When the NFL draft ends Sunday night, former LSU athlete Bennie Brazell should have a clearer picture of what his future will hold.
That future could be with the team he was just drafted by, a team he just signed with via a free agent or a pending track contract to run with Nike.
Whatever the situation may be for Brazell, to even have a chance at being drafted into the NFL is a dream come true for the Houston native.
Brazell enrolled in LSU in 2001 after a highly productive prep career at Westbury High School, where he was selected as a USA Today All-American in football and ranked as the nation’s No. 1 hurdler in track.
His accolades in high school led to huge early expectations, which he seemed to surpass in track and field but could not live up to in football.
Brazell had only four catches for 48 yards and no touchdowns in his first three seasons in football, a far cry from the 36 catches, 967 yards and 10 touchdowns he grabbed in just his senior year in high school.
“It was very frustrating,” Brazell said. “For years I’d make a mistake and never get the chance to go back out there again. I don’t think it was fair, but that’s just how it was.”
During that same time span, he had already become the most decorated track athlete in LSU history.
He was a five-time NCAA Champion, a part of four national champion relay teams, a two-time national runner-up in the 400-meter hurdles and a member of two team national titles. He earned a total of 14 All-American honors and was selected to compete in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.
Though Brazell said he thought his honors in track were due to God’s helping him stay sane, the success also was tough because it reminded him of how good he could be in football.
“It got hard when track was working good, but everything in football wasn’t going how I liked,” Brazell said.
Brazell said he was confident heading into his junior season. He had just returned from representing his country in the Olympics and had worked on catching the ball all that summer. He said he thought he could finally have his breakout season, but it ended in disappointment with only one catch for 20 yards.
Brazell also watched close friends whom he starred with in the Houston high school ranks such as Texas quarterback Vince Young, Texas A&M running back Courtney Lewis and even teammate Joe Addai, continue their football successes without him.
“I came back after the Olympics, and that was just a waste of a season,” Brazell said. “I was just there, to tell you the truth.”
In spring 2005 Brazell wrapped up his final track season; and with a year of eligibility left in football and hundreds of thousands of dollars in track money waiting for him, he had a decision to make.
He decided to return for his senior season and pass up the track money for a chance to play at LSU.
Doing so helped Brazell enter his last fall camp with a new mindset.
“I wasn’t going to be denied in my senior season, no matter what,” Brazell said. “If they weren’t going to play me, it was going to have to be a really good reason. It wasn’t going to be because of my skills or me not being able to catch the ball.”
With this mindset and new coach Les Miles, Brazell began his senior season with a clean slate and finally had the breakout year he envisioned.
He completed career-highs in catches (12), yards (292) and touchdowns (3). He averaged 22.5 yards a catch and 49 yards a touchdown.
“He gave us that deep threat we needed,” LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell said. “He brought more athleticism to the field, and the opposing teams’ lack of knowledge of what he was capable of doing also allowed us to go to Bennie more often.”
Fellow LSU receiver Dwayne Bowe said he learned a lot from watching what Brazell experienced throughout his collegiate career and Brazell was a better person for having to go through his tough times.
“As good as he is in track, I already knew what he was expecting from himself every year in football,” Bowe said. “But even through those tough years, Bennie said that he would wait for his opportunity, and when it comes he’ll shine, and that’s what he did.”
After years of concentrating on both track and football, Brazell is putting track on the backburner, said Trent Ellis, Brazell’s agent.
“Bennie’s only focus right now is football,” Ellis said.
Ellis said the Texans, Falcons, Bengals, Jaguars and Giants have shown the most interest in drafting the 6-foot-1-inch wide receiver. But whoever it may be draft analyst Mike Detillier said Brazell is likely to hear his name called.
“I’d bet the bank he gets picked,” Detillier said. “He needs to get stronger, but he has great speed, tremendous acceleration after the catch, and for a track guy, he catches the ball very well with his hands away from his body.”
Not bad for a guy who started this past season as the sixth receiver.
 
Contact Jeff Martin at [email protected]