By John Blackledge, llcsportswriter@gmail.com
Bubby Brister dreamed of playing football for Paul “Bear” Bryant’s Crimson Tide, and the chance came as he signed with Alabama as a senior at Neville High School in Monroe, La.
But the young athlete who excelled in baseball and football went in a different direction
The Detroit Tigers had other plans as they drafted Brister right out of high school.
Brister spent two seasons in the minors with the Tigers, but elected to return to college football. Brister signed with the Tulane University Green Wave.
After a few seasons at Tulane, Brister decided to transfer to Northeast Louisiana University (now the University of Monroe-Louisiana), and had a successful senior year as a quarterback, throwing for over 3,000 yards.
The Pittsburgh Steelers drafted Brister in 1986, and later as a Denver Bronco, he backed up John Elway, and won a pair of Super Bowls as a backup quarterback.
Brister is completing the last of a two-day quarterback camp at South Jones High School in Ellisville Friday.
According to Brister, the purpose of the camps is to bring back the fundamentals of being a quarterback and skill position players
“The purpose of our camp is to give back to the community,” he said. “Growing up with my dad being a football coach, I learned the proper techniques and fundamentals to be able to never injure my arm.”
With the invention of the spread offense, Brister feels that leaves kids to get injured more on a faster pace, so he just wants to teach the proper skills of that position.
“We just wanted to come over here, and teach kids the proper fundamentals and techniques to keep them from getting injured,” he said.
The camp was for kids from 8-18 years old. “The first day of the camp we have kids from 8-12,” he said. “ On the second day, we have guys from 13-18 here.”
While at the camp, Brister teaches the kids lessons in life. “We not only teach these guys about skills on the field, but we also teach them about skills in the classroom,” he said.
“We want to teach them that education is a must because as the ESPN commercial states, athletes become professional not only in the sport they play, but the career field they go into.”
