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Brewer lucky he didn't have to flip coin for family

Broncos long snapper Aaron Brewer lucky he didn't have to flip coin to wind up with his mom, dad and brothers
Aaron Brewer #46 of the Denver Broncos warms up prior to their AFC Divisional Playoff Game against the San Diego Chargers at Sports Authority Field at Mile High on January 12, 2014

KUSA - Aaron Brewer inherited many positive leadership characteristics from his family.

The Denver Broncos' fourth-year long snapper is smart like his mom, Viki, a pharmacist. He's hardworking like his dad, Dave, a high school teacher for 35 years. He was physically talented enough to have been a water polo player like his oldest brother Vince, but instead became a football long snapper like his next oldest brother Nathan.

What mom, dad and the bros failed to teach Aaron was how to handle a coin flip.

"I called the coin flip one time and we wound up kicking off twice," Brewer said, smiling at himself.

He was a sophomore playing in a junior varsity for Troy High School in Fullerton, Calif. 

"The coach told me something like, "We're going to do this, and we're going to kick off," Brewer said this week during a Broncos' Super Bowl media session. "I misunderstood. And the ref was asking, "Are you sure.'

"And I went, "YES!''

He pointed his index finger for emphasis. Oops. Even though Troy kicked off to start both halves (he was supposed  to ‘defer,'  which would  have  meant getting the ball to  start  the second half, and not state, ‘kick off,' which meant his preference was to kick off giving the other  team the option in the second  half) the JV Warriors defeated Westminster.

Brewer was a little rawer in football than most of his classmates. Mom and dad, who were about 10 years ahead of the times, didn't let their sons play football until high school.

He became a long snapper for the same reason a lot of little brothers wind up at positions – because their older brother played it.

"My coaches said, "You're Nathan Brewer's brother, you're going to be a long snapper, too,'' Brewer said. "My other brother was a real good water polo player, which is big in Southern California. It was 50-50 if I was going to play football or water polo.''

By his senior  year  at  Troy, Brewer was an all-conference linebacker and considered the No. 3 long snapper in the country by chrissailerkicking.com. He played all 50 games at San  Diego State and wound up beating out veteran Lonie Paxton for the Broncos' long snapper position as an undrafted rookie in 2012.

Brewer signed a four-year, $4 million contract extension with the Broncos prior to this season and in a scary moment, was named special teams captain when his team played the Chargers at San Diego back in early December.

That meant walking out to midfield for the pregame coin toss.

"It was a big joke that I was going to make us kick off twice," Brewer said. "I was going to screw it up.  But I wound up not talking so that was perfect.''

Mom, dad and Brewer's two older brothers are here to watch their own snap in Super Bowl 50.

(© 2016 KUSA)

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