Sydney Brown holds his twin brother Chase’s jersey from the Cincinnati Bengals and Chase Brown holds his brother’s Eagles jersey
Every time Sydney Brown walks out the front door of his home, he pauses to check the list of to-do’s for the day. It’s a ritual that started many years ago, long before Brown was a third-round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2023 NFL Draft. His goals back then were more immediate: Find enough food for the day, hope for some stability and keep working hard for a brighter future.
Brown and his identical twin brother, Chase, had the same dream then: Someday, they would play in the NFL, and they would make their own story, their own history. They believed if they maintained that vision, day by day, it would somehow come true.
“We were always bouncing around back then, from house to house, from school to school. There were days when we didn’t have to go to school because we were watching my sister so my mom could go to work and hold things down,” says Brown, who grew up in Canada and estimates that he moved around 20 times, spending time in shelters and temporary housing and literally just trying to get by. Brown’s mom Raechel was a single mom who gave birth to Sydney and Chase when she was 18. “Chase and I would always talk about making a name for ourselves, and finally when we were 16 we had a chance to get away and play football in Florida. We took that as an opportunity to make a better life for ourselves.
“So we did it. We took the gamble, and we didn’t look back.”
From Canada to Florida to the University of Illinois and now in Philadelphia, Sydney Brown is a remarkable story. His is one of chasing a dream, no matter how impossible it might look. It’s one of allowing people around him to lend a hand, and one of having faith and love lead the way. It is one of making sure that his best friend in the world, his brother Chase (now a running back with the Cincinnati Bengals), and also his mother and his sister, are always part of the story.
“I lived in homeless shelters. We had nothing, literally nothing, except each other. But me and my brother and my family, we wanted a better life and that’s what I set out to do.”
Family and faith and strength and vision have carried Brown to who he is now, a 24-year-old safety who understands overcoming hurdles. He is in his second season with the Eagles, and when he suffered a torn ACL in his right knee in the final regular-season game of 2023, he shed a few tears, composed himself and got to work.
Nine months later, two months ahead of schedule, he was cleared to return to football. A few weeks after that in late October, he and Chase were on opposite sidelines when the Eagles played in Cincinnati against the Bengals. A week later Brown tore down the field in a game against Jacksonville and forced a fumble on a punt return that the Eagles recovered, leading to seven points on their way to a 28-23 victory.
“I crushed my rehab from injury, and I knew I was going to do that. Nothing is going to stop me from maximizing everything I can from my dream,” Brown says. “I used to think being a success was being a cop in Ontario. That was kind of the height of that environment and, no offense to the folks in Ontario, that’s not what I wanted. I wanted the world, and I think to get what you want you have to go out and make it happen. You have to work for it.
“If you get your stuff done, if you do what you’re supposed to do, you can make it. Our lives changed so fast – from a homeless shelter to being in Florida with our host family in a gated community and being given that chance to be great. I appreciate every moment of my life.”
Raechel, who overcame a cell disease and who raised the three children with the help of her mother, acknowledges that the boys always pushed each other to be great and sometimes, they just pushed each other.
The competition was intense. The love is what lifted the family beyond poverty.
“I call them identical opposites,” Raechel says. “Chase is left-handed. Sydney is right. They like all the same things, but their temperaments are very different. Sydney is intense all the time. Oh my goodness.”
That intensity is paying off. “It’s hard for me,” Sydney says, “to accept what success is at times because I’m always looking at what’s next. You achieve something and then the ceiling just gets higher. You never really reach your goals because you’re always challenging yourself to do something great. That’s what, I think, I’m addicted to.”
The Eagles have high hopes for Sydney Brown, a key player on special teams and one who is likely to be a regular in the defensive backfield. He played a lot as a rookie until the injury and now is earning his playing time again.
His motto is a simple one: “I’m going to fly, or I’m going to sink.”
“You’re going to be faced with opportunities to make the right decision and, hey, it’s ok to make the wrong decision if you learn from it and overcome it,” Brown says. “I knew when we left Canada, there was no going back. There was no Plan B. We had to catch up on our academics and we had to make the commitment to catch up and then surpass everyone around me. It’s amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it.”
The list Brown had on his door prior to his final season at Illinois contained three goals: 1. Top 5 safety in his class; 2. Make All-Big 10 first team; 3. Get drafted by the third round in the following NFL Draft. And what happened? He became an All-American player that season, was a first-team All-Big 10 selection and, in the spring that followed, was drafted by the Eagles in the third round.
Goals accomplished. What’s next?
“You want to be great? Go after it. Don’t let your circumstances hold you down,” he says. “I lived in homeless shelters. We had nothing, literally nothing, except each other. But me and my brother and my family, we wanted a better life and that’s what I set out to do.”
“I know I’m not done, not at all. Stay in the moment, grind it out, give everything I had to football and appreciate every single moment, man. I freaking love it. Every day, I just love being part of this and I know that I’m going to be the best version of myself. That’s all I can ask for.”
