The Bellville faithful packed AT&T Stadium for the program’s first state championship appearance since 1977, and many in the sea of red were learning for the first time that the two star players were brothers.

Not only did DJ Sanders and DD Murray have different last names, but they bore no resemblance in a Bellville uniform. The 6’3, 290-pound Sanders is a man amongst boys, dominating opposing offensive linemen with 115 tackles and 15 sacks. Murray, meanwhile, is a stout 5’10, 200 running back who compiled over 2,000 yards and 38 touchdowns.

It wasn’t the first time their mother, Connie Sanders, had to prove they were brothers. When her boys played in the Bellville Youth Football League, she had to bring DJ’s birth certificate because other parents didn’t believe his age. They didn’t want that big kid hitting their son. DJ, a gentle giant, took that to heart. He quit football for a time because he didn’t want to hurt anyone. 

“I said, ‘Son, you want to get rolled over? Or do you want them to get rolled over? Pick one,” Connie said. “You don’t need to get rolled over.”

They are a football family in a football-crazed community where the Sanders name looms large. Super Bowl champion wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders, Connie’s cousin, was the 2005 Tri-County Offensive Player of the Year for Bellville. Connie’s grandmother, Josie, is one of Bellville’s best chefs and even had her own restaurant, Sanders Country Kitchen. 

Connie wanted her boys to have their own identity, so they added their father’s surname, Murray. But when DJ reached high school, he told his mother he wanted to carry the Sanders name. He became DJ Sanders, the four-star recruit and Texas A&M commit. 

When their grandfather, Howard Bryant, coached their pee wee football team, he didn’t foresee DJ’s rise. He always knew DD Murray was special, however. He worked at football like a job; even when the boys were so young that their center used to roll the ball between his legs to the running backs because they couldn’t get the snap right. When they used to take the boys to SMU games to watch Emmanuel and Howard’s son, Josh, DJ wouldn’t sit still. But DD would watch his family members with rapt attention. His dream was to play running back at SMU.

But as the brothers reached high school, the family prepared DD that DJ would start receiving offers to achieve that dream before he did. They were both excellent football players, but DJ’s size brought college coaches from all over the country heading into his junior season. Those coaches didn’t have time in their schedules for DD.

Bellville head coach Grady Rowe called DD into his office once DJ’s recruitment took off to see how he was holding up with all DJ’s newfound fame. DD looked at him like he was crazy. He knew his recruitment would heat up eventually. Until then, DD would support his brother. And hold him accountable.

“DD gets on DJ because DJ doesn’t know how blessed he is,” Connie said. “DJ is very nonchalant about things. DD is like, ‘Boy! You need to do what you need to do!’”

When asked to describe the other as a football player, DJ says that DD is the hardest runner he’s seen and gives 110 percent effort every day. DD teases that DJ doesn’t have to lock in and could still be the best player on the field. DD has had to work in overdrive to receive the Division I offers DJ got before sophomore year, and he’ll let him hear about it. His brother is a measuring stick he’ll never catch, yet DD still pushes DJ further. 

DD runs so hard because he’s running for the life he wants, like every handoff is an application. 

“I don’t like to play around a lot on the field,” DD said. “It’s all about business, at the end of the day. This is going to be my life one day. So on the field, I don’t do a lot of talking, laughing and smiling.”

DJ, on the other hand, is more of a jokester. Rowe says he can hear DJ making sound effects on his tackles from the sidelines. He has a permanent smile and ribs his head coach about being old and slow.  Rowe gives it right back by roasting DJ’s pickleball skills.

“I think with his friends, with his teammates, even with our high school and our community, they have really respected the fact that he very easily could’ve gotten the big head, and he didn’t,” Rowe said.

DJ is a throwback kid in an era when most big-time recruits make brands for themselves on social media. Rowe said he has to pester DJ to post his scholarship offers on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Rowe offered to call up every media member he knew to cover a live stream of DJ’s commitment to Texas A&M, but DJ chose to simply call the coaches a day earlier than the planned announcement. 

One time, DJ was honored on the front page of the Bellville Times for achieving All-American status. His mother went out and grabbed a copy, bringing it back home to show him.

“All he asked for was his strawberry shake he asked me for an hour ago,” Connie said. “He didn’t give a damn.”

It’s not that DJ doesn’t care about football or takes his scholarship offers for granted. He doesn’t want a pedestal above the team. He and his brother don’t need to promote themselves; the Bellville community does it for them.

DD and DJ have a fan club of young kids that they take pictures with after every game. One of them, Parker Trevino, attends each game with Connie. He is DJ’s number one fan, and even has DJ as his phone screen saver. Harry, a young DD fan who lives across the street, often knocks on Connie’s door to ask if DD can come play.

“The way this community took the boys in and said, ‘We love these kids. We’re behind them.’ It means a lot,” Bryant, their grandfather said.  

Senior year is bittersweet for Connie. She gets to see her two boys walk out for every coin toss as team captains. But each Friday night win brings a Saturday morning that’s closer to the moment her two boys play at different schools. Texas A&M, where DJ is committed, has not offered DD. DD has earned two offers from Utah State and Arkansas State.   

But wherever they play college ball, the brothers will take a piece of Bellville with them.