By John Brice
Special Contributor
The image is permanent, same as the memory.
A family portrait. Mother, Chimene; Father, Derek; sons, D.J. and Trent; daughter, Maya.
Ink colors the print on the left arm of D.J. Brown, Notre Dame’s graduate-student safety.
“It says ‘The family is the most important unit in time and eternity and as such transcends every other interest in life,’” Brown, 12 days from his 35th appearance in a Fighting Irish uniform as the 2022 season opens Sept. 3 at Ohio State, shares. “For me, it’s a silhouette of my family, an old family picture, that I decided to do just so that I can sort of ingrain the way that my family always was and just remind myself that family is the most important thing in life.”
This image, a tattoo, is more than ink; greater than just a memorial. It honors the present and the past, tragic-laden as a portion of that ongoing history remains.
D.J. Brown’s path, here and now, at the University of Notre Dame is not the path of Brown’s travels some six years ago; not the course of a young man who, because of life’s unrepentant cruelty, is now the elder statesman in his family, since his father’s tragic and untimely passing on, of all things, a family vacation.
Running a 5K “in the Caribbean.”
Brown still owns the memory, fresh as the near-palpable buzz on Notre Dame’s picturesque campus as it ushers in Fall 2022 classes this week, the 180th iteration.
“I wouldn’t be here, I just feel like I had to grow up quickly,” admits DJ Brown, his words full of conviction and his right hand touching the image on his left arm. “I have a little brother, he’s 17, and my sister was in college.
“So it was just me and my mom and my little brother, so for me it was just having to grow up quick and sort of become a man faster. I think that was the main thing; making sure my mom was OK.”
Brown still remembers, sitting with his grandfather and his aunt, hearing the news and then just as quickly getting on the phone with his mother, still down in the islands processing the tragedy.
Though he doesn’t speak often of his father’s absence, his teammates know Brown carries his father with him onto the field, especially on gamedays.
“He doesn’t talk too much about that occurring, but I remember earlier when he got the tattoo to do a tribute towards his family,” says Houston Griffith, a 2018 signee alongside Brown. “I know when he steps foot on the field, he knows his Pops is watching down on him. He’s going to go out there and give his best effort, and it’s always great to see DJ make plays and just to have seen his growth.
“He’s a leader, for our unit and our whole entire defense as well.”
Adversity, then, naturally carries with it a different meaning for D.J. Brown, who’s quick to discuss younger brother Trent just starting his senior year of high school and daily calls to brother and mother for no other reasons than just to check in.
“Just always being there, whether my brother needed a ride to go somewhere or helping with cleaning around the house,” Brown says of growing up fast, then and now. “Just small things, always checking in with my mom and making sure she’s good, making sure mentally she’s all right.
“And just trying to make her job as easy possible, because it’s hard being a single mother. Trying to stay out of trouble, trying to help my brother stay out of trouble.”
It’s a seasoned approach that Brown’s position coach, affable young Irish safeties coach Chris O’Leary, sees in his pupil.
“He’s extremely mature, and you see that in the way he carries himself,” says O’Leary. “He takes things very seriously, and he does, he views himself as a leader of the room, a leader of the unit, and I think his life circumstances have led him to that maturity and ownership and mindset and he’s an impressive young man.
“You can’t put a price on (that approach); it really is priceless. The way he prepares, his process, has allowed him to maximize his potential, and the plays he makes on Saturdays and the positions that he puts himself in are simply a reflection of how he prepares for the game and day-to-day practices and those types of things.”
Thus, this final season for Brown is different. His roles, from cornerback to safety back to cornerback and now, seemingly, entrenching himself at safety, are obstacles on the field.
They are nothing like losing one’s father before a senior year of high school.
“He doesn’t flinch, ever,” O’Leary emphasizes. “He doesn’t bat an eye if something goes wrong. Early last season, he didn’t get a lot of playing time; he got pulled early in the Florida State game (to open the 2021 season). A game after he didn’t play maybe a snap.
“His first question to me was ‘What do I need to do?’ and not ‘Why am I not playing?’ That’s his mindset, and you don’t see that from many kids these days. I have the utmost respect for him, and the way he attacks adversity is just to go harder.”
What else is Brown, introspection a skill he relishes honing all these years after his father’s passing, going to ask? That 2021 season O’Leary references, mind you, carries with it the three interceptions Brown owns along with 57 career tackles.
“I feel like my want-to and my drive all stems from my dad,” Brown says. “I know he wanted it for me, to play at a high level but that kind of commitment from me to want it for myself as well. So that drive has always been ingrained in me just growing up and now I let it show on the field.
“I’ve always been reminded not to look outward first but look inward. Look at what you’re not doing right. I feel like if I’m doing everything right then there’s no reason I shouldn’t be on the field.
Where Brown knows, even now, his father is still watching.