Zak Keefer

zak.keefer@indystar.com

Initially the coincidence didn't even strike him, not with preparations well underway for his first NFL start in three years, not to mention his first ever as an Indianapolis Colt. This was an important day, an important opportunity. Sergio Brown was resolute to make the most of it.

It took a text message from his mother for him to pause, remember and shake his head in disbelief.

"12 years to the day," she wrote.

How appropriate, Brown marveled. How fitting.

So in the waning moments before Sunday's kickoff, Brown pulled aside his head coach, Chuck Pagano, with a request. It was the team's first game in October – the NFL's Breast Cancer Awareness Month – and, by chance, the 12-year-anniversary of Brown losing his father to cancer. He wanted a word with the team.

Pagano, a cancer survivor himself, told him to go right ahead.

So immediately after the team prayer, and right before the Colts burst onto the field for introductions, Brown shared his story with his teammates and coaches. He told them what the day meant to him.

"He spoke from the heart," cornerback Greg Toler said. "You could tell how much of a big deal it was to him."

Then Brown went out and had one of the finest days of his career, filling in admirably for suspended free safety LaRon Landry. Brown made three tackles, sacked Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco on a critical fourth-down blitz deep in Indianapolis territory, and added a pass deflection.

He was everywhere. He was a difference-maker.

"Your dad would have been proud of you," Myrtle Brown told her son after the game.

Indeed, he would have. Mario Brown – a notable athlete himself, the first African-American to ever play college basketball at Texas A&M – played an enormous role in his son's life. And, his son says, the life of everyone in the neighborhood. He was the dad that knew every kid on the block, the one who'd teach them the proper jump shot and push them to earn better grades in school.

That's why Sunday meant so much to Sergio. The fifth day of October is never easy.

Mario Brown's lung cancer started slowly before spreading swiftly. They lost him in 2002. Sergio was a freshman in high school.

"Once the cancer reached the bone marrow, it was over," he remembers.

He carried his father's guidance with him through the rest of his high school career at Proviso East outside Chicago. And through four years at Notre Dame. And as an undrafted free agent bouncing from practice squads to special teams units to secondaries in New England and Indianapolis.

He'd started three games for the Patriots during the 2011 season, but in his two-plus years in Indianapolis he was primarily a special teams star. That was until Landry was popped last week for using performance-enhancing drugs. He'd sit for four games.

Suddenly, Brown had his shot with the Colts.

And of all the days for it to arrive, it came Sunday, 12 years to the day after he lost his father. So entrenched in the Ravens last week, it never hit him.

"Once my mom reminded me, it just felt like it was right," Brown said. "Honestly, the more I thought about it, the more it gave me peace of mind. It made me feel like everything was going to be OK. It let me go out there and be free."

He was a critical cog in a defense that put together its most impressive 60-minute performance of the season. Baltimore, seven days after lighting up a stout Carolina defense for 38 points, never got rolling.

"He's been working extremely hard, waiting for this day to come," Pagano said. "He came out and took advantage of that opportunity."

Pagano gave a game ball to every player on his defense after the 20-13 win.

"He was playing with another spirit out there," Toler said. "Yesterday, you could just see it in his eyes. He had a lot he wanted to show the world."

"It was a great day for everybody," Pagano added, "and especially for No. 38."

Myrtle Brown was right. Dad would've been proud.

Call Star reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134 and follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.