LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The 2021 NFL Draft may have started Thursdaybut Brevin Jordan's journey to the draft started 15 years ago.
"I was just out there running around like a little rascal. I see my older brother playing and I just fell in love with it," said Jordan, who started playing football at just five years old.
"My second year I got moved to running back and once I got the ball in my hands I was just special."
Special is a good word for it. Even at Bishop Gorman - a football powerhouse that won the state championship every year of Jordan's tenure - he was a star.
Gorman head coach Brent Browner remembered a particular post-game moment, just after the teams had shaken hands.
"We finally finished the whole string and then several kids came up to him afterward and asked for an autograph. I was just like, 'Ugh, you know he doesn't have a marker or Sharpie or anything like that,'" he said.
Browner said Jordan's character on and off the field made him a natural leader.
"More than inspirational," Browner said of Jordan. "He just brought a different level of energy and excitement to the kids and even to the coaches."
When Jordan started at Bishop Gorman, he wanted to play wide receiver. His coaches saw him as a tight end.
Switching positions would ultimately pay dividends - not just for the team, but for Jordan himself. During Jordan's high school years, he put up 1,700 yards, 100 receptions and 29 touchdowns.
Jordan was a key contributor to the Gaels overall dominance.
"It was the best high school experience anybody could ask for," Jordan said. "The people you meet, the relationships you build here, it's really indescribable."
He would wrap his senior season as the top-ranked tight end in the country, with offers to so many schools he lost count.
"Maybe 32, 33. I don't even remember, yeah. It was just hectic."
Hectic but Jordan said it was ultimately an easy decision.
"I went to Miami as a junior and at the time, they were 10-0. They were number two in the country. Of course, Mark Richt was in his second year, under a five-year contract. And the tight end at the time was Chris Herndon. He was a senior. He's in the NFL right now so I knew I could go in and play as a true freshman. So it was really just a business decision."
But Jordan's idyllic ascent would find adversity - first, the sudden death of his father just three months before moving to Florida. And injuries that kept him off the field.
"My time at Bishop Gorman, I never suffered anything as much as a jammed finger. Being hurt and missing time with my brothers, while they're doing mat drills, while they're on the track running and stuff, I was on the sideline, that hurt."
Jordan said his approach to life - play the next play - has helped him transform that hurt into motivation.
"It's a bittersweet feeling that my father's not here but I know he's watching. I'm accomplishing his dreams through me so it's a bittersweet but humbling feeling to be in this situation," he said.
So what will that moment be like? To hear his name called? To make his childhood dream come true?
"Ooh, I'm just going to give my momma a hug. I'm just gonna give my momma a fat hug. I'm going to try not to cry. I"m an emotional guy. I'm a cancer so I'm going to try not to cry but I'm just going to thank all my Gorman coaches, all my Miami coaches, everybody that's just been there. It's really been a humbling process to be a part of this and go to the NFL. It's very, very surreal."
