On Tuesday, Jerry Brown's mother, Stacey Jackson, will bury her son, just a few days after he died in a car accident while riding with his friend and Cowboys teammate Josh Brent, who was charged with intoxicated manslaughter following the wreck.
And when Brown's mom rides to her son's funeral, she wants Brent riding with her.
Jerry Jones, speaking on his weekly KRLD-FM radio show, said Brown's mother requested that Brent be in the car on the way to the memorial service on Tuesday. It's a stunning request, frankly, and speaks to how close Brent and Brown truly were.
"I was upset, but I realized that our youth today are young and stupid, and we were all once that age, and we've all done things we're not proud of," Jackson said on Monday's Piers Morgan Tonight show on CNN, via Doug Farrar of Yahoo!'s Shutdown Corner. "I realized that everyone thinks they're invincible, and everyone thinks, 'It's not going to happen to me.' I know Josh Brent, and he's been part of our family since Jerry went to the University of Illinois -- all I can do is to pray for him and his family. I know [Brent] is hurting just as much as we are, because [he] and Jerry were like brothers."
It's fascinating to see a family react this way, and it's also touching: A mother just lost her son, and the easiest thing to do would be to blame Brent. Instead, she's taking a compassionate angle with a young man who made a fatal mistake.
That doesn't rectify the mistake, but it does speak to how hard this is hitting Brent. He previously declined to speak with reporters while entering the Cowboys facility, and when discussing the situation with the media, Dallas coach Jason Garrett described Brent as "very distraught."
"This thing only happened a couple of days ago, so I'm sure you guys understand the situation he's in and how he feels about the situation, and again, we're trying to help him get through today," Garrett said. "It's a very, very difficult and challenging situation for him."