Ex-Husky Bralen Trice Never Got To Enjoy Any Southern Hospitality

Bralen Trice emerged from the 2023 University of Washington football team eager to launch an NFL career.

He had college football credentials few could match: defensive Most Valuable Player honors from the 2022 Alamo and 2024 Sugar bowls, both times going up against a high quality opponent in Texas.

Drafted in the third round by the Atlanta Falcons, he headed to Georgia with UW quarterback Michael Penix Jr. in pursuit of football fame and fortune.

However, the 6-foot-4, 274-pound Trice never got out of the exhibition season as a rookie, tearing up a knee and missing his rookie season. A year later, he suffered another injury to the same hinge and missed yet another season.

So much for Southern hospitality.

On Sunday, Trice was waived by the Falcons, this after appearing in all three Atlanta exhibition games this month but apparently unable to reclaim his previous form that made him a desirable pro in the first place.

Falcons linebacker Bralen Trice (48) , the ex-Husky, is shown in camp in July. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Trice would be the unluckiest Husky football player from the national championship game runnerup team.

At the UW, Trice's game was built on speed as he piled up 23.5 tackles for loss and 16 sacks during his final two seasons in Montlake.

In 2021, he was a reserve who came off the bench and scoop up a fumble against Arkansas State and ran 72 yards to score.

Trice didn't get to enjoy the NFL very long at all.

On Aug. 9, 2024, Trice had his left knee compromised on a pass rush in the second quarter of his first Falcons' exhibition game against Miami. He had to be helped off the field and directed to an injury tent.

A year later, he reinjured the same knee in fall camp practice and had to go through the entire rehabilitation process all over again.

Trice had set some roots in Georgia, getting married on March 9 to Ariana Quinones, a former UW softball player with whom he met in 2019. They were wed in an elaborate ceremony held at the Conservatory of Blackberry Ridge in Trenton, Georgia, near the Tennessee state line.

The Phoenix, Arizona, product may or may not be done with the Falcons, who could bring him back as a practice squad player should he clear league waivers.

Add us as a preferred source on Google