Briean Boddy-Calhoun

Briean Boddy-Calhoun has taken advantage of his opportunities with the Browns so far.

(Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Wilmington, Delaware is not an easy place to escape. Google the city and you won't scroll far before you find the headline "Murder Town USA." It appears on lists as one of the most dangerous cities in the country.

Browns rookie cornerback Briean Boddy-Calhoun knows it. It's where he grew up.

"My uncle says DE stands for Dead End because Delaware, it's a dead end," Boddy-Calhoun said. "No one makes it out."

Boddy-Calhoun's mentor, Maurice "Bo" Hunter, knows how tough Wilmington is, too. He's lived there his whole life, save for when he played running back at the University of Akron in the late '90s. He's been teaching in Wilmington for 15 years.

Hunter grew up in the Riverside projects, about six blocks from where Boddy-Calhoun grew up years later. He estimates that seven out of 100 kids made it out from his neighborhood. Things were even more bleak for Boddy-Calhoun's neighborhood.

"Briean grew up in the area called Northside/Market Street," Hunter said. "I'm going to say in his area, for his age that I worked with, I'm going to say it's about four out of 100 making it out."

"Drugs. Killing. My era was worse than his era," Boddy-Calhoun said.

Briean was determined to be one of the four, though.

"Everyone's scared to leave," Boddy-Calhoun said. "For what reason? I don't know. But I know I wasn't scared to get out of there."

All he needed was an opportunity.

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Hunter knows a thing or two about good football players. He's sent numerous kids to college and even a few to the NFL through his 7-on-7 Stay Real Football Camp. So when he saw a 5-foot-9 kid named Briean Boddy break free during overtime of a high school basketball game and dunk in traffic, he knew he was seeing something special.

"I looked up at my principal at the time and I said, 'If this kid plays defensive back, he's going straight to the NFL,'" Hunter said.

Hunter saw Boddy-Calhoun again during Delaware's DFRC Blue-Gold Football All-Star game and he was even more impressed.

Growing up, Boddy-Calhoun told his mother, Wendy Boddy, that he was going to play in the NFL or NBA. He lived with his mother and stepfather since Briean was about 9 months old. He also has multiple half-siblings.

He spent weekends with his father, Dai-Shawn Calhoun, who also lived in Delaware.

When Briean turned 5, he was supposed to go live with Dai-Shawn full-time, but that plan was put on hold when Briean "cried for three days straight" after he was dropped off with his father. The plan changed and Briean was going to make the move when he turned 8.

That never happened. Dai-Shawn died in a car crash when Briean was 7. It's why his name is hyphenated now, something he changed in college.

"I love my dad," Boddy-Calhoun said. "My dad was a great man. A lot of people tell me I'm just like him. He had a huge heart. He was all about helping other people out."

Dealing with the death of his father was something that only got more difficult as he got older and understood more and more what he had lost.

"It was tough. I got in trouble. Started doing stupid things. Stealing. Hanging out with the wrong crowd," he said.

It was also something that forced him to learn hard lessons and grow up quickly.

"I learned early that you are your friends," he said. "The group you hang around, that's who you become. That's why I think I had to mature very early. I came into high school not going to any parties. I don't do parties. I stay in the house. I watch movies. That's pretty much all I do."

By the time he reached the summer after his senior year in high school he was planning to play football at Division III Wesley College in Dover, Delaware. That plan changed, though, when Boddy-Calhoun showed up at Hunter's camp with a friend. It didn't take Hunter long to recognize the kid who had so impressively dunked -- thanks to a tattoo on Boddy-Calhoun's calf.

"I said, 'Man, I think he's that dude,' " Hunter said.

Hunter struck up a conversation and learned the youngster had NFL aspirations. Hunter also knew Wesley College was not the way to get it done.

For three straight days he walked up to Boddy-Calhoun in camp and told him, "You're not going to Wesley."

Boddy-Calhoun finally bit on the third day. After Hunter talked to his mom and stepdad, the wheels were in motion to get Briean into a situation that could match his raw talent with a path to the game's highest level.

Hunter knew a coach named Darian Dulin at Coffeyville (Kansas) Community College. They had known each other since Dulin's days at Butler Community College, where Hunter consistently sent him players.

Hunter sent Boddy-Calhoun's tape and told Dulin to watch the whole thing. The next day, Dulin offered him a full scholarship. Just like that, Boddy-Calhoun was out of Wilmington.

Except there was a catch.

"No one told me that you had to make the team (at Coffeyville)," Boddy-Calhoun said.

The league in which Coffeyville played only allowed 12 out-of-state players on a roster, and Boddy-Calhoun was already late getting there.

"All these other guys had been through spring ball. A lot of them had been through the summer workouts so we had a good feel for who our 12 were going to be," Dulin said, "and then here comes Briean Boddy-Calhoun and he just kind of changed the game."

Dulin and his staff initially saw the newcomer as a wide receiver, but quickly moved him to the bottom of the depth chart at defensive back. Dulin admits that challenge could have been too daunting for some players.

"None of that fazed Briean," Dulin said.

Boddy-Calhoun was so confident in his abilities that early in two-a-days he told Dulin that he only planned to be at Coffeyville for one season -- that he was going to get to a Division I school.

Dulin responded by reminding him that, first, he had to make the team.

"He's like, 'I know Coach. I'm going to make the team,'" Dulin said.

He made the team and didn't look back.

"Second game I had two picks," Boddy-Calhoun said. "Third game I had another pick. Fourth game I had another pick. By the fifth game, no one threw my way again."

Dulin was able to use his connections at the University of Minnesota to help his young star out. The Golden Gophers offered an opportunity and Boddy-Calhoun jumped, even though bigger offers could come.

"I said the first school that offers me, that's where I'm going and Minnesota beat everybody to the punch," Boddy-Calhoun said.

Briean Boddy-Calhoun helped form a dangerous defensive backfield for the University of Minnesota.

It was there where he added the hyphenated Calhoun to his last name to honor his late father, and it's where he thrived, appearing in 38 games, intercepting 10 passes, including two he returned for touchdowns.

He had five interceptions his junior season and four his senior season after missing most of the 2013 season with a knee injury.

Boddy-Calhoun said he was 98 percent sure he would get drafted. Eric Murray, the cornerback who played on the other side at Minnesota went in the fourth round. Boddy-Calhoun went undrafted.

"When he didn't get drafted, it was like a hurt feeling," Hunter said. "I said whoever picks this kid up, they've got a gem."

Jacksonville signed him as an undrafted free agent. He spent training camp there, but he knew enough that as roster cutdowns approached, nothing would come easy.

"Hope for the best and expect the worst," he said. "The whole day, not even the last cut, but first cuts I was like, OK, you're getting cut today. Be prepared for that. Hope I don't, but let's be prepared for that."

He survived the first round of cuts, but Jacksonville waived him Sept. 3. The Browns claimed him the next day. Three weeks later, he would return his first NFL interception for a touchdown against Miami.

*****

Having a nose for the football. It's something that has always stood out for Boddy-Calhoun. It showed during Hunter's 7-on-7 camp in high school. It showed in college.

"He did have a knack of getting around the ball or making an interception and you're like, 'Where did he come from? How did he get to that?' " Dulin said.

"Against Ohio State (in 2014), he told his players, 'I'm going to get an interception. I've got to make something happen,'" Hunter said.

He intercepted quarterback J.T. Barrett with the Gophers trailing 14-0 in the first quarter and returned the ball 56 yards. It led to Minnesota's first score. Later in the half, he forced a fumble that led to the game-tying score.

Boddy-Calhoun credits basketball -- the sport he played the most growing up - for developing his defensive tenacity.

"I think it comes down to a game at the park, one-on-one, five-on-five, don't let your guy beat you on game point," he said. "I bring that over into football and it's just man-to-man, zone, whatever it is, it's a whole bunch of one-on-ones and I just like to win my one-on-ones."

He played late into the night at places in Wilmington like Rocky Park or the PAWL Boys & Girls Club. He played against grown men as a 14-year-old.

"I really wanted to win, and I did everything I could to win and I think that kind of put me ahead of my age group playing basketball and football," he said.

As for his ability with the ball in his hands, he credits players he looked up to as he came up in the game, players like Michael Vick and even a current teammate.

"I really looked up to Terrelle Pryor," he said the day after his pick-six. "He doesn't know that. I wanted to be TP and Michael Vick."

It turns out Boddy-Calhoun was an Ohio State fan growing up, the result of winning a basketball with the Buckeyes logo on it at a carnival when he was visiting his uncle in Columbus as a kid. After Pryor chose Ohio State, Boddy-Calhoun checked out his high school highlights.

"My uncle, he said, 'You remind me of him, but you're just a whole lot shorter,' " he said.

Now he's going against him in practice.

"My first two weeks I went against him every day and we've done nothing but make each other better," Boddy-Calhoun said.

*****

Boddy-Calhoun has a degree in elementary education. He says it was inspired by Hunter, the man he still calls Coach Bo.

"He meant everything," Boddy-Calhoun said. "Once I got down to Coffeyville ... he would call me weekly just to check in on me, see how I'm doing mentally, spiritually. ... Every week he had some gem. ... 'Make sure you're focused on this. Make sure you're in your books.'"

Hunter, for his part, takes great pride in the man Boddy-Calhoun has become, even if he doesn't want to take much credit.

"It gets me emotional because I'm happy," Hunter said. "I'm so happy for this young man."

And even though Boddy-Calhoun has gotten out, it doesn't mean he won't go back to Wilmington.

"I would like to be that bridge to show people that you can make it out and whatever it is you want to do, you can do," he said.

He's inspired, in part, by his time at Coffeyville, where he found out teammates were getting offers from strong Division I programs, players he knew weren't better than guys he went against in Wilmington.

"All I wanted to do at that time was run back home and tell everybody don't give up. Don't fall into this trap," he said. "You don't have to sell drugs. You need school. Stay in school."

When he came out to train with Hunter this summer, Boddy-Calhoun tossed an NFL football to the local kids working out with him.

"He says, 'Listen, I want you all to see me. See my height. See that I'm no different from you all,'" recalled Hunter. "'You've got an opportunity. You've got a chance.'"

Even at 5-foot-9, getting out of Murder Town USA was never too big of a task for the man they call Boddy.

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