… Continued from Part 2
It only took Dru Brown 45 minutes to sign a contract with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers after his pro day at Oklahoma State, making his professional football dreams come true.
His sights were always set on the NFL, where he watched his idols set fields on fire with explosive plays on a weekly basis. At first, it was prime Michael Vick, but as Brown figured out who he was as a player, he saw more and more of himself in Drew Brees.
Brown tried to emulate Brees, taking inspiration from his unapologetic style of play. As a fellow quarterback deemed undersized, Brown saw him as a hero who defied the odds to likely become a Hall of Famer.
Unlike many other Americans coming to the Canadian Football League, Brown knew a little bit about the game, learning what he could from his dad during summer vacation.
“I can remember turning on the TV when I was 10 or 11,” Brown said. “It was a game on ESPN during the summer, and I remember thinking to myself, ‘What the hell is this?’ My dad told me it’s a great league, because he tried out, but ended up getting cut in training camp back in the late ‘70s.”
With his deal signed, Brown got to work immediately.
“I started going on YouTube, looking up highlights and trying to figure out the differences,” Brown said. “I knew that there was a waggle. I knew the field was bigger, I knew about the hashes, and I knew the end zones, but I wanted to see if I could pick anything up from watching some stuff.”
Already in Winnipeg was Zach Collaros, who joined the Bombers in 2019, immediately leading them to a Grey Cup. The road to playing time was going to be an uphill climb, but Brown never shied away.
“He told me, ‘Coach, I’m going to go up there, I’m going to get on the field, I’m going to become a top guy in that league. Everyone is going to see me and notice me,” said Tim Tulloch, Brown’s former coach at the College of San Mateo. “He wasn’t afraid of the road less travelled.”
Forced to wait for the 2021 season to get to the CFL due to COVID-19, Brown was Winnipeg’s fourth-string quarterback for much of the season, throwing only 14 passes, but 2022 was immediately a different story.
In a game that likely still stands out to Ottawa REDBLACKS fans for all the wrong reasons, Brown replaced Collaros, who was pulled by injury spotters in Week 1, and led a game-winning drive late in the fourth quarter.
He stuck around in 2023, when he saw some more action with Collaros down, but in his Bombers career, he only threw 153 passes for 1,484 yards and 14 touchdowns. Still, he always talks about the tremendous learning experience it was sitting behind a two-time CFL Most Outstanding Player.
“I learned a ton from [Collaros], and I’ve said this before, but I think what’s important is I learned everything I could,” Brown said. “I think I reached the ceiling of learning through watching, and I wrung that rag out. I think there are some things that you’ve got to go through yourself, and it’s just like kind of weathering the storm.”
Brown says two things stood out to him in his time waiting in the wings, and they are fundamental to winning football. First, not everything is always going to be sunshine and rainbows, and the best players are the ones who can shine when the going gets tough.
The second is what a good quarterback actually looks like.
“It’s not playing the game,” Brown said. “It’s not any of that. It’s how we get 12 guys on the same page consistently every single game. I think that’s something that everyone is trying to figure out. The guys that do that well, hang around for many years.”
Following the 2023 season, hype began to swirl around Brown, with many considering him a legitimate option as a starter as he headed toward free agency. Collaros was among those people, singing the youngster’s praises.
“Under the right leadership, coaching, play calling, and all those things, I think he can be one of the best, if not the best, guy in the league,” he said. “I truly feel that way about Dru. I just love his makeup. The person that he is, he loves football, he’s a good guy.”
Getting a 26-year-old quarterback with a high ceiling was something Ottawa REDBLACKS General Manager Shawn Burke couldn’t turn down, and he got aggressive, moving a fifth-round pick to Winnipeg ahead of free agency, securing exclusive negotiating rights with the young pivot.
A little under a week later, a contract was done, and Brown was officially a REDBLACK.
In 2024, Brown came into training camp as the number one option for the first time since his days at the University of Hawaii, but it wasn’t handed to him easily. Head Coach Bob Dyce said early on, there was no time to mess around. The REDBLACKS needed to hit the ground running, coming off several disappointing seasons in a row.
Just like he did at San Mateo and Hawaii, Brown came into the locker room as the new guy, needing to take command of the team. Quickly, that happened, and once again, it wasn’t because he was yelling and screaming, but because everyone knew he was all business.
If you weren’t as interested in winning as Brown was, you better get out of his way, that’s just how it was in camp.
Though his season wasn’t always smooth sailing, it was overwhelmingly positive as the first-time starter threw for 3,959 yards and 18 touchdowns in 15 starts, two of which were cut short. Not only were the numbers solid, but Brown orchestrated the REDBLACKS to their best home record (7-1-1) in franchise history, and their first playoff appearance since 2018.
“I loved it,” Brown said. “It’s hard, but it’s so gratifying. Simply put, I just really enjoy what I do. Obviously, the way it ended was tough, and in the moment that sucks, but I think that as you kind of let it simmer, you realize that we did some good things, and if we can get some guys back, there’s a big jump that we can make going back to that consistency portion.”
Not reaching the mountaintop isn’t new for Brown. It’s happened before, whether it was being relegated to a backup in high school, going to Junior College, or not getting the attention his talent deserved.
This time, however, that “no” happened on the field, as the REDBLACKS fell to the Toronto Argonauts in the East Semi-Final in November.
Once again, he’s reloading for another shot, and if the past is any evidence, he’s going to make things work. He came here to win Grey Cups, and that’s what he plans to achieve. Brown believes the REDBLACKS are heading in the right direction, but there’s still work to be done to make sure it happens.
“You don’t think about these things when you’re playing or when you’re in the middle of it, but it was the first year for a lot of guys with a new coordinator, and that can take time,” Brown explained. “Sometimes it doesn’t ever work. I think it worked, I think our guys love who calls plays for us, and our guys care about each other and respect each other. We should be very optimistic about the future if we continue to work.”
… To be continued
