Thanks to mom’s sacrifices, promising football future awaits Canadian twins

In the townhouse where she resides in London, Ont., Raechel Brown has gotten used to taking calls from strangers who would like to represent her twin sons on their way into the National Football League draft next spring.

It’s not the only part of her life that’s become a bit surreal.

She turns on her television to watch Chase and Sydney play for the University of Illinois and hears announcers gushing over Chase, the NCAA’s leading rusher, and Sydney, a safety and captain on college football’s stingiest defence.

When she and her mother, Nancy, drive to Champagne, Ill., to watch the Fighting Illini, fans come up to thank her for bringing her sons into the world and raising them.

It’s not anything she could have imagined when Chase and Sydney put football helmets on for the first time at seven years old, and she thought they looked like little aliens running with bobbleheads.

It was the kind of cuteness no one could ignore, especially since there were two of them and they were identical. The Brown twins were high-energy and competitive at everything they did; two boys with more energy than they could expend in a day.

And, oh yes, the twins could play, a fact that became more and more clear as they years went by and they left other sports behind (a brief foray into figure skating and a successful period in tae kwon do) to focus on football.

They wanted to play NCAA football in a Power 5 conference, and they wanted to play in the NFL. But how?

Both had academic challenges in school that made university seem to them like a long shot at that stage of their lives. And Raechel, a single mother who had the boys when she was just 18, had limited means to help get them there.

Then she learned about a school in Florida, Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School, that was interested in her boys, including providing a host family with whom they could live. So, she made the decision to let her 16-year-old twins leave home to chase their dreams a long, long way from home.

It turned out to be not just the right call but one that changed their lives in many ways.

The boys excelled on the football field and in the classroom. With their goal of playing top-level college football now more tangible, Chase and Sydney were driven to hold themselves to higher standards in all aspects of their lives.

Sydney committed to the University of Illinois. Chase opted for Western Michigan – lower down on the football ladder, but a school with an aviation program that would allow him to train as a pilot. When the economics of that decision became challenging because of what was not covered by his scholarship, Chase opted to join his brother at Illinois. Raechel loved the idea of her sons being together again.

All of their efforts have come to fruition in what could very well be their final season playing football together. The Brown twins are leaving their stamp on an Illinois program which has been enjoying its most successful season in years.

Chase opened the season amassing eight consecutive 100-yard rushing games before finishing with 98 a week ago in a game the 5-foot-11, 205-pounder had to leave early due to a right leg injury.

Sydney, with his solid 6-foot, 200-pound frame, has played a key role as a captain and safety who makes game-changing plays all over the field for the Fighting Illini (7-3, 4-3 in the Big Ten).

The road ahead is full of promise and opportunities. Though Chase has a year of eligibility remaining, it’s expected both brothers will go through the NFL Draft process next spring.

That would be the culmination of dreams that once seemed far off and unreachable but are now closer than ever thanks to the family’s dedication, perseverance and sacrifice.