The doctor is in. All in.
How could he not be?
His younger brother is Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert, who two years ago eclipsed Peyton Manning for the most yardage in NFL history through a player’s first five seasons.
The doctor in this case is Mitch Herbert, 30, in the second year of his orthopedic surgery residency at UCLA, giving him a front-row seat to his brother’s rise to NFL stardom.
The spotlight is trained on Justin Herbert this season, the seventh of his pro career. He has a new offensive coordinator in former Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel, and a head coach in Jim Harbaugh who sees Herbert’s potential as boundless, once referring to the passer as “the best that ever was.”
The brothers share a two-bedroom apartment on the Westside. Both keep dawn-to-dusk hours, so they make the most of the time they do have together. Justin is two years younger. They don’t spend much time playing video games, but they love movies, everything from “Inception” to “Step Brothers.”
“We try not to talk too much about football,” said Mitch, a former Montana State receiver. “He has enough of that in his day to day.”
Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert warms up before a preseason game against the Rams on Aug. 27.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Now all three Herbert brothers are in Los Angeles. Youngest brother Patrick, 25, a tight end who spent last season on Jacksonville’s practice squad, signed with the Chargers last week for the same role. Justin, engaged to singer Madison Beer, plans to move out and hand his room to Patrick.
Even so, Mitch said living with Justin is easy, thanks to his meticulous approach to nearly everything.
“His closet is color-coded and everything is in the right spot,” said Mitch, whose girlfriend, Isabella, also lives with them. “I’ve tried to do it, but my closet isn’t nearly as organized as his. If there’s ever a dish in the sink, it’s probably mine.”
It still feels a little surreal, Mitch said, to see his younger brother’s face on giant posters, or to look up into the SoFi Stadium stands and see a sea of No. 10 Herbert jerseys.
“I remember growing up, we were always huge Oregon Ducks fans. My grandpa played football at Oregon, and that was the dream,” Mitch said. “So when Justin became a starting quarterback as a freshman and had some success, and then over the next couple years, coming back home to Oregon games and just seeing the number of jerseys in the stands, it took a long time to get used to.
“Nowadays it’s on a whole other level. Going to SoFi and seeing the jerseys in the stands, the big billboard ads. I’m more used to seeing it now, but it still doesn’t feel real.”
It isn’t easy for Justin to be inconspicuous while walking around town, although he doesn’t seem to crave the spotlight.
“He’s able to put a hat on or pull his hoodie over his head and stay relatively anonymous,” Mitch said. “But the 6-foot-6 thing kind of gives him away.”
Mitch Herbert after earning his medical degree from Columbia University.
(Courtesy of Mitch Herbert)
Height runs in the family. Mitch is 6-4, and Patrick is 6-5.
Every so often there’s a funny encounter. Mitch and Isabella have their own dog, a mini-goldendoodle named Benny. On a walk near their apartment, they crossed paths with another dog owner.
“There’s a puppy we met in our neighborhood and his name was Herbert,” he said.
Isabella heard that and pressed: “Why’d you name him that?”
The woman’s answer was simple: “My boyfriend is a big Justin Herbert fan.”
Isabella couldn’t let that one just sit there.
“My girlfriend outs me and says, ‘That’s Justin’s brother.’ [The other woman] played it cool but said, ‘My boyfriend’s going to love this story.’”
Mitch had an indication at an early age that Justin had special athletic abilities. There was the walk-off home run in the Babe Ruth World Series when Justin was 12 and surrounded by teammates a year older. There was the time Justin qualified for track nationals in the softball throw — the kids were too young for shot put. But the moment it dawned on Mitch that his kid brother would “play on Sundays” was when Justin threw for 489 yards as a true freshman in a 54-35 win over Arizona State.
“That was the first time I thought, ‘OK, he’s the real deal,’” Mitch said.
Justin Herbert played much of last season with a broken left hand. Mitch, who sees those types of injuries on a regular basis, was in awe of his brother’s pain threshold.
“He’s much tougher than I am, I’ll say that,” Mitch said. “He’ll do whatever it takes to put the team first and be out there to help the guys, and that’s always who he’s been.”
It was a bizarre fluke that led to Justin Herbert’s first NFL start. Minutes before the Chargers played defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City in a Week 2 game, Herbert got the nod over slated starter Tyrod Taylor.
Taylor was dealing with a rib injury, and a Chargers doctor attempted to give him a pain-killing injection before the game. The needle accidentally punctured Taylor’s lung, causing chest pain and difficulty breathing. He was transported to the hospital, and the rookie Herbert took over the starting job.
Meanwhile, Mitch Herbert was living in New York as a first-year student at Columbia medical school. He was in the library prepping for a biochemistry exam.
“I got a Facebook message,” he said, although he couldn’t recall from whom. “Then the texts started to flood in. Mom, Dad, other friends.”
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The game was about to kick off, and Justin was the unexpected starting quarterback.
Suddenly, studying could wait.
Mitch frantically tuned in on his iPad and tried to contain his excitement as his brother had an outstanding debut, nearly leading the Chargers to victory.
“It was really hard to stay quiet in the library after his first couple of throws,” he said.
Six years later, Mitch’s enthusiasm hasn’t dimmed.
“There were times last year when I would have a 24-hour shift on a Saturday and finish on a Sunday morning at 8 a.m.,” he said. “I’d come home, catch a few hours of sleep and go over to SoFi because it’s so close and watch Justin play. I wouldn’t be able to do that anywhere else. It’s pretty special.”
It gets even better. Mitch is working with the Chargers’ doctors this season so he’s often at practice, where not only Justin but now Patrick will be. The Chargers are looking to win a playoff game — and more — for the first time since 2019.
Three men and a maybe.