No matter the status or the site, it’s always been ‘The same Brady’

By all accounts, Brady Norton is entitled to an ego.

The senior offensive lineman for the No. 16 Michigan football team played out his high school days starting for Mission Viejo High School, an annual cream-of-the-crop program nationally. He graduated, then worked his tail off to jump from the FCS level to landing starts at one of college football’s premier Power 4 programs — specifically a university with a national reputation for having an air of elitism.

Norton doesn’t get to go home very often nowadays, what with his demanding and successful life across the country. He’s got ample excuses for becoming somebody different, and yet he leaves them all on the table. The six-foot-four, 310-pounder with tattoos up and down his left arm still has the ego of a middle school boy on the line for Pop Warner Saddleback Valley.

That’s where he first met his best friend — and forecasted future best man at his wedding — Cody Going. Going, a fellow offensive lineman, was entering his first season of organized tackle football in the 8th grade when he lined up against Norton 1-on-1 for the first time. The sport was new to him, and he had a lot to learn about the physicality it takes to play on an offensive line. Norton had no issue teaching him.

“He was one of the first guys I went against in summer training,” Going told The Michigan Daily. “I thought ‘Jesus, this kid’s beating the crap out of me.’ ”

After the rough initiation was out of the way, Norton and Going became inseparable friends. They played on the same side of the line together all throughout high school at Mission Viejo, forming the sort of trauma bond that comes with sharing grueling lifts and arduous team meetings to standing in the trenches together on game day, weathering the constant ailments linemen get as a result.

Going was still in the process of getting acclimated to the trials of football in those days, and struggled keeping his head up when it showed. That’s when Norton went from being the one knocking Going down to the one picking him up.

“The way I’ve seen it before and imagined it is he pulls you out of your own body, puts his hand around your shoulder, and kind of shows you, ‘Hey, dude, you’re being ridiculous. You’re okay,’ ” Going said. “He’s able to give a perspective that’s realistic and grounded, like ‘Yeah, you fucked up, but we still got a game to play.’ ”

Going gives Norton a significant amount of credit for his continued development within the sport, especially for getting him to continue believing in himself. The support paid off when Going landed a spot at San Diego University to play Division I football. He arrived there in 2023, where he watched his best friend move 300 miles away to Cal Poly, then 2,300 miles away to the University of Michigan. Yet when he needed one more pick-me-up, Norton was still there in his corner.

After trying out college football that first season, Going says he felt it was no longer for him. He left the program but wanted to remain active, so when the club rugby team began recruiting him due to his football background, he obliged. Going had the build and size for a sport like rugby, but it’s a different beast than football. It’s got different rules, no stoppage and an overall steep learning curve.

That curve was giving Going trouble, and when injury struck in the middle of the winter, he stepped away for some time with thoughts of never coming back. Then he gave Norton — a former rugby player and current rugby connoisseur — a phone call. Norton got into organized rugby before football, and hopes that once he finally retires from football he can get back to his first love. So when his friend called asking if he should give it up, Norton was strongly opposed.

“He called me out and said, ‘You’re not doing anything else, you’re made for this, you can’t waste your talent, go back and do this,’ ” Going said. “That was a huge way of me getting back into it.”

That phone call was probably initiated by Norton as well, whom Going says calls him two or three times a week just to catch up. And according to Norton himself, the pair play video games together “every night,” despite their three-hour time difference.

“He’s in San Diego, I’m (in Ann Arbor), but he’s my best friend and my heart grew up with him,” Norton told The Daily.

Their video game ritual matters so much to Norton that when Call of Duty Black Ops II was remastered and made available on the PlayStation 5 this summer, he bought the still-hard-to-get console for Going just so the two could play the game together. Going also recalled the last time Norton came to visit, when Norton called up all their old friends from Mission Viejo and took them out to TopGolf, his treat, and his idea. Even with the demands of a Division I training schedule and the prestige that comes with the program he plays for, Norton stays grounded and present enough to keep all his friendships watered.

That same trip, Norton and Going took a trip out to Laguna Beach together. The waves and weather Laguna offers was the ideal retreat for both friends, and they had the best kind of reunion, one where it felt like the pair hadn’t skipped a beat.

“I’m very proud to say I don’t think the status of where he’s playing has changed his character,” Going said. “Guys (from high school) are going to UCLA, Arizona, wherever else, and then I see them again and they think they’re hot shit. Brady has this remarkable knack for not letting it get to him. He comes back and he’s the same Brady that I remember from Pop Warner.”

Going shared he already has his tickets to come see his best friend — also his confirmed future best man — play a game for Michigan this season. He watched him play USC at the Coliseum last year, but The Big House is a new one for him. Although the environment is new and bigger than ever, he’s sure to be greeted by the same selfless, caring friend that’s been there time and again.