Oregon's Brown returns to gridiron with help of 4-legged friend

Oregon tight end Pharaoh Brown missed 1 1/2 years with a severe leg injury that could have resulted in amputation and required multiple surgeries.

Following the injury against Utah, most of Brown's time was spent rehabilitating his leg. He would often reflect on his recovery, and remembered a moment after his first surgery when a golden retriever entered his hospital room and put his paws on the bed and the two "prayed" together, according to ESPN's Chantel Jennings.

At that point, Brown decided to get a dog of his own. One day, noticed an ad for Yorkie puppies, so he and a teammate went to look at the dogs, and he chose the bigger of the two that were available.

He named his new pup Tyger Snuggles.

Daily walks turned into runs, and Tyger would lead the way to and from rehab. Tyger quickly became a celebrity at the campus facility, while Brown would become their biggest success story, working his way back to full health with motivation from his four-legged companion.

"Coming back, I just had the mindset that that's what I was going to do, and there was no turning back," Brown said. "I'm at the bottom, the only place is to go up from here. So this is what I'm going to do."

Brown ultimately got himself back into playing shape, and impressed Oregon's coaches enough to move up to third on the tight end depth chart, eventually earning a starting role in his return Saturday against UC Davis.

The 6-foot-6, 250-pounder had one catch for 23 yards in his first game since Nov. 8, 2014.