INDIANAPOLIS — Jack Bech grew up in Lafayette, Louisiana, hoping to emulate his older brother.
It didn’t matter he was playing football games against Tiger’s friends, most of whom were five or six years older, significantly bigger and more polished players than he was.
No, Jack Bech just wanted to spend his time doing exactly what his football-starring role model did.
Turns out, all those early hard knocks paid dividends for the younger Bech brother, propelling him to the cusp of an NFL career.
On Saturday, Jack Bech’s reward will come when he works out with dozens of receivers at the NFL’s annual scouting combine. But unlike most of the other 328 invitees in Indianapolis, he’ll take the field, the former Princeton kick returner who was killed in the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans.
“I know his wings are going to be on me from now until the end of time,” Bech said Friday. “It’s pushed me to new heights, and even though I’ve worked hard my whole life and done things others aren’t willing to do, I feel like I’ve taken a whole new step doing that and I know, like I said, he’ll be with me. He’ll have the best seat in the house from here on out.”
For Jack Bech,
After the best statistical season of his career — 62 catches, 1,034 yards and nine touchdown receptions — he missed TCU’s bowl game against his hometown college, Louisiana, because of a knee injury. By mid-December, he had accepted an invitation to play in the Senior Bowl and started his pre-draft prep work.
Everything changed suddenly early in the morning on New Year’s Day when the 27-year-old Tiger Bech was one of the 14 killed in the truck attack in New Orleans.
Suddenly, Bech found himself balancing the pursuit of a lifetime dream with the grief of his brother’s death.
“Love you always brother!” Bech wrote on X. “You inspired me everyday now you get to be with me in every moment. I got this family T, don’t worry. This is for us.”
By the time, the Senior Bowl arrived — exactly one month after the attack — Bech’s story was well known. In addition to the social media post, he had been doing interviews and recounting stories about his brother.
Game officials went all-out to help Bech pay tribute. Instead of wearing No. 80, as he did at LSU, or No. 15, which he wore at TCU, Jack Bech donned the No. 7 jersey Tiger wore as an all-Ivy League honoree at Princeton.
Organizers added No. 7 decals to each player’s helmet and then in an uncanny coincidence Bech caught a 2-yard TD pass with 7 seconds left to give the American team a 22-19 victory. Bech finished with six catches, 68 yards and was the game’s MVP.
“I call it a Tiger wink, just coming down from my brother,” he said this week. “It was awesome. Just all the love and support I got, not only from my teammates but everybody on the National team, too. It was definitely a super special moment, one I’ll never forget.”
In Indianapolis, it will be different. Jersey numbers here are assigned alphabetically by position, leaving Bech with gear reading WO 04 for wideout No. 4.
But he doesn’t need a jersey number as motivation at the combine.
His workout comes exactly two months after that fateful day in New Orleans and, in an odd twist, he’ll be working out with five other players who were there that morning — quarterback Riley Leonard and receiver Beaux Collins of Notre Dame and running back Trevor Etienne and receivers Dominic Lovett and Arian Smith of Georgia, who were playing in the Sugar Bowl.
All six are expected to participate when quarterbacks, running backs and receivers are on the field. For Bech, though, Saturday’s workout is about much more than impressing scouts and general managers.
He wants to make his late brother proud.
“I always wanted to be better than him in everything he did,” Jack Bech said. “Your big brother pulls out of you and sees what you can’t see in yourself quite yet, and that was always him for me, just pushing me to the edge, making me grow, get stronger, and helping me be the best version of myself. So, I’m forever indebted to him. His wings will hold me forever, so I’m a two-for-one deal now.”
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