The New England Patriots’ all-time leader in receptions, 15 year NFL veteran (all with New England) Troy Brown is a classy guy, and a tireless worker. Today, Brown is as an NFL analyst on Comcast SportsNet and resides in Huntington, W.Va. He was inducted into the Marshall University Hall of Fame in 2002.
Considered the single-most dangerous scoring threat in all of Division I-AA during his two seasons in Huntington, Brown led the Thundering Herd to back-to-back trips to the Division I-AA National Championship game, garnering the NCAA title in 1992. He had 139 receptions for 2,746 yards and 24 touchdowns in his career en route to earning First Team All-America honors his senior year.
Brown won three Super Bowls with the Patriots. A 2001 Pro Bowl selection, he served as the Pats’ team captain for five seasons. I recently had an exclusive with Brown on the day of his induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.
For part one of this interview, where Brown and I discuss the current Patriots receiving corps go here.
By Paul M. Banks
PMB: So I attended that famous Thursday night Jets-Patriots game in ’08, the night you were honored into the Patriots Hall of Fame at Gillette Stadium
TB: I was really pleased with the turnout, all the #80 jerseys and people cheering, it was a lot more than I expected. I played there my whole career, and I didn’t really think they thought that much of me, but I guess they did.
PMB: What was the key to staying healthy and having such a long career?
TB: I busted my butt every day, and I never wanted to be one of those guys in the tub and did everything I could to be out on the field with my team. A lot of blessings, because it’s kind of hard to play that long without having any major surgery, that’s another thing I’m proud of. We’ll see what happens in the future, but as far as bad knees and all that stuff- I’m ok so far.
PMB: Tell me about being a part of the infamous 2007 Patriots team, the undefeated regular season. What was it like to be villains to the rest of the league, did that rally you guys together?
TB: It was actually pretty exciting from week-to-week, watching all of it go by. There’s a few things I wish we would have handled differently, but for the most part it was awesome. I hate to be a part of the team that went down in history for the wrong reasons, you like to be on the other side of that. But that’s why you play the games. To this day, I just say that they were a better football team, and a more physical football team than what we were designed to go up against.
PMB: What did you think of the film We Are Marshall?
TB: I thought it was a great film. There was a lot of stuff you could have put into it, but for the most part it told the story of what really happened. It could have gotten into the ’90s and how they won their first championship and got coach Donnan into the movie a little more. Maybe Bobby Bowden into the scenes a little more, from what I understand, they didn’t even talk to him about the movie at all. And I thought it would have been great having him more because he is such a coaching icon.
But for the most part it, it tells the story of what the program went through.
Written by Paul M. Banks, president and CEO of The Sports Bank.net , a Midwest-focused webzine. He is also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, the Chicago Tribune’s blog network, Walter Football.com, the Washington Times Communities, Yardbarker Network and Fox Sports.com
You can follow him on Twitter @thesportsbank and @bigtenguru