Is It Too Early for Alabama to Recruit Kingston Brown?

Is 10 years old too young to receive your first college football offer?

Probably.

But somebody might want to tell Alabama to at least write this name down: Kingston “Big Brown” Brown.

The 10-year-old Tuscaloosa football player recently came across my radar after a video of one of his dominant plays began making the rounds online. And once you see the fifth grader standing 5-foot-7 and weighing 180 pounds, the nickname “Big Brown” starts making a whole lot of sense.

Brown is a fifth grader at Englewood Elementary and plays both offensive and defensive line for the Hillcrest Youth Patriots.

And apparently, football really does run in the family.

His father was a standout football player at Central High School before going on to play arena football. Brown’s great-grandfather, Cleo Johnson, also played professional football with the Denver Broncos.

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His mother, Tawanna Brown, jokes that football may simply be in her son’s DNA.

“Once Kingston started playing, it became clear that he really loved the game and had a natural gift for it,” she said.

Kingston has already been playing football for five years which means half of his life has been spent on a football field.

While a viral highlight might have people looking years into the future, his family is intentionally keeping the focus much closer to home.

The goal right now is development: learning the game, improving his technique, competing at higher levels and, most importantly, allowing Kingston to enjoy being a kid.

Tawanna Brown

Because there’s a lot more to Big Brown than being the biggest kid lining up across from somebody on Saturday.

His mother says Kingston enjoys playing chess with his coach, building robots and exploring robotics, playing Madden and NBA 2K with his friends and spending time with his little sister.

“People see the big plays, but I see the work behind them,” Tawanna said. “I’m proud of the athlete he’s becoming, but even more proud of the character he’s developing.”

His family is also making sure the attention doesn’t become bigger than the player receiving it.

Tawanna Brown

Kingston is being taught to keep God first, remain humble, work hard and treat people with respect. Away from football, his mom says he’s still a regular 10-year-old who loves sweets, playing outside and hanging out with his friends.

He just happens to be a 5-foot-7, 180-pound 10-year-old who can wreck a football play.

There are a lot of years, games and growing still ahead for Kingston Brown. Nobody needs to start worrying about recruiting rankings just yet.

But if you happen to work in a certain football building in Tuscaloosa, keeping the name tucked away somewhere probably wouldn’t hurt.

His mom certainly believes people will know it eventually.

“Remember the name, Kingston Brown,” Tawanna said. “You’ll be seeing him on a TV screen near you one day.”