BROOKSVILLE — Two weeks earlier, when Cynthia Brown Jackson knew her late brother's Philadelphia Eagles would be playing in the Super Bowl, again seeking their first-ever championship, the numbers lined up to give her hope.
Jerome Brown would have been 52 then, and here came Super Bowl 52, played on what would have been his birthday.
"What an awesome gift that would be," she thought, dismissing friends and co-workers who reminded her that the Patriots were favored to win their sixth Super Bowl.
"It was so hard to find the words. It was surreal."
Jerome Brown remains one of the greatest athletes in Hernando County history, winning a national championship at Miami in 1983 and becoming a first-round pick of the Eagles in 1987 as a defensive tackle.