Rock bottom of eviction drove Giants lineman to NFL career
New Giants guard Jamon Brown, who was signed on Halloween after being cut by the Rams on Oct. 30, blocked out some time for some Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.
Q: Describe your on-field mentality?
A: I like to say I’m aggressive. I think that I play tenacious. I try to play with a lot of passion, and I think that if you’re around me and you play with me, you’ll feel my passion for the game. So on the field I’m trying to play with as much reckless abandon as possible. My dad always told me, ’cause he was really the reason why I got into football, “You can be nice until you step on the field. Once you step on the field, you gotta make people hate you (chuckle).”
Q: You find yourself hated on the field?
A: I would like to think so. I’m not really a dirty player, I’m not gonna really take cheap shots on you or anything like that, but I think anybody that plays me, you feel me and you know that, “OK, we’re gonna have a long day,” you know?
Q: You were homeless growing up?
A: When I say homeless. . .fortunately never really had to sleep on the streets. Homelessness ended up being the cause that we’re really trying to help [with the Jamon Brown Foundation]. They classify homeless as just not having a stable place on a consistent basis, whether it be to call your own, or just a place to go. After learning that, I realized, wow, there were periods of time in my life when we [twin brother Jamal, older sister Brittany and mother] would be considered homeless.
Q: How so?
A: In middle school, we hit some tough times financially, ended up getting evicted out of our house, and I had to stay with my aunt. Fortunately, we had family members that were willing and open enough to let us stay with them, but we would be on top of each other. It was experiences that really humbled you, but really brought you together as family. We had experienced that a couple of times growing up, where we would be kind of forced out and would have to go stay with my grandmother or my aunt. I think about people that experience homelessness on a daily basis, and how much that can affect you, and how much it affected me when I was young, being able to manage my personal situations with still pressing towards the dream and not really letting that overwhelm me and stuff like that. The feeling you have when you hit those times, and sometimes you hit rock bottom, you know, it’s tough.
Q: What was rock bottom for you?
A: Rock bottom for me was definitely getting evicted the first time. I can remember the day. I want to say I was in eighth grade. On our second bus coming home, we had friends that lived in our neighborhood. This day, we were like, “Come over, we’re gonna play some video games.” So we just got off the bus, we’re walking home, we get to our house, and you see everything on the front yard, not packed up, just thrown out there … all your possessions just all on the front yard. Tried the keys, the locks were changed. They chained the dog up to the fence in the backyard, and you’re just like, wow. First the embarrassment, right — you got your friends with you. The rock bottom part was just seeing my mom, and seeing the letdown in her face, the feeling of she’s failed us. How do you explain that to your kids? And now being older, and having an understanding of what went on at that time, and being a parent now, I really understand what that would be like for a parent. I admire my mom, because she’s a strong, strong woman, and even in those times, I’m sure it broke her down in her private time, but she stayed strong in front of us. But I’m sure my sister and brother could see the amount of like, “I failed you all” that she had. That for me was some of the first thoughts that I had of my aspiration of playing in the NFL, right? It was from that point, where I was like, “All right, this is the dream for me and this is what I have to do so I could change my family’s life.” That eviction right there was the spark to think of more and aspire for more.
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Q: How devastating was breaking your ankle as a rookie?
A: I still relive that moment. At that time, I wanted to be a rookie Pro-Bowler, there was a lot out in front of me that I felt like was realistic. I’ll never forget, my daughter [Micayla], she was 2 at the time, and she wouldn’t even touch me. She seemed terrified at the time. I go to try to give her a hug, and she was like scared of me. She wasn’t quite putting sentences together, but she said, “I don’t like football, daddy.” It broke me down. Injuries are part of the game, that really didn’t have an effect on me but just more so the effect that it had on my daughter. She still talks about it to this day.
Q: Describe Micayla today.
A: I would love to say she’s a lot like me just because she has a lot of personality. Everyone loves her once she comes into a room, she’s able to make friends quickly, or just you fall in love with her. She’s outspoken … she’s silly, she’s funny. She’s very smart, a lot smarter than I was at that age.
Q: Describe your wife Micquel.
A: She’s self-motivated … strong … independent … a great mother, obviously.
Q: What drives you?
A: Life is what really drives me of my purpose. I grew up in the church, it’s always been taught to me that God has put you here for a purpose. I feel like God’s purpose for me is to impact the lives of others. Of course I have my daughter so my daughter’s definitely a piece of what drives me. Just wanting better for her, wanting to make sure that she can experience all the things that I didn’t on top of the things that I have experienced being in the NFL. And then family.
Q: Career-wise?
A: Just wanting to be great. Great at what I do. Everyone wants to be well-known at what they do. When it’s all said and done, my name could go down as being a great. That’s what drives me to want to try to do whatever I can to be great, to leave an impact on football … to leave a stamp of me on wherever I’m at. I think I could do that. I think that’s realistic.
Q: What was it like being a security guard at Churchill Downs going into your senior year at the University of Louisville?
A: (Laugh) I checked on the horses, made sure they had all their shots and their papers before they entered the stable into Churchill Downs. After the Derby, I actually guarded California Chrome, who had won that year. I was like, “Man, to think that an animal gets this type of treatment or this type of security 24/7,” it was cool. It was a fun experience for me.
Q: Did you ever think about being a jockey?
A: (Laugh) We made jokes about that, but then, everybody would be like, “You’ll break a horse’s back, man.” And then seeing the jockeys and how big they really are is like, wow! Obviously on TV, they don’t look as small as they really are, but they’re really small, which I thought was cool.
Q: If you could test your skills against one defensive lineman in NFL history, who would it be?
A: Warren Sapp. How powerful he was, how he just imposed his will on an offensive lineman. I like to think of myself as being able to do that to a defensive lineman, so I would love to kind of test that and go against him in his prime.
Q: If you could pick the brain of one offensive lineman in NFL history, who would it be?
A: Jackie Slater. Fortunately I was drafted by the Rams and I was able to meet him a handful of times. … What did it take for him to make his career last that long?
Q: Why was Justin Tuck your boyhood idol?
A: I played defensive end all through high school, so he was my screensaver, a guy you kind of model your game after … and I loved his facemask. He had the crazy-looking facemask, it was really intimidating.
Q: You played against him in your first preseason game in 2015.
A: We were on the TV timeout, and we’re standing in the huddle, we’re just kind of talking, and I’m looking across the ball, and I notice his facemask. And I was like, “There’s only one guy I know that has that facemask.” He turns around, I see “TUCK” on the back of his [Raiders] jersey, and I tap my right tackle [Rob Havenstein], and I’m like, “Dude that’s Justin Tuck. That was my idol when I was growing up.” And he was like, “Yeah man, this is real life.” So I was just kind of like star struck until it was time to play, then it was like, “All right, I’m gonna give this guy my best shot (laugh).”
Q: You played with QB Teddy Bridgewater at Louisville.
A: I want to say Sugar Bowl year [2012 season], we have to beat Rutgers to secure the division, and Teddy had a high ankle sprain and a broken hand, I want to say. And watching him go out there and will us to a win [20-17] was one of the things that just made me know like hey, this is a guy I think is gonna be great at this. His warrior mentality was just inspiring.
Q: Who are athletes in other sports you admire?
A: LeBron James. He’s a guy that inspires you to want to do more, to really give back. And that’s one of the reasons why I really admire what he does, and why he inspires me to be great both on the field and off the field. … Muhammad Ali, a Louisville native. He thought of himself as The Greatest, and then he worked and became known as The Greatest. He definitely inspires me also. For the grand opening of the Muhammad Ali Center downtown, we sung — the West Louisville Boys Choir — so I was able to meet him there. And then obviously he would come to Louisville games when I was playing, and I met him then.
Q: What is a typical Burger Boy breakfast in Louisville, Ky.?
A: They have these wonderful cinnamon rolls. So I’m gonna get cinnamon rolls with a glass of milk, have a glass of orange juice … I’m gonna get a breakfast sandwich, I would have it put on a hamburger bun, so it’ll be a sausage, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich. And then I would have three eggs scrambled with a little cheese, and then two sausage patties on the side. Every now and then, I would get the French toast. They also served like these bison burgers, which I love, so every now and then I would switch up and get the bison burger with the home fries.
Q: What is the heaviest you ever weighed?
A: 355.
Q: What are you now?’
A: I’m around 345 now.
Q: Scouts said you were too heavy and not athletic enough before the draft. Did you have something to prove because of that?
A: Definitely. I think there is a fire that’s lit that makes you want to prove people wrong, and for me, that was it. I wanted to prove to people that, “Hey I’m a big man, but I can move. I can still salsa, I can still groove (smile).”
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Q: The worst part of your two-game suspension, for violating the substance abuse policy, at the start of this season.
A: Was really just the judgments that I got, just because I don’t think you can really define a man by the mistakes he makes but what he does after the mistakes he’s made. I had made some dumb decisions, which I had learned from, and everything that I had done prior to that was just, like, it was discredited. I was already in the community, and giving back and doing things like that even through my suspension and through that time. I never really had changed as a person, but it was like that didn’t even matter, I immediately became this bad or careless person, which was shocking to me.
Q: What did you tell your mom?
A: She just gave me words of encouragement, that none of us is perfect. If we all walked this earth perfect, you could call us Jesus. That was able to kind of give me peace and calm my spirits just because … I care to a certain extent the perception of me. And my arrest and my DUI is outside of character of who I am. It’s definitely something that I’ve learned from and I’ve grown from. It allowed me opportunity to make changes in my life, which has been the best part. I learned a lot from [Rams] Coach [Sean] McVay. Coach McVay used to always say, “You have to be comfortable being uncomfortable.” And the way I took that was when you’re uncomfortable, you make change. So being comfortable being uncomfortable means you’re always able and ready to make challenge. That situation had allowed me the opportunity to evaluate myself and things that I was doing when no one was watching that could jeopardize everything that I was building. And so, I’m grateful for it and I embrace it again, because I want to be great in life.
Q: You have a degree in justice administration.
A: I’m a protector, and it’s ironic that I play offensive line. That’s kind of like a natural type of instinct for me. I wanted to protect people, and I think being in law enforcement, you are given that opportunity. My plan, if football wasn’t gonna work, was to be a sheriff or be a U.S. Marshal, or something like that.
Q: What do you think of New York City?
A: I hear this is the most beautiful place around Christmastime, I’m excited about that because Christmas is my favorite time of the year. Being able to see the ball, something that you watch on TV when you’re outside of New York.
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Martin Luther King, Barack Obama, Malcolm X.
Q: Favorite movies?
A: “Bad Boys II,” “The Grinch,” “School of Rock.”
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Jamie Foxx.
Q: Favorite actress?
A: Gabrielle Union.
Q: Favorite singer/entertainer?
A: My brother [Jamal].
Q: Who’s a better singer, you or him?
A: I think he’s a more creative singer than I am. I go for more like tone and quality. It’s more for delivery. He’s more of an artist, I guess (smile).
Q: Favorite meal?
A: Used to be sloppy joe and tater tots (laugh).
