ATHENS – Brock Bowers made no clear-cut declarations Tuesday like his buddy Carson Beck did earlier this week. The Georgia tight end neither confirmed nor denied his intentions of playing with the Bulldogs in the Orange Bowl and he certainly wasn’t going to get into his NFL aspirations.
But he gave the football players and cheerleaders at Burney-Harris-Lyons Middle School a pretty good idea about his plans when he spent an hour interacting with them on Tuesday.
Credit: Chip Towers/AJC
Credit: Chip Towers/AJC
For weeks, the Athens-Clarke County school has been working with Bowers’ management team to nail down when he would make his appearance. At first, that was going to be on Wednesday afternoon, then it was going to be Wednesday morning, then Tuesday around lunchtime. At the last minute, it got switched to Tuesday morning at 9 o’clock.
The issue? Georgia’s Orange Bowl practices.
Bowers is participating in them. To what extent is unclear and how much he will or won’t play against Florida State on Dec. 30 is unknown. But, for what it’s worth, he’s still practicing with the Bulldogs and firmly attached to coach Kirby Smart’s schedule and apparently will be with the team in Miami.
After talking to and throwing the football with about 50 children for more than an hour, Bowers apologized that he had “to cut out to get to practice.”
Bowers briefly talked to reporters who had been invited to chronicle Tuesday’s experience before being whisked away by a representative from ESM (Everett Sports Marketing). In that arena, Bowers was a bit more evasive.
“Um, we’ll see,” Bowers said, grinning as he spoke. “I don’t know. I’m around, going to meetings, doing everything with the team. So, yeah.”
As for the inevitable question of whether he plans to enter the NFL draft after the bowl, Bowers insisted, “I’m not sure yet. It’s still all up in the air. I’ve got people to talk to and stuff like that.”
Tuesday morning at least, the people to whom Bowers was talking were all 11 to 14 years old and somehow affiliated with the Burney-Harris-Lyons football team. With deep-bass music playing in the background, Bowers was introduced by principal Makeba Clark as a surprise guest speaker in the gymnasium at the back of the middle school in northwest Clarke County. Bowers was met with nervous but enthusiastic applause.
But the affair loosened up considerably in short order, first when the Bulldogs All-American offered each child a huge bag of Christmas gifts provided by Bowers along with his paid sponsors, NOBULL training apparel and Hillpointe real estate and investment management.
Credit: Chip Towers/AJC
Credit: Chip Towers/AJC
Then things really livened up when Bowers invited the group to join him out on the gym floor to throw passes and generally cut up. The cheerleaders performed a special cheer for Bowers that included the lyrics, “Go, go Brock! Go, go Brock! Take it to the top!”
Bowers posed for group and individual photos, signed autographs and delivered a couple of short messages at the beginning and end of the session before the children was dismissed to return to class.
Quiet by nature, Bowers didn’t drone on or get very deep either time. He simply said to “listen to your teachers and coaches, do what they say and always work hard” to reach your goals.
“I just think it’s important because it had such an impact on me when I was around that age,” Bowers said at the end of the assembly. “I mean, having somebody to look up to and something to work towards is really good for them.”
Bowers couldn’t remember the player’s name, but he credits “a guy who played safety” for the Oregon Ducks for inspiring him to play football.
“He’s the one that made me really want to start playing football and really want to play college football,” Bowers said. “I hope I was a role model, but it’s a lot of fun to hopefully make an impact and bring some joy to those kids.”
It looked like there was at least one future Division I athlete. Jordan Mayfield, a seventh-grader, was the same height as the 6-foot-4 Bowers and spent some of the time in the gym jumping and grabbing hold of the rim on one of the basketball goals.
Nobody expects Bowers, a junior from Napa, California, to return to Georgia for his senior season. Despite missing two games due to ankle surgery and playing a limited role the last third of the season, Bowers became only the third three-time All-American in UGA football history. He also won the Mackey Award as the nation’s top tight end for the second season in a row.
Bowers currently is fifth on Georgia’s all-time receiving list with 2,538 yards and 26 touchdowns in his career and also has averaged 10.2 yards per carry and scored 5 more TDs running the football.
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