So, Who is This Guy?

---

Brad Leo Leo was raised in Flint, Michigan and is the son of JoAnn and Leo Lyon (yes, his father's name was actually Leo Lyon). JoAnn was a renowned dancer who had taught at such places as the Flint Institute of Arts and on the University of Michigan campus before giving up teaching and closing  her studios to raise her son full time. His father Leo's entrepreneurial spirit led him from owning stereo shops to child educational centres while giving back through such charitable organisations as  New Home Day Foundation where he held a  board seat for years.  Eventually both would team up with Brad on a number of adventures. 

Brad's love for both the Arts and Athletics led to a constant battle for his time. Eventually, the stage and screen began to take a backseat to his athletic aspirations. In High School, he leveraged four varsity sports (Football, Wrestling, Powerlifting, and Track & Field) into athletic scholarships. Like his early years, he couldn't focus on a singular sport nor one university,  departing his home state for Minnesota and SSU where he'd switch from a Political Science focus to law while also continuing to play multiple sports in college. 

Notice a pattern? That continued with him professionally. He returned to his hometown of Flint to run a wrestling program he originally founded at Mott Community College. During this time he began wrestling on the international level in both Freestyle and Greco Roman;  even capturing national and world medals at such events as AAU Nationals, Folkstyle World Championships and the Iron Man World Championships. At the same time he was also pursuing a football career, dabbling in both Minor League Football and Arena Football in such leagues as the CIFL, IFL, and AFL. However, he failed to crack a lineup in the NFL, and even later found himself getting cut in Canada. 

While running both the Mott Community College Wrestling program and getting involved with local football teams such as the Flint Falcons and the CIFL's Flint Flames and Phantoms, an opportunity to purchase a franchise for the North American Football League came across his desk. The NAFL was the world's largest Minor League, with 126 team from Canada down to Mexico at its height. He reached out to his father to see if he had interest in partnering with him. Eventually, the two founded the Genese County Patriots, with Brad serving as the Director of Operations and Leo the team's General Manager. JoAnna made it a family business as she ran game day operations and even earned a Minor League Football News Female Executive of the Year award. They made their home at Flint's 11,000 seat Atwood Stadium. 

Stepping away from wrestling, he focused on running the Patriots for the better part of the next decade. Perhaps focused is a strong word. (Patterns, remember?) He also became a published author, had a brief yet undefeated mixed martial arts career that included headlining the main event of Champions of Cage Fighters, and continued to pursue (and likewise fail) at landing a roster spot in the NFL.

If it wasn't for Jack Black, he may have continued down the sports path. He had already transitioned part time into coaching, taking on Minor League coordinator and eventually head coaching positions while also coaching on the High School Varsity level at such places as Powers Catholic High School, Kearsley High School, and Flint Southwestern Academy in wrestling and football.  Soon, he would find himself coaching on movie sets. 

At the request of then Flint Area Conference & Visitors Bureau president Jerry Preston, Brad took a meeting with movie producer Michael Mendelsohn, who at the time had already financed over 1.8 billion dollars in film. That included such films as Fight Club, What Women Want, and Romeo and Juliet. He was now producing a film titled All's Faire In Love with an all star cast including Christina Ricci, Mathew Lillard, Ann Margret, Cedric the Entertainer, Bill Engvall, David Sheridan, Martin Klebba, and more. Yet, Jack Black departed the project causing a last minute rewrite and Mendelsohn's need for a football coordinator. 

They needed a football stadium, players, cheerleaders, uniforms, equipment, and someone to help coordinate the scenes and coach talent like Owen Benjamin to appear like NCAA star athletes. Brad delivered and lit a spark that would propel his entire future's trajectory. 

He went on to work on numerous films including: Real Steel (Hugh Jackman), American Virgin (Rob Schneider, Jenna Dewan), and Have a Little Faith (Laurence Fishburne, Brad Whitford). Soon Brad was earning more money through his film work than football was paying him. That's even before the big economy collapse. 

The Great Recession of 2008 had hit the NAFL hard. By 2010, the league had shrunk to 64 teams, literally half the number of teams from two seasons prior. The family made a gut wrenching decision to close up shop and instead launch a film studio. Lyon Productions, already an existing company that produced sports live entertainment, creating commercial content for GCP partners,  and licensed football games, expanded into a full time brick and mortar studio.

The studio produced numerous feature films including Minor League, Little Creeps, Monsters on Main Street, Don't Wait Til Dawn, and the TV series Roommates. The studio added a film institute division providing production and acting classes to encourage industry growth in the area. The Michigan Film Rebate Tax Incentive helped the financing model, enabling the studio to create productions year round. 

By 2015, the tax incentive had been discontinued and financing had dried up. Many of the local hire cast and crew who wished to continue working full time in film relocated to other states. Lyon Productions made one last effort to produce a film in this environment, Thursday the 12th. Then tragedy struck. 

During production of Thursday the 12th, his mother JoAnn passed away unexpectedly. To add insult to injury, she wound up being buried twice as the cemetery dug up the wrong hole on December 23, resulting in a second funeral on Christmas Eve. Just nine months later as Thursday the 12th was set to return to filming, his father Leo also passed away. 

Though Brad was known for his love of Flint, often showcasing the city in his movies and striving to help keep film work in town, his last days in Michigan were near. Soon the Lyon Productions offices were shut down and he began a journey that took him from Los Angeles, California to Savannah, Georgia before briefly retiring to an island off the coast. 

Retirement didn't last long for a guy still in his 30's. Sandy beaches and warm waves were nice but filmmaking was calling his name. In time he set out to finish Thursday the 12th, wrap up a TV series that began before his father's passing, and shoot an additional feature that took him to Florida. 

With a new TV series in the bag and Thursday the 12th in the can, Brad's return to film had significant momentum. Like most of the world, Covid had other plans. His travel TV series was soon pulled from streaming, for obvious reasons. The theatrical release of Thursday the 12th was postponed and his newest production, Killer Keg, was shut down mid production. 

Covid kept filmmaking wrapped which led to a lot of free time. A visit to a minor league practice of the former Fort Myers Stingrays arena team quietly turned into much more. Through the efforts of the team's ownership and many of its players and staff, Brad was soon offered a contract to come out of retirement nearly eleven years after he last laced up the cleats. Coaching staff turmoil resulted in the dual role of player and offensive/defensive line coaching duties. He even stepped into an interim head coaching role before negotiating his own trade to the Gladiators. That year would see him play for two more teams and multiple leagues, even traveling as far as Birmingham, Alabama for a short USFL stint at the request of an old friend. 

Meanwhile, wrestling also found its way back into his life. He joined the staff of Port Charlotte High School's wrestling team for two season. During the second, he was offered the head coaching job at Florida Gulf Coast University's NCWA which he took for the season during a transitional year of keeping the program alive following covid.