His path could easily have been vastly different.
Terry Bradden Jr. now owns not one but two Super Bowl championships – and the accompanying, eye-popping blinging rings – from his work as the Kansas City Chiefs assistant defensive line coach, a position for which Bradden is a previous FootballScoop Minority Rising Star and also the guy generating industry talk for the ascendant career he is navigating.
Yet Bradden needs look no further than his family to see tragedy, and it’s that gut-wrenching memory that keeps Bradden returning every summer to his Riviera Beach, Florida, roots to help give back to the community.
It’s been 36 years since Bradden’s brother, Donald Runner, was murdered – just before Bradden was born but also gunned down in front of his family.
“What I want to do is every morning wake up and find a way to give back to young men,” Bradden told FootballScoop. “I prayed on it, and that path was coaching.
“It’s always big for me to give back to my community, where I’m from, to show young men and really everyone you can find a way to do what you love.”
Working in concert with the T.E.A.M. Elam Foundation, Bradden, the Elam family and several others are hosting a coaching clinic Saturday beginning at 9 a.m. at the Wells Recreation Center in Riviera Beach. The cost of the clinic is a mere $25, and 100% of all proceeds go to the Riviera Beach Parks and Recreation Department.
Before retiring from the NFL, Abram Elam had three siblings murdered due to the pervasive violence in the family’s South Florida home region.
Thus, Bradden and Elam continue to forge ahead with a clinic both instructive on the field – multiple NFL assistants, Colorado assistant head coach and Deion Sanders confidante Gary Harrell, a handful of other college assistants and numerous prep coaches from the area – as well aiming to showcase a life in football doesn’t always mean a life playing football. Or, chasing any dream.
“Abram Elam has been an advocate for me since I’ve been in middle school, high school and on, and he’s somebody who wants to give back and do things for the community,” said Bradden, now a seven-year veteran of being on an NFL staff and who earlier in his career became the youngest high school head coach in the state of Florida at age 24. “When he played for the Kanas City Chiefs and the Cowboys, I wanted to be like him and give back to him and with him.
“He has this Elam Foundation, and it’s great to team up with him. To educate coaches, and just trying to bring back knowledge and resources. To just help give back, help these great coaches as they’re teaching the proper fundamentals so that kids can play football at the highest levels.”
Bradden, though, is proof an NFL career doesn’t automatically mean an NFL playing career.
“It’s just important for kids from Riviera Beach to know you don’t have to run the football to be a professional in the sport you love,” Bradden said. “You can be a scout, or a G.M. or just a camp guy or coach.
“There are all these different ways to do something to be around the sport you love. I just think it’s very beneficial for me to come back and see these coaches and let them know you can be in the NFL, you can do this.”
After drawing a crowd of some 60 coaches at last year’s inaugural event, Bradden, T.E.A.M. Elam and the others involved this year are anticipating more than 100 coaches to be on hand, and they reiterate that all proceeds – including some fundraising work they’ve been doing – will be directly reinvested into the Riviera Beach community.
“This is our way of just giving back,” Bradden said.