Chargers linebacker Jatavis Brown focuses on proving doubters wrong and believers right

The ride to the game is a calm, peaceful, spiritual one.

Jatavis Brown, the Chargers’ second-year linebacker, will tune into gospel music — a fitting start to a Sunday that has him playing in some of football’s holiest cathedrals. It relaxes Brown, he says.

Described by teammates as a “laid-back dude,” Brown speaks with a soft voice and wears a polite, kind smile — until he walks out onto the field for Sunday’s first sweat.

The gospel is nowhere to be found. The headphones, they blare Lil’ Boosie, a Southern rapper with lyrics that probably need to come with a nonstop ticket to confession. From “Mind of a Maniac” to “Loose as a Goose,” a song that’s not about zoology, it’s what Brown uses while he gets his mind right.

He’s not the only person in the NFL to undergo this transformation — it’s a necessary duality that allows rational people to fling their bodies against one another at top speeds. And, it’s a necessary transformation to get Brown to the place he needs to be to accomplish his lone mission.

“Sunday is game day. I’m all focused about business and my one goal is to win,” he said. “Once you go out there, you just flip.”

Whether Boosie or the Bible, whatever Brown’s been doing, it’s working. Through two weeks, he’s the NFL’s leading tackler, using his speed and toughness to make up for a 5-foot-11, 212-pound frame that might be considered “undersized.”

But players such as Brown are not concerned with prototypes.

From the football-crazy state of Florida, Brown desperately wanted to play football at Miami — the Harvard Law of linebacking. Trouble was, they didn’t want him. In fact, no one in Florida wanted Brown. He didn’t receive a single scholarship offer from a state school.

Akron, though, saw something in the two-star recruit, and it didn’t take long for him to pay back their investment. After he adjusted to winter (“A Florida kid up in the cold? It wasn’t a match,” he said), Brown became one of the best players in the Mid-American Conference. He had more than 100 tackles as a sophomore and after his senior season, he was named the MAC’s top defender.

But when it came time for the NFL draft, executives called 174 names before the Chargers selected Brown in the fifth round. He was happy to have a new home and upset it took so long.

“I’m always going to have that,” Brown said. “Of course, everyone felt like they should go in the first round. I’m one of those guys that feel like that. I should’ve gone higher. But, it is what it is.”

He won’t be the only player Sunday who feels that way when the Chargers host Kansas City. Chiefs rookie running back Kareem Hunt, the NFL’s leading rusher through two weeks, lasted until the 86^th overall pick, after starring in the MAC at Toledo. Chargers starting safety Jahleel Addae didn’t even hear his name called in the draft after playing at Central Michigan. Only Kansas City offensive lineman Eric Fisher — the MAC’s only No. 1 overall pick ever — can’t claim he was overlooked because of his road to the NFL.

“You get a chip on your shoulder,” Addae said. “As a competitor, no matter who you are, you think you deserve to be drafted or to go to a big school. When it comes down to it and decisions are made and you’re not one of the guys you thought you were going to be, I think it drives you. I think it fuels you.

“And, I think you can see that in how Jatavis goes about his business.”

Brown’s nowhere near being a finished product. Last Sunday against Miami, Brown was beaten by wide receiver Kenny Stills for Miami’s lone touchdown. Still, he was in the play athletically, one of the reasons defensive coordinator Gus Bradley is so high on him.

Bradley said the Jaguars, where he previously worked, were very high on Brown’s potential and thought he’d be a great fit in his defense. And, when he had the chance to coach the Chargers, seeing Brown helped make the decision easier.

“We thought he was a great fit for this system,” Bradley said.

Like Addae, Bradley sees the chip on Brown’s shoulder — the Boosie side — and he knows it can’t be helped.

“It’s in him,” Bradley said. “That’s why he’s made it. That’s the only way he knows.”

But there’s another side of that the Chargers are hoping Brown sees.

“Some coaches would say, ‘I want players that have a chip on their shoulder because they’re always trying to prove people wrong.’ My thing with Jatavis was — how about proving people right?” Bradley said. “We believe in you. Your teammates believe in you. Prove us right.”

Sunday, after the musical prayers are sent to the heavens in his black Range Rover on the ride to StubHub Center, Brown will put the headphones on, focusing on proving the doubters wrong and the believers right.

“Welcome to the mind of a maniac,” the lyrics will say.

Brown will get to where he needs to be — from Florida to Ohio, from the MAC to the NFL, from gospel to Boosie.

“The whole experience,” he said, “the whole route getting here — when I look back on it, I know everything happened for a reason.”

Etc.

Chargers running back Melvin Gordon was limited for the second day in a row in practice because of a sore knee and is listed as “questionable” for Sunday’s game, but Chargers coach Anthony Lynn said he expects Gordon to play. … Starting right tackle Joe Barksdale didn’t practice Friday and is also listed as questionable, but again, Lynn expects him to play through the foot injury. … Linebacker Hayes Pullard has a sore knee and is questionable for Sunday after being limited in practice. … First-round pick Mike Williams needs only to take contact in practice before he’s cleared to return to action. Lynn said the team held Williams out of contact during a spirited Thursday practice in pads.

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