Bresee’s younger sister, Ella, battled brain cancer and died in September. As he looks to the NFL draft and beyond, he’ll keep playing to honor her memory.
Bresee has for years been bound for the NFL draft. He had dreamed of an NFL career since he was a boy, and that dream became practical by the time he reached Damascus High. He had grown to 6-foot-5 and nearly 300 pounds and throttled offensive linemen across Maryland high school fields, becoming the top-ranked recruit in the country and eventually committing to the Tigers. He will learn where the next phase of his life will take place this week, possibly during Thursday night’s first round.
Early in 2021, when she was 13, Ella started feeling fatigue and had severe headaches. An MRI exam prompted the Bresees to confront an unfathomable collection of phrases. Brain tumor. Emergency surgery. Ella was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. In the summer she began radiation and chemotherapy. She worried about the hair she would lose.
By early 2022, Ella’s condition had improved. In March, consecutive scans came back clean. In June, another scan led to devastation. Two new tumors had appeared.At Clemson, the community rallied around Bresee and his family. “Ella Strong” became a rallying cry, printed on T-shirts and signs. Clemson planned to honor Ella by having her lead the Tiger Walk, the march football players make through a sea of fans to Memorial Stadium on game day, before it played Furman on Sept. 10.
Before the funeral, Bresee returned to campus briefly for practice. “There were moments where he was told, ‘Go be with your family,’ ” Eason said.Bresee missed a game against Louisiana Tech, when thousands of fans at Memorial Stadium wore gray, the color of brain cancer awareness. He did not leave the team again.
“He just showed up and fought,” Eason said. “He just fought. His sister Ella, she set an example for him, and it motivated us all. But he fought every day, which is what she did when she was here. He just fought through it. If you know Ella, she was a fighter. If you know Bryan’s sisters, they’re all fighters. His parents are fighters. He just fought.”The demands of the football season allowed Bresee to focus on mundane tasks: Study film, lift weights, practice, go to class.
Most draft projections have Bresee sliding toward the latter stage of the first round or into the early second. If not for the challenges he endured, Eason said, the perception would be different. As teams have contacted him, Eason has insisted to scouts, general managers and coaches that they haven’t seen Bresee play his best football.“That kid, with the limited time he had, he was dominant,” said Eason, who played and coached in the NFL for 17 seasons.
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