Mijohni Brisker knew something was going to break.

She’d told her boys time and time again that playing with the football was for outside, so she had no choice but to take it from them to prevent the inevitable from happening. But that didn’t stop her son Jaquan from finding a way. He did what he had to so he could play with a ball inside their Monroeville-area home with his older brother Tale’. Catch with Tale’, after all, was one of young Jaquan’s favorite things to do.

“I told the boys, ‘no balls in the house,’” she said. “They were gonna break stuff in the house. It got to the point that I was hiding balls. I was just kind of sick of it. So ‘Quan, at three or four years old, he decided, ‘OK, I’m gonna make my own ball.’ He took one of their long football socks and he stuffed it with all these little footies.”

Jaquan loved football and loved Tale’, so playing together was a natural outcome. Tale’, the older of the two, obliged his younger brother more often than not and took him under his wing. He showed him how to play and showed him the work that had to go into it. He acted as a role model, according to Mijohni — who goes by MJ — and the two were always playing together.

Until they weren’t.

Tale’ was shot and killed in Prairie View, Texas, in February 2015 at only 19 years old. The then-15-year-old Jaquan lost his brother and one of his closest friends.

“Our last conversation,” Jaquan said, “he said ‘just do your thing in football.’ He was in college, it was his freshman year. He just told me, ‘If anybody in the family makes it, it will be you.’ That stuck with me. … I knew I had to do it for him. My mindset has always been to do it for my brother. Every day I come out here and practice, or at a game, it doesn’t matter if I’m sore, it doesn’t matter if I hurt, I know I gotta do it for him.”

The last thing Tale’ told his younger brother before he died was simple — Jaquan had a chance. He could make it playing the game the two loved and shared.

Now, entering his final season at Penn State, Jaquan Brisker is carrying out what his brother told him and living out the life Tale’ always wanted for him.

Moving forward after grief

Jaquan’s first couple of years of high school after his brother’s death were not easy. He struggled with attendance at school and it set him behind.

“My brother passing away, that was very tough on me and my family,” Jaquan said. “It kept me away from school. Mentally, I couldn’t focus. I couldn’t be there. We went to the same high school, so the people I went to high school with, they knew him. Just coming back to high school after a thing like that is tough. People were feeling bad for me and I’m not the type of person that wants attention. People feeling bad for me, or teachers that knew him, it was just kind of too much, losing somebody like that.”

The younger Brisker’s struggles didn’t help him pursue the dreams his brother set forth for him, but Jaquan made the decision that he would get back on the track he was on before Tale’ died.

He found stability on the football field and learned under Gateway coach Don Holl, after MJ moved the family from Wilkinsburg to Monroeville in Allegheny County in search of a better future for her children.

“Where we were, it was getting bad,” MJ said. “Two streets over, one of the children’s friends had gotten killed. He was only 13 years old. Once that happened, I was really afraid for them. I got a place and found a place in Monroeville. Wilkinsburg, there was a lot of distractions in the classroom. When we moved to Gateway, they didn’t allow distractions in the classroom. That let the kids focus on their class work.”

Holl was aware of Jaquan’s situation, but made sure he held him to account. The Gateway head coach wanted to make sure he put him in a situation to succeed when he inevitably moved on to the next level.

He made it clear that Brisker would be held to the same level and same standard as the rest of his teammates. It did not matter how good a player was, what they had achieved in the past or how far they could go playing football.

The players were equals, and all of them would be expected to uphold the standard Holl set for his teams.

“We made it really clear to him and his teammates, especially his teammates, that the standard was going to be the standard,” Holl said. “You’re either going to meet it or you’re not going to be with the program very long, or you’re not going to be on the field. … I think he’d tell you, he didn’t get any breaks.”

Taking a chance on himself

Jaquan excelled for the Gators, but the setbacks he suffered after Tale’ died made it difficult for him to get back on track academically. He had an offer from Toledo, but he wanted something more.

It was then that he was put in contact with Lackawanna County Community College head coach Mark Duda, who wanted Jaquan to take a chance.

He had an offer from a Division I program, but wanted more, and he believed Duda and Lackawanna defensive coordinator Bill Reiss would help him get there.

“I had never taken my SATs and I really didn’t take school seriously my freshman and sophomore year,” Brisker said. “I just knew (Coach Duda) really wanted me. I could see it in his eyes. He said, ‘bet on yourself,’ so that’s what I decided to do. I bet on myself and went to Lackawanna.”

Jaquan’s talent level was obvious in the recruiting process. Reiss said they saw his film and knew he had the talent to play for them. They went out to visit him, set up a visit to campus and managed to get him on board. Duda remembers when he went to Gateway to sit down with Jaquan.

He remembers the passion he showed immediately and the fire he had to prove he was going to be an excellent football player.

“I sat down with him and said, ‘We think you’re a heck of a player and would like you to come to Lackawanna,’” Duda said. “You could see (it mattered) that somebody actually offered him a chance to go someplace. His eyes lit up and he goes, ‘Coach I’ll do whatever I’ve got to do to be great.’ People don’t talk like that to coaches they just meet. … He said, ‘I’m gonna do whatever I have to do to be great.’ Well if you look at Jaquan Brisker’s career so far, he’s done everything he’s had to do to be great. He hasn’t come back from that statement in four years.”

Once Jaquan arrived at Lackawanna, he made sure he kept on the path he was heading along. He was deeply fueled by what Tale’ saw in him. It wasn’t lip service. He wanted to accomplish everything he could to prove his brother right.

He didn’t talk much at first at Lackawanna, but when he eventually opened up, he explained his motivation to Reiss and Duda and it became apparent that he had the drive to accomplish whatever he wanted. It’s not that his drive wasn’t there prior to his brother’s death — after all, his life largely centered around football from an early age according to MJ — but now he had Tale”s belief to carry him where he wanted to go.

“He was quiet about it at first and then he let us know what happened,” Duda said. “I think it’s a just cause. It’s a good way to live your life. Having someone you care about like that is really important.”

Finding his voice at Penn State

Jaquan’s success at Lackawanna opened the doors he knew it would when he bet on himself. He then found his way to Penn State, where his strong relationship with cornerbacks coach Terry Smith — who Jaquan was a water boy for at Gateway when Smith was the school’s head coach — led him.

That relationship was as important as any in Jaquan’s upbringing, so it made sense that he would trust Smith to take him to the next level as a player.

“It was surreal,” MJ said. “It felt like everything was aligning for ‘Quan. I could see everything coming into play. … Sitting in front of Coach Terry and (Penn State head) Coach (James) Franklin at Penn State, I just saw everything — the stars aligned for him.”

Jaquan took that step in a big way in his second season at Penn State. He was named a first team All-American safety by Pro Football Focus as a senior in 2020. That would’ve been an excellent cap on a journey to likely being selected in the 2021 NFL Draft. Instead, Jaquan took advantage of the NCAA granting every student-athlete an extra year of eligibility due to the covid-19 pandemic.

He got on the phone with fellow projected draft picks Tariq Castro-Fields and Jahan Dotson and made the same call that they did — he would be returning in 2021 to right the perceived wrong that was the team’s 4-5 record in 2020.

With that return has come added recognition for Jaquan, earning several preseason All-American honors and making watch lists for end of season awards, but there was an even more important addition for the senior.

Jaquan came back with a voice. He was the clear leader of the secondary on the field, but hadn’t done much leading with his words off the field.

That’s changed this season, according to several teammates and coaches, including defensive coordinator Brent Pry and kicker/punter Jordan Stout.

“He has always been one of our best workers, but his consistency off the field, the maturity he shows right now, he’s speaking out, he’s holding guys accountable,” Pry said.

Added Stout: “I think he has one of — if not the — biggest voices on the team this year.”

Now that he’s taken the next step, he’s holding his teammates to account and making it known that anything lesser than the best won’t be tolerated.

“Last year, sometimes I had sat back and let things slide that I shouldn’t have let slide,” Brisker said. “Last year I sat back and watched a lot. I could’ve prevented something from happening and maybe even prevented us from going 0-5. So I feel like I had to step up as a leader. I stepped up at Lackawanna, and we went undefeated. I stepped up in high school, we made it to the playoffs.”

That isn’t just lip service. Stout said Jaquan doesn’t hold back when he notices something isn’t done properly. He’s not afraid to call out a teammate, whether they’re a redshirt senior or a true freshman, if they’ve done something wrong.

It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that Jaquan keeps getting better on and off the field. He was always on track to do that and is fulfilling what his brother foresaw six years ago.

Truthfully, Jaquan doesn’t believe Tale’ is too far away, and he’s not wrong. Tale’ is memorialized forever on Jaquan’s right arm, where a tattoo of his face enshrouds his bicep. It’s not visible when Jaquan is on the field, but that doesn’t make it any less prominent.

After all, the face underneath Jaquan’s sleeve always believed in him. It helped him get back on track in high school. It helped him succeed at Gateway. It helped him dominate at Lackawanna. It’s fueling him to continue that domination for one final run at Penn State.

It’s that face that helped Jaquan fall in love with football, that guided him on and off the field, that played catch whenever he wanted — even if it was with some rolled up socks.

Even though Tale’ has been gone for over six years, he continues to motivate his younger brother. Whenever Jaquan finds the next piece of success, he’ll be doing it with Tale’ alongside him.

Just like he always has.

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