For a few years in the late 2000s, Patrick Peterson and Jarvis Johnson worked in the same building.

On Sundays at State Farm Stadium, Peterson would lace up his cleats and take the field with the Arizona Cardinals. Meanwhile, Johnson worked for a few years for Rojo Hospitality Group, serving food to fans and catching a glimpse of the game when he could. Their jobs were already quite different, and from there, their paths diverged further. 

Johnson moved on to work elsewhere. He met his wife in 2012, and they have two kids. 

The past few months were hard. He was in a car crash, which led to a coma. He was furloughed. He had coronavirus. He and his family were able to stay with his mom for a bit, but he needed a bit more time to get back on his feet. The Johnsons ended up at UMOM. 

“It’s been a challenge,” Johnson said. “You’ve got a lot of pride coming in somewhere like this, because you don’t want to be here, you don’t know what it’s like, you’ve never been here before.”

But then, his path crossed with Peterson once again.

On Tuesday, Peterson donated hundreds of meals to UMOM, the largest family homeless shelter provider in Maricopa County. As the timing worked out, Peterson’s first “P2 Tuesday” at UMOM would be the last supper there for Johnson and his family. 

“We’re going to enjoy tonight and then we’re actually moving out tomorrow,” Johnson said. 

For the next year, Peterson will provide meals every Tuesday at UMOM. Tuesdays are a natural fit for Cardinals who want to give back to the community, but for Peterson, there are added layers of meaning. P2 Tuesdays rolls nicely off the tongue. And Tuesdays were also a day that Kobe Bryant, Peterson’s “favorite basketball player of all time,” would give back to the Los Angeles community, particularly those experiencing homelessness. 

Peterson has dedicated his time and money back to the Arizona community before. But a year-long commitment to the same place was especially meaningful. 

“When we heard that news, we were really blown away,” Dina Altieri, Director of Culinary Enterprises at UMOM.

With team restrictions, Peterson was unable to be at UMOM in person Tuesday, but a video with his message played on loop. He’s hoping to get out there in the future, and bring his family, too. His family was on his mind in the planning: Tuesday’s meal was fried chicken, mac and cheese, yams and peas.

“My grandma used to cook that for us like every other Sunday,” Peterson said. “It was not only my favorite, but my family’s favorite. So I thought that would be a great welcome dinner for UMOM and for all the families there to enjoy.”

The meal came during a big week for Johnson, and a big week for Peterson as well. Named a captain on Tuesday, Peterson and the Cardinals kick off the 2020 season this Sunday on the road against the 49ers. After missing the beginning of last season with a suspension, Peterson is hungry to start the season strong. 

“I love proving people wrong so this is going to be a big year for me,” Peterson said. “I feel like my back’s against the wall, and that’s when I operate best.”

It will be a big year in another sense. Peterson is under contract until the end of the season, and while he says he has not had discussions about an extension, he is “at peace” with his situation. 

“I can’t worry about anybody else’s pockets,” Peterson said. “Budda (Baker) and DeAndre (Hopkins) definitely got what they deserved. And it was their time — it’s all about timing. I’ve been in this game before, I’ve been in contract negotiations before, it’s not my first go-round. I’m lucky and blessed enough to be in my third go-round.”

His first focus is what he can do on the field, and getting some wins for his team through that. But he knew even growing up that if he could make it to the NFL, he could make some money. And then he could make a difference. 

“We’re trying to dignify this experience for people here,” Altieri said. “I think some of the routines, especially during COVID, when we’re all feeling feelings of being isolated and separated, that just has to make somebody who’s experiencing the trauma of being homeless even more profound.

“And so that’s what we’re trying to do through food is to dignify the experience again, kind of conjure up those food memories and make people happy.”

Altieri and the staff at UMOM have faced new challenges to provide for a surging number of people in need during the pandemic. More and more of her budget has to go to paper products since meals are served to-go now to account for public health and social distancing. And with the economic fallout, more people have lost their jobs. Johnson and his wife were both furloughed and unemployment took awhile to come through. 

“You know when they say rainy day, I’m telling you, when COVID hit, it was a rainy day, it was a storm, it was a tornado. It was it was a hurricane. It was a monsoon,” Johnson said. “It really just knocked everything out.”

Peterson says he wants the P2 Tuesdays to “get bigger and better.” He says maybe one day the meal can even be a seafood boil if it works out. But the impact was already immediate for people like Johnson, who grabbed his to-go plates for his family while wearing a Cardinals hat, a Cardinals shirt and a Cardinals mask. He was already a fan and can’t wait to watch Peterson play again. And soon, he’ll do that in a new home. 

“What a great opportunity to have a really good meal, and you got  Patrick Peterson saying, ‘Hey, we want to give this guy a good last day, we wanna give him good meal on his move out,’ ” Johnson said with a laugh. “So I look at it like that.

“I’ve come a long way. And this place has really helped me out.”

Cardinals monitoring air in California

Coach Kliff Kingsbury said the Cardinals are “definitely monitoring the situation” in regards to air quality in the Bay Area, following wild fires across the west coast. 

Kingsbury has been in some meetings, but said that General Manager Steve Keim, owner Michael Bidwill and the Cardinals’ football operations department are working through plans for Sunday’s road game. 

“I’m sure that discussions are going on right now to figure out the best and safest option,” Kingsbury said Friday. “I don’t know what that would be at this point, but I’m sure they’ll come to a good place.”

Injury Report

Cardinals OL Josh Jones (ankle) and 49ers WR Deebo Samuel (foot) and CB Jason Verrett (hamstring) were all ruled out of Sunday’s game. San Francisco WR Brandon Aiyuk (hamstring) and C Ben Garland (ankle) are both questionable.

Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 480-356-6407. Follow her on Twitter @kfitz134.

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