As the sixth NFL draft pick of 2022, Rams Safety Quentin Lake wasn’t even a rock to make a team. Three years later, he was the team captain and in 2024 the Rams’ second leading tackler.
This sudden success is not surprising. Because Lake had the perfect role model to follow. The person who played in the same position and also starred as the captain of the NFL team while wearing the same jersey number 37: his dad.
Kernel Lake was five all-propalo safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who were selected for the NFL’s all-decade team in the 1990s. However, Kernel was in family status and did not attempt to force Quentin into a family business.
“When he was little, he would always ask me to coach him, but I wouldn’t,” Kernel told KTLA. “I wanted it to be his. I didn’t want him to put that pressure on me.”
Quentin just started playing. His father had a major influence in an indirect way.
“I was in Little League football and I was running around,” Quentin said. “One day, my coach came to me and said, ‘Oh, we know your dad. Would you like to try defensively?”
Kernel and Quentin Lake can be found at the Rams training facility in Woodland Hills. (KTLA)
The transition to defense was good. After a successful career at Santa Ana’s Mater Dei High School, Quentin starred in UCLA, just like her dear old dad. Kernel was in the midst of a successful NFL coaching career at the time, but put it on hold so that he could see Kernel play.
“It’s really important to me to be able to spend that quality time with my son,” explained Kernel. “And if I can give him some nuggets to help him in his career, that’s great.”
These “nuggets” have proven useful.
Quentin and Kernel Lake can be found at the Rams training facility in Woodland Hills. (KTLA)
In college, Quentin once ignored tips from the kernel, then got burned for a touchdown, leading him to say all the kids to say the words “Daddy, you were right.”
“He had the ‘the moment I told you that’,” Quentin said of his experience with his father. “Then we really started jumping into the film. He makes sure I put myself in the best possible position to succeed.”
The lake is also successful from the fields. When KTLA caught up with them at the Rams facility in Woodland Hills, they were filming PSAs for Edwards Life Sciences to encourage people to undergo screening for heart valve disease. The Rams and Edwards offer free Heart Valve screenings to the public.
Heart valve disease is a condition that has personally affected the Lake family, and Quentin pushes the kernel to screen, and he feels he is ultimately instructing his father for change. But after all, there’s not much competition between this father-son duo.
The answer split when KTLA asked the lake to a better lake with a grid iron. Quentin says the kernel is faster, but the kernel says that his son has better hands and is an auxiliary.
However, Quentin gave his father a more difficult batsman advantage. Both said they enjoy working together, breaking movies and discussing techniques rather than comparing praise. As Quentin says about his relationship with his father, “Soccer is our love language.”
You can find more information about free screening for heart valve disease or sign up for one by following this link.
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