 1978 NFL Draft, Farmer decided to put pen to paper, buy a bunch of postage stamps, and send letters to teams in the league.
"I don't know for every, but I wrote to a lot of them," Farmer laughed. "I had a mass letter and I just listed some of my attributes. I told them what I felt I can do and that I just needed a shot.
"(Dallas' VP of Player Personnel) Gil Brandt sent me a hell of a letter, and (Cowboys head coach Tom) Landry was involved in that. They really wanted to sign me, but I think I turned them off because I was like, 'Hey, don't bring me in here if I'm not getting a real shot.'"
Farmer would get a shot elsewhere and sign as a rookie free agent with the then-Baltimore Colts, but was released during the preseason. He would get another shot midway through the 1978 season when the Jets brought him in for a workout.
"I ran a 40 for them," he said. "But, of course, I wasn't working out at that time like I normally would be, and they said they would bring me back for rookie camp. So I went back for rookie camp, and after a couple of practices, they were like, 'Okay, let's sign you.'"
Even though Farmer was in better shape, the 1979 training camp didn't go as well as the rookie camp.
"You know, things happen when you're in camp. A couple of bad breaks, a couple of injuries," Farmer said. "I went over the middle and caught a pass in an intersquad game and had a terrible hip pointer. I brought myself back from that and salvaged camp, but that knocked me out a lot, having that injury."
Farmer bounced back from the injury and had two receptions for 29 yards during the preseason. But felt because of a lack of experience playing on special teams, he found himself among the final cuts.
"Looking back, everything for a reason," he said. "A couple of breaks and things didn't go your way. Because in that league, it's all time and place. (Jets head coach) Walt Michaels, he was gracious about it. I didn't have much experience on special teams in college. That hurt me.
"And so with New York being my backyard to the Jets, I stayed at home and did odd jobs. Just picking up work to keep it going."
The Jets didn't need to look far to pick up some help after a couple of their receivers went down with injuries in late October. They re-signed Farmer and he was active for the last seven games, making his NFL debut in Week 12 against the Bears in Chicago.
What does he remember most about his first game?
"Me going down on a kickoff and catching a damn penalty because I hit the returner late," Farmer laughed. "I mean, I was a receiver, man, I wanted to play. Given the situation that the league has now, everybody plays. But back then, if you were a starter, unless you broke your damn neck or your leg, you weren't coming out of that game. So your opportunity to play was very minimal to be on the field as a receiver."
Farmer displayed his desire to be on the field at almost all costs by playing in the final three games of the season with a broken right wrist.
"This idiot linebacker from New England, we got an onside kick and I think it was (Derrick) Gaffney that was on the ball," Farmer said. "I was just running over to make sure he had the ball covered, looking down and this linebacker hit me. I call it a cheap shot.
"I went flying and used my hand to break my fall and landed on my wrist. It wasn't that much of a fall, but I came up and the freaking hand was puffed up big as a balloon."
And while Farmer spent one season with the Jets, not as long as he would have hoped, he did make it to the top rung of professional football's ladder. Countless would have loved to taken those same steps.
"You don't look at it like that. You've got to understand, once I fell in love with the game, I never wanted to stop playing. I never wanted to stop reaching the heights of the game," Farmer said. "I was Small-College All-American. I was a Hall of Famer for my college. But whatever level you're at, you don't bring those with you. You're starting over.
"I gave myself a chance. But more so, what I remember of my days there, it's hard when you're in the game and you don't accomplish the things you know you can. That you worked for. When you leave the game, you feel like you leave so much undone."
Regardless of how long Farmer or anyone plays, once a Jet, always a Jet. He, however, wasn't so sure of that and is why he stayed away from the team for over 40 years until he took part in the Jets' Legends Weekend for the first time in 2023 at the urging of former teammate, Terry Randolph.
"He's the one that put me in touch with (the alumni director) Olivia (Sherman) and the organization," Farmer said. "At first, I was just sharing my information with the Jets, and then Olivia, she's really on top of her job, she sent the invitation. And when I spoke with my son, he was into it. I didn't realize how much I would have enjoyed it and appreciated going back to the Jets until I was sharing it with my kids.
"And I'll tell you what, (cornerback) Bobby Jackson gave me the best feeling of my life. When your peers recognize what you've done and what you could do, that's more gratification than anything you can imagine. And he gave me that.
"I hadn't seen Bobby in that much time, and he remembered who I was. But then he spoke about me on the field and what it was like playing against me. If I didn't have closure before, he gave me closure. He just really validated anything I could have felt for myself and the belief I had in myself. And even just remembering me on the field was incredible."
Now making his home in Cayce, SC, Farmer, the father of three adult children: Krista, Marcus, and Breana; was a firefighter in Providence, RI, following his football days. Unfortunately, while battling a warehouse fire, the building collapsed and he suffered injuries to his cervical vertebrae. That led him to retire after 12 years.
"I fell back on my education," Farmer said. "I always gravitated towards the kids and young people, and a very dear friend was the football coach at East Providence High School, and he asked me to speak to the kids one day. I came in and fell in love with them. And then I coached there. Volunteered. At the time, I was rehabbing and trying to get healthy.
"And so I wind up coaching there, and eventually took a position as a conflict resolution specialist in the high school (for 12 years)."
