Pro Bowl safety Eric Reid and his brother pound the Peninsula

The Reid brothers – shutting down offenses up and down the Peninsula.  Eric, a Pro Bowl safety with the 49ers. and Justin, an all-Pac 12 safety at Stanford.

“It's pretty cool,” says Eric.   “I think for both of us it's been our dream growing up to play sports.  Especially football.”

“He definitely set the bar high for me,” adds Justin.  “Growing up I've always had a big motivation from my brother.”

Of course, motivation comes in different forms.  Long before the Reids were football stars, they were – well, brothers.

“We fought a lot,’ admits Eric.  “For me I always tell myself i was just trying to toughen him up.  I knew how bad he wanted to beat me and my other brother in everything.  He was smaller so I'd always take advantage of my size and strength over him just to make sure I beat him.  And then he would go and practice while I wasn't there until he got better than me at whatever it was.”

“The competitive nature because he would always win at everything,” adds Justin.  “I was like I just want to win at something.”

“He didn't like it, but I knew there was a purpose behind it,” says Eric.  I was just going to push him to be the best ‘him’ that he could be.”

The tactic seems to have worked.  Justin followed Eric’s lead as a standout student-athlete.   And even as young adults, the sibling rivalry continues. 

“I think we have a competition with stats and things like that,” says Eric.  “I remember a couple years ago, we both got interceptions on the first game so we tried to see who finishes the year out with most.”

Justin responds: “I'm definitely gonna be watching his games, trying to stack against - how many tackles did you get this game, stack against mine.  It's definitely a friendly competition.  It adds another element of fun to our relationship.”