Derrick Brown was considered the best defensive tackle of the NFL Draft 2020 and was selected by the Carolina Panthers in position 7. He used to be bullied because of his body size and wanted to quit football.

1.96 meters tall, 147 kilograms heavy – Derrick Brown is a giant on the field. The Defensive Tackle was considered the best player in his position in the NFL Draft and was selected by the Carolina Panthers at position 7.

Today his body is his capital and will earn him $23.6 million over the next four years. In the past, however, his body was the reason for nasty bullying attacks from his classmates.

A gentle giant
“As the tallest child in his school class, he was always considered a giant. But he was a gentle giant, not a bully,” says his mother, Martha Brown. Derrick recalls the earlier bullying attacks: “Many children bullied me. I didn’t understand why,” he said on CBS Sports, “It made me sad.”

While he may be an explosive player today, he used to be a very reserved kid. He remembers that a classmate at school took away his musical instrument and threw it into the bushes.

His reaction? There was none! Brown went to his instrument and picked it up again. He had no aggression whatsoever to fight back.

Hiding during practice and eating donuts
From his striking stature alone, it was obvious to everyone that Brown could be a good football player. He himself, however, was not aware of this at first. A passion for the sport? No way! According to his mother, the only reason he played football on Fridays was because he got sweets as a reward on Saturday.

In the meantime, he even wanted to quit the sport altogether. Once, during a training session, he hid between the rows of stands to secretly eat a few donuts. When the coach found him, Derrick said that he didn’t want to play football anymore.

An attitude that his mother did not accept. “If you start something, you have to finish it,” she was said to have told her son. It was at this very moment that Brown was supposed to have clicked. He realized that the sport could offer him many opportunities.

Three years later, Brown was one of the most sought-after recruits in the country, being wooed by all the top universities with scholarships. He chose Auburn University and continued his rapid rise: as a freshman, when other talents still have to get used to the higher college level, he already had eleven tackles, one sack and one conquered fumble.

With his mix of physicality and explosiveness he is the guarantor for a strong running defense. But he also regularly convinces in pass rush, last season he came up with four sacks and two forced fumbles.

Completed his studies to be a role model
Brown could have signed up for the NFL Draft as early as 2019 and would probably have been picked in the 1st round. But in December 2018 he found out that his girlfriend is pregnant. Now you might think that this would be a good reason to get into the NFL quickly and collect the first millions.

But Brown has a different way of thinking. That’s exactly what motivated him to stay in college for another year and graduate in marketing – just to be a role model for his son.

The idea behind it: How was he going to explain to his offspring later that an education was important if he had dropped out of college himself? “I know that he wanted a lot of things for himself, but now that he has a baby, this has top priority for him,” explained his father James Brown.

Derrick Brown himself said: “It was the best decision of my life. I’ve got my degree in my hands and I was still a top 10 pick. You can’t expect more from your life.”

Coach Rhule praised Brown as an athlete and a human being
Panthers coach Matt Rhule is said to have committed himself to Derrick Brown early on in the draft. “He’s just a physical force,” the head coach told ESPN. “But anyone who gets drafted in the first round is a great player. So we wanted to find guys that are not only great athletes, but great people.”

For Brown, both would be true: “He dominated the whole year in the SEC against the run and against the pass, he’s a great person, he’s a great competitor and he’s an important building block for our future.”