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Just before the Cleveland Browns officially gave Jowon Briggs a chance to become an enforcer on the interior of their defense, he had been unintentionally showing he was ready for the job by stepping in and breaking up a fight.
Between two of his children.
In the storm of the draft, Briggs was the second of two seventh-round picks and the second defensive tackle added by the Browns on the final weekend of April. In the storm of life as a husband, father of three and now a player who last weekend signed a four-year rookie contract but is guaranteed nothing when it comes to making the team, Briggs isn’t forgetting the 18-hour days he put in to pay for diapers as a college football player — or the lack of an invitation to the NFL Scouting Combine in the wake of his final college season.
Add that he can sing, play multiple musical instruments and at 17 went to the prestigious University of Virginia as a double major in physics and music, and he makes an easy choice as the most interesting man in the just-completed Browns’ rookie minicamp. Or maybe in anybody’s rookie minicamp.
As the draft wound down last month, Briggs’ agent was already receiving calls from teams wanting to sign the defensive lineman as an undrafted free agent. Per a league source who was in a team’s draft room, at least one other team was making calls about moving up in the seventh round to keep him out of the post-draft scramble. The Browns decided to select him at pick No. 243, and Briggs almost missed the call.
“My son was taking my phone and my daughter was biting at my ankles,” Briggs said. “There was a lot going on.”
Going undrafted would have been disappointing. Picking a team after the draft might have also interfered with putting the kids to sleep.
“They go to bed at 7:30 promptly,” Briggs said. “So (the draft is happening) and they’re running around. My daughter and my son (are) wrestling, so I’m pulling them apart and then I get that call on my phone. I had everybody sitting down, my wife’s holding my youngest son and trying to hold (the other two) back at the same time. So it was a lot of fun that night.”
Briggs didn’t get invited to the NFL combine, but a strong showing at the Hula Bowl earned him an invitation to the East-West Shrine Bowl. Speaking of strong, that’s a big part of how Briggs had placed himself on NFL radars. In what probably was made more important by the combine snub, Briggs put up what was officially counted as 38 reps on the 225-pound bench press at the Big 12’s pro day event in late March. Briggs said the actual number was 42.
“I’ll tell you what, 42 reps on the bench press actually felt serene married to what those kids put me through on a nightly basis,” Briggs said. “My wife (Nyjae) is a superstar. She’s wrangling them right now.”
Now, Briggs and Nyjae have three children: Jowon, Reine and Zane, who was born a week before his father’s final college football season started.
Rookie minicamp is just the start for the team’s draft picks and the eight undrafted rookies added to the Browns’ offseason roster. It’s a brief three days, but an important orientation for players who are usually learning new schemes and coaches and teammates for the first time. The draft picks and those still on the roster stick around and join the team’s offseason program this week, with most rookies staying in a nearby hotel.
“No matter what, I keep my family with me, so I’m actually going to look into figuring out and get in a place,” Briggs said. “My goal is to outwork and pretty much just put my best foot forward. All you can do is control the controllables. You can just be responsible for yourself. But in saying that, family is one of my big things. I’m keeping my family with me all throughout this process. If I (have) to break a lease, (if) I have to sign a new one, it doesn’t really matter to me as long as my family’s with me and just really being able to go home and look at that.
“Everybody has their ‘why,’ but it’s a big thing to have your why and it’s a big thing to love. It’s a really big thing to love football, but it’s a little bit different when you have somebody else depending on you, and I’ve got four people depending on me immediately. So that kind of amps up the urgency to things and just really makes me take advantage of every single second out there.”
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With a child on the way two years into his college career at Virginia, Briggs faced a business decision.
“The (scholarship) stipend wasn’t what it was now back then,” Briggs said. “So the (money) wasn’t there. NIL (name, image and likeness) money wasn’t there then, so I figured we weren’t going to be able to support a child on what I was getting (from the stipend). We had a couple choices. She’s from Philly, I’m from Cincinnati, so it was either go to UPenn or go to Temple, or I could go to University of Cincinnati.”
In part because Briggs’ mother was available to help with the child during a normal school and work day for Briggs and his wife, Cincinnati became the choice. Briggs joined his hometown program and started logging long days in the weight room, on the practice field, in the classroom and at Chick’nCone, a since-closed fast food restaurant 13 miles up and across three highways from Cincinnati’s campus.
There, Briggs scooped chicken into a cone for hungry customers and helped the closing crew several nights per week. NFL Draft picks often thank their parents, coaches and other people who helped along the way. Briggs thanks his Chick’nCone manager “Kenny, for allowing me the chance to do all that … pretty much letting me provide for my family.”
Browns coach Kevin Stefanski joked last weekend that Briggs was “probably enjoying the sleep” involved with the rookie minicamp hotel stay. The Browns hosted Briggs on a formal pre-draft visit, so the team’s key decision-makers knew at least most of his story.
“Jowon shared his story with the team,” Stefanski said. “All of these guys have a story and all of them have a ‘why.’ They’re all doing it for different reasons, but his family is a big part of his.”
After the draft, University of Cincinnati head coach Scott Satterfield said he “fully expects Jowon to make an impact with the Browns because he already has carried himself like a pro for years. He has an outstanding work ethic and was a great leader for us. He’s also one of the strongest players I’ve ever been around. I look forward to watching him play on Sundays.”
Briggs said he’s looking forward to learning Jim Schwartz’s upfield-first, attack-style defensive scheme. He also said he’s willing to do “anything asked” of him when it comes to helping the team.
If that includes singing the national anthem, well, he’s done that — in front of almost 15,000 fans before a Cincinnati basketball game. He was part of a traveling chorus while at Virginia and grew up singing at church and family events. With four older sisters involved in music, Briggs was playing instruments and singing before he ever fully embraced football.
“Our house,” he said, “was like a cacophony of noise all the time.”
Briggs said he still has a saxophone, flute and bass guitar. Reluctantly, he bought a harmonica for his oldest son. There was an electric guitar, too, “but my son broke it in half,” he said.
These Briggs are strong. The weightlifting records at Cincinnati’s Walnut Hills High School still belong to the guy who also took on the role of Coalhouse Walker in the school’s presentation of “Ragtime.”
“Jowon was in AP calculus and AP computer science,” said Gerry Beauchamp, who still works at Walnut Hills and was the head football coach during Briggs’ time there. “He would sing, play instruments and he was the lead in the play — probably several plays. I credit Jowon but also his parents for this: school, lifting, practice, a fundraiser, whatever it may have been. He was always there, always on time, always brought the best version of himself.
“All-American kid and All-American football prospect. A hard worker for sure, but naturally gifted and strong. In my 25-plus years coaching in high school, he’s the strongest kid I’ve ever coached. He’s a dude, and I’m not surprised he’s in the NFL.”
When Briggs left Virginia, he changed from his double major in physics and music to interdisciplinary studies because it was the fastest path to earning his undergraduate degree. With large people to move on Saturdays and small people to nurture at home, time was precious.
Briggs went on to get a post-graduate certificate in software engineering. More work — perhaps even a master’s degree — “in cybersecurity or general computer engineering” is on his to-do list, but they can wait. He also did some formal singing with Cincinnati’s choral programs when time permitted, which wasn’t often.
Except for an impromptu solo in a team meeting during preseason training camp last summer, singing — like studying — has been put on hold.
“This last year, it’s been all ball,” Briggs said.
With the Browns bringing back five defensive tackles and second-round pick Mike Hall Jr. being guaranteed a roster spot, Briggs’ biggest football challenge — and the quest to provide for his family while fulfilling his NFL dream — begins now.
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(Photo: Sue Ogrocki / Associated Press)
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