C.C. Brown ( The Soldier ) waits for duty's call

<! Rookie safety C.C. Brown's thoughts are divided between practice and his fellow Mississippi National Guardsmen in Afghanistan > <blockquote><p align=justify>For C.C. Brown, there was never an alternative. At least not one he considered.

There were no thoughts of earning a scholarship to play college football. No NFL dreams. Football was just a pastime to Brown when he turned 18.

"I was raised under my grandmother," Brown said. "She was the only person around. I didn't have no mother, no father, nothing. And it was either enlist in the Army or go in the street and sell drugs. I didn't want to go down that route."

The path Brown took has steered him to where his imagination rarely wandered. Four years after enlisting, Brown is still a civilian soldier with obligations to the Mississippi National Guard, but he is also a rookie strong safety who is quickly climbing the Texans' depth chart.

He has done just fine at both. After two seasons at junior college and then two years at Louisiana-Lafayette, Brown was on NFL scouts' radar last spring. He was a hard-hitting safety with good instincts and a strong 6-0, 204-pound frame.

But on draft day, he was passed over. More than one team was concerned Brown would be mobilized for duty in Afghanistan as soon as he was drafted.

"They were kind of terrified that the moment they draft me I would get shipped overseas," said Brown, 22, who was drafted by the Texans in the sixth round. "It kind of hurt me a lot that they would think that."

There was reason for concern. Two batteries of the 114th Field Artillery Regiment from Mississippi already had left for duty in Afghanistan in February. Spc. 4 Brown was part of that unit but was not one of the 300 deployed. So far, only those who volunteered for duty have been mobilized.

<b>Sendoff for friend</b>
One of those who shipped out was Brown's best friend, Darrell Sproles, whose daughter is Brown's godchild. It was Sproles' idea for the friends to enlist on career day as high school seniors in Greenwood, Miss.

"He came up to me and said, 'I know where we can make easy money,' " Brown said. " 'We just go there, do the drills, and pick up a check.' I didn't know if I'd get accepted into any college at that time. And so I said, 'Man, I'm cool with it.' Both of us didn't want to go to the streets. So we enlisted."

Their plan didn't work out as anticipated, and now Brown struggles to deal with Sproles' absence. They talk every other day.

"It's hard," Brown said. "The only thing that I hope is that the guys overseas right now ... I hope they're looking at this in a positive way. Because when they come back, I want them all to come watch me play."

The Texans wanted Brown ever since they worked him out before the draft. Brown only tried out for a handful of teams and was not invited to the NFL scouting combine, so the Texans took their chances by waiting to call his name.

On the second day of the draft, the Texans' top targets were receiver Jerome Mathis and Brown.

"We gambled," Texans general manager Charley Casserly said. "Well really, I gambled. I think the scouts wanted to take him in the fourth round, but I said, no, we're going to take Mathis. We just had to gamble that because he didn't have a lot of visits, he would slip."

Brown has caught the attention of the coaches with his skills and his willingness to learn. He memorized the duties at free safety as well as strong safety. When starting strong safety Glenn Earl was injured last week, Brown filled in.

"I hear (compliments) every blue moon, but when they do tell me that, I pay it no mind," Brown said. "I always feel that I'm doing wrong, and I want to try to do right to impress the coaches."

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By MEGAN MANFULL
Houston Chronicle