It’s not as if Troy Brown is a gray-haired grandpa–he’s a couple of weeks from his 35th birthday. But the first time Brown made a catch in an NFL game, Patriots rookie Chad Jackson was 8.
Yet there Brown was last Wednesday, at the end of the afternoon session of minicamp, doing what he does very well–catching the football.
This time he leaped to snare a Tom Brady toss with one hand after beating Hank Poteat in the end zone on a corner route.
The wondrous catch on the final play of a red zone drill brought whoops and hollers from teammates, and a celebratory pat on the helmet from Brady, who ran downfield to congratulate his familiar target.
Coach Bill Belichick says a player can’t earn a spot on the team at this minicamp. But mark it down: Brown is ahead of all the receivers.
If that sounds too much like Brown actually has to make the team, that’s OK with him. That’s his approach every off-season.
“I feel like I’m going to make it every year, but I don’t come into camp thinking I have a job every year,” Brown said. “That’s when you get into trouble, when you’re thinking you’ve got it made. That’s what keeps me driving and pushing hard.
“If I see somebody run some extra sprints, I have to go run some too. If he runs five, I have to run six. It’s that competitive nature that keeps pushing you.”
You can search for the lost step all you like, but all his teammates see is that Troy Brown is back. Again. Sweatin’ like an oldie, maybe, but enthusiastic like a rookie. And beating the youngsters, time after time.
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“You have to admire a guy like Troy Brown, to come out here day in and day out for as long as he has,” cornerback Ellis Hobbs said. “This is my second year, and it’s already getting long. I appreciate every day out here, but I’m only human.
“To see him come out here, day in and day out, and go through the things he’s gone through . . . He’s a real good example of how to be a professional at this game.”
Brown looks around the locker room and not a single player is here when he was drafted in the eighth round (198th overall) out of Marshall in 1993.
That was back in the “old days,” as Brown describes them, when there were only 28 teams in the league (compared with 32 today). Brown even jokes that he has to get to know his teammates fairly quickly these days, because in the age of free agency, players come and go so quickly.
Oddly, with the minicamp holdout of Deion Branch, the free-agent departures of David Givens, Andre’ Davis, and Tim Dwight, and the trade of Bethel Johnson, Brown is the lone receiver in camp who was on the active roster last season.
Brown is one of the few receivers from his draft class to play until the turn of the century and the only one of the 29 taken that year still in the league. The top three wideouts–Curtis Conway, Sean Dawkins, and O.J. McDuffie–and other notable receivers from that draft–Glyn Milburn, Kevin Williams, and Qadry Ismail–are out of the league.
Brown keeps returning and proving himself, year after year.
“There are a lot of things to like about Troy,” Belichick said. “Troy has been a very consistent player for us, and a very versatile one.
“We’ve asked him to do a lot of things and he’s done a good job at those things. He’s smart. He works hard. He’s in good condition. He’s unselfish.”
Brown believes he is in better shape at this point than last year because he has known for a while that he would return to the Patriots. Last year he spent much of the off-season contemplating signing with another team or perhaps retiring.
“I had two days to get ready for this camp last year, with everything up in the air,” Brown said. “Hopefully, those extra two months will make a difference.”