Brown preparing for emotional return to Wisconsin
For the first time since one of the darkest and painful nights of his life, Drew Brown will return to Wisconsin this weekend when Nebraska takes on the Badgers on Saturday night.
As much as the junior kicker will try and keep his mind on football and easily the Huskers’ biggest game yet of the 2016 season, he admitted it will be almost impossible for him to ignore the memories of what happened the last time he was in the state on July 23.
After wrapping up at Kohl’s Kicking Camp in Waukesha, Wis., Brown was driving to a fellow camp participant’s house for the night when he got the terrible news.
His teammate and best friend, senior NU punter Sam Foltz, had been killed in a car crash while driving back from the very same camp. Also killed in the accident was former Michigan State punter Mike Sadler, and LSU kicker Colby Delahoussaye was in the car but escaped with his life.
Brown has thought about the accident and the loss of his friend every day since, but he’s not sure how he’ll handle the emotions when he goes back to Wisconsin.
“It’ll be tough,” Brown said. “It’s not the same area specifically, but I think just the general feeling of being back in Wisconsin since that happened, it’s going to be hard for me.”
Keeping the focus on football as much as he can will hopefully help, but maybe the best news for Brown is that he definitely will not be alone in dealing with the latest difficult step in the grieving process.
Wisconsin kicker Rafael Gaglianone was also close friends with Foltz. He too was at the Kohl’s camp that weekend in July, and in the days following the accident he announced that he would be changing his jersey number from 10 to 27 in honor of Foltz.
Brown said he didn’t really know Gaglianone very well before the incident, but the two immediately bonded since. Gaglianone even stayed at Brown’s house when he traveled to Nebraska to attend Foltz’s funeral.
“Once I got to know him as a person, it’s been a blessing,” Brown said.
Brown’s support from the Badgers doesn’t end there, either.
Senior Andrew Endicott replaced Gaglianone as UW's starting placekicker earlier this year after Gaglianone underwent season-ending back surgery. He too was at the Kohl’s camp that weekend.
Not only that, he and Brown rode together to Endicott’s home the night of the accident. Foltz, Sadler and Delahoussaye were supposed to meet them there.
Endicott told Wisconsin reporters that he and Brown have grown close since the accident. With Gaglianone no longer able to play this season, Endicott said he’s been trying to think of ways he can honor Foltz on the field.
"We've been talking a lot more lately," Endicott said of Brown, "and I want to be respectful to him, as well. I don't want to overstep my bounds or anything like that. As an entire (specialty) unit, we've been talking about doing something to pay our respect to Sam… I’d love to honor his legacy somehow."