In a recent article I took a look at the title of Mr. Football, an award given to the biggest standout high school player of that year.
And, the first Louisville native to be given that award came in 1988, three years after the award commenced, was Trinity’s Jeff Brohm. A natural quarterback Brohm brought an explosiveness to the already talented Shamrocks throughout his high school career.
An explosiveness that colleges took note of, and as such the University of Louisville came calling. Now, it’s no surprise the Louisville talent scouts often make their way over to Trinity and Brohm seemed to be a natural fit for the building franchise.
That said, Brohm was enough of a natural talent that he was actually drafted to the MLB in 1989 by the Montreal Expos.
Deciding to go with pigskin though, from the late ‘80’s through the early 90’s Brohm wore the Cardinal red, proving his abilities every game. The draw of baseball still weighed heavily on Brohm throughout his Cardinal career, and he attempted to play both sports- baseball in the summer- football in the fall after one season with the ‘Ville. In fact, this came after the Major Leagues came calling again, this time with an offer from the Cleveland Indians.
Playing minor league baseball and NCAA football for two seasons, Brohm once and for all made the decision to stick with football. And sure enough, when the young launcher went into the NFL draft in 1994 the pros saw his potential as he was drafted to the San Diego Chargers.
For the next six seasons Brohm led his services to a number of teams in the NFL including the Washington Redskins, San Francisco 49ers, Tampa Bay Bucaneers, Denver Broncos, and in 2000 the Cleveland Browns, after which he left the NFL.
Fresh out of the pros in 2001, the quarterback then played for the one season that the XFL was in business, as he suited up with the Orlando Rage. The XFL was a short lived upstart football league founded by World Wrestling Entertainment owner, Vince McMahon by the way.
Today, Brohm is an offensive coordinator and quarterback coach at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. Brohm is no stranger to the coaching role either, prior to coaching the Blazers he worked as a quarterback coach at Illinois and Florida Atlantic. Of course, when one looks at Brohm’s coaching resume locally one has to acknowledge his work with his alma mater working as the quarterback coach, assistant head coach and passing game coordinator at Louisville. The year following his season with the XFL, Brohm was also an arena football coach for some time with the Louisville Fire.
Image courtesy of Cardinal Sportszone
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