BY RUSSELL HUFFMAN
TheFlashToday.com
In 36 seasons of covering high school football, I have never seen a better overall player than Stephenville Yellow Jacket Jason Bragg who played safety, linebacker, cornerback, wide receiver, running back, and quarterback and even returned kicks and punts in 1993-94.
There is no better way to describe Bragg other than he was the most graceful player I have ever seen.
If you don’t understand what I am talking about go dig up some old Barry Sanders’ footage or Vince Young running against USC when Texas put the beat down on them in 2005.
They were players who didn’t seem to run but instead bounded and glided as if on an entirely different level from those around them. They didn’t run across the field they flowed over it like water.
Jason Bragg played high school football on a whole other level.
The BEST of the BEST, Bragg was named USA Today’s Texas high school football player of the year in his senior season and would go on to play for Texas A&M before concussions cut short his college and potential NFL career.
Bragg remains among the BEST of the BEST and May 4, 2019, he will be inducted into the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame. One of his fellow inductees this year is NFL legend, Adrian Peterson.
Bragg was a do-it-all player who nodded yes when Coach Art Briles asked if he could do something.
As a two-time All-State player he presented problems for scouts because he was indeed a two-way player as his senior statistics evidenced.
On offense, he carried the ball 97 times for 1,034 yards and 25 touchdowns and had eight more scores via 32 receptions. On defense, Bragg was equally as impressive with 61 unassisted stops and eight interceptions.
Football is a team sport, but if Bragg didn’t catch the 50-yard touchdown pass and a two-point conversion for a 22-21 in 1993 against Waxahachie the legend that is Stephenville football would be far less.
Bragg made that catch and many more as he built his legend as a player and helped lead the Jackets to their back-to-back titles.
Saturday he’ll make add another line to that legend with his induction along with the rest of the class which includes former Sealy coach T.J. Mills, Palestine running back Adrian Peterson, Waco High lineman Ken Casner, Lufkin Dunbar defensive back Ken Houston, Coahoma running back Putt Choate, Daingerfield lineman Willie Everett, Groveton, Waxahachie and Plano East coach Scott Phillips, and senior VP for Learfield/IMG College Sports Jon Heidtke.
Was sad for Stephenville fans when Bragg did not make it as a receiver at A&M because he did not meet their profile for receivers at that time. He could catch the ball while running down the field. Evidently the A&M coaches preferred receivers that could not catch the ball. Meanwhile, Branndon Stewart stepped up and played a great game against Kansas State to win the Big 12 Championship for A&M but was described by Slocum as “not a very good quarterback.” Stephenville beat LaMarque for the 1993 & 1994 state championships with great passes to Bragg & Thompson. Those were incredible games by the Stephenville teams, but we would not have won without Bragg.