After veteran Walt Harris suffered a season-ending injury, Tarell Brown had a clear path to the starting right cornerback job.

At least for a minute, he did. Then the 49ers signed Dre’ Bly and Brown suffered a sprained toe early in training camp.
Suddenly, that clear path became an obstacle course. Bly is favored to win the job over Brown as the 49ers head into their third exhibition, Saturday in Dallas.
But if you think that bothers him, you don’t know Tarell Brown.
“Tough times bring out the best in me,” he said.
When he was 10, his mother was murdered as she was getting into her car to go to work. Tonya Edwards, a secretary for the Federal Deposit Insurance Company in Dallas, was killed by a single shot to the head as she approached her vehicle. The crime remains unsolved.
Brown moved in with his father, Robert Brown, who taught his son that football was a chance for an education and a better life. Tarell Brown listened closely enough to become a standout player at the University of Texas, where the Longhorns won the national championship during his senior year.
Robert Brown never saw his son’s NFL dream realized. He died of a heart attack on Valentine’s Day 2007, shortly before the Scouting Combine. The 49ers selected Tarell in the fifth round two months later.
When Brown got his first interception in the pros, picking one off against the Lions last season, he wrote an inscription on the ball dedicated to his late parents. He shipped the ball safely back to the family home in Mesquite, Texas.
“Both my parent’s deaths, it’s not a good thing, but at the end of the day it made me a stronger man,” he said.
So, no, Brown is not going to fret over a training camp competition with Bly. To the contrary, he said he was thrilled when he heard the 49ers signed the 11th-year veteran, who has reached the Pro Bowl twice.
“It was a great thing to bring in a veteran like that,” Brown said. “He’s been doing an amazing job ever since he came into the league. It’s just another opportunity for me to step my game up and learn from a veteran.”
Brown and Bly will vie for one of the few remaining jobs at stake Saturday. With Shaun Hill officially anointed as the starting quarterback, the right cornerback job is the most intriguing competition of camp.
Defensive coordinator Greg Manusky said Thursday that Brown, Bly and sixth-year man Shawntae Spencer remain in contention.
“I don’t think anybody is ahead. I think they’re all on the same playing surface,” Manusky said. “It will be exciting to see what they will do this week.”
For this Cowboys game, Brown will have something of a home-field advantage. The native Texan spent his offseason training just a few blocks from the new $1.2 billion Cowboys Stadium.
“It’s a big place, but you can’t get overwhelmed by anything like that,” Brown said. “We could play ball in a parking lot if we had to. Just draw a couple lines and let’s go.”
Brown liked the Cowboys old stadium, too. As 9-year-old, he won the Dallas area Punt, Pass and Kick championship at Texas Stadium. Brown still prides himself on his all-around talents. Listed at 5-foot-10, 193 pounds, he said earlier this year that he was “the most athletic guy on the team.”
Then he flexed his biceps and said, “I’m in great, tip-top shape. You can’t see the muscles. I’m hiding then under this big T-shirt.”
He didn’t get to show off those muscles in camp, either, because a toe injury knocked him out of action in the early weeks.
Healthy again, he hopes to regain the form he had near the end of last season. Brown’s 2008 season included a game-saving interception against the Rams, when he snared a Marc Bugler pass on the 49ers 38-yard line with 22 seconds to play in a 17-16 victory.
The 49ers were impressed, but not impressed enough to just hand him the job. He’ll have to overcome some odds to get there.
That’s fine with Brown. It’s all he’s ever known.
“I’m a competitor,” he said, “and I won’t shy away from competition.”