Gunner Olszewski couldn’t keep his front tooth in his head.

He lost the tooth as a young child. He tripped while running through the house and smacked his face.

“It was like a gunshot,” his dad, Eric, said.

The replacement tooth proved pesky for the kid, who earned a reputation for displaying zero regard for his well-being, according to family members. When Gunner would play football with brothers E.J. and Bo and their friend Sidney Gonzalez in the backyard of the Olszewski home in Alvin, Texas, it was no surprise when Gunner’s tooth would go missing.

Sometimes, Gunner didn’t even know it had happened. A gap would simply emerge in his smile.

At first, they didn’t have much space to play football behind their house. Their home had a tiny backyard. But they made it work, with E.J., Sidney and Gunner simulating game situations. When Gunner was in grade school, the most popular game was a version of the goal-line drill.

E.J. and Sidney would line up in a spot with blocking pads. Gunner, who is now generously listed as 6 feet 1 and 190 pounds but has always been small, would run at that spot and attempt to jump over them. For the most part, he couldn’t. E.J. was a year older and Sidney was two years older, so they would send Gunner twirling to the ground.

“He’d be the one flying through the air, and me and Sidney would be trying to helicopter him or try and stop him from going over something,” E.J. said. “He was always willing. He just enjoyed every aspect of (football). He was just completely fearless with his body.”

E.J said they were “just trying to see what kind of things we could make happen with his body in the air. Luckily, nothing ever broke.” Except the tooth. They also simulated a kickoff drill. One player would field the kick; the others would try to tackle him. You can guess who was often the returner.

It’s not as if Gunner’s parents didn’t try to keep him out of harm’s way. They were careful about what they introduced into Gunner’s life. A dirt bike proved to be too much after Gunner went flying into a bumpy cow field at top speed and careened to the ground. Gunner’s helmet was shattered, but he popped up from the fall and hopped right back on the bike. Gunner’s parents quickly got rid of it.

Gunner was also a big fan of tubing on lakes, so he tied the top of a trash bin to the back of a go-kart and rode the lid like a sled. Pool games were generally off-limits for Gunner because his parents feared he’d hurt himself or someone else. But that happened anyway, even in organized sports. Playing outfield in baseball, he ran directly into a fence, chipped his front tooth and broke his nose. He has broken his nose more times than he could count, most recently in Week 1 against the Steelers. Gunner broke his hand in high school football, which ended his three-game stint as a receiver. He then was forced to play defensive back with a cast.

“It sucked because I lost, by far, my best receiver,” said E.J., who was Alvin High’s quarterback that season. “My father would argue that it actually helped me because I would throw to Gunner when he was triple-covered. And it didn’t really seem to matter. I was like, ‘He’s got a better chance of catching it than the other receivers, one-on-one.'”

That put Gunner’s receiving career on a significant pause. The backyard football stopped, too, when Gunner went to Bemidji State University in Minnesota and E.J. went to Briar Cliff in Iowa. But they reunited for two years at Bemidji. They were starting cornerbacks, bookending the Bemidji defense.

“He’s a guy you do not want to line up against,” E.J. said. “His tenacity, his effort, his desire to beat you on whatever play and every single play — it’s not the dude you want to play against. And it’s a dude you want on your team because you never have to second-guess his effort.”

That still seems to be true.

“Whether that’s return kicks, cover kicks, block, catch – he works really hard,” Bill Belichick said Saturday. “Just gives his best all of the time, so you can’t ask for anything more than that. He keeps getting better.”

Gunner was back home this summer while preparing for his tryout with the New England Patriots, an unlikely a story as any. He’s undersized and he played at a low level of competition. Somehow, the Patriots envisioned trying him at receiver and punt returner. Typically, the position change goes the other way, from receiver to cornerback. But we’re talking about the Patriots, who find players at low levels of competition — like retired running back Danny Woodhead — and convert players from one position to the next — like former Kent State quarterback Julian Edelman. When Gunner made the Patriots’ 53-man roster (after playing five positions in the fourth preseason game), his brothers were the first people he called.

Between the pre-draft process and signing with the Patriots this summer, he was back home in Alvin catching passes. But with E.J. pursuing a master’s degree, younger brother Bo took over as quarterback. They worked together tirelessly on Gunner’s routes.

“I always told him that he had to tell Tom Brady how good of receiver I made him,” Bo joked.

Gunner’s two-catch, 34-yard game in Week 6 was a feather in Bo’s cap. Even Gunner is willing to admit that those practice sessions — particularly the ones from his younger days, made him into the player he is today.

“I was always the king of backyard football,” he said. “Between all of us, I was always the best one.”

It’s not entirely true. For years, Gunner’s father had to tell E.J. to let a crying Gunner win. But when Gunner emerged a physical marvel, he definitely didn’t let E.J. win. It’s clear when he touches the ball that he cares more about advancing it than he does about his own safety. With every NFL hit, he seems to go flying into the air, just as he did in those goal-line drills in his backyard.

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