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Willie Jerome Brown III (February 4, 1965 – June 25, 1992) was an American professional football defensive tackle who played for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL). He played his entire five-year NFL career with the Eagles from 1987 to 1991, before his death just before the 1992 season. He was selected to two in 1990 and 1991. He played college football for the Miami Hurricanes.
Among his more notable moments as a Miami player, five days before the 1987 Fiesta Bowl, at a promotional Fiesta Bowl dinner with the Penn State team, Brown led a walkout by the Miami players. Leading the walkout, he asked: "Did the go and sit down and have dinner with Pearl Harbor before they bombed them?" Brown and his teammates felt that the Penn State players had disrespected them by openly mocking Miami's coach, Jimmy Johnson, at a pre-game banquet. Penn State beat the heavily favored Hurricanes 14–10, and were declared National Champions.
Days earlier, Brown and fellow University of Miami player Dan Sileo drew even greater national controversy when each were seen deplaning a chartered University of Miami plane at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport, wearing Battle Dress Uniforms. He graduated from the University of Miami in 1987.
In 2000, the Jerome Brown Community Center was opened in Brooksville in memory of Brown.
Brown's son Dee Brown (born 1982) was drafted in the 10th round of the 2005 MLB Draft by the Washington Nationals. He played four seasons of minor league baseball as an outfielder in the Nationals farm system and another two seasons with the Winnipeg Goldeyes of the independent Northern League. "Brown looks for renown," Winnipeg Free Press, May 24, 2009.
Brown and former teammate Reggie White were documented together in an episode of the NFL Network series A Football Life that aired in 2011. White, who died in 2004, was invited to speak at a Billy Graham Crusade being held in Philadelphia the day Brown was killed and was informed just before he went on stage of his friend's death. When he came up to the pulpit to speak, White deviated from his prepared remarks and his speech opened with the following:
An emotional White, pausing to wipe tears from his eyes, continued as the crowd gasped in shock at hearing that Brown was dead. He said that Brown was one of the best men he ever knew, praised his family, and called him one of his best friends.
Brown's jersey number (#99) was retired by the Eagles on September 6, 1992, in an emotional pre-game ceremony at Veterans Stadium, prior to the Eagles' first game of the 1992 season. After his death, Eagles players and fans started the unofficial motto "Bring it home for Jerome," an indirect reference among Eagles fans to bringing a Super Bowl title to the city in Brown's honor. The Eagles would win Super Bowl LII on February 4, 2018, which would have been Brown's 53rd birthday.
Brown is mentioned in The Wonder Years track "We Could Die Like This" off their 4th album The Greatest Generation with the lyrics: "We watched the '92 Birds take the field without Jerome Brown".
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