Muscatine

Jerry Brown Jr. and Josh Brent were best friends and college
teammates who, after experiencing tough times at the University of Illinois,
were finally beginning to taste success with the Dallas Cowboys.

But the roommates’ promising plans came to a tragic halt early
Saturday when the 2007 Mercedes they were in crashed near the site of the old
Texas Stadium, killing Brown. Irving police arrested Brent, the driver, on
suspicion of intoxication manslaughter.

“It is a shock and it is a tragedy that two lives have been
interrupted the way that they have,” said Keith Gilmore, the defensive line
coach at the University of Illinois, who had worked with Brent and Brown there.
“You just wish more for both of those young men.”