Wilde Lake Grad Brown: "If I Hadn't Moved, Honestly, I'd Be Doing Nothing"

Wilde Lake High graduate and starting linebacker for the NFL's Tennessee Titans said if he didn't move to Columbia from South Carolina, "he'd be doing nothing", according to a profile on Titansonline.com.

Brown is now in the second year of his NFL career after a breakout rookie season. His goal for this year is to make the Pro Bowl, according to the profile. Through three games this season he's recorded 21 tackles and two sacks.

But his future wasn't always so bright. Brown, 23, was born in Beaufort, SC, a place where he saw people he knew wind up in jail or dead, according to TitansOnline. But when he was in middle school his mother sent him to Columbia to live with his father, where he began to play sports.

He told TitansOnline that if he stayed in South Carolina, "I'd be in the streets, getting in trouble. I'd be dead or locked up, to tell you the truth, because a lot of people I grew up with are dead or locked up or doing nothing with their lives, so just to come from where I came from, I'm just one of the few that happened to make it out."

At Wilde Lake High he became a state champion wrestler and all-state running back and linebacker.

His former coach at Wilde Lake, Doug Duvall, said about Brown, "Zach is not afraid to compete in anything. I always said, if it didn't turn out football-wise we'd train him for the decathlon and let him compete in the Olympics."

So far it looks like football will do just fine for Brown, who started 13 of 16 games his rookie season for the Titans and tallied up 93 tackles, three interceptions and 5.5 sacks.

When Brown was selected 52nd overall in the 2012 draft as a linebacker coming out of the University of North Carolina, he celebrated with friends and family at the Greene Turtle in Columbia.

At that time, he already had his sights set on making it big in the NFL, telling Patch, "Now it's time to get going, to play a career, not a season."

Read more about Brown's progress with the Titans on TitansOnline.com - Titans LB Zach Brown Wants to 'Go for Pro' in Second Season

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