There’s not much Brian Brohm hasn’t experienced in his 28 years as a quarterback and as an athlete in general.

He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated when he was in Grade 11 for a story on multi-sport athletes. He flamed out in two attempts at becoming an NFL starter. He comes from one of the more famous football families in the U.S. He spent two seasons in a league that folded and he had to sue to get his last paycheques. The Colorado Rockies drafted him in the 2004 Major League Baseball draft. He likely would have been a first-round pick had he declared for the NFL draft after his junior year in college, but he waited another year and became a late second-rounder. He spent all of last season on the Hamilton Tiger-Cats injured list. ESPN football analysts said they wouldn’t be surprised if Brohm ended up being better than Aaron Rodgers.

That’s quite the ride. Now Brohm appears poised to experience something new as a football player. There’s a good chance he’s about to become the most popular man in Winnipeg, also known as the Bombers backup quarterback.

All signs indicate the Louisville, Ky., native has moved past Max Hall on Winnipeg’s depth chart but remains behind starter Drew Willy. Brohm had a better pre-season game than Hall on Saturday night, and he’s looking much more at home in offensive co-ordinator Marcel Bellefeuille’s offence than he did at the beginning of camp.

“I feel very comfortable,” Brohm said Tuesday. “I feel like things are coming along well. I feel good about where I’m at. I still have a lot of improvements to make, but I do feel good about the progress I’ve made so far. I’m just going to keep my head down and keep working hard.”

Giving it his all in sports has never been a problem for Brohm, and that’s because of his upbringing. The Brohms are the first family of football in Kentucky. His dad, Oscar, played quarterback for the hometown Louisville Cardinals, as did his older brother Jeff. Older brother Greg, a receiver, also played at Louisville and tried out for the Edmonton Eskimos. His mom, Donna, and sister, Kim, played multiple sports at the collegiate level.

Since Jeff, who is 15 years older, was already in the NFL when Brian was in grade school, he had a pretty good quarterback coach on call at all times.

“He would come back in the off-season and I was in the eighth grade doing five-step, seven-stop drops in the back yard with him and he just kind of took me under his wing,” Brohm said. “So I had a big advantage over everybody else who was trying to play quarterback at that time.”

Even though he was heavily recruited to play at some of the big-name U.S. colleges, Brohm decided to stay at home and play for the Cardinals. Jeff, who was done as a player, was his quarterbacks coach. The family tradition continued.

“Mostly it was good,” Brohm said. “Obviously the expectations were high around town, and then even having my brother coach me, there was some good in that, but as you can imagine, your brother telling you what to do every day …

“We never got into any fist fights, but there were a few verbal altercations. We might’ve had to call mom and dad on a few of them. It was an interesting dynamic.”

Brohm was a star at Louisville, and his best season was his junior campaign. That’s when everyone predicted he would be a first-round NFL pick if he declared, but he decided to stay for his senior season. He didn’t have as good a year, and the Green Bay Packers took him late in the second round. That’s when ESPN analysts said he had the potential to be better than Rodgers. It didn’t exactly turn out that way, but Brohm has no regrets about any decisions he’s made.

“If my NFL career had gone the way it actually did and I did go out early, I would’ve really regretted leaving early and missing that senior year. It was a fun time, got to spend one more year at the school I always wanted to play for. I’m happy that I stayed for that senior year.”

The stints in Green Bay and Buffalo, where he started two games, didn’t lead to a starting gig, and he ended up in the ill-fated UFL in 2011 and 2012. He signed with the Ticats last year after the Bombers passed on his services following a workout, and Winnipeg traded for him earlier this year.

The dream continues, because he doesn’t want to do anything else, and he will always lean on his family for support. He talks regularly to his brothers and dad about the game they love.

“I want to play as long as I can,” Brohm said. “As long as this body holds up and as long as there’s a coaching staff and a front office that will let me play, I want to keep on playing.”

kirk.penton@sunmedia.ca

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