ESPN Independents and Others Blog

Posted by ESPN.com's Graham Watson

I don't usually have a 'Did You Know?' feature on the blog, but since I didn't know this, I felt the need to share it with the group. I want to thank the sender of a mailbag message for pointing this out to me since it's not in Patrick Pinkney's East Carolina bio.

Did you know, and I know all ECU fans already did, that Patrick Pinkney is the half-brother of first round draft pick Aaron Curry? Curry, a former Wake Forest linebacker, was selected fourth overall by Seattle this past weekend.

Bonesville.net did a story on the two brothers in 2005: "Summer is the time that the boys are home, and when the boys are at home, football is the just about the only consistent conversation in the Pinkney home. See, all of Reggie Pinkney's sons play or played college football. His namesake, Reggie, Jr., played for a couple of seasons at North Carolina Central. Chris Curry played defensive back at North Carolina (finishing last season), Aaron Curry is a promising redshirt freshman linebacker at Wake Forest, and his baby, Patrick, is a talented redshirt freshman quarterback at East Carolina."

I know Curry didn't play on one of my teams, but his story is pretty inspirational. The first thing he wanted to do with the money he earned from his new team was buy a house for his mother, Chris Curry, who was homeless in 2006. Before anyone pulls out their jump to conclusions mat, I want to point out that Reggie Pinkney and Chris Curry separated when Curry was a baby and the two don't live in the same city.

There are a couple other stories about Curry that mention Pinkney as his half brother, but no features on the relationship between the two. This could be an interesting feature next season if Pinkney ends up a draft pick or a free agent that signs with the Seahawks or a team in the NFC West.