New Orleans Saints linebacker Demario Davis took time after his team beat the Jacksonville Jaguars to seek out rookie quarterback Gardner Minshew, a fellow graduate of Brandon High School in a small town of the same name in Mississippi. Davis and Minshew had expressed mutual respect in the days leading into the game, acknowledging their shared background and the difficult paths they each took to reach the NFL. After Davis’s Saints took the victory on Sunday, he and Minshew exchanged a few words before swapping jerseys in a great show of sportsmanship.
Davis addressed his relationship with Minshew during his postgame media availability. “The kids back home, they call it the Brandon Bowl,” Davis said. “It was in the back of my head I’m not gonna lie. You’ve gotta do your job at the end of the day but that’s kind of home town bragging rights. So I guess for the Brandon Bowl I’m 1-0. So, it’s cool.”
Davis’s path to New Orleans wound from Brandon to Arkansas State, and then years spent languishing with the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns. Minshew’s path was more circuitous, with the high school quarterback prospect bouncing from Troy to Northwest Mississippi Community College and East Carolina to Washington State. They’ve both come a long way from playing standout football on Friday nights in rural Mississippi, and it’s great to see the respect they share for each other in the NFL.
