The Passionate tale of Brandon

Warning! This story will stir your emotions to your very core. It is a true tale of a determined young man that truly inspires!

Brandon was a good kid. He had dreams like all the other boys around him. He wanted to play the game he loved, football at its highest level. He certainly had the stature as he was one of the tallest boys in his school, but he had a problem of having a large frame and not a lot of athleticism, speed or strength. 

Brandon was determined though and he figured out that he could build muscle through training and acquire speed and technique by hours of hard work. By the time he was junior in high school he was seeing a tremendous uptick in his playing time. He became recognized as an all star player not only on his team but in his state.

Only a couple of Division 2 programs recognized the prep star as a scholarship player. D2 was not Brandon's objective, he decided to forgo the scholarship offers of the smaller colleges to reach for the brass ring of a local major NCAA program dear to his heart as a walk on. There was no guarantee that he would even make it through a walk on tryout to make the team. 

His hard work and hustle was noticed by the coaching staff and he earned a red shirt jersey. Soon he transformed his 300 plus pound obese body into 260 pounds of lean muscle by spending time in the weight room. Then prior to his sophomore season the coaches placed him on scholarship and awarded the now 300 pound muscular lineman a starting job.

The next season he was selected as a captain of his team and he earned 1st-Team Conference and academic honors. That was only to be topped in his final season of being awarded as a selection on the College Football All-America Team. Brandon completed his college with B.A. in Business and followed that up the next year with an MBA. He became his school's first football player to ever earn a master's degree prior to playing his final game.

The NFL had taken note of Brandon too and he was selected with the 63rd pick in the NFL draft by the Indianapolis Colts. His parents were never so proud of what this young man had accomplished and transformed himself into.

Then just ten days after being selected by the Colts, tragedy struck. Brandon was enroute to pick his mother up to take her to church when his vehicle was struck by a large truck and Brandon passed away due to injuries suffered in the wreck.

Brandon Burlsworth, star offensive lineman for the Arkansas Razorbacks and the pride of Harrison High School in Harrison, Arkansas was dead at the age of 22.

The football world was in shock! A young man with his heart and his head in all the right places had suffered a tragic and very untimely death just as all of his dreams were coming true.

Many articles, a book and even a movie were written to tell Brandon's sad tale. But through the heartbreak, there is a very inspirational story of a young man that worked hard and then reaped the rewards of his dedication. As his father later described, Brandon made it to the highest level by doing it the hard way.

In 2010 the NCAA awarded the first Burlsworth Trophy for the nation's most outstanding college football player that started their career as a walk-on.