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Oakland Raiders rookie Josh Jacobs, once homeless, buys his father new house

Oakland Raiders rookie running back Josh Jacobs rushed for 1,150 yards and seven touchdowns this season. File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI
Oakland Raiders rookie running back Josh Jacobs rushed for 1,150 yards and seven touchdowns this season. File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Oakland Raiders rookie running back Josh Jacobs, who was once homeless as a child, bought his father a new home.

Jacobs took to social media Tuesday to unveil the purchase and shared his father's reaction to the brand-new house. The Raiders also tweeted out video of the home and said it was located in Oklahoma.

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"Blessed just bought my pops a house," Jacobs wrote on Twitter.

Jacobs, along with his four siblings, lived out of a car sometimes while growing up with their father, Marty, in Tulsa, Okla. In an April piece for The Players' Tribune, the tailback wrote that his father lost his job and they "basically lived out of our backpacks, hopping from motel to motel" for two years.

Jacobs' path from homelessness to being a first-round draft pick of the Raiders also was documented in an ESPN piece last spring.

"Sleeping in the car, I always look back on it," Jacobs said at the time. "It's always going to be something that molded me into who I am. It might have been rough, but, I mean, it's my life."

Jacobs, a leading candidate for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, was selected with the No. 24 overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft out of Alabama. He ran for 1,150 yards and seven touchdowns this season despite missing three of the Raiders' final four games because of a right shoulder injury.

In 2019, Jacobs ranked third in the league in rushing yards per game (88.5), trailing only the Tennessee Titans' Derrick Henry (102.7) and the Cleveland Browns' Nick Chubb (93.4).

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