Florida Atlantic University football alumnus and published children’s book author Brandin Bryant has published again with the release of his sophomore book “Can I Pet That Dog?” 

“It’s a fun, goofy book about a kid who just can’t keep his hands to himself and he wants to touch a dog, but the dog has boundaries. The dog is like ‘No don’t touch me, I don’t want you to touch me,” said Bryant. 

The short story delivers a message of the importance of consent, respecting boundaries, as well as bite prevention. “At the end of the book, the owner grants the kid permission to finally touch the dog, to drive that message of consent home and then the kid and the dog kind of hit it off,” Bryant said. 

According to a five-year nationwide study published in the National Library of Medicine, the median age of 56,106 patients who recorded injuries from a dog bite was 6.8 years, with a predominance in head and neck wounds for children under nine, making young children most at risk.

“Kids often look at dogs like fuzzy stuffed animals, they see a dog, ‘it’s so cute,’ they’re already eye level with it and that already can be an issue… Who knows what this dog’s been through? What’s this dog capable of?” said Bryant. “Secondly, just consent for everyone, everything, every situation. Always ask someone before you enter their personal space.”

Bryant, who played four seasons at FAU and seven seasons in the NFL, published his first book, “So You Want To Be An Athlete?” in January of this year, but this time he’s completely self-published. 

“I wrote the [first] book just as a passion project. I didn’t really know what to come of it. I thought I would just write it, put it on Amazon and that would be it,” said Bryant. “But after writing that book, I realized there’s so much more to it.”

He said that he learned plenty of lessons from writing the first book to make the roll-out more efficient, like planning events.

Since the release of his first book, Bryant has been committed to being an author who gives back to the community, hosting different events across the tri-county area of West Palm, Broward and Miami-Dade where Bryant gives away signed books and free goods.

One of these events was a launch party for the public on Aug. 28 at Ethel M. Gordon Oakland Park Library to celebrate the release of “Can I Pet That Dog?” He provided food and drinks and raffled off various items thanks to some help from sponsors.

“I’m from Omaha, Nebraska, [I] love it, always will be home, but this is definitely my second home… If I’m in the tri-county area, I’m gonna do as best as I can to make sure that I am a contributing member of society,” said Bryant. 

Bryant said he was at a vendor’s market in Plantation where someone purchased one of his books and through the passing along of his business card, it made its way to Maria Magness, head children’s librarian and director for the kid’s department at Ethel M. Gordon Oakland Park Library. After getting in touch, the two coordinated a day for the event, which coincidentally fell during the week of National Dog Day.

“I love his energy. I love that he’s [helping children with] literacy because we need more involvement of young children to learn literacy,” said Magness. 

Bryant said that writing his first book was something that came straight from the heart and soul, so seeing the outpour of support from adults and children alike has inspired him to keep going.

“Hearing kids come up to me and say, ‘this is my favorite book,’ or ‘this is my first book,’ or even like ‘this is my only book,’ it’s very inspirational for me,” said Bryant. 

FAU football defensive linemen Jaden Wheeler, Bryce Langston and Jacob Merrifield were at the event in support of Bryant’s book release. Despite having their first game of the season against Michigan State in East Lansing about 48 hours later, the trio made time to support their defensive line mentor. 

“Brandin has invested a lot into us as a D-line and to FAU [football] as a program, so any way we can give back to him, show love to him, we wanna do that,” said Merrifield. “Especially if it’s for a good cause like [releasing] children’s books and giving back to the community.”

The three defensive linemen took pictures, signed FAU hats and raffled off tickets to the team’s game against Florida International University in the Shula Bowl on Sept. 14, which the FAU football program donated to the players for the event. 

“It’s always good giving back to the community,” said Langston. “It makes me happy just knowing that if I come and support it’ll make other people happy.”

Another person at the launch party in support of Bryant’s release was Marcus Amos, director of Arc Broward and one of the sponsors of the event. Arc Broward is an organization that works with students who “are differently abled and face other life challenges” and places them in competitive wage employment throughout Broward County, according to Amos. 

Amos got wind of the event since his office is right across the street from the library. Bryant stopped by and had a conversation with Amos about his plans for the book launch party.

“He told me what he wanted to try to accomplish and I was all in,” said Amos. Amos is a member of the Sunrise Chamber of Commerce, which was created to represent the business community of the Sunrise area, according to their website. With their help, Bryant was able to give out his books to the community for free. 

“They’re all supporting Brandin, so he has a force behind him,” said Amos. 

One element about going from a professional athlete to an author that is not lost on Bryant is being an inspiration and example to children. He projects that it’s okay to try new things and not be put in a box as to what you can achieve. 

“When I was a kid, I didn’t know any authors that looked like myself,” said Bryant.” To have these books out there that are from a different voice, from a football player, which, you know there’s not many of us out here writing books. I think that’s very cool that a kid can say ‘hey, this NFL player wrote this book.’”

After hearing this, Amos said this was another one of the main reasons why he felt it was important to help Bryant with this mission. 

“Seeing Brandin and all that he achieved, he didn’t stay in that lane. He came back to a new lane, which was giving back to children. To see him in his representation, that’s what empowers me and gives me hope and the strength to do what I do,” said Amos. “It’s important that we have role models that look like us, give us self-confidence and then we start to believe.”

At the end of his interview, Bryant shared a teaser for his junior book release, which he revealed to be “FAU-themed.” The book does not have a release date yet, but he hopes to publish it soon.

 JD Delcastillo is the Managing Editor for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email him at [email protected], DM on Instagram @jd.delcastillo or on X (Twitter) @jd_delcastillo.