{"id":411570,"date":"2026-09-26T21:31:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T21:31:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/411570\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T21:31:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T21:31:27","slug":"patriots-receiver-demario-douglas-eyes-triumphant-homecoming-to-jacksonville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/411570\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots receiver DeMario Douglas eyes triumphant homecoming to Jacksonville"},"content":{"rendered":"

Asked this week how his ticket requests were coming, Douglas shook his head and smiled. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy Mom is handling all of that,\u201d he said. \u201cGot a lot of people coming out.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a highly anticipated weekend for Douglas, who grew up rooting for the Jaguars.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to feel good, you know?\u201d he said. \u201cGo back home and play in front of the home crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get to play it in front of my people back at home, people who probably can\u2019t fly up or fly to an away game. It\u2019s going to be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Get Point After<\/p>\n

Get exclusive analysis and insight on the Patriots and the NFL, delivered to your inbox on weekdays during the season.<\/p>\n

\"AngieAngie Oxendine with her son, DeMario Douglas, who was born in Jacksonville, Fla., and raised to be a football player who now plays receiver for the Patriots.Courtesy Angie Oxendine<\/p>\n

Douglas was born in Jacksonville, but his family moved about 40 miles south on Interstate 95 to nearby St. Augustine when he was 4 years old. When he was ready to attend high school, Douglas\u2019s mother knew she had to return to their hometown. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a bigger village in Jacksonville,\u201d said Oxendine, recalling how a group of coaches mentored her son and fostered his love of sports. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey would come pick him up for practice every day. They would come take him to the games,\u201d Oxendine recalled. \u201cYou know, I had my other babies; they were smaller, so anything I needed to do, [those coaches] would do.\u201d <\/p>\n

That led to a college football career at Liberty that vaulted him to the professional ranks as the Patriots\u2019 2023 sixth-round pick. <\/p>\n

\"WideWide receiver DeMario Douglas was a sixth-round pick of the Patriots in the 2023 NFL Draft. Danielle Parhizkaran\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n

\u201cThese coaches actually did build an amazing village around him,\u201d Oxendine said. \u201cIt gave a lot of resources and exposure, like playing 7-on-7 football. That was a huge exposure for him that he may not have gotten in St. Augustine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Off the field, philanthropy has always been an important part of his life. Oxendine remembered her son wrapped up his old clothes and took them to school to be donated to less fortunate classmates. As a collegian, he donated NIL money to charity drives.<\/p>\n

In New England, he\u2019s worked as a mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Massachusetts<\/a>, and was recently selected to be a part of the NFL\u2019s \u201cPlay 60\u201d campaign.<\/p>\n

And now, \u201cHeading Home,\u201d the largest family shelter provider in Massachusetts, is partnering with Douglas and Patriots teammate Terrell Jennings, also a native of Jacksonville and a Mandarin High alum, to raise awareness of the unseen side of family homelessness. <\/p>\n

\u201cFamily homelessness in Massachusetts rarely looks the way people expect,\u201d said Danielle Ferrier, CEO of Heading Home. \u201cA kid sleeping on the couch of a friend\u2019s grandmother is one of so many instances that fly under the radar. But it\u2019s real.<\/p>\n

\u201cPop and Terrell are an example of what happens when a community shows up for a family, and we are grateful they are lending their story to the thousands of families we serve.\u201d <\/p>\n

As for Sunday, Douglas and the Patriots are looking to go to 2-1 this Sunday at the expense of his hometown team. It\u2019s a key game for a Patriots\u2019 offense that\u2019s looking to shake off some early season inconsistency. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a long season, and I think we got a lot of room to improve. You just got to keep improving and keep stacking games,\u201d said Douglas, who is tied for the team lead with six catches.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I feel like this is how you find like who are the dawgs on the team, and who\u2019s going to play for 60 minutes. As we go game by game, that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to find out. \u2018Who are our playmakers? Who\u2019s going to go through that tunnel with us?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, with temperatures expected in the 80s for kickoff and plenty of friends and family in the stands, Douglas is looking forward to a taste of home when he hits the field at EverBank Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be hot out there, most definitely,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s going to be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Patriots elevated safety Mike Brown and defensive tackle Jeremiah Pharms Jr. from the practice squad on Saturday. Brown will provide an additional layer of depth at the safety position, where Craig Woodson (shoulder) is questionable for Sunday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

Woodson and tight end Eli Raridon (thigh), both of whom were listed Friday as questionable, made the trip to Jacksonville. Woodson practiced on Friday, while Raridon missed practice on Thursday and Friday.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the Patriots did not elevate an edge rusher off the practice squad, despite the fact outside linebacker Dre\u2019Mont Jones (shoulder) was downgraded to out and linebacker Quintayvious Hutchins (knee) was placed on short-term injured reserve.<\/p>\n

Christopher Price can be reached at christopher.price@globe.com<\/a>. Follow him on Bluesky at christopherprice.bsky.social.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Asked this week how his ticket requests were coming, Douglas shook his head and smiled. \u201cMy Mom is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,12004],"class_list":["post-411570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-patriots"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}