03 Jun Sergio Brown (Ep.50): From the gridiron to Google

Posted at 11:50h in Podcast by Khe Hy

Sergio Brown played high school basketball with Derrick Rose, was coached by Bill Belichick in the NFL, has two degrees, and has worked at Google. Despite barely playing football in high school, Sergio learned the ins and outs of the game at Norte Dame and ultimately joined the Patriots as an undrafted free agent. We discuss his 8 year career in the NFL, the glamor of game day, the physical toll on his body and the transitory life bouncing from team to team. And on current NFL issues, he shares his thoughts on kneeling during the anthem and if he’d let his future son play because of concussions. But an NFL career can only last so long, imagine the loss of identity when you go from being an NFL player to a former NFL player. So with his body pretty much intact, he started his next act, at Google.

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Learn more about Sergio

Follow Sergio on Twitter and Instagram
Sergio’s viral Rick Flair video
Sergio on Bill Belichick’s culture of excellence and the loss of identity from a career transition

Would you let your future son play football

I’d be supportive of him doing whatever he wants. I’d also definitely let him know that there’s baseballs, golf clubs and soccer balls out there. And these people make a lot of money, doing what they love. I’m not going to lie.

But if he wants to play football, he wants to play football. I can’t stop someone from pursuing their joy, and [of corise] I’d have some kind of influence because of the life I chose to live. But looking back, I wouldn’t have minded being some American guy with dreads named Sergio, running around Europe playing soccer!

Bill Belichick’s culture of excellence

What you see is what you get. It’s the best culture in football. He knows how to get his whole team and organization to believe that message. They’re students of the game, they don’t disrespect the process at all, regardless of how long they’ve been doing it. They take that same amount of time to dot their Is, cross their Ts, to really present the information to their players and use the personnel in the right way.

[People have the tendency] to get comfortable with their expertise and skip steps. Even small simple steps like when you’re watching film, like watching third down later in the day or I’m not going to watch second down with this team because we played them already. They stick to the plan, for real. You can only respect being the expert, yet continuing to go that extra mile.