INDIANAPOLIS — The Dallas Cowboys game is going to be special for Josh Downs this season.
The Colts will host the Cowboys at Lucas Oil Stadium on a date that will be revealed when the NFL releases the schedule in the next couple of weeks. Dallas drafted Downs’ brother, Caleb, with the No. 11 pick.
And that sets up a showdown between the two brothers.
When Caleb was talking to his older brother about what teams were telling him during the draft process, he told Josh that the Cowboys saw him as a nickel.
Downs plays mostly in the slot for Indianapolis.
“That’s, like, head-to-head all game,” Downs said.
The two brothers have faced off before. When Josh was a senior at North Gwinnett High School in Georgia, he played against Caleb’s Mill Creek in a Friday Night Showdown. Josh beat his younger brother for a touchdown, and North Gwinnett won in a blowout.
Facing off in the NFL would be a different kind of experience. Especially if they’re matched up against each other on almost every snap.
“It’s all fun and games, but I’ve still got to let him know he’s the younger brother,” Downs said.
Downs has long been Caleb’s biggest fan.
He has always told people that his younger brother is the better player, and when he saw Caleb get drafted last month, he felt his heart swelling with pride.
“All those emotions of being a big brother come to the forefront,” Downs said. “When he got drafted, he stood up and screamed, I was the first person he hugged. … It’s a different feeling when your little brother does it,” Downs said. “It was kind of surreal in that moment. I feel like his successes are kind of my successes.”
Downs is a Colt, but for one night only, he wore a Cowboys hat that he wouldn’t take off his head, too excited for his brother to worry about appearances.
“I was wearing the hat all night,” Downs said. “We went out later in the night, I had the Cowboys hat on, but then my sister was like ‘Don’t you play for the Colts? Why do you still have that on?’ I was like, I’m just being a brother today.”
They’re brothers almost all the time.
Beginning last season, the duo started producing a podcast together, “Downs 2 Business,” where the two supreme athletes talk through the season.
One of the best episodes of that pod might come around that Dallas game, either before or after.
“The week before will be more talking trash, and the week after, we’ll see how it goes,” Downs said. “But it will be a good episode for me either way.”
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts Josh Downs on facing younger brother Caleb ‘all game’ vs. the Cowboys
Reporting by Joel A. Erickson, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
