Richard Sherman's dad still wakes up at 3:45 a.m. to drive a trash truck, doesn't want to live off his son

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Despite having a son who recently just signed a $56 million contract with the Seattle Seahawks, Kevin Sherman still wakes up early to do the job he has done for more than two decades.

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Kevin, whose son Richard Sherman will play in his second-straight Super Bowl, has worked as a trash-truck driver in Los Angeles for 26 years.

He told Sam Farmer of the LA Times in 2014 that he wakes up at 3:45 a.m., and works holidays to make overtime.

While he's okay with taking the occasional day off here and there, he's only 18 months away from earning his pension, SI's Robert Klemko reports. Sherman told Klemko that he doesn't want to live off his son:

"It's something to keep busy, and it's easy now. If I take a day off, I don't need to worry about where my money is coming from. I want to get that pension and the medical benefits just so it's one more thing my son doesn't have to worry about. I'm always going to be making money. I want to fix it so that even when I'm not working, I'm getting paid."

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Both of Richard's parents worked during his childhood in Compton, which he says a good example for him and his brother.

"It forced my brother and me to understand priorities and family," Richard told Farmer last year. "You've got to do everything in your power to make sure your family is taken care of."

Richard told NFL Films that his dad left his house early on Christmas in 2012 so that he could go back to L.A. and work the next day.

"It's a job that I don't too much like, but I've done it all my life," he told NFL Films.

To make things even tougher, Kevin Sherman lost his right eye in a go-kart explosion at age 14:

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Sherman's mom, Beverley, works with disabled inner-city children.

Here they are at his Stanford graduation: