BERGIN BROTHERS
"We had a large backyard, so the boys spent all their time
outside running and playing," she said. "They always got along
really well."
Though never pushed to play football, the Bergin boys
quickly discovered a love for the game bred by its constant
presence in their household. Their father refused to let Joe
put on pads until the sixth grade, and Chris soon followed
when he reached fourth grade. Joe impressed immediately
with his speed while Chris held his own playing against kids
two grade levels above him.
"When we were young, football was just treated differently,"
said Chris. "It just mattered so much to us. It was everything
in our household."
The two brothers took the field together for the first time in
high school as varsity athletes at Detroit Country Day. Joe,
a senior captain and key contributor at running back and
linebacker, was coming off a broken leg suffered the year
prior during training camp. Chris, then a sophomore, started
the season on junior varsity before quickly finding himself
lined up at safety on the varsity squad just steps away from his
older brother. The pair helped fuel a run to the state semifinals
that year and made strong positive impressions on both the
program and the school.
"Football's hard, but they really celebrate the game, and
that has a positive impact on their teammates," said Detroit
Country Day head coach Dan MacLean, a former collegiate
football player at University of Illinois. "They are confident
kids with a sense of propriety."
As Joe weighed his options for college, his parents preached
what they call the "4/40 Rule." The idea is simple but often
overlooked by young athletes; you will likely only play football
for four more years, but you must consider the subsequent
40 years of life when choosing a university. To condense the
rule even further, academics before athletics. Joe's offers were
limited because, as an undersized linebacker, the leg injury
forced him to sit out his all-important junior year that college
scouts often key in on when evaluating high school players.
However, the opportunity to walk on at Northwestern proved
to be a perfect match.
