'Rough day' for Illinois alumni after Cowboys tragedy

• Josh Brent and Jerry Brown were teammates at the University Illinois from 2007-2009

The news Saturday of an Irving, Texas, car crash that killed Cowboys practice squad player Jerry Brown and left Cowboys defensive tackle Josh Brent in jail hit hard in Champaign, Ill., where the two Dallas players were teammates at the University of Illinois.

"It's just really sad to see," said former Illinois kicker Derek Dimke, who was with several current Illinois players Saturday when they saw the news on television. "They're both good-hearted guys who were working really hard to accomplish their dreams. … It's been a really a rough day."

Brent and Brown were teammates at Illinois from 2007-2009 before being reunited in Dallas this fall. Brit Miller, a former Illinois fullback now with the St. Louis Rams, said he saw Brent and Brown bond in college over similar upbringings — Brown in a rough area of St. Louis, and Brent in Bloomington, Ill.

"They understood each other, and some of the best friendships are formed that way," Miller said.

Miller said many players didn't know what to make of Brown when he first showed up in Champaign, Ill., in 2006. Brown grew up in a tough area of St. Louis, and his high school wasn't known for producing football stars. Yet by the end of his redshirt season, in the fall of 2006, Brown had been selected as the team's defensive scout team player of the year through his play in practice.

"Jerry, he lit up the locker room, and he came out of nowhere," Miller said. "You just knew that this was a guy that you needed to get on the field."

Miller graduated in 2009, and last saw Brown in August, when the Rams played the Indianapolis Colts in the preseason. Brown had made the Colts' offseason roster and was trying to earn a job, either on the 53-man roster or the practice squad this season. Brown had previously spent time in the Canadian and Arena football leagues. He didn't make the Colts roster, but the Cowboys signed him to the practice squad in late September.

"I just told him I was proud of him. He took the longest way ever to the NFL," Miller said. "Not everything went right in Jerry's life, but he kept preserving, the fact that he made it into the league, I really respected that," Miller said.

Miller said while in college, Brown would watch younger siblings, and would bring the boys to a "community house" where football players would gather.

Dimke remembered Brown as one of the few players who went out of his way to make a freshman kicker feel welcome when Dimke first joined the team in 2008. As recently as this offseason, they worked out in the same Champaign gym as they prepared for training camps, Dimke in Detroit (where he was eventually released) and Brown in Indianapolis.