Curtis Brinkley’s father had one last gift for his son. As he lay dying on a hospital bed last fall, he took off his Livestrong bracelet and slipped it past his son’s wrist. Four months later, the yellow band rarely leaves Brinkley’s left wrist – the same wrist around which his father wore it.

This spring, the sophomore running back on the Syracuse football team looks at the bracelet and a sweatband bearing the words, ‘I miss you, Dad; I love you,’ before every play. Of the handful of young backs trying to earn the starting position, Brinkley thinks the extra motivation of playing for his father will win him the job.

He talks openly about how the experience changed his frame of mind.

‘My goal is this year is to do anything I can do for my father,’ Brinkley said. ‘Anything I can do and accomplish, it’s for him. I know he wanted me to start at Syracuse.’

Brinkley, one of the nation’s highest-rated running backs by Rivals.com who delayed coming to SU for a year to attend Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va., didn’t originally want to play last season. With Damien Rhodes entrenched as the starter, the former Pennsylvania player of the year would have preferred to redshirt.

But with his father ill, time was short. Brinkley dressed for games, but rarely played outside of kickoff returns. The speedy 5-foot-9, 180-pound freshman returned 17 kicks an average of 20.8 yards last season, in addition to carrying the ball seven times for 28 yards.

Since he struggled to learn a complex offense without many repetitions, Brinkley couldn’t crack the rotation of running backs behind Rhodes, Kareem Jones and Paul Chiara. But he’s grateful he decided to play.

‘I wanted to get out there somehow and show him that his son is doing well,’ Brinkley said.

His father’s leukemia actually improved toward the end of the season. Brinkley first missed several practices before the Cincinnati game on Oct. 29, returning to dress for the game and saying afterward his father was healthy enough to talk on the phone for the first time all week.

He left the team again before the South Florida game on Nov. 12 and again the week of the Louisville game on Nov. 26 when his father passed away.

Brinkley said the loss has focused him more on the field and in school. He said his mother and grandmother also suffer health problems and that he must look out for his younger sister. But he doesn’t mind discussing the situation with his teammates and the media.

‘I think it would still be a touchy subject,’ Chiara said. ‘Personally it would be. When someone on the team goes through that, everyone goes through it.’

In 2006, Brinkley will compete against Jones and Chiara, as well as freshman Delone Carter and junior Jeremy Sellers. Robinson wants one to impress him enough to be a full-time back, but hasn’t seen any significant differences yet.

The head coach said Brinkley had a particularly good practice on Friday, not only displaying more aggressiveness and explosiveness running the ball, but picking up blitzers.

‘I tell you, he’s a tough guy,’ Robinson said. ‘He showed up the other day in a blitz drill – and I tell you what, you can bring anybody and he’s gonna block you.’

Both Robinson and Chiara said Brinkley’s speed is what sets him apart from his competitors. It’s why he was placed on the kickoff return unit last season and can provide a home-run threat for an offensive that could use more big plays.

‘Curtis has a unique ability to make a cut at full speed, which is extremely hard,’ Chiara said. ‘It’s natural God-given ability he has.’

And now Brinkley has even more motivation after his father passed away in November. He looks at his wristband and his father’s Livestrong bracelet before every repetition.

‘I got a family to feed,’ Brinkley said, ‘and I’m hungry.’

Published on March 26, 2006 at 12:00 pm