EXCLUSIVE: 'King of Queens' Star Kevin James Tells How He Finally Found His Happiness After His NFL Dreams Were Crushed in Childhood
Kevin James shares how he found happiness after childhood NFL dreams were crushed and left behind.
June 20 2025, Published 6:30 a.m. ET
Comic Kevin James got rich and famous with the hit TV sitcom The King of Queens and a string of successful movies including Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Grown Ups, but he wasn’t happy until he made a life-changing realization – the "true dream" is home and family, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
"In the end," James confided, "my unfulfilled desires found rest in God, family and home, the things that are there for us with or without fame and fortune."
Born Kevin George Knipfing in Mineola, N.Y., on Long Island, in 1965 to office worker mom Janet and insurance agency owner dad Joseph Valentine Knipfing Jr., he was raised Catholic. He attended Ward Melville High School, where he excelled on the wrestling team and was first string in the heavyweight class, beating out future WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley.
Long Road To Joy
James was sports mad before he found fame in comedy.
He also played football and had aspirations of making it to the NFL, but his grades said otherwise.
Instead, James dropped out of college 17 credits short of graduating, moved back home and began doing stand-up comedy, adopting "James" as his surname after his favorite teacher.
"It seemed as if every time I accomplished something special and finally seemed on my way to becoming completely happy, my sights were already set on something bigger," James recalled.
"Something even more special. I set a goal to perform my stand-up on TV – and did it. Then I thought, 'Well, if I could just get on The Tonight Show – then I did that. If I could just get on a sitcom – Got it. If I could just act in a movie – Boom, done.'"
He slowly realized "every time I achieved a goal that would supposedly make me happy, the goalposts moved. It didn’t make sense. I was missing something. Something big. It's amazing that it took me so long to figure out what it was."
Then it hit him. "I missed home," he realized.
Living in L.A., James was homesick for much more than the physical location but "everything that Long Island meant to me. I missed the values I’d grown up with. I missed St. James parish in Setauket and going to Mass. I missed ... home."
So he packed up wife Steffiana and their children and moved back to Long Island.
He began to lean on his faith and family again.
Family Man
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Years of chasing fame led James to rediscover peace in faith and family.
"We started going to church regularly, just like I did when I was a kid," James said. "And we get the family, the entire family, together on a more regular basis."
James added: "After years of searching, and running toward a dream that I thought was special, I realized that I was running from the most special things of all: Faith. Family. Home.
"This was the true dream."
