Raechel Brown, who has steered her family through a lifetime of obstacles to get here, can only see one way out.
When her twins take over Paycor Stadium Sunday (1 p.m.-Cincinnati's Local 12) in what has been called everything from the Brown Bowl to the NFL's Canada Day, no doubt she is the only one looking for the Bengals and Eagles to repeat the 23-23 tie from the last time they met in 2020.
But then, she is the mother of the only twins on the field when Bengals running back Chase Brown plays against Eagles safety Sydney Brown for the first time in their 24 remarkable years. You'll be able to tell because she'll be wearing a green and orange sweater with a combination of their uniform numbers: Chase's 30 and Sydney's 21.
"Isn't it funny?" she asks. "If you slightly change the order, that's their birthday."
March 21, 2000. 3/21/00
But it's not all that funny.
"It's terrifying," Raechel Brown says. "It's been pure dread ever since the schedule came out.
"I would take (the tie). That would be the best-case scenario. That would make me happy. I didn't know much about the NFL. I thought the only time they would play against each other would be in the Super Bowl, and those odds are so low. But every four years, this thing is going to be the biggest rivalry in our family. Whoever wins is going to be bragging for four years."
But a tie?
That's the next-to-last thing Chase and his 3-4 Bengals and Sydney and his 4-2 Eagles need. It's why their old head coach at St. Stephen's Episcopal School in Bradenton, Fla., Tod Creneti, isn't leaving his couch.
"One of them is going to be miserable after the game. It's like with your own kids. You can't win," Creneti says. "I just like to go see them in their own city."
They won't even see each other until pregame on the field. No Saturday night dinner. Not even a swing by the hotel.
The twins have never gone a day without talking at least once. Until this week, when they put down the phones Monday.
"Like breaking up," Chase Brown said after Thursday's practice. "Maybe I'll give him a text tonight."
Don't ask him how many people are coming Sunday.
Because Chase Brown is doing what he always does. He's so locked in on his career, he writes down his next day's routine the night before.
But if you think that's intense …
"I call them identical opposites," Raechel Brown says. "Chase is left-handed. Sydney is right. They like all the same things, but their temperaments are very different. Sydney is intense all the time. Oh my goodness."
Chase isn't exactly laid back as he jots notes about what he must do in a game during his second NFL season where he has emerged as just what the Bengals sought in the 2023 draft when they took him in the fifth round.
He's brought speed and reliability with the first three rushing touchdowns of his career and a five-yard-per carry average containing a healthy dose of 20-yard runs.
So don't ask him who'll be at the game. But his mom has an idea who'll be at Paycor.
Her mother, Nancy McQuillan, has always been there. When Raechel, a single mother living in London, Ontario, battled a deadly disease that was engulfing her white blood cells, Nancy stepped in to help raise the twins. With Raechel unable to work, the family became overwhelmed with bills and ended up bouncing between shelters and the homes of empathetic strangers.
"The shelter. In 2016. That had to be the low point," Raechel Brown says. "The harder it got, the harder they worked."
Also headed to Paycor are an aunt and an uncle, as well as Phil and Karen Yates. When the twins were 16 and got a chance to leave Canada and go to school in Florida, the Yates were their host family.
"I don't know them, but I hear many people are coming from Canada," Raechel Brown says.
They always had each other to inspire. When Raechel enrolled them in mixed martial arts, she had to get them out of the same class when they were eight.
"They were so hard on each other. They were worse with each other than anybody else," Raechel says.
They still are. The 2023 NFL Draft, which sent Sydney to Philadelphia in the third round, wasn't big enough to stop the incessant trash-talking and the memories of fiery physical confrontations. On Thursday, Chase quickly made sure the record shows he got here first and is two minutes older.
Raechal remembers how Illinois head coach Bret Bielema had to take them out of one-on-one drills. The way Creneti recalls hearing it back in Florida, the spring before their senior year Bielema had a meeting in his office where there was a business decision made. The Browns couldn't be on the field at the same time.
Creneti also had to put some fires out in practice.
"We actually had to limit the numbers of shots they had at each other," Creneti says. "Because they were not very good at adjusting to go three-quarters speed in a drill with each other. They competed so hard against each other. They would destroy the other one. They both play exceptionally hard and both are ridiculously competitive."
That's how they get out of the shelter. It's also how Sydney has come back from an ACL tear late in a fabulous rookie year he had a 99-yard pick-six while playing in various packages. Bengals special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons knows Sydney was also their leading teams tackler and expects him on all four phases Sunday.
Which gets Creneti thinking about a possible matchup with Chase returning a kick and Sydney covering.
"I think everybody probably wants to see them in space," Creneti says. "You know how Sydney does everything. He tries to run through everybody he tackles. Chase is fluid and Chase can cut. But I get the feeling he would not try to slip him. A collision would be pretty likely."
It looks like the Eagles are easing Sydney back into his role as a big nickel. When he played for the first time this season in last Sunday's rout of the Giants, he took nine snaps from scrimmage and 81% of the special teams plays.
Chase is coming off a career-high 15 carries in Cleveland and is averaging 15 touches in the last four games. He's also returned seven kicks with his longest 29 yards. But in Cleveland, when Chase's close friend Charlie Jones started the game with a 100-yard kick return, Chase wasn't on the field as Simmons surprised the Browns with one returner.
So we know Sydney will be covering kicks, but will Chase be returning?
"I don't know. Let's find out," Chase beamed Thursday.
(And the trash-talking isn't limited to Chase and Sydney. Jones and Sydney got into the act early in the week on their phones.)
Also loving it is 12-year-old Mya, the baby sister Chase and Sydney took care of when Raechel was sick and then when she went back to work.
"They took her everywhere. She was like their doll. They did everything together," Raechel says. "When I went back to work, my hours got changed and they had to watch her. It was like having two little dads in the house."
Of course, Mya will be there Sunday.
"This is normal for her. She grew up on football sidelines with her brothers playing," Raechel says. "This year I think she's just beginning to realize how special it is. She thinks this is hilarious. She thinks this is the funniest thing."
Her mother's not there yet as she thinks about an Eagles kickoff.
"If Chase catches it," Raechel Brown says, "I'm not going to look."
