DALLAS — A photo shows four siblings dressed in crimson gear, smiling, arms lovingly wrapped around each other. They’re happy because they’re together. And because the University of Alabama football team just beat Georgia on the road in the pouring rain. Everything about the picture appears perfectly normal.
The second person from the left in the photo is Crimson Tide quarterback Jake Coker, who less than an hour before it was taken had thrown for 190 yards and scored two touchdowns in the critical early October matchup in Athens, Ga. When the game was over, he met his family for celebratory hugs.
And a surprise.
Coker’s oldest brother, Patrick Brown, had made it to the game.
Brown, on the far right in the photo above, is a U.S. Air Force captain and A-10 Warthog pilot who was scheduled to deploy to the Middle East around the same time as the game this fall. But by a turn of good fortune, he didn’t need to leave until after.
So what looks like an everyday photo of happy siblings actually captures an exceptional circumstance: It captures the last time the whole family was together.
“If you could have seen them after the game, I don’t think there was a dry eye,” Coker and Brown’s mother Michelle Spires said. “Patrick is a lot of inspiration for Jake … I think he plays for Patrick.”
Coker will play in the biggest game of his life Thursday night.
Nearly 8,000 miles away, Brown hopes to be one of the millions watching the College Football Playoff’s Cotton Bowl semifinal. He’ll be in front of a TV as long as he’s not flying a war plane.
Each brother holds high-pressure jobs — one is the Alabama quarterback, the other an attack pilot. Jake creates a diversion for his family. Patrick creates focus for Jake.
Before Coker got on the team bus that night in Athens and Brown got on a plane overseas, the two shared a special moment.
“You know, you always run the risk of getting into an emotional situation there,” Brown said via Skype from Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar. “I gave him a hug and told him I’ll be watching, and he said be careful and all that normal stuff, and we went our separate ways.”
(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
Patrick Brown and his aircraft specialize in close air support operations requiring detailed integration with friendly forces. He is currently deployed to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, which is the United States’ targeted operation against ISIL. He was recently at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, serving as the U.S. Air Forces Central Command A-10 liaison officer in the Combined Air & Space Operations Center.
Through all the warfare and strife, there always is Alabama football. To this family, the Crimson Tide’s success and run to the Playoff this season is something to hold onto throughout the often unbearable news cycle.
“It’s very stressful with all the turmoil going on,” Spires said. “That’s the good thing about Alabama football. For us, it’s almost a diversion because we get to sit here and watch Jake and his team play and be victorious and do these great things for Alabama. And you know, it kind of takes our mind off Patrick doing what he’s doing.
“But I have to tell Jake that this is Patrick’s job. And somebody’s gotta do the job. Just like Jake is the man for the job at Alabama, Patrick is the man for the job in the sky defending our country and fighting for our freedom.”
In a way, Brown has helped Coker provide this distraction because he was the one who taught his little brother how to throw a football when he was four or five years old. “I still hold the ball the same way from the first time I put my hands on the laces, grabbed it and threw it,” Coker says.
Spires said Coker always wanted — and this remains true today — to be just like his big brother.
“I think in eighth grade Jake had to do a project on who inspires you, who’s your hero, and they did a little family crest and you put things on it that remind you of your hero,” Spires said. “And Jake wrote about Patrick.”
Brown was also the one who instilled a competitive edge in Coker. Coker, one of the youngest of 17 athletic grandchildren, can tell many stories about getting “bruised and broken” playing sports in the yard and messing around with all the neighborhood kids and Brown’s older friends.
Coker needed that toughening to prepare for what lay ahead: sitting on the bench for three frustrating seasons at Florida State, transferring to Alabama in 2014 with unrealistic expectations placed on his shoulders and only playing in six games, then eventually winning the starting job for the Tide this season.
It’s been a topsy turvy, unpredictable career, but nothing he can’t handle.
“(Growing up with Patrick) made me a lot tougher,” he said. “And then when I see what Patrick is doing, the sacrifices he’s making, that’s toughness right there. For me on a football field, taking some hits, that’s nothing compared to what him and his guys are going through over there.”
Capt. Patrick Brown stands in front of an A-10 Warthog plane. (Courtesy Michelle Spires)
Coker is reminded of Brown daily when he looks at the Crimson Tide flag in his room. Brown flew it in the cockpit of his plane during a mission and then gave it to his brother as a gift. They also text each other weekly, often with Brown sending Coker a pep talk before a game. Sometimes it’s hard to connect depending on Brown’s location. The air base in Qatar is nine hours ahead of central time, and the one in Turkey is eight. The messages don’t contain much football advice, just something simple like “Good Luck” or “Proud of you.”
These notes mean more to Coker than Brown realizes.
“He’s one of the main people in my life that I work so hard to emulate,” Coker said. “He’s really been a big part in making me who I am just by giving me a great example of what a man should be. To me, he does everything the right way, and if there’s ever been an obstacle in front of him, he’s found a way to overcome it through just working hard and doing the right thing, and to me that means so much and it’s inspired me to do what I’ve done this year and I’m just real proud of what he is.”
Brown watches Alabama games — if he’s not flying — alongside the other Tide fans in his squadron on the Armed Forces Network.
Spires also mails DVDs of every game to Brown so he doesn’t miss out.
Though the brothers have diverse interests and responsibilities, they aren’t that different — other than the fact that Coker hates to fly, which is one of the reasons he didn’t follow his brother to the Air Force Academy, Spires says.
“He doesn’t like planes,” she said. “He would rather walk, run, bike, ride a bus. Not Patrick. We used to get in rough air and he’d go ‘Woo hoo! This is fun!’ But Jake would rather crawl somewhere.”
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Brown cracks a soft smile when he’s reminded of his little brother thinking about him as a hero. It’s been almost three months since they’ve seen each other in person.
“There’s not a greater compliment I could ever get from Jake or any other member of my family calling me their hero,” Brown said. “I certainly don’t feel like a hero by any means. I’m just doing my job and that’s that. But at the same time, I have always tried to be a role model for my younger siblings.”
Coker is just doing his job too, leading Alabama to an SEC championship, the College Football Playoff, and potentially the program’s fourth national title in seven years.
Brown doesn’t yet know whether he’ll be able to watch this week’s game. But he does have a message for his little brother.
“Just keep doing what you’ve been doing and go get ’em,” he said. “He doesn’t need any real specifics from me, he’s got that figured out.
“I’ll be watching, I’ll be out there with ya, take it to ’em.”
