'Last Chance U' coach Jason Brown opens up to Kentucky Sports Radio

(Photo: USA Today)

Jason Brown of Last Chance U fame was a special guest on today’s Kentucky Sports Radio radio show. The former Independence Community College head football coach gave a fantastic interview — honestly, one of the best the show has ever had — and stayed on for another 10 minutes when asked to stick around. We can’t thank him enough for his time and his honesty.

In the interview, Brown revealed so much of what Netflix didn’t show in its eight-episode, fourth season of Last Chance U. For instance (and spoiler alert), one of Brown’s worst on-screen moments is when it appears he cut one of his players, Bobby Bruce, without telling Bruce before announcing it to the team. In the show, we are led to believe Bruce found out via his teammates and not his head coach, but Brown told KSR he and Bruce had a 2 a.m. conversation in his office, in which Bruce confessed to his mistakes and was tearful with regret.

“You guys believe everything you see, huh?” Brown told KSR. “Fellas, it’s Hollywood. They’re trying to get ratings.

“Two in the morning, I snuck his butt in my office so the cameras didn’t follow him. He knew what he did wrong. So you know, Bobby Bruce came to me crying in that meeting, came to me crying, saying, ‘Coach, I screwed up again and I know I gotta go.’ That was like my son.”

It is the exact opposite of what we saw on the show. When asked why he is okay with Netflix twisting reality, Brown said, “Why do I need to tell everybody that? I owe nobody nothing, fellas. I owe no one nothing. You guys don’t know me. You don’t understand, I owe nobody nothing but those kids. Those kids are all I care about and they know the truth. So that allows me to sleep at night, not you guys ridiculing me. I give two squirts what you think.”

Brown said he agreed to do the show for the publicity it gives his players and staff. “Who am I to take that platform away from a bunch of young coaches and young kids, opportunities to show themselves?” he asked.

And his language?

“Their mothers talk to them much worse than I do — and remember, 200 kids in my program every year, there was two kids that had both parents in the home. Two out of two hundred. So where’s the father figure at?” It is a crazy statistic, and why Brown is very clear to his team in that he will not tolerate the word b*tch in reference to a woman — due to all the single mothers who raised the majority of his players.

Listen to the two-part interview below to hear Brown explain his coaching and how his tactics appear one way on Netflix, but are out of love in real life. The interview also provided an all-time line when Brown said, “I love being hated. It turns me on, to be honest.”

Brown also has a new book out: Hate Me Now, Love Me Later.