Carla Young took out the family Bible – now 10 generations old – and removed a slip of paper that her son had not seen in 15 years.
In the vacant space after “I Want to Be”, a world of possibilities was created, as kindergarten-aged Gary Brightwell wrote, “a footballer to play pro football.” He brought her to her mother’s home, which she stored safely until it was time to travel from her Delaware home to Brightwell’s NFL draft party in Orlando by rented plane. It is here that 30 family and friends celebrated Brightwell’s sixth round selection by the Giants on 1 May.
“I knew that since that day I [was born], “Brightwell told The Post.” My 1-year-old photo is of me holding a football. “
Sometimes dreams come true with years of commitment. Sometimes, tragedy occurs without warning. Brightwell’s life is an intersection of the two.
As the tension embraced and gave way to high-fives, the presence of three people missing from that party could be felt: a father murdered at a gas station when Brightwell was five months old, an older sister’s car. She died in an accident when she was a senior in high school and a grandmother who taught her to play football as a way to keep her safe. He died a few weeks before the draft.
Brightwell’s mother Young said, “I never cried when my husband died because I didn’t have tears to raise my children.” “The day Gary was drafted, I cried for the funeral, I cried for my husband, I cried for those, who I never cried for all these years. I don’t know what tears it was, but they won’t stop coming. And it felt amazing. “
The 23-year-old Brightwell was born in the Philadelphia suburb of Chester, Pa., A city of no more than five square miles where, according to recent FBI data, the murder rate per 1,000 residents is second in the nation. Twenty-two years ago, Gary Brightwell Sr. was shot in front of witnesses pumping gas into a Sunoco, but the case remains unsolved.
“If you look at someone the wrong way,” Brightwell’s high school football coach JD Mull said, “maybe you can snatch your life away from you in Chester.”
Until she moved her family to Wilmington, Del., Young would return to the gas station every day to pray and tell her husband that she was ending her vows.
“When we got married, we made a promise: If I ever have something, you are the first to take care of the children. If you do have something, I’ll be the first to take care of the children,” Young recalled. “You cannot hide from your fear. I cannot overcome it.
Brightwell was too young to keep his father’s memories, but his goal for the legacy of his shared name begins Friday at the Giants’ rookie minicamp.
“I think of my father every day, no matter whether I ride the gas station or not.” “It’s like a lost soul, but I know that he is living through me right now. He is the one you see in me.”
‘Team Brightwell’
The family motto is written on the hanging mark in Young’s house.
Team Brightwell, when someone is up, we are all up, when someone is down, we are all down
A talented athlete without a support system, Brightwell Sr. was a loving father who “made his encounters with the law and was a product of his environment,” Young said. His death sent him back to work and sent his son to local athletic fields.
Young was simultaneously a flight attendant and a paramedic, later balancing three jobs and eventually becoming a trained restaurant-contracted and private chef.
“There were days when I went to work in the wrong uniform,” she laughed. “Most of the time, dinner was in the cooler in the trunk. We had more picnics that no one can imagine. “
At all times “Grandma D” – the late Dolores Anderson – kept Brightwell off the streets.
“When she took me out, she taught me to play football, basketball, baseball, anything to keep me busy,” Brightwell said. “She was in love with the game and taught me all the rules. She will deal with me. “
Deal with a 4-year-old child? Young got angry at this. She laughs at it now. Look where it ended.
By the age of 8, Brightwell realized that the “man of the house” had come up with some responsibilities: take out the trash, wipe the walls and check the oil in the cars.
“If I hadn’t been playing football, I might have been doing something else,” Brightwell said. “To be honest, football got me out of trouble, made me the person I am today. There is nothing but trouble in the cities of Wilmington and Chester. “
Giant Destiny?
Ten years ago, Young was a bridesmaid at her cousin’s wedding.
“We wore red, white and blue,” he said. “My family is not just a heavy fan. It is really deep that my whole family is like a superfan. I don’t know how it started, but my family is in front of their house with a 12-foot Giants flagpole and magnets on their cars. “
It is too much to say that Brightwell’s draft destination was failed. This could shorten the work they have done to reach this point and ignore that they are expected to be selected as high as the fourth round, possibly by the Cowboys.
“I know I’m better than where I was drafted,” Brightwell said. “Of course it’s a dream come true, but I haven’t done anything yet, so it means nothing to me right now. This is just the beginning.”
Brightwell averaged 5.3 yards per carry and scored 10 touchdowns in three seasons in a split backfield in Arizona, but made up his draft stock on special teams. Giants assistant special teams coordinator Tom Quinn – an Arizona alum – discovered Brightwell, and the organization’s scouting notes away from the pre-draft zoom supported recommendations from college coaches: excellent football IQ, toughness and hard work.
The Giants coach Joe Judge is one of two active NFL head coaches from a special teams coordinator background. He knows that the difference is between repeating the lines the bullies feed him – “Whatever you want to win, coach!” – and Brightwell’s passion for the game-winning “hidden yards”.
“He got mad at me when I told him I’d only let him play on the punt team,” said former Arizona running back coach AJ Steward, now at Oregon State. “You can’t be an early running back and run on a kickoff team. But that’s how he’s wired. If he knows he can help in a situation, he wants to help us win. He is probably better than me in that regard. “
Brightwell was a “man among boys” during three years at St. George’s Technical School. Even as the best player on his high school team, he could not be convinced to take a breather. He returned kicks and punts and lined up as a punt gunner.
“When he runs into the field, he goes on with a mission,” Malla said. He said, “He’s going to kill you.” He is not playing flag football. “
There is reason to be angry.
The obstacles Brightwell has survived are cycling through his nephew and leaving twins parents when Shanelle Brightwell was a passenger in a car that lost control and hit a utility pole in Chester in 2016. Young, his other two daughters, Sade and Kareena, Gary and five other children the family helped raise, have stepped up.
It is like a lost soul, but I know that he is living through me right now. Whatever you see in me, that is what it has.
Gary Brightwell on his father, Gary Brightwell Sr.
“My mother has been my father all my life,” Brightwell said, “but my sister had a big impact on my life because she was my second mother. I went to her mother who didn’t have an answer. I I try to show the children that you just have to be polite, and stay out of the way of trouble and there will always be a light at the end of the tunnel. “
‘Best man for the job’
Brightwell accelerated through a hole and was down the sideline for 34 yards as a former top-100 recruit cut the angle to stop the play.
“I felt that I had one of the best runs I’ve ever had in my life,” Steward said of a scene from the 2020 season against USC, “and he didn’t even want to see it on film because he thought It was the most embarrassing thing in the world that a five-star safety was pushed out of bounds. “
Then and there Steward learned a basic truth about Brightwell’s pride.
“He doesn’t even want it if it’s given to him,” said Steward. “It’s really rare in today’s society. You literally can’t give him anything and get, ‘Oh, thanks for handing this over to me, Coach.’ He wants to know that you gave me this opportunity because I earned it. I beat these other people, and I was the best man for the job. “
Here are all creations by favorite fans of the next blue-collar Giants. A recent long-time special teams buildup, like the Giants’ Nate Ebner and Michael Thomas, may have been designed with a role behind running back Saquon Barclay.
First things first: cut the roster as a cheater. Keep writing what Young describes as the “Bitterwhite Story”.
“You don’t bet against Gary Brightwell,” Mal said. “This young man is known as a 14-year-old for going to college, getting his degree, going to the NFL, making his mother proud, making him do it, learning about the bright lights of New York City. Not gonna. “
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