It’s a typical school day afternoon in 2007 for middle schoolers Deandre Burnett and Dalvin Cook. The two brothers are walking home from Carol City Middle School together, just as they always do.
They’re eager to get to the corner of 183rd and 37th Avenue to their home of eight in Miami Gardens in Miami, Florida. Once they arrive, they’ll grab a football and head out to the yard.
“We played football all day every day. That’s all we did. We’d get in trouble for playing in the house, everything,” Deandre said.
They are just a year apart, Deandre the older brother. They competed at everything.
“It was very competitive. We competed at everything we did because growing up we played multiple sports,” Deandre said. “I didn’t start playing basketball until I was older, but we played football and baseball so we always competed at everything he did.”
Usually accompanied by their younger 16-year-old brother James and cousin Anthony Jones, they’d square off in some front yard football before heading to their school football practice later on.
It was a daily routine.
“We’d wake up, go to school together, walk home from school together and we’re back in the front yard playing football until it was time to go to football practice,” Deandre said. “After football practice, we’d get ready to do the same thing over and over again.”
Deandre Burnett and Dalvin Cook pose for a picture together. Burnett, a junior Miami basketball transfer, and Cook, a junior Florida State running back, are brothers. (Courtesy: Deandre Burnett)
Deandre remembers one instance when the game in the yard turned into a brotherly tussle.
“We were all in the front yard playing football and I hit him pretty hard. We got into a little scuffle or fight, and settled it how brothers settled it, playing football and laughed it out,” Deandre said laughing.
Deandre and Dalvin are the oldest of six kids. They have a brother and three sisters. The two were inseparable.
“We did everything together. When one got in trouble, the other got in trouble, it was everything,” Deandre said. “Whenever you saw me, you saw Dalvin, whenever you saw Dalvin, you’d see me. We always hung around each other. That’s just how we were.”
As the years went by, the games in the yard took a bigger stage, and in Deandre’s case, a different sport entirely in basketball. But make no mistake about it, the two were stars.
Deandre was a Parade All-American his junior year of high school. He was one of two players from the state of Florida to receive that honor. He averaged 37 points per game as a senior and signed a scholarship to play at Miami in 2013.
A year later, Dalvin rushed for over 1,900 yards and 24 touchdowns on his way to being crown Florida’s Mr. Football. He took his talents north to Tallahassee and signed with Florida State. All the while, the two were driven to make their family proud.
“Growing up that’s all we talked about, playing in the NBA and the NFL and just making our parents and our family happy and retiring our mama. That’s it,” Deandre said.
If there is one thing that’s clear about their upbringing, it’s that family comes first.
“Family before anything,” Deandre said. “That’s all we preach. Family, family, family.”
Former Miami (Fl) Hurricanes guard Deandre Burnett (1) during a game between the Miami (Fl) Hurricanes and the Virginia Tech Hokies at BankUnited Center in Coral Gables Florida. (Icon Sportswire via AP Images)
Florida State running back Dalvin Cook runs in for a touchdown in the first half of an NCAA college football game against Chattanooga in Tallahassee, Fla. (AP Photo/Mark Wallheiser, File)
They are there for each other. Dalvin was there for Deandre when he was forced to undergo two surgeries, one on his shoulder and another on his wrist during his freshman year at Miami.
A year later, when Dalvin was the one going under the knife for a shoulder injury, it was much of the same.
“Just hearing him talk, he tells my mama every day how he looks up to me and my work ethic and everything and how much I’ve battled back from two surgeries, it helped him when he had his surgery. We’re real close. My brothers are everything to me,” Deandre recalled.
Being the two oldest, they pride themselves on being role models for their four younger siblings as well.
“Even now, whenever they need anything, sometimes they don’t want to call our parents so they call me and Dalvin to ask for advice or anything in life in general,” Deandre said. “Growing up I feel like they looked up to us so whenever they need anything they call upon us.”
Now, they’re more than 400 miles apart, and even further from home. Dalvin is a Heisman Trophy favorite for the No. 4 Seminoles and after Deandre transferred to Ole Miss in 2014, he’s eligible to play for the Rebels and will be a key component in a team looking to replace the likes of Stefan Moody.
But none of that has changed their relationship. They talk almost daily.
“We talk about the game. We talk about life in general. We talk about everything. He is my best friend, basically. We talk about everything,” Deandre said. “Whenever we need to talk, we’ve got each other. No matter what time of the day it is we know we can call each other and talk so it means a lot to have that person in your life and that friend that you can always call and talk to. To have him be a brother is even more special.”
They’re each other’s biggest fans. They converse after one of them has a game, mainly because the other one is always watching.
“Talking about it right now brings chills to my skin. It just makes me happy to see him do good things and just know that’s my brother. It makes me extremely proud of him,” Deandre said. “Right now as we speak I’m watching one of his football games against Clemson and he had a big game. It motivates me. Watching him and my little brother it makes me want to succeed as well. It pushes me to keep working.”
They motivate each other, and it’s rubbed off on 16-year-old James, who is already committed to Florida State and is one of the top running backs in his class.
“I think with my little brother James, it helped him get to the level that he is now because he watched us compete and get better every day. I think it helped him seeing that every day,” Deandre said.
Though their days in the yard at the corner of 183rd and 37th have come to an end, there is still time for some friendly competition, and when they’re home for the holidays, it’ll resume again.
“I’m not going to play him in basketball. All he does is foul me every time we play,” Deandre joked. “But in football, I don’t know if I could tackle him. But we’ll be running routes and stuff and I think I can hang in there pretty well.”
The distance between the two may be tough, but they know they’re living out a dream. That same dream they spoke of so often as kids, with family motivating them every step of the way.
“First things first, you’ve got to love the game. We both love the sport. He loves football and I love basketball,” Deandre said. “But next you’ve got to have a purpose behind that, a reason that drives you each and every day when you wake up, and it’s our family, to make them happy and retire them.”
