.jpg) Brown with thePhiladelphia Eagles in 1991 | |||||||||||
| No. 99 | |||||||||||
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| Position | Defensive tackle | ||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||
| Born | (1965-02-04)February 4, 1965 Brooksville, Florida, U.S. | ||||||||||
| Died | June 25, 1992(1992-06-25) (aged 27) Brooksville, Florida, U.S. | ||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) | ||||||||||
| Weight | 292 lb (132 kg) | ||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||
| High school | Hernando (Brooksville) | ||||||||||
| College | Miami (FL) | ||||||||||
| NFL draft | 1987: 1st round, 9th overall pick | ||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||
| Awards and highlights | |||||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||
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Willie Jerome Brown III (February 4, 1965 – June 25, 1992) was an American professionalfootballdefensive tackle who played for thePhiladelphia Eagles of theNational Football League (NFL). He played his entire five-year NFL career with the Eagles from 1987 to 1991, before his death just before the 1992 season. He was selected to twoPro Bowls in1990 and1991. He playedcollege football for theMiami Hurricanes.
Brown graduated fromHernando High School inBrooksville, Florida, where he was often seen in the off season running laps around the track. In June 1988, he received praise for his calm demeanor as he helped disperse a group ofKu Klux Klan protesters in Brooksville, Florida.[1]
Brown playedcollege football at theUniversity of Miami, where he was a standout player for one of college football's most successful and perhaps its most dominant program.
Among his more notable moments as a Miami player, five days before the1987 Fiesta Bowl, at a promotionalFiesta Bowl dinner with thePenn State team, Brown led a walkout by the Miami players. Leading the walkout, he asked: "Did theJapanese go and sit down and have dinner withPearl Harbor before they bombed them?" Brown and his teammates felt that the Penn State players had disrespected them by openly mocking Miami's coach,Jimmy Johnson, at a pre-game banquet. Penn State beat the heavily favored Hurricanes 14–10, and were declared National Champions.
Days earlier, Brown and fellow University of Miami player Dan Sileo drew even greater national controversy when each were seen deplaning a chartered University of Miami plane atPhoenix'sSky Harbor International Airport, wearingBattle Dress Uniforms. He graduated from the University of Miami in 1987.
| Height | Weight | Arm length | Hand span | 40-yard dash | 10-yard split | 20-yard split | Bench press |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 ft2+1⁄4 in (1.89 m) | 292 lb (132 kg) | 33 in (0.84 m) | 9+3⁄4 in (0.25 m) | 4.86 s | 1.72 s | 2.83 s | 17 reps |
Brown wasdrafted in the first round (ninth overall) of the1987 NFL draft by thePhiladelphia Eagles.[2] During his five-year professional career with the Eagles, he was twice selected to thePro Bowl (in 1990 and 1991).
Brown died on June 25, 1992, at the age of 27, following an automobile accident inBrooksville, Florida, in which both he and his 12-year-old nephew were killed when Brown lost control of his ZR1Chevrolet Corvette at high speed and crashed into a palm tree. Brown was buried in his hometown of Brooksville.[3]
In 2000, the Jerome Brown Community Center was opened in Brooksville in memory of Brown.[4]
Brown's son Dee Brown (born 1982) was drafted in the 10th round of the2005 MLB Draft by theWashington Nationals. He played four seasons ofminor league baseball as an outfielder in theNationals farm system and another two seasons with theWinnipeg Goldeyes of the independentNorthern League.[5][6]
Brown and former teammateReggie White were documented together in an episode of the NFL Network seriesA Football Life that aired in 2011.[7] White, who died in 2004, was invited to speak at aBilly Graham Crusade being held in Philadelphia the day Brown was killed and was informed just before he went on stage of his friend's death. When he came up to the pulpit to speak, White deviated from his prepared remarks and his speech opened with the following:
Tonight, I had planned on sharing my testimony, but it's kinda been altered. Today I lost a great friend; Philadelphia lost a great player, Jerome Brown died today.
An emotional White, pausing to wipe tears from his eyes, continued as the crowd gasped in shock at hearing that Brown was dead. He said that Brown was one of the best men he ever knew, praised his family, and called him one of his best friends.
Along with teammate Reggie White, Brown helped anchor an Eagles defense that intimidated and dominated offenses of the late 1980s and early 1990s. By the end of the 1991 season, Brown had established himself as one of the league's premier defensive tackles, being elected as an All-Pro for a second consecutive year. Brown was not only a fan favorite, but a favorite of his first NFL head coachBuddy Ryan, who once remarked, "if you had 45 Jerome Browns, you would win every game."[8]
Brown's jersey number (#99) was retired by the Eagles on September 6, 1992, in an emotionalpre-game ceremony atVeterans Stadium, prior to the Eagles' first game of the1992 season. After his death, Eagles players and fans started the unofficial motto "Bring it home for Jerome," an indirect reference among Eagles fans to bringing aSuper Bowl title to the city in Brown's honor. The Eagles would winSuper Bowl LII on February 4, 2018, which would have been Brown's 53rd birthday.
Brown is mentioned inThe Wonder Years track "We Could Die Like This" off their 4th albumThe Greatest Generation with the lyrics: "We watched the '92 Birds take the field without Jerome Brown".[9]
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