La’el and David Collins shook hands like old friends.
“What’s up,” La’el asked his younger brother, and a fond conversation between the two ensued as if they hadn’t seen each other in months.
It would be understandable with the pair’s busy schedules. Besides being LSU students, La’el is an offensive tackle on the football team and David’s season is in full swing as a weight thrower for the track and field team.
Two brothers playing different sports at a Division I university isn’t an anomoly for to the Collins family. The siblings’ mom was a basketball player, dad was a boxer, sister ran track at Southern and they have cousins in the NFL.
But for the Collins brothers, collegiate athletics is more than just a way to pass the time. Achieving their goals also fulfills the dreams of their parents.
“Our mother and our father are very proud of us just for living out our dreams and doing something that we love to do,” La’el said.
David said more important than sports, his parents are happy to see them receiving a college education. The importance of obtaining a degree is a value the Collins’ children were instilled with at a young age and was one reason that on Jan. 14, La’el announced he would stay at LSU for his senior season rather than entering the 2014 NFL draft.
But there were other signigicant factors that played into that decision.
“I wanted to make the best example for my younger brother and my younger sister that’s up and coming and every kid around the state,” La’el said. “Just to show them that once you make a commitment to something, you stick to it, be loyal to it and fulfill it. Get everything that you can out of the whole experience.”
Throughout the decision process, David was by his older brother’s side. But they didn’t discuss football, the draft or La’el’s decision. They exchanged stories, just like old friends would.
Although just 14 months apart, there wasn’t any sort of sibling rivalry between the two growing up in Baton Rouge, but David admits he once felt overshadowed by his 6-foot-5, 315 pound brother.
“It’s no big deal to me now because I know how hard my brother worked to be how big he is,” David said.
The brothers garner mutual support and respect from one another, which David said comes from their shared desire to be the best they can be at everything in life.
That encouragement ranges from the track to the football field and everywhere in between. Before La’el straps on his helmet and pads before every football game, he gets a text message from his brother. The words of inspiration put La’el’s mind into a different perspective about playing football for the Tigers.
“For me, when I’m out there in Tiger Stadium playing, I play for both of us,” La’el said.
La’el said he knows how much David loves football and wishes he could run out of that tunnel with his brother into Death Valley. In 2012, as David played football for Broadmoor High School, he watched La’el play on Saturday nights and aspired to do the same.
But college football wasn’t in the cards for David, so he found another way to become an LSU athlete.
“I never even picked up something to throw for track and field until my senior year,” David said. “I liked it. I did pretty good for only doing it one year. I made it all the way to state. Thought I’d give it a shot.”
Two years later, David has broken his indoor personal best in the weight throw four times in his sophomore season. Most recently, David set a best-mark of 59 feet, 2 1/4 inches on Feb. 8 at the Aggie Invitational.
The 19-year-old has established his own identity. He’s no longer just La’el’s brother.
While La’el blocks Southeastern Conference defensive ends, David throws the hammer, a skill La’el acknowledged would give him trouble.
“I’d probably throw out my shoulder,” La’el said. “I just stick to football, I don’t do track.”
The brothers have witnessed success in one another both on and off the field. But no athletic accomplishment can match the pride they bring to their mother, Loyetta. Raising David, La’el and three other siblings as a single parent, she taught her children values unlearnable in sports.
After the final whistle blows or the hammer touches down, La’el and David’s ultimate goal is to represent the Collins name.
“Watching her work two to three jobs just to take care of us really put us in the mindset of, ‘We’re going to do everything to make this woman proud
because she sacrificed everything for us,’” La’el said. “She raised us to be the best that we can be as men and go out there and earn everything that we want to do. Stand for something.”