Morgan Burnett (left) and his brother Cap with their sons at Cap's wedding. After concussions forced Cap to quit football, he taught Morgan a safer way to play. Credit: The Burnett family

By of the

Green Bay — What stood out first was how heavy, how somber the room felt. Inside the University of Georgia training room, Cap Burnett knew something was up.

Usually after concussions, he passed a test and was back on the field. This time, pale expressions filled the room. Sadness. This time, after concussion No. 6, Mom and Dad made the 90-minute trip to campus and a doctor began to speak in a chilly tone.

Before the doctor could even finish saying that Cap Burnett should not play one more down of football, Cap burst into tears. His passion, his future, his reason to wake up in the morning was taken away.

Back home in College Park, Ga., the scene was equally devastating. His younger brother was in total denial. Cap was Morgan Burnett's "hero." Cap, 8 years older, was invincible to him. So, no, Morgan didn't believe the news until his mother picked him up from middle school practice one day and literally handed him a newspaper with a story detailing that big brother would never play football again.

"And I probably cried harder than he did," Morgan Burnett said. "You know how you have your professional idols that you look up to? I looked up to my brother."

Then, a strange thing happened. Football fate brought the two together and a future NFL career was set in motion.

Today, the Green Bay Packers safety ranks sixth in the NFL with 44 solo tackles. He's on a freshly minted four-year deal worth $24.75 million. But Morgan Burnett also knows he's not standing here today — the leader of one of the league's top secondaries — without Cap Burnett.

Soon after that tearful day, Cap Burnett returned to his alma mater, North Clayton High School, as an assistant coach and taught Morgan what he himself never learned — how to tackle. He refused to let Morgan take the same head-first, knockout approach he did.

He started living his dream through Morgan's dream.

To this day, Morgan says his brother was the better safety.

"He's a big reason I'm where I'm at," Burnett said. "He really helped me out in high school, throughout middle school. That's what helped me get to Georgia Tech. He had a big influence on my life."

'I'm going to knock you out'

Once in a while, Morgan Burnett drills a receiver over the middle. He channels his inner-Cap, briefly. And from afar, Cap knows he'll get a text or call later that night along the lines of "I felt like you running around at Georgia!"

True, Morgan is more technician than lights-out WWE wrestler.

Cap? He was a forearm-shivering headhunter with one goal: run through the man.

"I always looked for the big hit," said Cap Burnett, who now coaches at Locust Grove High School (Ga.). "I wasn't scared of anybody. I'm going to knock you out. I'm not going to shy away from you. I was a big hitter, man."

At Georgia, from 1999-'02, he played in 22 games (six starts) with 55 tackles, one sack and two interceptions at safety and linebacker. His collegiate highlight came in the Oahu Bowl at the end of the 2000 season against Virginia when Cap had an interception and returned a fumble four yards for a touchdown.

That'd be his final game.

In all, he says he had six concussions, yet knows it's likely double-digits considering the many undiagnosed collisions in high school. Burnett can't detail the hits, can't remember them. Former teammates often bring up the one vs. Auburn.

"I came down and ran through an Auburn receiver and I don't remember anything," Cap Burnett said. "They said, 'Man, you were out!'"

The final concussion that ended his football career? An innocent, "minor" hit in practice. Hardly any contact.

"I just blacked out," he said. "I didn't even know what was going on."

That was it. Game over.

Cap sees it clearly now years later — he was in severe danger. One more concussion could've carried far worse consequences.

"In reality," Cap said, "it's 'Do I play and suffer one more concussion and maybe become a vegetable and not know anything that's going on in your life?'"

The choice was easy; handling that choice was not. Inside, he was devastated.

Paying it forward

First, came the depression. Cap Burnett slipped into a desolate darkness.

Convinced he could play in the NFL — "no doubt," he says today — he was now working at a Lowe's Home Improvement in Athens, Ga. When the phone rang, he didn't pick up. He cut out close friends and family. He'd get angry for no reason. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with football, refusing to watch one second of games on Saturday and Sunday.

He put on weight. He sent all Georgia jerseys, posters, etc. home to be stored away forever.

"I just wanted to be to myself and be left alone," he said.

Then, Burnett got a phone call from his high school football coach at North Clayton. The linebackers job was his if he wanted it. Cap jumped at the chance — especially with Morgan entering his freshman year.

Instantly, Morgan helped Cap escape his bottomless pit of self-pity. They were, after all, best friends. They talk every day.

In College Park, Cap told Morgan which people, which neighborhoods to avoid. He'd bring Morgan everywhere, toting him over his shoulder to cross Riverdale Road and play football to even using the cuteness of a little brother to meet girls. If Cap roughed up Morgan in a pick-up game, Morgan never told Mom. There was a love, a respect, a kinship that bridged their eight-year gap.

In college, Morgan didn't join friends in Florida for spring break — he hung out with Cap.

"He taught me things about football — but more about life," Morgan Burnett said. "Be careful with the decisions you make, he taught me that at a young age. Keeping my head right so I wasn't running with the wrong crowd or getting locked up."

Back at North Clayton, Cap Burnett had a chance to fix everything that went very, very wrong for him at this point in his development. He stressed that tackling is "an art."

"I was a good tackler, too. I just chose to try to knock everybody out because that's what I was told to do," Cap said. "I told Morgan, 'It's an art, it's an art.' Everybody is not a good tackler, everybody can't do it.

"There's a time and a place for that big hit. That was my fault. It didn't matter who it was or what angle I had. So that was one of the biggest things I taught him — there's a time for it."

He showed his little brother how to play "mind games" with quarterbacks. Most passers in high school lock into one receiver, he'd explain. Morgan could creep near the line of scrimmage one moment, pinball back to the secondary the next and create game-long confusion.

The two held their own one-on-one sessions after practice. Tackling. Playmaking. Life. Everything was covered.

"He always said, 'Let the game come to you. Don't force anything. And your plays will happen,'" Morgan said.

His final two years of high school, Morgan put it all together with 236 tackles and 11 interceptions (four for touchdowns), and was ranked the sixth best safety nationally by Rivals.com. His No. 1 was eventually retired by the high school in 2011.

Burnett signed with Georgia Tech...was drafted by the Packers ...and, yes, stayed healthy.

'A beautiful feeling'

This day in the Packers locker room, Morgan Burnett listens to the question, pauses and turns around to knock on wood.

No, he has never suffered a concussion himself. Not one. No, he was never hesitant to play a game that threatened his own brother's livelihood.

The experience did, however, shape a day-to-day, game-to-game, snap-to-snap point of view.

"When you step on the field, whether it's practice or the game," Morgan said, "you have to cherish it."

These days, the 33-year-old Cap Burnett is at peace. He coaches. He teaches special education. He's married with two children.

Yet down the road — 10, 20, maybe 30 years — he also realizes complications could arise.

Right now, occasional headaches ring and his mind flickers with short-term memory loss. Morgan can't tell any difference. Cap admits he must "write down everything" or he forgets it. Little things. The bell schedule at school, X's and O's at practice, errands to run for his wife. He always keeps a notepad handy.

"If I have to do stuff with my wife," Cap Burnett explained, "I have to write it down or I'll forget it and she'll be all over me! She'll laugh because I really didn't mean to do it — I just forgot to write it down.

"I just hope that later on down the line everything is still functioning fine. Because it was a lot of hits."

And when those headaches set in, Cap heads to dark room to mellow out, reset.

Thinking back, Cap remembers precisely when he "saw stars" as a youth. He thought that daze meant a job well done.

Said Cap, "We were out there killing ourselves, really."

He hopes he stopped in time. He knows he helped his little brother in time.

In Green Bay, Burnett anchors the NFL's sixth-ranked pass defense, one that has 10 interceptions (No. 2) and a 74.0 opposing passer rating (No. 1). He plays smart and is rarely ever flagged as the brains of the secondary.

Morgan Burnett is living out Cap Burnett's dream every day.

And Cap, 900 miles away, is loving every second of it.

"To see him grow into a man, competing at the highest level," Cap said, "it's a beautiful feeling."