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Gold and Black Illustrated Vol28, Digital1

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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 28, ISSUE 1 18 Louisville.'" Even if you're the son of a popular, successful local ath- lete and coach. As the youngest soon learned. "I think there was pressure on them," Oscar said. "I think then when Jeff played, everybody had high expec- tations, and he was all-everything. Greg, too. So they had pressure on them. Then Brian came along and everybody was anticipating him. Brian had tremendous pressure on him. I don't think there's anywhere you couldn't feel it. When you're in the eighth grade and everybody is already talking about you ... Hey, when the whole city is pretty much putting pressure on you, that's a lot of pressure." B rian Brohm had no choice. Before he ever even stepped on a field, a dia- mond, a court, people had expectations. He always knew it, even as a kid. And he always felt like he had to fulfill them, lofty as they were. He'd heard people say he'd be the best of the Brohm bunch. And everyone in his family seemed to have the same mission: To build him into just that. By the time Brian was playing flag football as a fourth-grader, it wasn't just about throwing the ball, like Jeff and Greg had started with their team nearly 15 years earlier. It was much deeper than that. Brian's uncle Don- nie would tape the games and the next day, most of the family would watch the tape. And critique it. Flag football. But it wasn't just like that in football, though that was the most magnified, maybe, because of Brian's talent and ceiling — and the family's pedigree at quarterback. Brian remembers one specific time when he scored 33 points in a basketball game, thought he played pretty well. But when they pulled into the driveway back home, it took three hours to make it inside the house. Oscar, Greg, Jeff and Brian picked up a ball and played a bit while the three oldest lectured the youngest on every lit- tle thing they thought Brian could have done differently, done better. They'd offer the occasional "good job," but it nearly always was followed with something he could improve. That was generally how it went. In youth leagues, in mid- dle school, in high school, in college. Work always was being done, whether it was watching film, having special gatherings in the backyard to "train" for a season or to fix a throwing motion that felt out of whack — Donna usual- ly was the one who filmed those sessions, and the whole family went inside to watch the footage before returning outdoors to initiate tweaks — or, simply, talking. That knowledge may not always have been welcomed by Brian, but ultimately he soaked it up. There was too much wis- dom not to absorb every word, every idea, every critique. "We talked ball a lot in our house," said Brian, smil- ing. "I basically grew up with three coaches, Greg, Jeff and Oscar. There were multiple times they'd come to the games and watch, Greg and Jeff, my dad would be the coach and then you'd come home and you had three coaches reviewing the game and going over everything that happened during the game, what I could have done BRIAN Photos by Trinity Yearbook, Louisville Athletics

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