Horace Fleming could only smile as he watched the whirling dervish flickering across his television screen.
There, in living color on ESPN, was Jerald Brown ducking and weaving past would-be tacklers with yet another interception for the Arena Football League’s Columbus Destroyers.
Fleming coached Brown at Wilson High in Northwest, so he had seen those flashy moves before. Later, after Brown had helped the Destroyers to a National Conference championship game win on July 14, the interception appeared again on SportsCenter’s Top 10 Plays segment. It was a brief flash of attention for a football player who hasn’t received much during his career.
“Sometimes, for whatever reason, people get overlooked,” Fleming said. “Jerald’s been doing that his whole life. I know he’s happy where he’s at. But I really believe, if given the right opportunity, he can play in the NFL. Every time I watch the Redskins I imagine him out on that field, too.”
It’s not an outlandish hope. Brown, 26, was one of the final players cut by the Kansas City Chiefs during last year’s training camp. The 5-foot-11, 185-pound defensive back returned to the AFL, where he had earned defensive player of the year honors in 2006 with 11 interceptions and two fumble recoveries. He intercepted two passes in that conference final win vs. Georgia earlier this month, including one for a touchdown.
“Of course, everyone wants to play at the ultimate level,” Brown said. “That would be a blessing. But I’m young enough that I have a lot of options in my life. I can’t base everything on whether I get to the NFL.”
Brown isn’t sure if he will receive a training camp invitation once the AFL season ends after Sunday’s Arena Bowl XXI. His relative lack of size and experience at the NFL level will make it difficult to crack a final roster either way. But that’s been the challenge his entire career.
“The thing is, Jerald is one of the cockiest people I’ve ever met,” said high school teammate William “Roc” Haith, who now plays for the AFL’s New Orleans Voodoo. “And that’s why you can never keep him down, even if he gets beat for a touchdown or something else in his life goes bad.”
A touchstone moment for Brown came when he was a senior at Wilson and broke his wrist during a preseason basketball practice. That injury cost him a shot at a football scholarship offer from Syracuse and Brown ended up at Division II Glenville (W.Va.) State instead.
“I grew up in the city so I’m used to bumps and bruises,” Brown said. “That felt like a tragedy for me and my family at the time. But it also proved to me that, one way or the other, success in my life will come.”
ARENA BOWL XXI
Teams » Columbus Destroyers (9-9) vs. San Jose SaberCats (15-3)
When » Sunday, 3 p.m.
Where » New Orleans Arena
