Jacoby Brissett didn’t grow up a big football fan. Now, he’s starting for his hometown Dolphins
Jacoby Brissett was asked last week what his 10-year-old self would say if told he would one day be the starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins.
Brissett, preparing to make his first start for the injured Tua Tagovailoa, offered a blunt response.
“Not a chance in hell that I would probably make it this far. Definitely not playing for the Dolphins,” Brissett said.
On Sunday, Brissett, a West Palm Beach native, will make his second start of the season, at Hard Rock Stadium against the Indianapolis Colts, whom he played for four seasons.
A younger Brissett’s reluctance to believe he had a future with the team was no lack of confidence in his physical abilities but more belief that his path was destined for another sport.
“I was not a football fan,” Brissett said. “Yeah. Crazy. … I mean I still played football. I just loved basketball. I had favorite football players obviously growing up. My older brothers played football, so that was just my way to stay connected with them and with our neighborhood friends. My mom made sure I played multiple sports and not just concentrate on basketball. Then I stopped growing, so therefore I needed to take this a little serious. That’s what made me stop liking basketball.”
Brissett attended Palm Beach Dwyer High School, about 70 miles north of Hard Rock Stadium. Former Dwyer football coach Jack Daniels first met Brissett as a rising ninth-grader. He recalled someone saying Brissett was a quarterback who had a good arm but “I was thinking to myself he looked more like an offensive lineman.”
Daniels wasn’t sure if Brissett would even come out for the football team given his growing reputation as a basketball player. But Brissett did, and he spent his freshman year on varsity, backing up a starter who would eventually head to a Division I program.
In the state playoffs, trailing a nationally ranked Miami Booker T. Washington program, the incumbent went down with an injury, pushing the freshman Brissett into the starting role. Though Brissett’s rally came up short, “at that point in time, I had a pretty good idea that we had something special,” Daniels said.
Brissett would go on to lead Dwyer to a state title as a junior. His star remained bright on the basketball court, where he also led his school to a state title as a senior. Brissett was recruited to Football Bowl Subdivision programs for football and basketball but ultimately chose football, committing to Florida.
“He definitely was a Division I basketball player,” said Daniels, currently the head football coach at West Palm Beach Cardinal Newman. “But I think, unlike most kids, somehow Jacoby knew there was probably going to be a ceiling on how good he could get in basketball, how far he could make it in basketball. And I think he could see the way the ball came off his hands and what the future could be for him.”
While at Dwyer, Brissett also formed a relationship with Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcels, a friend of Daniels’ father-in-law. Parcels had attended practices and games and over time, he became a mentor to Brissett, offering advice during the recruitment process and his journey from Florida, his transfer to North Carolina State and now in the NFL.
In his sixth season, Brissett, 28, has played for the Dolphins, Colts and New England Patriots, who selected him in the third round of the 2016 NFL Draft. While he has made 33 starts, he has also backed up Pro Bowlers Tom Brady, Andrew Luck and Phillip Rivers.
When asked what he’s learned from those players, Brissett said, “their will. Watching those guys and seeing on a daily basis what they battled through. ... Just seeing what those guys battled through to get back to the next week and not get through, but actually work and fight each day throughout the week to fill up on Sundays and things like that, I think that’s what stands out the most. Especially at this position. It’s to be able to get up and go again.”
Brissett’s will was on full display in last Sunday’s overtime loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, as he helped erase an 11-point deficit and led an 82-yard touchdown drive to tie the score at 25 with two seconds left in regulation.
And though the team came up short, Brissett was still confident as he answered postgame questions with a smile and a bit of “dry humor” that Daniels still recalls to this day. It was the same assuredness Brissett showed after the team’s blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills the week prior when he took a question about his status as a backup and said he still views himself as a starter, despite his role.
“I think that’s been my mentality since I got in the league,” Brissett said. “I’ve been in situations where I honestly didn’t know when my chances and my opportunity was going to come. So I just wanted to make sure when I went out there I put my best foot forward and just stick with that mindset. It’s put me in good situations.”
