Jerome Brown

Willie Jerome Brown, III (February 4, 1965 – June 25, 1992) was an American football defensive tackle for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League. 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 Pro Bowls in 1990 and 1991. He played college football at the University of Miami.

College career
Brown played college football at the University of Miami, where he was a standout player for one of college football's most successful and perhaps its most dominant program. He graduated from the university in 1987.

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 Japanese go 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 players drew even greater national controversy when each were seen deplaning a chartered University of Miami plane at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport, wearing BDUs.

Professional career
Brown was drafted in the first round (ninth overall) of the 1987 NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles. During his five-year professional career with the Eagles, he was twice selected to the Pro Bowl (in 1990 and 1991).

Death and legacy
Brown died on June 25, 1992, at the age of 27, following an automobile accident in Brooksville, Florida, in which both he and his nephew, Gus, were killed when Brown lost control of his ZR1 Chevrolet Corvette at high speed and crashed into a utility pole. Brown was buried in Brooksville, Florida. In 2000, the Jerome Brown Community Center was opened in memory of Brown.

Brown's son, Dee Brown (born 1982), plays professional baseball as an outfielder for the Winnipeg Goldeyes.

"Bring it home for Jerome"
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. A sign of the fondness with which Eagles fans continue to view Brown, the saying has continued to this day, nearly 20 years following his death.