Each fall, football fans across the nation make the pilgrimage to Canton, Ohio. In this small Midwest town sits the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And each autumn, the newest class is enshrined — wealthy owners who shaped the league; aging linemen whose knees hardly allow them to take the podium; former superstars still perfecting their touchdown dances. Fans bring a life’s worth of sports memories, throwback jerseys of all different color schemes, and the hopes of meeting childhood heroes.
In 2009, with opportunity in sight, Oakland native Sam Cain brought his artwork to the ceremonies. Two of that year’s Hall of Fame inductees — owner Ralph Wilson and defensive end Bruce Smith — spent their NFL careers in Cain’s adopted hometown of Buffalo, New York, helping mold the Buffalo Bills into AFC powers during the early 1990s. So the young and eager artist headed to Canton with three paintings in tow: Portraits of Wilson and Smith, and another of inductee Rod Woodson. Cain had crashed the Hall of Fame in pursuit of a dream. “If I see opportunity, I’m going to go for it,” says the 2003 Oakland Tech graduate. “I’m going to do it myself. How many people from Oakland can say they had their art at the Hall of Fame?”
Today, the freelance artist known as SamCee lives in a Sacramento apartment with his fiance. On this afternoon in early November, he works on a portrait of his youngest son, Charles, who is still buzzing from a Halloween sugar high. Paintings of athletes rest against every wall, counter and window of the one-bedroom unit. A video camera sits in one corner, acrylic paints in another. In the scratch-and-claw world of freelance art, Cain is carving his spot.
After the recent passing of Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis, Comcast SportsNet invited Cain to their studio to paint a portrait of the football pioneer. For three days he labored over the piece. With cameras rolling, Cain etched the legendary owner’s silver and black sweatsuit, sharp facial features and demanding glare. When the painting was complete, Cain discussed the piece with Raiders radio broadcaster Greg Papa on the television show Chronicle Live. “It will look good in my office,” Papa said at the end of the interview.
For Cain, painting the deceased was nothing new. In 2003, the year Cain graduated from high school, 114 people were killed in Oakland, according to The Oakland Tribune. With the homicide rate soaring, and having access to a small art studio near the Eastmont Mall, Cain began air brushing “Rest In Piece T-shirts” for family and friends of the deceased. “It was sad,” he recalls. “There were a lot of people getting killed. I’ve had people say, ‘You’re trying to make money off my son.’ But, really, I’m showing my craft. I’m trying to bring some happiness to them by putting their child or cousin on a t-shirt. “It helped me build my skill level, to put me where I’m at now. When somebody passed away, (the family) came to me. They wanted some work done. I got some good money doing it, but it was just sad knowing how many people were dying in my community.”
Inner-city life took its toll on Cain’s family, as well. At age 5, with his mother fighting a drug addiction and his father moving back and forth from St. Louis, Sam and his two brothers were placed in foster care. “The police came to me and said, ‘We’re going to have to separate you three.’ And I thought, being the oldest, that it was best for me to be alone and let them two be together.” When Sam was 12, an uncle took custody of the three boys. Ashlee Sherman, an Oakland Tech wrestling coach who has been inducted into the California Wrestling Hall of Fame, woke up his nephews at 5:30 a.m. each morning. He made them run, eat right, and stressed athletics.
Cain was on track to be a starting defensive back as a freshman at Oakland Tech before a neck injury ended his football career. With his athletic dreams gone in a flash, he found a new outlet in art. In high school, traditional canvases were hard to come by, so Sam would paint friends’ shoes. “I didn’t know much about art,” he says. “I just knew I could draw.”
When childhood friend Marshawn Lynch was drafted in the first round by the Buffalo Bills in 2007, Cain hitched a ride to the Northeast. It was an escape from Oakland, and an entire coast ripe with opportunity. However, in a new and far more frigid world, he quickly became homesick. “My first couple years in Buffalo, it was rough,” he says. “Being in the snow, being away from my family, being away from my girl. But being what I’ve been through, you can adjust to anything.”
In Buffalo there was a steady clientele of athletes. His first professional athlete portrait was for New York Giants defensive tackle Justin Tuck. Then came Bills running back Fred Jackson, and safety George Wilson. Word of mouth brought in new business, much like with the R.I.P. shirts in Oakland. “These professional athletes make millions of dollars,” he says, “and they love looking at themselves.” With his athletic background, Cain has always been in sync with the sports world. It shows in the detail and precision of his work. The speed, ferociousness and excitement of the game comes to life on the canvas. Linemen flex their biceps, running backs shift direction, owners scowl on the sidelines.
“I’ve played running back. I’ve played linebacker,” says Cain, who grew up playing for the Oakland Dynamites in Pop Warner. “So when I do a drawing of Adrian Peterson, I know what it’s like to carry the ball, cut through players. I know what he’s seeing. I know what Patrick Willis is thinking when he comes up to make a hit.”
The sound and fury of the game splashes onto the canvas with each stroke of the brush. For Cain, it’s a beautiful sound.
- Story by guest contributor, Nick Lozito
