FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Jowon Briggs was sitting in aNew York Jetsspecial teams meeting earlier this season when Chris Banjo turned to him and made a request.
"I didn't know you could sing," said the special teams coordinator, who heard some buzz about Briggs' vocal talents. "Man, go ahead and sing something."
The spotlight was suddenly on the big defensive tackle. But Briggs is used to shining when it's time to perform — on and off the football field.
So, remaining seated in a room full of teammates and coaches, the 6-foot-1, 313-pound tenor smoothly belted out Tevin Campbell's 1990s R&B hit, "Can We Talk."
"I knew he could sing because he said he could, but then he sang in person — man, he has a beautiful voice," defensive tackle Harrison Phillips said.
"It was crazy, actually," safety Isaiah Oliver recalled. "I didn't know that about him prior to that meeting, so it was kind of shocking. But it was really good."
So much so, Briggs received a standing ovation.
"I think a lot of guys were more surprised with, one, the song I sang, and then how it actually sounded," a smiling Briggs said. "They were like, 'Oh, that can't be coming from Juwon!'"
But an even bigger surprise for some of Briggs' teammates is that he's a one-man band who has learned how to play 12 instruments to varying degrees of competency.
"It's just one of those things," he said. "Like I always say, everybody's got something. I just happen to be a musical guy."
That's putting it lightly.
There's Briggs' exceptional voice, of course. But he also has played the recorder, piano, violin, viola, cello, stand-up bass, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, saxophone, flute and harmonica, and still owns a few of them. Briggs has messed around with drums, too, but doesn't count that as part of his musical repertoire.
"I've never seen anybody who could play as many instruments and be so gifted vocally," defensive tackle Jay Tufele said. "He's a beast on the field and off."
When it comes to football, Briggs has been one of the Jets' bright spots during a mostly dismal season. He has emerged as a pass-rushing, run-stuffing starter since replacing Quinnen Williams, who was traded last month to Dallas.
The 24-year-old D-lineman wasn't even on the team until a few weeks before the regular season, when the seventh-round pick of Cleveland last year out of the University of Cincinnati wasacquired by New York. He has 28 total tackles, six tackles for loss, a forced fumble, three sacks and nine quarterback hits.
"He's a big man, he's strong," coach Aaron Glenn said. "He's able to stop the run. He's been doing a good job of that, but what's been surprising — and I wouldn't say surprising — but what he's had the tick up in is his ability to rush the passer also. So, we want to be able to utilize that.
"I'm not saying that he's Mean Joe Greene or anything like that, but listen, he's been doing a really good job of being disruptive in the pass game."
House music
Briggs grew up in Cincinnati with four older sisters, a younger brother and parents who all loved music and sports, making for a seamless duet of life-long passions.
"With music, I'd probably say it started from the womb," Briggs said with a laugh. "I always say I kind of got the trickle-down effect. They've all been singing, dancing, acting and playing sports since before I was even thought of, so I kind of just fell into a musical household."
There were times one sibling would start playing an instrument, another would join, someone would start singing and then another would harmonize.
"We had a very loud house," a smiling Briggs said. "It was kind of like 'Battle of the Bands.' It was a lot of fun. My sisters all sing better than I can, but if you grow up in that kind of competitive household, you find out if you can sing or not fairly quickly. So I was able to figure out that I was decent."
And he was pretty good at making music, too.
Briggs started playing the recorder in kindergarten, followed by piano and then the violin in second grade.
"That's where my love for string instruments started," he said.
The viola came next, followed by the cello. Briggs added singing and acting to the mix when he attended a creative and performing arts school in Cincinnati. That carried over to Walnut Hills High School, where he got the lead role as Coalhouse Walker Jr. in "Ragtime" and performed in other productions. He also found a passion in the bass guitar.
"It's my favorite all the way," he said. "And I just picked up a new one."
He later learned the acoustic guitar, electric guitar, saxophone, flute and harmonica.
Gridiron star
Meanwhile, Briggs was also developing into a standout defensive tackle, drawing attention from major college football programs as one of Ohio's top high school players and winning his conference's defensive player of the year award as a senior.
He found balance with his schoolwork, sports and music — and deftly handled the pressures of all.
"Compared to singing a solo on stage," Briggs said, "being on a football field might as well be like a walk in a loud park."
When he got to the University of Virginia as a physics and music double-major, he joinedthe school's University Singersand its chamber choir, which performed around Charlottesville. Briggs also was part of an a cappella group called The Hullabahoos that went to London in 2020 just before the COVID-19 pandemic and sang at schools, churches, pubs and sometimes right on the streets.
He performed the national anthem before a few Virginia basketball games and did so again when he transferred to Cincinnati after two years.
Briggs' football talents also blossomed and he became a highly regarded NFL prospect in his three years with the Bearcats before getting drafted by the Browns.
"My parents did a good job of instilling good time management in me," he said. "And now it's just pretty much football and kids."
Mixing music and football
The married father of four uses music to decompress, whether that's playing his bass on the couch with his headphones while the kids are asleep or using computer programs to make recordings.
"I probably got a couple albums worth," Briggs said. "It's just a matter of when I feel like releasing them. Maybe one day I'll just be like, 'Might as well let one go and see what happens.'"
Briggs has a broad playlist that ranges from John Coltrane to Alice In Chains to Sarah Vaughan to Prince — and everything in between.
"He also raps," Phillips revealed of his teammate. "His singing voice and his rapping voice are two different buckets. I'm not artistic in any way, so major props to him on that."
Football remains the focus for Briggs, who hopes he can play several more years. But he also knows other talents might help him shine long after his last snap.
"You can always fall back on your voice," he said. "It's one of them things that shouldn't go out on you like your legs."
He'd also love to do some stage work down the line, "even if it's not off-Broadway or even off-off-Broadway," he joked.
As for his instrument-playing prowess, Briggs doesn't go around telling his teammates about that or how he next wants to master playing a five-string bass. But sometimes, someone will catch a peek of the amp tucked in his car's trunk — just in case he feels like plugging in that guitar.
"Then we go down the rabbit hole," Briggs said with a laugh. "But I don't think a lot of guys even know. And they might not ever know.
"I mean, until they see me put out a record 30 years from now."
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