Role Models

*Bryant Browning is a football player at Ohio State University. He lost his mom when he was 12 and his aunt, his mom's only sibling a week later. Bryant's grandma moved in with the boys and took care of them with the rest of the family helping. Bryant's story is one that shows you if you have the right role model, you can go far in life and do well. If he didn't have his older brother Robert leading the way, who knows how he would have handled school, sports and life. It's so important to be good role models for those around you and to hang out with the right influences.*

The Browning boys, even before their own tragedy, said they had never been shielded from the realities of life and their neighborhood, the temptations pointed out by their parents, the wrong choices laid out before them.

"Everything from drugs to hanging out late to not doing your homework to drinking and fighting and things like that, they told us everything," Bryant said. "Growing up in inner-city Cleveland, there are a lot of distractions. You can get distracted quick, you can get a bad name quick, you can get a reputation quick, and I feel we did a great job staying away from those things and having some goals for ourselves."

One of Bryant's primary goals was simple -- never let down those who loved him. The brothers didn't resent the attention, but instead wanted only to live up to it.

"I never wanted anyone to look at me and feel bad or shake their head about something I did," Bryant said.

View full sizePDBrowning was a star football player at Glenville High School in Cleveland, but also was a star student.

Sitting together with their father outside a Columbus restaurant this summer, one thing became apparent about the Browning brothers. As much as their family did for them, the boys would not have made it without each other.

Robert was driven to cut a path through the woods for Bryant, and Bryant was even more determined to follow it. Three years ahead of Bryant in school, Robert graduated third in his class at Glenville High, with Bryant, as a freshman, pledging to better him. Three years later, Bryant was valedictorian.

Robert moved to on to play football at Georgetown University, a right guard wearing No. 70 who entered the starting lineup as a sophomore. He graduated in 2008 with degrees in computer science and sociology and works as a software developer in the Washington, D.C., area.

"I wanted him to be better than me," Robert said. "I figured if I do something right, he'll have to follow me and do the right things.

"When my mother died, I wanted to break down, but my direction was him. I made sure every decision I made, it was going to be because of him. I can't say the heck with life. The fact he decided to follow me and not follow his friends, it's an honor."

Bryant is also a right guard wearing No. 70 who took over as a starter with the Buckeyes as a sophomore. He'll make his 29th career start on Saturday against Ohio University, second-most among the Buckeyes, as a captain and a marketing major with a 3.3 GPA.

"Browning is the truth" Ginn Sr. said. "He's legit academically, he's legit as a football player, he's loyal and he's got his life in order. He is never going to let you down and never going to embarrass you. If you could have your own kid, it would be Browning."

"He's pretty special," Tressel said. "I don't rank [my players], but he's special."

Bryant is that way because he's like his brother.

"When he does things, it opens me up and makes me less fearful of life to think that my brother can do it," Bryant said. "Everything he does, I soak in."