Jarvis Brownlee, wounded in Miami shooting as child, inspired before NFL draft
AVENTURA — Jarvis Brownlee has gone through hardships and tragedy growing up in South Florida. But it has all shaped his character as an NFL draft prospect preparing for the scouting combine next week in Indianapolis.
When Brownlee, a Miami Carol City High grad who goes into the draft as a Louisville cornerback that started his college career at Florida State, was in third grade, he was shot in the foot. He was in the passenger seat of a vehicle where the driver, a friend of his father, was the target.
The shooting occurred at a Burger King drive-thru in the Opa-locka neighborhood of northwest Miami-Dade County, where Brownlee’s from.
Training for the draft back in South Florida this week, at Bommarito Performance Systems, after doing prior combine prep in Pensacola, Brownlee detailed to the South Florida Sun Sentinel the horror of being stuck inside a car that had 10 bullet holes on the passenger side and three on the driver’s side, according to what he recalls from detectives.
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Christian Mahogany warm up at Bommarito Performance Systems in Miami on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
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“I kind of witnessed everything,” Brownlee recounted of leaving his aunt’s home with father’s friend as they set out to get food. “I saw when we were in the car and they followed us to Burger King. As a child, you don’t know no better. You’re not thinking of that.”
He remembers pulling out of a parking lot, looking in the rearview and seeing a car’s lights flicker on.
“As we started driving, they started driving,” he said.
They got to the drive-thru, paid for the order and the shooting started as the driver was grabbing for the food at the window. Brownlee believes the car that followed them was behind them in the drive-thru and a shooter exited that vehicle to walk up to their car from behind on his side.
“My instinct was to drop to the floor,” he said. “I think the guy I was with didn’t realize that he was hit. So I end up telling him, ‘You shot! You shot!’ I just saw blood spitting everywhere.”
The driver took off frantically to find the nearest hospital, running red lights and all. Brownlee remembers arriving at a hospital but not finding any attendants when they entered screaming for help. They split up as he went deeper into the building to find someone, exited the facility when that was unsuccessful, didn’t initially see the car where they first left it but ran to the right and found it surrounded by police.
Officers checked both the driver and a young Brownlee to determine the medical attention they required, but Brownlee grew up fearful of hospitals, a result of seeing the aftermath of his father shot multiple times. So he hid the hole on the bottom of his right shoe, concealing where a bullet grazed him near his heel.
“I knew my dad was in the streets,” said Brownlee, adding he believes the shooter mistook the driver for his father. He said his father is incarcerated and set to be released December 2025.
“As a kid, I saw my dad shot a lot. So, from there, I ain’t like the hospital. I used to hate it. … I didn’t want anything to do with it, so I end up hiding my foot, hiding where the hole was.”
Brownlee’s foot is fully healed now, but to this day, surviving that traumatic experience fuels his faith and inspires him to make the most of his every opportunity in life.
“From there, I just knew God was real,” he said. “My mom, my grandma, they go to church a lot, so I was raised with people that love to go to church, Christian family, but as a kid, you don’t know what God is. From there, just having a Christian family, I think that’s when I started believing in God.
“I knew I had a purpose in life. I knew I got a second chance to life. And I knew, probably out of my whole family, I was going to be the one to change the scenery and be able to take my mom to a better environment, better surroundings.
“I just had a vision. I just had my mind made up. What I wanted to do with life, where I wanted to go, and I don’t think anyone was going to stop me from seeing that vision or trying to chase it. I’m still that same way to this day now. Still chasing that dream, as you see, almost there.”
Brownlee was a high-end three-star recruit coming out of Carol City. Once committed to the Miami Hurricanes, he flipped to the Florida State Seminoles within the week of the Early Signing Period in December 2018. He played four years at FSU before spending his last two as a Louisville Cardinal.
Brownlee has put positional versatility on tape through his college career, able to play both the boundary and the nickel. At 185 pounds, he more likely fits into the nickel at the NFL level, but as he exhibited at the Senior Bowl last month, he plays with more aggression than a typical defender his size.
It’s something that’s fueled by his experiences growing up.
“I think that’s why I play the way I play. That’s why I play with an edge. That’s why I play so aggressive,” he said. “All that I went through in my childhood, all that pain, and just being there with my mom, I saw the things she went through — ups and downs — she was always there. Just seeing how she overcame adversity. That really helped me a lot.”
Before high school, Brownlee played at Liberty City Optimist, the program that Miami rap icon Luther Campbell established. He was in it with current Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Tutu Atwell, a good friend of his although Atwell was always a level ahead of him. Atwell, who starred at quarterback for Miami Northwestern High before attending Louisville, was instrumental in getting Brownlee to transfer to the Cardinals.
The Miami product could be of interest to the Dolphins, who may be moving on from cornerback Xavien Howard this offseason and will likely have competition for spots in the secondary around star Jalen Ramsey.
Brownlee is training with Bommarito leading up to the combine to maximize on his 40-yard dash time, something the South Florida trainer is known to do with his clients. He has quickly seen improvement in his first 20 seconds, with the takeoff vital to clocking the best time possible.
Although he’s not tabbed as a top cornerback prospect bound for the early rounds, whoever takes a chance on Brownlee is getting a player inspired by his upbringing.
“They’re going to get a great guy, and show them that I’m one of the top dogs in this draft,” he said.
“Growing up in Miami, I don’t regret none of it. I think it made me the successful, young Black man I am today, and I embrace it. That’s why now, when I do go through things or I do face an injury or I do get hurt where I feel down on myself, I embrace it. I’ve been through a lot as a kid, and even in my career. I just know you got to keep going and control what you can control.”
Brownlee says he is also motivated by a baby he has on the way and his little brothers and sisters for whom he wants to set an example.
