One of them smiled, pointing out the question raised by many elite schools.
Tell us about the struggle you had to overcome.
Daniels sifts through his life the same way a quarterback works through a progression: not nervously, but with a thoughtful hunt for honesty. A few feet behind him, Jalon’s mother, Starr Daniels, was mentally wandering through the possible culprits: a challenging math class? Maybe that one tough football game. Something to check the box.
To everyone’s surprise, Daniels lifted his chin and answered with utmost simplicity.
“Yes,” he replied, “I don’t have anything.”
The interviewers’ eyes darted between Jalon and Starr, confirming the answer they thought they had heard in error. “Nothing?” Nothing.
“I’m like, ‘Okay, thanks for your time guys. I know we wouldn’t have got it,'” Starr said. “But a part of me was very proud.”
It took years for Daniels to realize that moment at Junipero Serra High before he realized that the struggle he couldn’t name was a star hidden in the shadows.
The fact that the Kansas quarterback, now 23, couldn’t name 13 is the backbone of the foundation he later built to empower single mothers and their children. As Daniel grew up, he recognized the full weight of Starr’s efforts to make his childhood stress-free: two jobs, endless carpools, controlling his grades, covering every fee, and patching up every old rift.
When the NIL money arrived — Daniels is in his sixth season at Kansas — he had the means to repay years of gratitude. The MOM2JD6 nonprofit emerged from that clarity: If Star can erase her own struggle, she can also erase someone else’s.
The committee may have redacted his name, but Starr took action on the purity of his son’s truth.
“I’m going to make sure you have 100 percent of what you need, 90 percent of what you want,” the star told her only son, “but you have to do your job, because I don’t have to quit my job.”
Starr’s promise governed the home based on discipline, where she stated that a C did not count differently from an F if Daniel did not apply himself completely. If he had to go to a party, Starr would take him and watch Netflix in the car until he got out exactly a minute before his curfew. If she works a full-time job at an insurance company and a seasonal shift at Toys “R” Us, she definitely needs to handle business – school, soccer, money, and discipline.
That structure followed him to Lawndale High School, where Daniels transferred from Narbonne High for a real shot at the starting job. As a junior, Daniels amassed 2,351 passing yards, 940 rushing yards and a state title, before injuries derailed his senior season. A three-star dual-threat prospect and barely inside California’s top 300 in the class of 2020, Kansas was his only Power 5 offer.
“I wasn’t always that kid who was getting all As. The first time I got a 4.0 was freshman year,” Daniels said. “The happiest I’ve ever been.”
It taught him that success is not magic. It was carved out of a tireless grind – and for a Division I QB, no amount of work can repair the damage of straying from the path. “They don’t want a stupid quarterback,” he said.
All this happened nine years before Daniels launched MOM2JD6 – which took its name from the star’s email address. However, its roots were sprouting for years, before anyone even considered formalizing it.
Growing up, Daniels helped finance Christmas meals for local families, made donations during Thanksgiving, and assembled school supply kits for neighborhood children. He even saved pocket money for scholarships for a dozen kids at his local church in Lawndale, California.
“(The nonprofit) was their big way to do that,” Starr said, “saying, ‘I want to create my own foundation so I can dictate how I give back and how I present myself.'”
In 2021, a year into Daniels’ tenure with the Jayhawks, the NIL was flooded. Athletes’ checks dropped; Real money, real fast.
It helped that money was never a mystery in the Daniels household. Jalon’s stepfather Tyrone Daniels, who married into the family when he was 11, trained Jalon on spreadsheets and bank apps long before NIL arrived.
So when the cash started coming in, Daniels — who said he’s “afraid of going broke” — made a mental pie chart: savings, mortgage, life insurance, spending money, nonprofit.
“My freshman year, I only got a stipend to be able to live on campus,” said Daniels, who started at Kansas in 2020 when the NCAA still banned athletes from making a profit from their zero. “Now you’re talking about some new students who earn more than their families as soon as they get to college.” The pressure becomes real when families back home start asking for money, he said.
For Jalon Daniels and his parents, getting involved in the community is nothing new. (Courtesy of MOM2JD6)
Kansas’ 2025 season — with the 5-6 Jayhawks chasing bowl eligibility heading into Friday’s finale against Utah — is Daniels’ final lap in Lawrence. He opted to return for his final year of eligibility despite speculation that he would pursue the NFL Draft.
Daniels’ quick financial maturity paid off when he – the unofficial football financial advisor to Kansas’ new players – signed the papers for his own home in Kansas at the age of 22, a moment the star still considers his proudest.
“There aren’t a lot of 22-year-olds out there who are just buying a house,” Tyrone said. “It’s not about the money. It has a fair basis and credit. …He did the work, and now he’s facing the consequences.”
For Daniels, financial freedom widened the map Star had drawn for her. As his savings increased, MOM2JD6 also increased in the same proportion.
Sharon Olyphant, founder and CEO of The Nonprofit Plug, directed the Daniels family to legitimize the organization from its legal formation through federal approval. He said he realized early on that this was not a typical celebrity-branded charity.
“What sets Jalon apart is that he’s still connected to his community roots,” Elephant said. “Before he got the contract … before he knew where he was going to college, he was already doing all this.”
Daniels spent a large portion of her zero earnings at events in Lawrence, Kan., last year hosting a holiday meet-and-greet with The Single Mom Casey, a support organization for single mothers, and donating $5,000 to the Power Holiday initiative. Once MOM2JD6 officially opened, those gestures turned into community events that functioned like the Daniels family – attentive, welcoming, and personal.
Starr billed them “five-star” events, and he and Daniels treated them the same way – triple-checking the food, decor, volunteers, and atmosphere. At this year’s back-to-school event, an Egg Roll Babe truck was speeding by, with garlic noodles steaming and egg rolls sizzling near Kool-Aid jugs. The Mother’s Day smorgasbord featured bacon, sausage, eggs, waffles, and even shrimp and grits. There were mocktail bartenders, balloons, shirts, banners and a DJ, the setup was already buzzing long before the first baby arrived.
“For some people, it may be the best meal they have all week,” said Nicole Legoux, a 47-year-old single mom with a 12-year-old son. Both participated in the Mother’s Day program.
At every event, Daniels wasn’t the guy who posted up for autographs and then disappeared. He organized his teammates – his linemen on Mother’s Day and wide receivers on July 4 – to give the kids the experience of being with older brothers.
The Mother’s Day event lasted four hours, with about 50 children gathered around Jaloun and his linemen, who were participating according to the status group. Legoux recalled his son – then a sixth-grader with varsity lineman status – would hang out with the Kansas linemen and Daniels preached about staying grounded, avoiding drugs and maintaining good grades. Delivered by someone he admires, the message struck a chord with Ryder Legoux in a way that no other parent could.
“When kids can reach out and touch someone they see on TV or someone they’re talking about with a Heisman — and they’re from our community — it creates a ‘I can do this too’ mentality,” said Nicole Legoux.
“My son respects (Daniels) because he did a lot of the things that my son is doing now at a younger age. It helps reflect those messages a little bit more.”
Watching the kids melt toward Danielle didn’t help Starr understand that she was once a child reaching the steady ground of an adult. Before she raised a football-obsessed boy, she was the child of Aunt Ricky – her father’s sister, who silently epitomized structure and sacrifice.
Ricky held down minimum-wage jobs, paid off his own mortgage, and opened his doors to any kid who needed a safe place to stay. Starr described weekends when her house became a permanent sleepover, with cousins and neighbors occupying the couches and floor space, each fed whether she knew their names or not.
Starr said, “My aunt was the type of person who would take off her shirt and give it to someone, so I became the type of person who did that.”
So when MOM2JD6 planned a big event at his home in Southern California for Daniels’ bye week on October 18, Jalon knew what was at the center of it. Breast cancer was the disease that took her aunt, the woman who anchored her mother’s world.
“(Ricky) is the definition of strength to me,” Daniels said, “the definition of being so courageous about what you’re doing that no matter what’s going on in your life, you want to be able to stay on track.”
Jalon Daniels Foundation organizes breast cancer awareness event. (Courtesy of MOM2JD6)
Starr called on longtime colleague Nancy Rivera, a single mother and breast cancer survivor, to speak at the event. Rivera never told his story publicly, not even to his family. Still she agreed.
Rivera avoided saying the word “cancer” out loud, knowing how it made people’s faces glow. However, when the Star called, knowing what Ricky’s story meant, Rivera did not hesitate; She would “do anything the star tells me.”
After practicing her 10-minute speech in her backyard for several days, Rivera, 56, faced a room of about 100 people, highlighting parts of her journey she had never put into words. cried his parents and strangers in one voice. They laughed when relieved by his story.
“When I was done,” Rivera said, “I felt like a huge burden had been lifted.”
“Jalon and Star gave me the opportunity to overcome something I didn’t know I was ready to do.”
And that’s the real arc of MOM2JD6. Daniel is not moving forward from his upbringing. He’s honoring the people who built it, then widening the path they traveled.
That’s why Starr didn’t shed a single tear when she dropped off Daniels 1,599 miles from home.
“I know what kind of kid I raised,” he said. “Now is your time to get out into the world and show that I did my part.”
It’s safe to say it did its job. And now, he is definitely doing his bit too. Like she always requested.
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