Brian Price: A Natural Bruin

Pretty heart warming article in the Daily News today on Bruin All American Brian Price. I think all of us here know the rough road of life Brian has had to travel on his way to Westwood and now on to the NFL. Yet is still jarring to hear his life story:

Price was 9 when his mom and dad came into his room, woke him up and told him his brother Eddie was never coming home again.

Price was wearing a football jersey and clutching a football as his parents spoke.

"At first I wasn't sure what they meant," Price remembers. "But then I figured out not coming home meant he was dead. It was tough, real tough."

Five years later Price was playing flag football when his dad pulled him aside to tell him his brother Damon had been shot and killed.

"We didn't expect it, obviously, you never do," Price said. "To lose two family members like that, the same way, you can't even put it into words how much it hurts.

"But I don't complain. I never have. There are a lot of other people who are much worse off than I am, so I don't complain about what I've been through."

Both brothers were gunned down as the result of gang violence, and there was a time his mother, Jeanetta, worried Price might get swept away in the same lifestyle.

"Not because he had a tendency to run the streets, he was never that way," Jeanetta Price said. "But when Damon died, I worried it was a blow that might overtake Brian, maybe take away some of his motivation.

"It would have been easy for Brian to give up his dream, especially after losing his two brothers like that. That was my biggest concern, that he would give up and think it wasn't possible to fulfill his dream. I had to keep a careful eye on him, to make sure that didn't happen."

There was no reason to worry because Price has always been methodical about his dreams:

"I had football, and I guess that made me look at things differently than everyone else does," Price said. "Football was my calling. To the point where, if I came up on a situation, or a decision, I always considered the long run, and how it would affect my dreams."

This carried into his decision making process of picking UCLA over Southern Cal:

Even the decision to go to UCLA over USC was motivated by the long run. Price was drawn to Westwood by its peaceful surroundings and diversity, and felt the serene setting might be a better fit than at USC, which wasn't far from where he grew up.

"I didn't even know where UCLA was until I got here on my visit," Price remembers. "And when I saw it for the first time I just fell in love with it. Everything is nice around here - Beverly Hills, Brentwood. I wanted to put myself in that position."

You should rest of the great piece here.

Sure doesn't take 10 seconds to figure out Price is just another natural Bruin.

GO BRUINS.