ESPN article on Richie Brown

[BulldogBear]

http://www.espn.com/blog/sec/post/_/...sissippi-state

I've pasted the article below (author is Asschaps):

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Erin Brown couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Sitting with her parents and four sisters three rows up on the 20-yard line inside Mississippi State's Davis Wade Stadium, a maroon-and-white blur caught her eye. It was the second quarter of No. 12 Mississippi State's highly anticipated 2014 game against No. 6 Texas A&M when she realized her then-boyfriend and future husband Richie Brown had done something. The crowd boomed with excitement around her and, sure enough, Richie Brown filled Mississippi State's monstrous video board, taking a Kenny Hill interception 30 yards downfield.

Erin Brown and her family joined the excitement, pumping out the thrilling sounds of elation.

A few plays later, there was Richie Brown again, face caked in black war paint, stepping in front of another Hill pass for pick No. 2. Two quarters later, Brown snatched a school-record third interception, returning it 19 yards to set up a touchdown drive that would put the Bulldogs up a commanding 48-17.

?We were freaking out," Erin Brown said of the third interception. "It was incredible to see that.?

Ever since then, it's been an incredible ride for the best linebacker left out of most SEC discussions. This weekend, the soft-spoken, hard-hitting Richie Brown will play his final game inside the same sanctuary that officially introduced him to the Bulldogs' fan base and the SEC against the Aggies in 2014.

Brown, a fifth-year senior, has gone through just about every stage a college football player can to get to his 50th game with the Bulldogs (4-6, 2-4 SEC) when they host Arkansas (6-4, 2-4) Saturday. Brown went from redshirt to two-year reserve linebacker to full-time starter in 2015 to full-time starter pursuing his MBA in 2016.

?If you define the right steps for success in college football, that?s it," Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen said. "If I had to write out the perfect scenario for a young man during his college career, that?s what it would be.?

But Brown is so much more.



Even at his wedding, the two sides of Richie Brown's personality came out. Courtesy of Erin Brown

Sure, his team-leading 82 tackles this season ranks fourth in the SEC and gives him 279 career tackles, but he also already earned his undergraduate degree in industrial technology in May with a 3.52 GPA. Brown has recorded 10 career double-digit tackle performances, but has also a great affinity for Broadway productions and performed in high school productions of "Les Miserables" and "Phantom of the Opera." He has 21 career tackles for loss, but he also taught himself how to play the piano and guitar (he even taught himself the "Spinning Song" first on piano, which seems like an awfully complicated song to teach yourself with no real training). He reads quarterbacks with the same enthusiasm he has for reading J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

He hits like a freight train and moves like a Corvette, yet his Valentine?s Day proposal on the beach came after a botched first attempt that left his future father-in-law stranded with his daughter's ring in a Starbucks men?s bathroom.

Brown has an NFL future, but he'll gladly put his fame aside to continue to use football to spread the word of God through his devout Christian faith.

Brown is a 22-year-old Renaissance man in a sport that thrives on brutes.

?There?s a lot more to me than meets the eye," he said.

Brown's love of the arts started when he was a child growing up in Long Beach, Mississippi. The Mississippi Gulf Coast is a melting pot of personalities, with people flocking to it from both above and below the Mason-Dixon Line. He grew up in a beachfront condo fishing for flounder with his father when he was 6 and put his piano instructor out of a job when his ear for music made her obsolete.

?I can sit there for an hour and figure out something new," Brown said.

Football became one of those new things when his older brother and father persuaded him to play with an early pee-wee pay-for-play system that had Brown earning coin for things like tackles and touchdowns. However, Brown quickly emptied their wallets as the bigger, faster kid who could do just about everything.

That trait carried over into high school, where Brown, who originally thought baseball was his calling, excelled as a linebacker but also gave opposing teams fits as a wildcat quarterback, a running back and a tight end.

But before Brown could be a named a 2012 PARADE All-American at Long Beach High, he and his family had to endure one of the country's deadliest storms on record when Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Mississippi Gulf Coast in August 2005. Winds of 150 mph left more than 100,000 people homeless and caused at least $25 billion in damage along the coast, uprooting an 11-year-old Brown and his family to Wesley Chapel, Florida, for six months. When they returned, they had to climb over 10 feet of rubble for about half a mile in order to reach their old house.

Brown lost everything but gained perspective. Possessions meant nothing, and the storm motivated Brown to help his family more. That's where football became a focus, allowing him to take some financial burden off his family by earning a scholarship to Mississippi State.

Brown doesn't like talking about Katrina, but it hardened him for years to come, brought him closer to his faith and forced him to mature at a rapid pace.

?These trivial things that come and hit him every day just roll right off,? Erin said.

Brown is an ambassador for his team and his school. He stays heavily involved in church activities in Starkville, while also holding court in his own locker room and being a coach's dream.

?The vibe is that you?re coaching a peer," first-year Mississippi State defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon said of Brown. "It feels like you?re coaching a 30-year-old.?




The best example of Brown's leadership showed when former roommate Josiah Phillips earned his scholarship in front of the team in August. Phillips said Brown, who served as somewhat of a mentor to Phillips, was the first person he looked for. Sure enough, a smiling, overjoyed Brown smothered him with an emotional hug.

?What you see is what you get. Richie?s a fine example of what a true man is," Phillips said.

And what Mississippi State got in Brown was one of the school's greats. It won't be easy to say goodbye to Richie Brown, but it'll be a bittersweet moment no one in that stadium will forget.

?I wouldn?t do it another way if I could," Brown said of his college career. "It really changed me and helped make me into who I am. It?s been awesome. I fought through all those hard moments and it paid off.?

[Jack Lambert]

I could see Freeze trying to take credit for him somehow or another.

[msbulldog]

Thanks for posting that outstanding article, I am going to miss Richie Brown.

[trob115]

Thanks for sharing. Great article.