For years, it seemed as if Jaxon Shipley was just following his big brother Jordan’s lead. 

When Jaxon attended UT from 2011-2015, he played wide receiver on the Texas football team just as Jordan did several years earlier. He even wore the same number. Then, following their stints in the NFL, the Shipleys carved out their own identities. However, the brothers have gotten back on the same path — this time in real estate.

Now both retired from football, the Shipleys work for Dullnig Ranch Sales, a ranch real estate company based out of San Antonio. Jordan, the first of the two to transition into real estate, hosted “The Bucks of Tecomate” on the Outdoor Channel after his retirement from the NFL in 2014. It was there that one of his friends suggested he get his real estate license. After working with Jordan on occasion, Jaxon fully joined the company this past year.

“(The) beginning of 2019 is when I got my license,” Jaxon said. “I got into it really because I was helping him out on some things, and it just ended up being something that I kind of fell in love with.”

Jaxon’s love affair with real estate manifested in drives across Texas — sometimes four hours away or in the middle of the night — just to get the perfect picture to send to clients.

“He would take pictures of ranches,” Jaxon’s wife, Blaze, said. “He would go in the morning or at night during the perfect lighting, and he was having to wake up really early and then stay really late. But he was doing it probably like four-ish times a week.”

Real estate has become another step in the brothers’ identical journeys. Even though they are seven years apart, Jordan said they were interchangeable to some of the Longhorn faithful during his time on the football team.

“A lot of people didn't know what to think because they kept seeing Shipley and number eight, and a lot of them thought it was the same guy for a long time,” Jordan said. 

Although fans saw them largely as the same person, Jordan said he never saw it that way. He said he just enjoyed supporting his little brother.

“It's fun for me to get to see him grow up,” Jordan said. “He was a lot younger, but I threw him probably hundreds of thousands of footballs growing up. It was pretty special.”

Jaxon said working with his brother helps bring them together during times when life gets busy. He became a father to two boys, now ages four and one, and started a performance program for young receivers in the Austin area after retiring from the NFL in 2016. About three months ago, Jordan had a son of his own. 

“Us doing two separate things and me having boys, things can get pretty busy, and it can be hard to find time to really be around everybody,” Jaxon said. “But I’ve gotten to see him a lot more; we spend a lot more time just obviously working together. … So it’s been pretty neat.”

Jordan and Jaxon have shared the same passions for most of their lives but have had to experience them at different times. Blaze said they now get to enjoy operating in the same space together, as brothers.

“To have Jaxon and Jordan working together makes it even more special, just because they both are doing what they love, and they get to do it as a team,” Blaze said.