Amon-Ra St. Brown has lit up the NFL in his first two seasons and is one of the most fascinating characters in the sport.
That should come as no surprise to anyone given he comes from a family of exceptionally talented athletes.
His brother, Equanimeous, is also a wide receiver in the NFL with the Chicago Bears.
Not only that, their father John is a two-time Mr Universe champion (in 1981 and 1982), the competition that helped make Arnold Schwarzenegger famous.
John Brown had a rather unique approach to parenting, choosing his son’s names. Amon-Ra was named after the supreme deity Amun in the Egyptian religion.
Brown introduced his three sons, with the third Osiris playing college football at Stamford, to weightlifting from a very early age.
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“Other people thought I was crazy,” John Brown told Yahoo Sports. “Some guy in the 1920s said that lifting weights early stunts your growth and everyone believed him. It’s probably the same guy who said the world was flat.”
His parenting methods were often questioned, but it’s hard to argue with the outcomes with two of his sons in the NFL.
Amon-Ra is one of the elite wide receivers in the league, having accrued more than 2000 passing yards in just his first two seasons.
While dad John focused on the strength and conditioning side of their development, their mother ensured their minds were expanded too.
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Miriam Brown, who was born in Germany, only spoke German to her children with Amon-Ra fluent in both her mother’s native tongue and French.
They would speak German to their mother, English to their father and then also went to French school for their early education.
The three children even went to school in Paris for a term and travelled widely across Europe as youngsters.
His talent on the football field was obvious right from the start and was a five-star recruit out of High School.
Amon-Ra attended the University of Southern California and then declared for the NFL Draft in 2021.
It was initially projected that he would be a first round pick, but had to wait until the fourth round before the Detroit Lions selected him 112th overall.
There were 16 wide receivers that were selected before him in the 2021 NFL Draft and he can name them all and what college they went to.
“I think it put a huge fire inside of me,” St. Brown told ESPN. “It put a chip on my shoulder, a boulder on my shoulder, and I’m just going to take that with me with whatever I’m doing -- and whenever I don’t feel motivated, I’ll just think of that, and I’ll keep going.”
He has certainly made some teams regret not drafting him higher up and plenty of that can be put down to his incredible work ethic on the practice field.
Every day after practice he catches exactly 202 balls from the JUGS machine, which throws perfect passes for a player to catch, a routine that he has kept up since he was in middle school.
Now he is one of the best wide receivers in the NFL and the third year player will no doubt keep his numbers high.
“I’ve got as much trust in him as anyone I’ve ever played with,” quarterback Jared Goff said of St. Brown.
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“I know where he’s going to be. I know he’s going to be on time. I know he’s got great hands, he’s going to catch the ball. I know he’s tough as hell, he’ll go over the middle, he’ll block. He’ll do everything.”
The Lions start their NFL season on Thursday with a clash against reigning Super Bowl champions the Kansas City Chiefs, live on talkSPORT 2.
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