INDIANAPOLIS – This is a story about a football player, but it begins in the basketball gym at Dwyer High School in Florida.

This is where Jacoby Brissett did some of his best quarterbacking. Oh, he did plenty of that on the gridiron, too, leading the Panthers to a football state title as a junior. Hardly surprising for a guy who became an NFL draft pick and now is keeping the seat warm for Indianapolis Colts star Andrew Luck.

But what you might not have known was that football was Plan B for Brissett. This NFL quarterback did some quarterbacking of a different sort back in the day, leading Dwyer to a basketball state title as a senior.

“Basketball was always my first love,” Brissett said.

You probably would not have guessed that after watching him play on Sundays. But listen to Brissett a bit longer and it all starts to make sense.

“I played the point,” he said. “There were nights where I didn’t score and then there were nights when I scored the bulk of (the points). That’s what all quarterbacks play, right?

“They’re point guards.”

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Makes you wonder about that 360-degree pirouette Brissett executed this past Sunday, leaving a Cleveland Browns defender in his wake on the way to the end zone. Maybe it was, in effect, a point guard using a spin move on a drive to the rim.

Point guard. Quarterback. Pupil.

Brissett has many layers. But right now, he’s a young quarterback doing his best to save the Colts’ season in Luck’s absence.

This is the story of how he got here.

***

Brissett almost became an offensive lineman. His high school coach, Jack Daniels, still remembers the day Brissett first showed up as a freshman seeking a chance to play quarterback.

“He was chubby,” Daniels recalled. “I was like, ‘Yeah, right. You’re gonna play offensive line.’”

Just as Brissett seems unflappable now in the face of relentless pressure from NFL opponents — the Browns blitzed him on 70 percent of his dropbacks — he was defiant then, too. He insisted on getting his chance to play quarterback. And, darn, if he wasn’t right all along.

Brissett earned some scattered snaps during the regular season behind an upperclassman starter who was considered a Division I prospect. Then came the revelatory moment.

It’s the state playoffs. On the other side: Booker T. Washington, a nationally-ranked Miami powerhouse. Dwyer is down. The starting quarterback gets injured. Things are unraveling.

Brissett gets the call.

“That’s the point I knew he would be special,” Daniels said. “Booker T. Washington had given up about 30 points all year. Jacoby took us to 13 points in the fourth quarter and we almost came back.”

Eventually, the job became Brissett’s and the notion of him playing on the offensive line was revealed to be preposterous. The Panthers went on to win a state football title his junior season, with Brissett leading the way.

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All the while, he was dominating on the basketball court, too. This is how rare of an athlete Brissett was: He won Palm Beach County large classification Player of the Year honors in football and basketball as a senior. He was literally the best player, in a talent-rich area, in two sports.

Not bad for a once-chubby freshman.

Of course, all this created a major dilemma. Which sport would Brissett pursue? The one he considers his first love? Or football, where he seemed to have limitless potential?

Brissett handled the decision with the same maturity that allows him to command an NFL huddle at just 23 years old.

“It was hard,” he said. “It was definitely a tough pill to swallow, but I knew.”

“I steered clear of it,” Daniels said. “He knew that his ceiling in basketball was nowhere near the ceiling in football. Most kids his size (he’s 6-4) think they’re going all the way to the NBA. But Jacoby knew. He was a pretty smart kid.”

You get a slightly different impression if you listen to his basketball coach, Fred Ross. He once told the Palm Beach Post that Brissett had the ability to be a first-round pick in the NBA. Maybe that wasn’t a stretch considering Brissett garnered basketball scholarship offers from major programs like Xavier, Miami and South Carolina, among others.

But as impressive as Brissett’s athletic feats were, what he was most beloved for was his humility and engaging personality. You can see it even now. He converses with a sincerity that allowed him to assimilate into the Colts’ locker room immediately after his trade from the New England Patriots four weeks ago.

“It was hard to even think about anything other than what a good kid he was,” Daniels said. “So many kids like that, you can’t even talk to them. But he’s so down to earth and so real.”

***

People are drawn to kids like that. Brissett lures you in with that wide, irresistible smile he seemingly wears permanently. Throw in the fact that he’s a diligent worker and possesses rare talent and it’s easy to see why even someone like Bill Parcells would want to know more.

A chance meeting between them years ago has blossomed into one of the most important relationships in Brissett’s life — and the same is true for Parcells, too.

The Hall of Fame coach has a retirement home in Florida and is a friend of Daniels’ father-in-law. After attending games at Dwyer, Parcells quickly saw the potential in Brissett. Soon, a mentor-mentee relationship spawned.

The Super Bowl-winning coach has been there every step of the way for Brissett, helping him through his college decisions — he initially played at Florida before transferring to North Carolina State — and shepherding him through the predraft process in 2016. The ability to lean on Parcells is likely one of the reasons Brissett was able to navigate his entry into the NFL without a player agent (he still represents himself).

But the relationship long ago became more than just a professional one.

“I’m really (emotionally) invested,” Parcells told IndyStar. Parcells had plenty to say but he expressed a desire to remain low key so as to not become the story. But he’s part of it whether he likes it or not. Parcells has played too big a role in the making of Brissett not to be.

Hearing Parcells talk about Brissett is not unlike listening to a proud father brag about his son. It’s a little jarring considering Parcells’ reputation as the fire-breathing former coach of the Patriots, New York Giants, New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys.

“He’s an emotional guy,” Brissett said. “People think he’s a mean-ass dude. But he’s not. Although, he’s mean to me (laughs).”

Don’t be fooled. It’s just tough love. Their bond is strong.

The relationship, Brissett said, “is very important to me. Really important. It’s such a blessing to have him. And not just for football, but in life. My grandad died before I was born. So, he provides that for me.”

It’s just one of several critical relationships that have aided Brissett’s development. At Florida, Brissett spent a year under the tutelage of Charlie Weis, the former Notre Dame coach and one-time Patriots offensive coordinator who was running the Gators’ offense at the time.

Then — likely with an assist from Parcells and Weis — New England’s Bill Belichick drafted him in the third round last year. That gave Brissett a front-row seat to watch the greatest coach-quarterback tandem in NFL history in Belichick and Tom Brady. Then, he won a Super Bowl as a rookie.

Being the perceptive kid he is, Brissett knows his good fortune.

“You get to see the right way to do it and the wrong way to do things,” Brissett said of his influences. “There’s definitely (been) a lot of information to help me along the way. Not saying that I’m going to do everything right, but there’s definitely trigger points where you say, ‘I remember this, when so and so said that.’”

“So and so” is an interesting way to describe Tom flippin’ Brady. The man collects Super Bowl rings like the rest of us collect coins. That’s the guy Brissett had the privilege to watch work day in and day out.

Brissett has a special admiration for Brady. Most notable about the veteran: His unmitigated enthusiasm, even at 40.

“It’s just his approach,” Brissett said. “He’s playing like it’s his first year.”

Ironically, Brissett often plays like he’s been in the NFL for more than a year and a half. Don’t think for a moment the many influences around him haven’t contributed to that.

***

What’s next for the hoops star-turned-NFL quarterback?

In the immediate term, he’s got to deal with the Seattle Seahawks. Perhaps the toughest road challenge in the NFL awaits Brissett Sunday night at CenturyLink Stadium.

Brissett completed 17-of-24 passes for 259 yards in the win over the Browns, also running for a pair of touchdowns. He led the Colts to four consecutive touchdown drives on their way to building a 28-7 lead.

But it’s early. Brissett has more to prove, and this is a chance to do exactly that.

“This will be a big challenge,” offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski said. “There are a lot of next steps. I think sometimes you get lost a little bit in some of the really good things that he’s doing. He’s still a young player and still an inexperienced player. Some of the things that are happening to him on the field are the first time that he’s experiencing that or going through that. … I’m excited and impressed with what he’s done and been able to do so far, but we still have a long way to go.”

In the long term, the Colts are expected to welcome Luck back — he’s scheduled to begin practicing next week — and Brissett ultimately will head back to the bench. But he’s under contract for two more seasons, meaning the Colts can have the kind of peace of mind behind Luck they’ve lacked since Matt Hasselbeck retired after the 2015 season.

In the meantime, with Luck out awhile longer, Brissett remains the Colts’ starting “point guard.” And like any good point guard, his foremost job is to set up teammates for easy buckets.

But that doesn’t mean he won’t take it to hole himself once in a while. And why not? So far, just about everything about Brissett joining the Colts has proven to be a slam dunk.

Follow IndyStar Colts Insider Stephen Holder on Twitter: @HolderStephen.