When your dream comes true, what makes it feel all the more real are the differences from what you imagined.
When Beau Brade used to picture himself playing for the Ravens, it was as a running back. He would create a player with his own name in “Madden” as the star rusher, playing on the same team as idols such as Ray Lewis and Ed Reed.
The real thing? It’s better, Brade said Friday, in his first media availability since making the 53-man roster this week. The River Hill and University of Maryland product was on the practice field Monday when general manager Eric DeCosta walked over to break the news.
“I gave him a little hug,” said Brade, who hails from Clarksville. “Then, of course, when I got home, I had to tell the parents. That was a great experience. They started crying.”
Brade, 22, could be forgiven for shedding a few tears, too. The storybook achievement for a local kid on the local football team took a few sharp turns.
After leading the Terps in tackles each of the last two years, Brade was projected as high as a midround pick in the NFL draft. In fact, he assumed it was a given. “Didn’t really think there was a doubt about that.”
Going undrafted quickly humbled Brade, who signed with the Ravens without a clear path to making the roster. But his impressive preseason made his case. Brade was the second-leading tackler (18) in the three games, including two tackles for loss. He always seemed to be around the ball — a trait he showed at Maryland, too.
Although it is not the way Brade would have picked for himself, he thinks it forced him to be tougher, which ultimately helped him make the team.
“I feel like God made everything happen for a reason, and I feel like that reason was to make me more mentally strong and to keep me at home, mentally, and I feel like that happened,” he said. “I feel — it’s been a great experience, let me say that.”
The Ravens have consistently mined gems from the undrafted free-agent pool, including current team members Michael Pierce, Patrick Ricard, Patrick Mekari and Keaton Mitchell. Defensive coordinator Zach Orr caught on with Baltimore as a player when he signed as an undrafted free agent.
But DeCosta said the Ravens’ pride in their streak of strong UDFA signings had nothing to do with keeping Brade.
“The reality is Beau actually just played great, and he did it consistently,” DeCosta said Thursday. “He won the job. He took the job. And, in the end, he deserved being on the team, and that’s what it was all about.”
Brade is not the first River Hill alum to suit up for the Ravens. Michael Campanaro was a returner and receiver from 2014 to 2017. It was the kind of dream Brade would nurse for himself in high school, when he performed in a halftime showcase at M&T Bank Stadium with his Hawks teammates.
A few years into his Maryland career, he started trying to separate his Ravens allegiance from his NFL aspirations — after all, you never know where in the league you might end up. But his experience in Ravens camp has been better than he envisioned. The players he looked up to have helped him learn quickly how to adapt to life in the pros.
“A lot of times, veteran guys or older guys in the same position might shy away from helping you, trying to help just themselves, help their chances of staying on the roster,” he said. “But that hasn’t been the case at all here. They’ve been helpful 100% and just trying to help me be the best I can be.”
Brade has been back to River Hill football practices a few times in recent years, and he hopes he can keep going. His story shows the culmination of a long-held dream, but more importantly it shows how much work it takes to get there.
“You can’t dodge it or hope and pray for it to happen and not put any work towards it. You got to try your hardest,” he said. “And whatever happens does happen, but I don’t feel like I’ve ever seen someone try their absolute hardest at something and not be able to accomplish it.”
