Brown was helping his brother, Braden, an offensive lineman at BYU get ready for the draft when he stumbled across a man who would change his life.
Chad Ikei, a trainer for BYU, became interested in helping Les, offering advice that would lead him to the NFL. "He looked at me and said, 'You've got the rest of your life to work. You could be a great tight end," Brown said. "Chad was persistent, he wanted to take me on as a project."
Eventually Brown quit school again and moved to Hawaii to workout full-time with other NFL hopefuls to get ready for pro scouts. He worked out three times a day, six days a week in a "three-month boot camp."
All that worked was needed, since Brown had to impress cynical NFL scouts at BYU's pro day on March 29. "I was a no-name guy coming out of nowhere. I knew I had to turn some heads," he said.
In short, the results were mind-boggling.
Brown had the best vertical jump (39 inches), broad jump (10 feet, 3 inches), 40-yard time (4.43) of all the football hopefuls attending BYU's pro day.
With his brothers in attendance and overcome with tears, Brown had done enough to receive interest from the Giants, Raiders, Colts, Packers and Dolphins. In the end, he picked the Dolphins' three-year contract offer with a small signing bonus.
"It was an overwhelming feeling for all of us," Les Brown says. "When I quit school, some of my friends thought I was foolish, chasing some kind of high school dream. They thought I had a better shot at hitting the lottery than making the NFL. But I was doing it for me. I’d always wondered, ‘What if I had played football?’ " "All I wanted was a chance," he says. "When I started on this journey, I never thought this would happen."
Dolphins mini-camp opens on Monday, Brown will be competing with Anthony Fasano, Charles Clay, Jeron Mastrud and Will Yeatman for a spot on Miami's 53-man roster at tight end. [youtube]
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