After his final high school football game, the wide receiver embraced his mother while his father beamed. Two beefy security guards provided protection from a circle of onlookers, and an ESPN documentary crew captured the scene.
You draw that kind of attention when your father is Calvin Broadus -- aka Snoop Dogg.
"I might just be a celebrity's son,” Cordell Broadus said. "But in reality I'm really out here grinding it and trying to make a name for myself on the field."
Broadus, the 17-year-old son of the hip hop star, is well on his way to creating his own identity on the gridiron.
The 6-3, 195-pounder is the 19th best receiver in the country and a four-star recruit, according to Rivals.com, who has his pick of colleges.
While helping lead Bishop Gorman High to the Nevada Division I state championship, he caught 39 passes for 602 yards and 11 touchdowns.
His father, who burst on the scene with The Chronic album at the age of 21, ranked Cordell’s achievements ahead of his own lofty marks, noting he refrained from playing high school football because he did not want to put in the work.
"He's doing things that I could've never done at his age," Snoop Dogg said. "He’s doing way better than me."
In recognition of Cordell’s accomplishments, the senior with 4.55 speed in the 40 was selected to the Under Armour All-America Game, the annual all-star game that features the 90 best seniors in the country.
“His skill level definitely warrants all the notoriety he keeps getting," said St. John Bosco head coach Jason Negro. "His dad has no bearing on his ability to get recruited or play on the next level."
Coach Negro saw Cordell’s soft hands, large frame and ability to separate from defenders firsthand during a Sept. 26 game between his Bosco team -- which was led by QB Josh Rosen, the nation’s highest ranked prospect -- and Bishop Gorman.
On the second play of the game televised nationally on ESPN, Cordell set the tone.
He took off on a vertical route, made a move to blow by the Bosco cornerback and adjusted to an underthrown ball to haul in the pass for 18 of his 66 yards during Gorman's 34-31 victory, Bosco’s first loss since November 2012.
"It was a pretty big moment in the game," Negro said. "We were playing catch-up the rest of the night."
No one caught Gorman during its state championship campaign.
Cordell scored the first points in the Dec. 6 title game against Reed High, catching a six-yard touchdown in the left corner of the end zone. He caught a fourth quarter touchdown from about the same spot to cap his high school career triumphantly.
"He can become a really, really good college football player,” said Tony Sanchez, the Gorman coach who guided the Gaels to the title.
Cordell started playing football as a 6-year-old in the Snoop Youth Football League, where he played alongside future NFL players like De'Anthony Thomas and Ronnie Hillman. From ages 8 to 13, Cordell was coached by his father.
Snoop had the receiver play offensive line, so he could hone his blocking. He threw the ball hard at his young son, expecting him to catch each pass.
"He made my hands strong at a young age," Cordell said.
Snoop taught his players to be aggressive but exhibit good sportsmanship and respect coaching. When they knocked someone down, they had to help them back up. On back of their shirts, they had three words emblazoned: Discipline, Dedication and Desire.
"With those three things," Snoop said, "you can accomplish anything on and off the field."
Kids were given an avenue through his football league, an endeavor he started in 2005 and one in which Snoop remains passionately involved.
“He takes it very serious," Thomas said.
Although the league may have produced stars and have a flashy founder, much of the appeal was because of its value. When the league formed, entrance fees cost $100, siblings received 50 percent off, and most of the teams were located in inner-city neighborhoods. More than 1,000 needy, South Los Angeles kids signed up.
“A lot of the kids in the inner city didn’t really have fathers in their life," Cordell said. "He provided that for those kids.”
The night before gamedays, Cordell remembers as many as 10 youth league players crashing at their house. They were from different backgrounds, and Cordell remains close with many of them.
"It was just a loving environment," Cordell said. “They were just so happy. He took care of them like they were his kids."
Last year Snoop Dogg moved his family from Southern California to Las Vegas after he accepted a DJ gig at Tao nightclub.
"We feel like Vegas is more like home now," said Cordell, though he noted his mother, Shante, and younger sister, Cori, sometimes travel back to California.
Once the Broadus clan made the move to Nevada, Cordell transferred from Diamond Bar (Calif.) High to Gorman in January 2014 and practiced with the team in the spring.
Attending the Catholic high school, which went 85-5 en route to winning six consecutive state titles, was an obvious decision for Cordell. Ranked No. 1 in the USA Today poll, the 2014 team finished 15-0 and outscored its opponents 776-184.
"Best high school team I've seen this year," Negro said, "without a doubt."
At Gorman, Cordell also found a setting that featured many student-athletes with famous parents. Julian Payton, son of NBA Hall of Famer Gary Payton, plays on the basketball team. Chase Maddux, son of MLB Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, plays on the baseball team. Randall Cunningham II, son of the former NFL star, quarterbacked the Gorman team last year before moving on to USC.
Perhaps the most distinguished lineage belongs to Biaggio Walsh. The speedy sophomore running back is the grandson of Muhammad Ali, who attended the state title game.
Cordell and Walsh became friends after Snoop performed at Ali's Vegas birthday party two years ago. Cordell calls Walsh his "little cousin" and imparts advice on football, workouts and the college recruiting process.
Along with other noted sons of celebrities, Cordell has embraced the environment at the athletic powerhouse.
"Bishop Gorman is a good fit because the coaches were going to get after us no matter who we were, how much money our parents make," Cordell said.
Coach Sanchez got after Cordell when he missed school on the Monday after a weekend recruiting visit to Arizona State. He never notified the school that he was sick, so Sanchez, who was also Gorman’s dean of students, suspended him from that week's game and banned him from social media.
Despite that misstep those inside and outside the program praised Cordell’s character, pointing to the hard-working player who regularly stayed 30 minutes after practice to catch extra passes with star tight end Alize Jones, who will attend UCLA next year.
Asked if this season's opponents talked trash about his father, Cordell declined to elaborate but said he just blocked it out when they mentioned Snoop.
When Cordell first enrolled, his father also was the talk of the Gorman hallways.
“All the students, they reacted like, ‘Oh, it’s Snoop Dogg’s son,'" said Arizona State defensive back Armand Perry, who graduated from Gorman last year. “But he took it really well, really humble, and now the students there, I’m pretty sure they just know him as Cordell.”
Or they call him Channel 21, a reference to his jersey number.
Sporting Gorman garb, Snoop watched every one of his son's games from the stands except for two contests. Fans approached him for autographs or selfies, but they also respected his privacy whenever he informed them that he needed to concentrate on watching his son.
After attending a couple of games, Snoop thought the school needed a more uplifting pep song.
"We listened to the music at the games," Snoop said, “and it was like it was missing something."
That inspired Snoop and Flavor Flav to hit the studio and create "Move Them Chains," a theme song the school adopted.
Cordell dabbles in music for fun, helping his brother Corde "Spanky Danky" with his music videos. But Cordell wants football -- not music -- to be his future, and it's a path Snoop endorses.
"I believe he can make it in whatever he wants to do, but I would rather him do something that’s completely him,” Snoop said. “That’s what football gives him -- a chance to be out of my shadow and create his own life.”
Cordell is also very interested in photography and making movies and hopes to open a restaurant one day. As a result he is looking at colleges that have strong film and business departments.
He also wants a school where he can receive playing time as a freshman and where he can "grow as an individual on and off the field.”
In no particular order, he listed his possible destinations as Arizona State, Arizona, UCLA, Oregon State or LSU. Cordell plans to choose one of those schools on Signing Day on Feb. 4.
One notable omission is USC, a football program his father closely follows, and where Cordell's cousin, DeShaun Hill, played defensive back from 2000–2002.
"I'm a fan of the school, but if you're going to try to get a 17-year-old kid," Snoop said, "you've got to sell him the dream that all the other schools are selling, you know what I’m saying? You can’t tell him that your father's a great fan of the school … He doesn't give a damn about that."
Another notable omission is UNLV, the local school that just named Sanchez its head coach.
Sanchez will try to prove himself on the next level after making the unusual jump from the high school ranks -- albeit guiding the nation’s top program -- to leading a Division I football school.
"His number was called,” Perry said. “He felt like it was time for him to crank it up a notch."
The competition also will intensify for Cordell next season as he tries to continue to earn recognition as wide receiver Cordell Broadus -- and not just Snoop Dogg’s son.
“That is his main focus,” Thomas said, "to just build a name for himself."
-- Follow Jeff Fedotin on Twitter @JFedotin.
