How Jefferson’s Max Brown used his injury to come back ‘bigger’ and ‘faster’

JEFFERSON — It was the elephant in the room for the Browns last summer.

Max Brown, a rising senior linebacker for Jefferson, was ready to announce his college commitment in June before his junior season. He had heard from some of the top programs in college football for the past three years, like Auburn, Clemson, Georgia, Ohio State and Tennessee, among others and felt comfortable shutting things down.

Brown knew that by choosing one school, he’d have to call the other coaches and let them know he wasn’t going to play for them, which filled him with anxiety.

“It’s like a breakup,” Brown said. “It’s not easy to do, but I mean, all the coaches were really proud of me. They told me pretty much the same thing that wherever I go, they’ll be a fan of me — until we play them. It was really a lot of stress and a lot of relief.”

After making all of the calls he needed to make, Brown told Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney in person at a camp on June 3 that he was excited to commit to the Tigers after earning an offer.

The 6-foot-1 two-way player from Jefferson grew up a Clemson fan and then had a front-row seat for his older brother Sammy’s recruitment, getting to go on visits across the country and then seeing the Clemson program up close since Sammy started playing for the Tigers in the 2024 season. Max Brown has been to plenty of games, gotten to know Swinney and the rest of the coaching staff and felt at home with Clemson.

Things were a bit patchy after Sammy’s freshman season as Clemson went 10-4 and they fired defensive coordinator Wes Goodwin. Brown said he was leaning a bit toward Ohio State before Clemson hired Ben Boulware as linebackers coach.

Boulware, a former All-American for the Tigers, had a similar playing style and body type to Brown, and the two got along really well.

“He said he sees a lot of himself in me,” Brown said. “We’re not the most standout looks-wise on the field, but we’re always the most physical, violent players. We just play with a chip on our shoulder.”

Brown was the first player to commit to Clemson in the 2027 recruiting class, with many high school prospects often opting to choose schools after their junior seasons. But Brown knew what he wanted and was comfortable getting it over with.

“I basically told him to run his own race and not try to follow in my footsteps,” Sammy said at ACC media days earlier this month. “He’s not Sammy Brown’s little brother. He’s Max Brown. I just told him to run his own race. I wanted him to get recruited the same way that I did with a blank space and if Clemson is the place, Clemson is the place. Ultimately he made the decision to go to Clemson.”

Having gone through the process with Sammy a couple years before, Mike Brown, their father, was happy to have the recruiting cycle done in his household.

“(Max) built relationships with different coaches through Sammy,” Brown said. “There’s a lot of good people out there in a lot of good places, but I think ultimately he wanted to be at Clemson, and he didn’t want to waste anybody’s time. He didn’t want to lead anybody along. I think he knew, and he pulled the trigger early, and that was OK with me.”

Just over two months after he wrapped up his recruitment, Brown’s junior season was over midway through September. A year after having a breakout season as a sophomore in 2024, earning all-state accolades with 152 tackles, the three-star Clemson commit played in just five games.

On Sept. 12, Brown and the Dragons hosted North Oconee for a highly anticipated nonregion clash. The game was televised, the stands at Jefferson Memorial Stadium were packed, and players from both teams were amped for the matchup between the two undefeated squads.

Brown took a handoff on the first play of the game, carried it up the field for two yards and felt something in his knee snap. His leg was rolled up on and his season was over.

In the following weeks, Brown would have surgery on his medial patellofemoral ligament, the ligament that stabilizes the kneecap. He had injured his knee a couple of times in his career but had put off the surgery.

After speaking with medical staff both in Jefferson and Clemson, he decided to go ahead and get it operated on.

“I was really devastated, but I kind of had a sense of relief because I didn’t have to worry about it anymore because the surgery recurrence rate is less than 1%,” Brown said. “I was pretty devastated to say the least. I was waiting to see my brothers go to the state championship and have a chance to compete for that. But at the same time I was just kind of like I felt kind of just like an empty space, like just kind of just invisible, just kind of there.”

There were dark moments in the Brown household last fall. As excited as Max was to see his teammates reach the AAA state championship game, a big part of him longed to be out there.

And his dad, who also serves as an assistant on the Dragons coaching staff, missed seeing his son on the field.

“It was tough,” Brown said. “It was tough on him. It was tough on me, not seeing him out there playing. But he used it, and he’s used it for motivation ... He’s faster than he’s ever been. He’s stronger than he’s ever been. He’s bigger than he’s ever been.”

In addition to the physical therapy and getting his body right to return to the football field this fall, Brown spent time working on the mental side of his game. He was forced to take a step back and look at his life outside the hard hits and electric plays that came on Friday nights.

Already, he’s seeing the benefits of that time off.

“Just staying busy was definitely good to keep myself out of a sad, depressive hole,” Brown said. “I’ve dealt with some mental health issues before in the past, and so it was a good learning experience just to know what to do and to figure out and solve what to do whenever you’re feeling that type of way that you don’t want to feel, and just to talk to people about it. It was really big that I had to learn how to talk to people about how I’m feeling because I’m used to just holding it in and kind of doing it on the football field. But at that time, I didn’t really have a football field to go on, and so I had to talk about my feelings and talk about how I was feeling my emotions and stuff, which I feel like it’s going to be really beneficial for me in the long run.”

Brown feels stronger and faster than he ever has. He’s now 222 pounds, runs a 4.5 40-yard dash and is eager for Jefferson’s season opener at Calhoun.

He wants to win Jefferson’s first state championship in more than a decade, for himself, his teammates and his head coach, but he also is looking to savor each game, practice and workout over the next five months.

Max still remembers his first game against Alpharetta back in 2023, playing alongside his brother for one year. Sammy remembers the Dragons’ Elite Eight win at Harris County that year.

“It was the third or fourth quarter, and we both tracked down the running back together, and we got up and just went crazy,” Sammy said. “It was really cool.”