GREEN BAY, Wis. -- At 7 years old, Brandon Cisse knew what he wanted and where he wanted to do it. He came to that realization when he was with his older cousin at Williams-Brice Stadium to watch a University of South Carolina football game.
That cousin came home and told his aunt, Brandon's mom, exactly what he said.
"As a matter of fact, I have a picture of him and his cousin Justin at that game," Kendria Cisse recalled this week in an interview with ESPN. "His cousin remembers it to this day because he told him, 'One day I'm going to play on that field.'"
The story of how Cisse got there -- and eventually became a member of the Green Bay Packers, who selected the South Carolina cornerback in the second round of last week's NFL draft -- is far more complicated than that.
Brandon Cisse, right, at a South Carolina football game, long before he suited up for the Gamecocks and was drafted by the Packers. Kendria Cisse Kendria and Cedric Cisse (pronounced SEE'-say) had a decision to make every time they wanted to go shopping when Brandon was a toddler.
Which parent would go to the store, and which one would stay home with Brandon?
They learned early on that they could not, under any circumstances, take him with them.
"Because he would take off and run, sprinting down the aisles," Kendria said. "He was walking at 9 months. At 12 months, he was running laps."
And he would not stop.
"He never got tired," she said, laughing. "Like Forrest Gump. Run Forrest! That was definitely him."
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However, football to the Cisse children was soccer at an early age. Cedric, a native of France, had little interest in American football when he came to the United States as a foreign exchange student in high school, where he met Kendria.
So, Brandon and his two brothers played their dad's sport.
"They played soccer when they were playing for parks and rec, and then they joined a soccer club," Kendria said. "They've been playing since they were 4 or 5 years old."
All the while, Brandon had one eye on football.
"When every other kid was watching cartoons, he was watching ESPN," Kendria said. "He knew the teams. He would have a conversation with my uncle, and he would say, 'This kid is amazing, I'm talking to him like I'm talking to an adult about football.'"