Colorado OL Tyler Brown shares transfer waiver appeal video shown to NCAA, wrenching details behind first transfer

The NCAA denied the second-time transfer exemption waiver for Colorado offensive lineman Tyler Brown late last week. On Tuesday, as his head coach sounded off about the denial, Brown uploaded a video to YouTube, apparently one sent to the NCAA as part of his appeal for the waiver.

In an at times wrenching account, Brown explains why he left Louisiana for Jackson State in the spring of 2021, recounting watching his late coach DJ Looney collapse on the practice field shortly before dying later the same day in 2020. Following a transfer to Colorado this offseason to follow head coach Deion Sanders, Brown made his case for an exemption from the NCAA’s rule requiring a player sit out a year following their second transfer.

Brown’s case for the exemption hinged on his first transfer — to Jackson State from Louisiana in 2021 — being discounted given the circumstances around his mental health and the death of Looney.

“DJ was just coaching me up on how to strike a bag and the horn sounds for us to go to the next period, run all the way down the field,” Brown said of the fateful practice on Aug. 1, 2020. “We go to run and he falls flat on his face. And we thought he was joking. We thought it was a ‘Haha’ moment. And we go around and we look at him and I look in his eyes and there’s nothing there.

“It’s just white. White as a ghost. There’s nothing there. And we’re screaming for the trainers to come. And he just wasn’t moving, he wasn’t responding and they were doing everything they could. And I just cried. I cried, I cried, I cried.

“Because I wanted him to make it and I felt like it was my fault because I felt like if I hadn’t put so much pressure on him, if I hadn’t been too much, maybe he’d still be here. Or maybe he wouldn’t be in this position. He wouldn’t be on the ground like that.”

Hours later, the team was called to the stadium where they met at midfield. They were told Looney had died. He was 31.

Brown explained the depth of his relationship with Looney, with the coach taking on a much bigger role than football mentorship.

About a week before Halloween during his freshman season in 2019, Brown said he experienced a mental health crisis — he was diagnosed with anxiety and depression around this time. When he told Looney he wasn’t OK, the coach sprang into action.

“He made sure I got the help I needed. Made sure I was with the right counselors, the right therapists, was on the right medication. And he was just there. He was my rock. DJ was my rock my freshman year. He’s the reason I’m still playing today,” Brown said.

Looney became the first real father figure in Brown’s life, he said. Three days before Looney’s death, another coach had gotten on Brown particularly hard in practice. He talked with Looney on the phone for 90 minutes later that day.

“That was the most honest conversation I’d ever had with a male figure to that point in my life,” Brown said.

And when he lost Looney, Brown’s mental health worsened. He subsequently suffered a torn labrum in each shoulder, requiring surgery to repair them. Rehab and being sidelined only hurt his mental health more, to the point he couldn’t remain at Louisiana. He couldn’t keep practicing on the same field his coach has collapsed, he said.

“I couldn’t be there anymore. And it wasn’t, ‘Oh, things aren’t going my way.’ No. Things were going great, but mentally and emotionally, I couldn’t be there anymore. I couldn’t be in the same place where a guy that was my father figure died. That, to me, it was too much,” Brown said.

He opted to transfer to Jackson State in his hometown of Jackson, Mississippi.

It was an immediate boost, albeit a long climb back to normal, Brown said.

“Being there helped my mental health to slowly but surely come back to normal. Being with coach Prime helped to build my confidence. When I had an anxiety attack he didn’t judge me. He didn’t look at me differently. I was still his rock. I was still his guy. He took me under his wing. He treats me like one of his own kids. Loves me for me and accepts me for me,” Brown said.

There was another problem, though. Sanders made much of the issue of HBCUs being under-resourced relative to other FCS and FBS programs and that reared its head in Brown’s case, the lineman said. His mother took on the burden of covering the costs for his mental health care.

It was a burden he knew he could ameliorate with a move to Colorado along with Sanders. He said that since arriving at Colorado, he’s been in touch with therapists and counselors and getting the requisite care he needs.

He feels comfortable with Sanders and his surroundings, but Brown made on solemn plea to sum up his case: He doesn’t want to lose football again, like he did with his shoulder injuries. He said he hopes to keep playing and avoid going back to a dark place.

“Instead of being there every day with the guys, being able to travel, be with the team, I was depressed. I was in a sling. I couldn’t do anything. My confidence wasn’t there any more. And I just, I felt lost. Because football has always been a safe haven for me,” Brown said.