No place like football field for amputee

Two years in the bleachers were too much for Brian Brown. The football field is where he belongs.The 43-year-old has returned there as a Pee Wee assistant coach with the Rocklin Junior Thunder. He stands out in the sideline crowd of players and coaches. His prosthetic leg gives him away.His son joined the Junior Thunder in 2008, but Brown let Blayden go on his own instead of volunteering to coach. Brown took a seat in the bleachers along his wife, DeLayna, and their daughter, Markley.Brown might as well have been on the field. "I was talking like a coach to my wife," he said." That didn't fly."Coaching is a commitment that Brown does not take lightly. He was raised in the game by coaches at Elk Grove High School, the University of Nevada and Texas A&M that he respects to this day."Not many guys have his pedigree," Pee Wee head coach Chris O'Brien said. "He's always very positive."Then there is the physical aspect. Standing for as long as three hours at practice can take a toll. He lost his left leg in July 1990 when his car was forced into the guard rail on Highway 99 in Lodi.Brown was driving home to Elk Grove after a workout at Modesto Junior College. His goal was to attract interest from NFL teams after missing the 1989 season at Texas A&M with a knee injury.Once his right knee was rebuilt, the talented linebacker figured it was time to take a shot at the NFL. It had been five years since he graduated from Elk Grove High, and his football clock was ticking.It struck midnight on July 1, 1990, however, when the guard rail sliced through his car -and his leg."My cousin pulled me out of the car," he said. "I took a step and fell down. That's when I saw it was gone."So was his football career. Anyone who watched Brown play in those days will attest to his talent. He made Elk Grove's varsity team as a freshman when that did not happen every day of the week.Memories of his glory days did little to ease Brown's pain as he recovered from the crash. He was missing a leg and the game he loved since he first wore a helmet and shoulder pads at age 8.The best medicine for Brown came when a quadriplegic girl visited him in his hospital room."Once I talked to her, I thought, 'Who the heck am I?'" he recalled. "I'm missing a limb, but I could be worse off. There are people who have all their limbs that are worse than off than I am."Brown's leg healed much quicker than his heart, which was shattered when he could no longer play. "I stayed away. I couldn't even watch it on TV for a long time," he said. "There were too many emotions. It's a whole different feeling when you know in your heart that you were good enough."His heart began to heal when he first met DeLayna, who went out of her way to introduce herself to a man she had only known from watching Brown do a television interview after the accident."It was just his spirit," DeLayna said. "He was missing a leg, but he had the biggest smile on his face."That smile remains today because Brown is married to a woman "with a great heart" and has returned to football as a coach. He looks forward to each day he can spend on the field with his son.Blayden honors his father by wearing jersey No. 28. He pleaded for it after being issued No. 56, which he wore the past two seasons when his father was nothing more than another spectator.Brown had a bird's-eye view on the sideline last Saturday of his son's interception return for a touchdown against the Whitney Junior Wildcats. The Junior Thunder won three of the five Granite Bowl games."Seeing him run with No. 28 on his back brought tears to my eyes," he said. "I know he strives to be like me."Blayden's teammates have not questioned Brown about his leg. There will come a time, Brown said, when he will share that story with the team. It will be more than another of his many lessons."It's going to be a unique moment," he said. "I'm saving it."