How did Kendricks brothers prepare for NFC Championship meeting? Dance and music, of course

Long before brothers Mychal and Eric Kendricks got into football, there were dance and music classes in Fresno.

The fierce NFL linebackers whose teams will meet in Sunday’s NFC Championship game might’ve been itching to get on a football field. But Mom wasn’t having it, at least not right away.

“Mychal begged to play football and I said no,” Yvonne Thagon says. “He kept begging and begging and I said no and we had our go-around.”

Instead of tackling, Mychal was in the Bullard Talent K-8 School dance group for two years in sixth and seventh grade, while Eric took music classes, playing the keyboard and trumpet, Thagon says.

Big brother Mychal – now 27, he is 17 months older than Eric – suffered longer, not joining the Wawona Middle School team until the eight grade. Eric joined the Hoover High Pop Warner team.

“He said if Mychal can play football, why can’t he play football?” Thagon said. “Eric started playing football in the sixth grade.”

Fourteen years later, the Kendricks brothers are part of NFL trivia when Mychal’s Philadelphia Eagles host Eric’s Minnesota Vikings. A Kendrick and his team will advance to Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis on Feb. 4.

There have been 377 documented sets of brothers who have played pro football, according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It’s quite possible this is the first meeting of brothers in a conference championship game.

It’s no surprise to former Hoover High coach Pat Plummer that the Kendricks brothers are on top of the game. He coached them both in high school.

“Both had leadership qualities at the beginning,” Plummer says. “They were talented guys. You knew they were talented right from the beginning. Their leadership qualities on campus, in the classroom, on the field. Their mother did a fantastic job raising these two young men.

“These two are as close as they get – 110 percent support for each other. What’s sad is someone has to lose, but whoever does will support the other 110 percent in any ball game.”

Mychal launched from Hoover to Cal from 2008-11 and was named Pac-12 Defensive Player of the year in his senior season. He was an Eagles second-round pick.

Eric played at UCLA from 2010-14, following in the footsteps of his father, Marvin Kendricks. Eric won the Butkus Award his senior season and, kust like his brother, was a second-round pick, to the Vikings.

Sunday is the third meeting between the brothers. The first was in 2011 when UCLA defeated Cal 31-14. Last season, Mychal’s Eagles defeated the Vikings 21-10.

That was in the regular season. Sunday is for the Super Bowl.

“The biggest game of our lives to date, but it’s surreal,” Mychal says.

As close as they are, Mychal says he didn’t plan on talking to Eric leading up to the game and possibly after the game.

“We play sports together and we also played against each other in a driveway, baseball, little things like that,” Mychal says. “We’ve always been competitive. It’s in our nature.”

Thagon will be in the stands Sunday cheering on her sons, along with her daughter, Danielle.

“For any parent looking back, it’s a journey that goes by fast,” Thagon says. “In my thoughts of growing up, they were active – with Mychal especially, he wanted to have have a ball in his hands. All the toys he’s ever had were balls. That’s just kind of where we went with it. He wanted to play with balls. They both always wanted to be outside playing, which I’m very thankful for.”

This story was originally published January 19, 2018 at 11:00 AM with the headline "How did Kendricks brothers prepare for NFC Championship meeting? Dance and music, of course."