Jeremy Vincent may as well have been scouting out Chicago for his older brother Brandon Vincent for the last year.
Jeremy moved last summer to Chicago from the family’s hometown of Santa Clarita, Calif. to play football and pursue his studies at the University of Chicago. Jeremy became familiar with the city, experienced the change in seasons and even took in a Chicago Fire game at Toyota Park.
It's safe to say he'll be attending a few more matches in 2016.
As fate would have it, the brothers Vincent have been brought together again many miles from home after the Fire made Brandon the No. 4 pick in the 2016 MLS SuperDraft.
Everyone in the Vincent family envisioned before the draft a scenario in which they ended up together in Chicago, but Brandon never wanted to get ahead of himself.
“It was always a thought, wouldn’t that be funny if we both ended up in Chicago after all this time and kind of have us reunite there,” Brandon, 21, said last week from Tampa after joining Fire preseason training. “My parents were talking about, ‘We have a feeling you might go.’ I was like, 'No, no, we’ll see. We’ll just kind of wait.' It happened the way it did, and it’s kind of crazy how it all comes around and now we’ll be back together again.”
The brothers have understandably shared a bond since their childhood. Being just under three years apart, they always felt like they had the perfect separation to create a healthy sibling relationship. It was never that heated rivalry some brothers tend to have.
“I call him my best friend,” Brandon said. “We definitely have a close relationship. We’re just under three years apart. It’s a good age. He had me as a role model and I had someone I knew who was looking up to me. There wasn’t that head-to-head competition of being the same age. It’s a nice balance being that age difference and staying close as we grow older.”
It also didn't hurt that Brandon and Jeremy each discovered their own respective athletic paths. While both swam and played basketball and soccer while growing up, their interests diverged from each other with time.
Brandon found soccer was his love. Jeremy wanted nothing more to play football -- tackle football, to be exact.
“So, I always played flag football when I was younger and I’d always bug [my dad] wanting to play contact,” Jeremy said. “I think it was the fourth grade, he was like, 'All right, Jeremy, once you’re done in the fifth grade, get into the sixth grade, we’ll allow you to play contact football.' The day fifth grade ended I went straight to my dad and told him like, ‘Well, I’m in sixth grade now.’ And we signed up there.”
As Jeremy was starting his football career, Brandon was beginning to make a name for himself in soccer. He excelled playing for the Real So Cal Academy while attending West Ranch High School, chose to attend Stanford and featured in multiple positions along the back line. By the time he helped lead the Cardinal to the 2015 NCAA College Cup title, Vincent had developed into potentially the most MLS-ready defender in the country -- one who would soon be making his U.S. Men's National Team debut.
“I always knew he stood out from the rest of everyone else,” Jeremy said. “To be honest, I was never surprised that it happened because I think that’s something that has always been within him, and something that our parents have tried to instill in both of us.”
Jeremy went his own way and chose a different high school in order to play football. Jeremy attended Oaks Christian School and became an all-conference wide receiver and defensive back. In his first season at the University of Chicago this past year, he had 70 tackles, one interception and nine pass breakups and was voted the University Athletic Association Rookie of the Year.
“He’s a versatile guy,” Brandon said. “He’s not the biggest guy, most striking when you look at him physically, but he has talent on the field, he’s just a good football guy. He has a good sense for the game.”
Both brothers stand 5-foot-11. Jeremy weighs 192 pounds, giving him roughly 15 pounds on his elder sibling. Despite the size difference, Brandon likes to remind Jeremy he will his always be his older brother, as he did recently in the form of a birthday Twitter message:
It wouldn’t be unlike the brothers to "wrestle out" such contests for bragging rights. They’ve never been ones to get after each other on the playing field, but they aren't opposed to the occasional scrap in the living room.
“We had our fights; we had our wrestling,” Jeremy said with a laugh. “That’s how we still are. When we come home at the holidays, we put everything aside. It doesn’t matter. After the whole national championship with Stanford, he comes home and I come home from my school and we’re just wrestling like we’re 10 years old again. Everything that happens outside the house, once we get home and back with the family, none of that matters. That’s definitely what I like about my family and him. None of that ever filters into the household as far as competition.”
No feelings are ever hurt either. Their parents, Jerald and Jeanette, always made sure their sons understood they had to be there for one another and supportive of their accomplishments.
“When we were younger, it’s always been a relationship of love and support for one another when it comes to our sports and everything and school relationships and whatever,” Brandon said. “As we’ve gotten older, it’s gotten more mature. We’ve kind of been able to respect our successes for what it is and congratulate each other and make sure that they keep on working. It’s been cool to see him especially giving me the support that he has. I try to do the same with him. He’s just starting his college career. As he progresses in that, I’ll be his No. 1 fan.”
It's likely that Jeremy’s No. 1 fan now will actually be able to attend a football game this season. Brandon has never been able to see Jeremy play in person in high school or college due to his soccer schedule. Jeremy has watched plenty of Brandon’s games in person, and he’ll continue to do so.
“That’s something I’m looking forward to, too,” Jeremy said. “At least when I was in high school, he never got to see me play because he was always up in college, busy with his college season. High school season always overlapped, so he never got to come down. It will be pretty cool. I get to go watch him during the day and hopefully he’ll get to see me play on the weekend and we can come to each other’s games. It should be a lot of fun.”
LISTEN: Brandon Vincent on ExtraTime Radio
All of that and plenty of other thoughts and emotions came to Jeremy when he heard Brandon’s name called while watching the MLS SuperDraft.
“It was surreal,” Jeremy said. “It almost didn’t feel real because you know last year we were watching the draft, the MLS draft, the NFL draft, you hear these people’s names and then you hear someone you know, let alone your brother’s. It was a surreal feeling. It kind of came to that like, ‘Wow, he really made it.’ I’d definitely say this is a childhood dream that he’s had and I’m sure many other kids have had as well. Now that he finally got to this point, just a proud moment to know that I’d grown up with him, basically seen him transform from a young boy now to a grown man playing professional soccer is probably one of the greatest feeling I’ve ever felt, definitely.
“I was watching it and hearing all the hype before it all happened. He was either going to end up in New York, Chicago or Philadelphia. I was hoping for either three because I know those are three great cities, but selfishly I was hoping he would come to Chicago just so he could come here and join this awesome city and also I’d be able to have my brother with me for the next three years while I’m here in college. So, selfishly, yeah, I was hoping he would come here, but ultimately I knew the right team was going to pick him, which ended up being Chicago, so I guess it was a win-win deal.”
