Accountant signs with Miami Dolphins to play TE

leroy · Apr 19, 2012

For real...

Accountant to play football for Miami Dolphins

Ever since Dan Marino retired, the Miami Dolphins have wasted a lot of money signing top college football players to contracts that never really paid off, so now they've decided to give accountants a try.

In short, the story seems to have been delivered directly from a Hollywood script. Les Brown, an accountant at a private equity investment firm in West Palm Beach, Fla., just signed a contract to play tight end for the Dolphins.

Generally speaking, if you don't play football in college, your chances of signing a professional contract are close to zero, but those are just the kind of odds Brown has defied.

Like many young men, he was a star in baseball, basketball and football while attending high school in Utah. Brown was even recruited to play football at BYU, but he decided basketball would be his sport.

"I didn't have the body to play football. I was a tall, skinny kid who liked to sit outside and shoot threes," Brown told the Salt Lake Tribune.

In the end, Brown chose to play basketball at Westminster College, a small private liberal arts college in Salt Lake City. While playing shooting guard for the Griffins, Brown took an internship at Huntsman Gay Global Capital. The Salt Lake Tribune's Gordon Monson reports that after the company presented him with a full-time job offer, he dropped out of school, and gave up his hoop dreams to work at the firm.

After the company closed the doors on its Salt Lake City offices, Brown was shifted to the West Palm Beach branch. After just seven months, he had enough, deciding to return home to Utah in July of 2011 to finish his degree.

Brown was helping his brother, Braden, an offensive lineman at BYU get ready for the draft when he stumbled across a man who would change his life.

Chad Ikei, a trainer for BYU, became interested in helping Les, offering advice that would lead him to the NFL. "He looked at me and said, 'You've got the rest of your life to work. You could be a great tight end," Brown said. "Chad was persistent, he wanted to take me on as a project."

Eventually Brown quit school again and moved to Hawaii to workout full-time with other NFL hopefuls to get ready for pro scouts. He worked out three times a day, six days a week in a "three-month boot camp."

All that worked was needed, since Brown had to impress cynical NFL scouts at BYU's pro day on March 29. "I was a no-name guy coming out of nowhere. I knew I had to turn some heads," he said.

In short, the results were mind-boggling.

Brown had the best vertical jump (39 inches), broad jump (10 feet, 3 inches), 40-yard time (4.43) of all the football hopefuls attending BYU's pro day.

With his brothers in attendance and overcome with tears, Brown had done enough to receive interest from the Giants, Raiders, Colts, Packers and Dolphins. In the end, he picked the Dolphins' three-year contract offer with a small signing bonus.

"It was an overwhelming feeling for all of us," Les Brown says. "When I quit school, some of my friends thought I was foolish, chasing some kind of high school dream. They thought I had a better shot at hitting the lottery than making the NFL. But I was doing it for me. I’d always wondered, ‘What if I had played football?’ " "All I wanted was a chance," he says. "When I started on this journey, I never thought this would happen."

Dolphins mini-camp opens on Monday, Brown will be competing with Anthony Fasano, Charles Clay, Jeron Mastrud and Will Yeatman for a spot on Miami's 53-man roster at tight end.
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RedDynasty · Apr 19, 2012

Very cool story. Shows how desparate the Dolphins are though lol

juicystream · Apr 19, 2012

This gives me hope. I just need to train for a few weeks, and I'll be in the NFL.

buffalobills!!! · Apr 19, 2012

THE Miami Dolphins...

Air Langhi · Apr 19, 2012

The nfl requires the least skill of the three major sports.

leroy · Apr 20, 2012

Air Langhi said: ↑

The nfl requires the least skill of the three major sports.
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Debatable. I love baseball...but there are millionaires that do nothing but be left handed and throw to one hitter every few days.

Major · Apr 20, 2012

leroy said: ↑

Debatable. I love baseball...but there are millionaires that do nothing but be left handed and throw to one hitter every few days.
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Not to get into the larger debate, but I'd argue that throwing strikes to a hitter is far more difficult having a ball thrown to you and kicking it as far as you can without too much regard to accuracy, and then getting out of the way. Or, even better, backup punters have the perfect life.

leroy · Apr 20, 2012

Major said: ↑

Not to get into the larger debate, but I'd argue that throwing strikes to a hitter is far more difficult having a ball thrown to you and kicking it as far as you can without too much regard to accuracy, and then getting out of the way. Or, even better, backup punters have the perfect life.
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I never said anything about the requirement to throw strikes.

Brandon Lyon makes $5 million per year. He has no discernible talent.

:grin:

Ziggy · Apr 20, 2012

Anyone can play tight end apparently. In fact, by 2020 the first step to becoming an NFL tight end will be not playing football in college.

rrj_gamz · Apr 20, 2012

RedDynasty said: ↑

Very cool story. Shows how desparate the Dolphins are though lol
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no *****...but good for him, even if he's relegated on the bench...

Dairy Ashford · Apr 20, 2012

Guy gets a Private Equity job without a degree and transferred to the Palm Beach office, then gets a pro ball contract without a college career. I sure hope he doesn't smash the top of his helmet into the top of another player's helmet at full speed during pre-season.

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