August 26, 2023 • 26 mins
Ron welcomes NFL WR and current coach Troy Brown to the podcast.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Ron Barr, and this is today's edition of
Ron Barr's Sports Byline USA podcast on the eight Side Network.
Troy Brown joins us on Sports Byline. The former NFL
wide receiver who played his entire fifteen year career with
the New England Patriots. He won three Super Bowl Championships.
He was drafted in the eighth round by the Pats
(00:20):
after playing his college ball at Marshall and he is
a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. But
he also has a wonderful book out that I hope
you'll check out. It's called Patriot Pride, My Life in
the New England Dynasty. You know, you're one of two
players that I've known over my broadcasting career that I
always thought that after they played their last game they
were going to have to rip the uniform off of them.
(00:42):
One was Jerry Rice and the other one was Troy Brown.
How hard was it for you to leave the game?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Oh? It was extremely hard. You know. The thing that
I felt like I was going to miss the most
was this structure that I had some football from being
in it for such a young age and being around
and around the guys, and I just felt like I
was going to have a hard time letting all that go.
And you know, it was difficult, but not as difficult
(01:09):
as a lot of the players that retired before me
got released and just never played again. Not a lot
of stuff as they said it was going to be,
you know when they described it from for themselves. I mean,
I never went through withdraws of watching football. I know
a lot of guys that just couldn't watch the game
when they retired, confined themselves to the basement, and you know,
(01:31):
they couldn't function because they didn't have football in their lives.
A lot of guys started drinking heavily because they didn't
have football in their lives anymore. And I didn't experience
all that, but I just had I was I was
just suffering from not being around the guys and being
an instructed environment for so long.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
You know, that's one of the things that I have
universally heard from my friends that played professional football that
when it ended, the comradeship that existed between the players
and between them and their teammates was something that was
very hard to get over. What can you explain what
that comradeship is really like?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Well, it's just I mean, you get close to a
lot of guys. Uh, you know, some teams in the
pro football. You know, with free agency, now you don't
get to stick with the guys you know, for for seven, eight, nine,
ten years, but there are a few guys that stick
around for that long. So you build those bonds with
people and you start to hang out a little bit.
You have dinner with their family, they have dinner with
(02:27):
your family. You hang out and go bowling, you go trips,
you see guys out in different cities. You know, even
during practice. It's just like the bond that you have
with people, and you develop those friendships, You develop those
ta families, develop Finnish friendships, and it's something that you
(02:49):
just you can't replace it. You can go out and
play all the golfer in the world with your golf groups,
you can go bowling with your bowling groups. You can
do all these different things, but there's nothing that compared
to you know, that that type of lifestyle when you're
a professional athlete. So and then it's just a tight
knit thing, man. And you know, we go through so
much and we play. I know it's a game, but
(03:10):
you prepare and the work you like, you know, it's
the you know, it's a life to death matter, and
you're getting ready to go out and you take your
your shield up and you get ready to go to battle,
and you know all the testimones type producing. You know,
things you can say and do get your team ready
to play, and you know, guys develop bonds from all
(03:31):
those things you know, and you can't replace it with
anything else in the world, because there's nothing else that
you have to be so competitive seen in your life.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
I've always felt that there's a structure and there's a
discipline that goes along in a rhythm as well, that
goes along with being part of a professional sports franchise
that is so totally different from the structure and the
rhythm and the discipline that we find normally in life.
Can you talk a little bit about the difference between
the two and did you find that something hard to
(04:01):
adjust to the real life discipline and also rhythm.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah, I think it's probably a little bit different in
the fact that when you're in sports you have, I know,
something to it to a certain degree. In real life
as well, you have so many other people accountable for
every little move and every little thing that you do.
I don't do correctly, you know, in your line of
(04:27):
work in football, you know, and it's if you don't
make this block or if you don't do that, then
everything else falls apart, you know. So you you become
accountable to so many different people, to so many different ways,
and when those blocks don't work, you know, and they
continue not to work for whatever reason, then you have
(04:49):
people to get fired and lose their jobs. You know.
It's a little bit different in the real world, you know,
but I've kind of applied the football to part to
my life because that discipline I think can be trans
furred over. But in real life, you know, it's like
it's not always that life that does matter if you
don't do the little things completely correct all the time.
(05:09):
So but in football, it's that is the way it is.
Things that happened in a split second, and if you
can't process what you learned during the week, or you know,
you don't have the discipline to to to be able
to react, to be able to keep your cool, and
certain situations that happened so fast sometimes that you know,
(05:29):
it's kind of hard to always respond correctly, and then
somebody's got to be held accountable for that. You know.
And so that's where the major disciplined parts of the
game come in in my in my opinion, because you
got to have it. If not, it's not going to
be just you that pays the price, you know, It's
(05:50):
going to be everybody around you. Coaches the heathen, they
get fired. The next guy that threw the ball to
you can't complete the pass. It could be my fault,
could be, you know, and it's just kind of snowballs
from there. You know. I hope that makes sense to you.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
No, it does. Let me take you back. Blackville, South Carolina.
Tell me about it.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Blackville, South Carolina. Man, it's a two stop like town.
Not very many people, not a whole lot going on.
Those two stoplights start flashing at like eight or nine
o'clock in the evening and they flash yellow. That meeds
to slow down. You don't have to stop, slow down
as he's coming through, you know. And uh so it's
(06:27):
a small town. It was basically a one factory town
back in my days when I was there. I think
they have no factories now in that town, but a
rural community where I grew up taking lear learning the
work by picking cucumbers and cantalopes and watermilla to make
a living and make ensie meet for my family. You know. Uh,
(06:50):
it's all about sports. One of those southern towns. It's
all about sports, especially football. They love their football there.
That's our entertainment for the week when you're there. But yeah,
that's that's what it is. Man. It's just one of
those small towns that you know right now is kind
of suffering from the economy and lack of manufacturing right
(07:10):
now and the life of you know, people that are
out doing a lot of the manual label jobs of
the ideas as a kid as far as picking watermelons
and chiecombers and all those things.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
How did you end up at Marshall University.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I ended up at Marshall because I went to juco
first at junior college first in North Carolina at Lee's
McCrae in Banner Up, North Carolina. I got there because
I think my high school coach knew a guy that
was coaching that team, and he had came and got
a couple of guys before me from my high school
that ended up going to school there. So he came
(07:46):
back the next year signed up three more guys. I
was the only one that ended up going to the
school that particular year went in there and didn't have
great that great of us a freshman, he ended up
playing halfway through and ended up playing pretty good. Uh.
My sophomore year, there were some coaches from Marshall University
there looking for some players. We had a great party.
(08:10):
We had one of the cold Quick cousins. He didn't
end up playing in the league, but Dustin cole quit
those guys from the from the UH from the UH
Denver Broncos and uh, that whole group that his uncle
kicked for the Pittsburgh Steelers back in the seventies. And
so we had a guy there and they were coming
to look at a couple of linemen that we had
to end up going to Clemson, a couple of defensive
(08:30):
backs that we had. Didn't look at those guys, and
and fortunately for me, that day happened to be late
from practice. We were practicing inside and uh and I
came in and that's kind of what got me noticed,
was being late for practice that day, and uh, the
coaches weren't too harsh on me, so they took notice
of that, and I asked who I was, and my
(08:52):
work asked, and the way I practiced and the way
I went about doing things in the timetime I was
at Leis. M craig prompted them to tell the coaches
that I was the hardest work of the had and
probably one of the better players because of So that
that little bit of conversation that those guys had been
pumped the coaches that turned their attention to me and
(09:12):
get me up for a visit to Marshall So and
the end they're giving me a full scholarship to go there.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Well, I know Marshall University because my grandparents lived in Parkersburg,
West Virginia, which was in a sense right up the road.
And I know that tragedy struck that university football team
when the plane went down, And with my grandparents, it
was one of many, many, many people in the state
of West Virginia who contributed to the rebuilding of the
(09:38):
football program there at Marshall University. Does that aura still
kind of hang over that football program down there? Is
it remembered still even today?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yes, yes, it does. All the former all the coaches
that have come through here have always presented their players
and had them acknowledged. Effect of the plane crash nineteen
seventy Nervy November, the fountains shut off in honor of
those that lost their lives. Not calling that right now,
(10:09):
is doing a great job of taking those kids up
before the closest home game to the date and take
them up to the cemetery where all the the ones
who win the plane crash are buried. He does a
great job of doing that and inviting a lot of
the former players back and people from the community as well.
So it's a well nicked type community here because of
(10:33):
that playing crash. And this is again another one of
those small towns of college town. So everything revolves around
Marshall University. So everybody here in this community, everybody at
the school, very aware of the tragedy destruct Marshall University
in nineteen seventy.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Troy Brown is with us. We're talking about his early life,
we'll talk about his pro career. His book is called
Patriot Pride. We continue across the country and around the
world on Sports Byline. You're listening to Ron Barr's Sports
Big USA podcast. Troy Brown has joined us on Sports
Byline USA. Troy, of course fifteen years in the National
Football League. All of those in the New England Patriots uniform,
(11:10):
three super Bowl championships, and he has the book out
called Patriot Pride, My Life in the New England Dynasty.
You won a national championship at Marshall. How good was
that team?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Oh? That team was a very very good football team.
Even on my junior year, we went toe to toe
with North Carolina State, who was ranked number nine in
the country at that particular time. We still say we
got robbed in that game because we started them on
four down and we were called for alsas Kennedy that
kept that drive alive and me and they're beating us
with a few seconds to go in that game. But
(11:43):
the Marshall University teams were outstanding teams. Teams very well
coached by head coach Jim Donning, a lot of great
assistant coaches, and a lot of great football players on
that team. You know, we were a little hundred sized
up front, and we played some of the larger schools.
But I thought I players, and I tell all the
guys this too when we talk about it. Back when
(12:03):
I went to the NFL and I was there and
I was in camp and several years later, just I
just didn't see the talent in some of the guys
that were bringing in that I felt like we had
at Marshall University, especially at the skill position. So we
had a lot of talented players that I thought never
really got a shot. I never did get a chance
to even go to an NFL camp to get a
(12:24):
legitimate chance at being NFL player, But we felt like
we had a lot. I felt like we had a
lot of guys that could have played, you know, a
few years to maybe teny years in the NFL. They
were given the chance.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Troy, you know as well as I do. There are
programs football factories in which the football players they major
in basket weaving. But I was caught by by the
fact that your major was computer science, which is extremely
rare for an NFL player. Please explain that to me.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Well, I'll tell you what happened on that. You know
that they never changed that on wikipedious whatever. He But
I did start off in computer science, and you know,
I ended up switching it to sports management in marketing
because it was just too much of a low. It
was very tough on me trying to do football and
trying to do talk computer science as well. So monda
(13:17):
if I think if I wasn't playing football, was staying
with it. But I did stay in the area that
I did like as far as going into sports managing
in the marketing. So yeah, that's where I started off,
but I finished up with sports manager in the marketing.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Well, I'm impressed with sports management and marketing as well.
You were drafted in the eighth round, but you were
waived in the final cut in the preseason. Tell me
a little bit about your introduction to professional football and
your first coach was Bill Parcells. Tell me the first
time you met him, what you thought of him.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Oh, Man, Bill Parcells. Everything that I had heard about him,
that he was a tough guy to play for. He
was a disciplinarian type and you know, he didn't take
much crap from his players, and he helped people come
and that was my first impression of him, and that
he was right off the bat, you know, he was
setting the tone with guys. I was brought in in
(14:08):
nineteen ninety three draft his first year there in New England,
and he proceeded to clean house as a lot of
us young guys. Jrew Blesso, one of those guys were
all coming in. He proceeded to pay house of all
the guys he felt like were going to be a
problem and not the great examples to players like myself.
So so it was from that point on, I think
(14:28):
he had everybody's attention that he wasn't playing uh with
his rules and he's I think he's still for everything
that you uh, that we heard about him and uh
and I'll tell you this about Bill Parcells man as
tough as he was, you know as a football coach,
I think he was just a teddy bear when it
(14:50):
came to being a man and a human being. You know,
I think he cared more about his players than any
coach I've ever been around. Uh. He would talk to
you about anything and everything outside of football. He just
used to be at the front door some days as
we came to work to come through the front door,
and he would watch and see what kind of car,
(15:10):
how many different cars guys would pull up you, or
what kind of jewelry, how much jewelry they were wearing,
or what kind of clothes they were wearing when they
came through the front door. And he would make comments
to him, he's paying your taxes ground or that kind
of stuff, meaning like you know, what are you are
you being smart with your money? You know, are looking
(15:31):
at guy's clothes, if he had on a real polo shirt,
or if it was taking out how much jewelry that
guy was wearing. I see you pull up in two
three different cars, and he would kind of put guys
on the spot, you know, to be accountable for what
they were doing with that money, you know, and nobody.
I don't think people many people saw outside of Bill
Parcels except for the players that he made those comments too,
(15:53):
because he really he had saw a lot of guys
that he coached formerly that had lost all everything and
tell he told you to tell me stories about you know,
players who their own family stole their money from them,
you know, and the guys who didn't pay their taxes
ended up paying heavily at the end. So you know,
that's the Bill Parcells that I got to know, you know.
(16:14):
And not not to get off checking with the question
you asked me, but I figured that stuff that I
had to tell you about Bill Parcells, that he's just
a great human being, a great guy, far from what
you saw on the football field, always schollaring that people
in and then fussing that guy, He's far from from
that when it comes to Bill just a human.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Being, Troy Brown, how did that compare to the interpersonal
skills of Bill Belichick?
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Bill was a little more reserved. He wasn't as in
your face as Bill Belichick when it came I mean
Bill Parcells when it came to coaching. You know, he
rather be more on the softer side and call you
over and have a face to face discussion with me
about your performance on the field wherever it may be.
And uh, Bill was not quite as personal as Bill
(16:59):
Parsons else but with Bill, with Bill, budch like if
you sparked that conversation with him, you know, on somewhat
of a personal level, he would have that talk with you.
He's able to speak about many things outside of football,
and people think that he's just football. He's just that. Uh,
He's a very intelligent man that can speak about any
(17:21):
and everything on life or whatever it may be. Asked
for advice about life things, he could give it to you,
you know. And I know he doesn't strike you as
that kind of person either, but he is that kind
of guy. I get you wanted that for him, you know,
wanting to be included in some of the things that
guys were doing. And you know, Randy Moss ended up
inviting him to a Halloween party and he jumped on
(17:45):
it like a little kid. You you wouldn't believe how
happy he was to be invited to that. And somebody
asked him the questions because he never came before, and
his answer was, nobody ever asked, you know. So he
was more of the kind that with the guys. If
you I'm going to ask him, you come and do
those things, he will get those things out of him.
And you know, he's really been a loose, loose person,
(18:06):
and he likes for guys to crack jokes on him.
He likes for guys to pull pranks on him and
talk about him whatever it is. He doesn't like guys
being all up tight. I know he may set that
tone sometimes with his personality where he comes off sometimes,
but he doesn't like guys being all lot tighter. But
he wants them to loosen up and beat himselves. And
you know, half three, you know you gotta take jokes
on somebody and clue him too.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Let me in your book, Patriot Pride, you talk about
your career and the one thing I've always known about you,
from following your career and from others that I've don
in the NFL that knew about your career. If there's
one word that you could attach to Troy Brown, it
was versatile. I mean, you were a wide receiver, a
very good one. You were a kick return you played
(18:49):
defense as well, and during the two thousand and six
preseason you lined up as an emergency quarterback. And when
questioned as to why Brown had appeared there, Bill Parson,
Bill Plijack, I should say joke that he had lined
you up there to develop your legend.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Yeah, exactly. The funny thing about that was the very
there was a fumble by I think Patrick Cobb fumbled
on one of my hands off them, I think my
third plague into the drive. He ended up fumbling and
lost the ball. Well, the very next play was going
to be my pass play in that game. So the
legend never developed fully because I didn't get to go
to that pass because we fumbled the ball away. He
(19:29):
did just put me back in, So I mean, yeah,
he's known for doing those kinds of things with his
football players.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Troy, you can probably give me a wonderful perspective, an
honest perspective on the New England Patriots. I mean, they've
had such great success. They have a wonderful owner in
Bob Kraft, they have a Hall of Fame coach and
Bill Belichack a Hall of Fame quarterback. But they're also
the other side the perception of the organization with the
Flakegate and other type of things that upset a lot
(19:57):
of people. Put it into perspective for me, are people
not getting and why does the organization seem to have
this are about it that people don't like them for
some particular reason.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Well, I think it comes with the territory. When you
went a lot, I think people are looking to attach
certain things to it or other things, and you know,
and look at the way we did it, we didn't
do it with a lot of Uh, we don't have
any pro Bowl I mean, we don't have any Hall
of famers to this day on our team. We don't
have any guys being nominated for the Hall of Fame.
(20:31):
Even though I thought Tyle lostould have been one of
those guys off the bet he wasn't nominated for it,
you know, but and there's talk about it. There would
never be any guys on our team to be in
the Hall of Fame. And then you know, we didn't
have a lot of huge, big name, big time football players,
and that doesn't want that's not what makes you good
is what the media says about you, how much they
hap you up. But makes it good as what you
(20:52):
do on the field. And we had a ton of
ton of very very very very good intelligence, smart, physical,
tough football players is what we had on our football team.
And people don't understand that. They don't understand the kind
of work that we put into it at the time
we put into it. Uh the attention to all the
little tiny details that we put into it. You know,
(21:15):
they don't understand all those things. There's guys that come in.
We had Reggie Wayne come in this past year and
he quit. He basically quit because the work environment wasn't
what he expected, you know. And you can you can
expect that you can make that to whatever you want
to make it to be. But when you say the
work environment is not for you, then that just tells
you that we work hard, you know, and to us
(21:36):
it's like every day it's every day thing for us.
I've had guys, We've got guys lead lead the organization
and come back and say, man, this is why we
win here is because nobody's putting in the kind of
work that we put in. And that's the biggest difference.
So that's the thing I think people are overlooking. So
when they get a chance to get a hold of
something like deflay gate or whatever and along with it,
(21:56):
you know, and mind you, this is coming from some
of the same guys you know, talking about the headstones
and the headsets and doing little things. You know. We had,
you know, one coach talking about those things happening new
anyone all the time when it comes to headsets. You know,
we had a quarterback talking about, uh, the Patriots broken
underwritten the rule because they shifted in the middle of
(22:17):
a play, a defensive play. I mean, if we were
on defense and they shifted, like we had never heard
of such thing, you know. But it's just people that
you know, Meanwhile, these guys are cutting off guys from
running touchdowns, don't kick off returns while they're walking on
the field, you know, doing things like that, you know,
And and it's but you know, we don't look at
those things and make a big deal about those old things.
(22:38):
We just go out and keep preparing whatever it is
that they call the play, they called it, They call
the flags when they throw a flag on it, you know,
and we keep moving. You know, we don't spend a
whole lot of time complaining about the problem. You know,
most of our time it's spent on the solution and
how they correct it. And and then we go out
and execute that solution. And that's it, man, And that's
that's the Patriot way.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Uh. The three super bowl that you played in and won,
tell me about the moments and the couple of minutes
we have left here that stick out to you that
still stay with Troy Brown even today.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Oh man. The Super Bowls, Gosh, the first one that
we won in New Orders against the Saint I mean
against the Rams. It was that season I think just
kind of defined the way things were. They it was
meant to be because nine eleven happened earlier that year. Then,
you know, then as a sports level, you know, Tom Brady,
(23:34):
Tom Brady went through u a transition where Drew Blesso
was benched in favor of him, and you know, so
many things that could have threw our team down, and
we lost Terry Grant to suspension, and we lost a quarterback, coach,
coach early in the season. So I think the way
things happened and there were nine eleven tom at the
beginning of the season and have the Patios win. You
(23:57):
know what, what better way in the season that year
with us being champions. So that was remarkable in itself.
From going out and beating the Rams, who were a
heck of a football team, well coached, you know, so
many great athletes on that team, we were able to
go out and beat them, so and the things I
take from it, I just remember being the being able
to get my kids down on to see what's doing
the game was over, yeah, you know, and sharing that
(24:19):
movement with them. And every time I see those clips
of me carry my boys and then you know, trying
to catch some fitty as it's falling down, you know, man,
almost bringing me the tears sometimes and I see those moments.
But you know, it's all those little things like that
that mean the most of me. When I think about
those championships.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
We've got about thirty seconds left. Is there a moment
in your career that, when you sit back and think
about it, it kind of brings a smile to Troy
Brown's face.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Oh yeah, man. When I sit back and think about it,
just think about how much he won. At the time,
I was so disappointed that we lost a couple of
Super Bowls that I was in. But when I sit
back and think about it, you know, you know as
many of guys who would love to have been in
my shoes, and and it's been having a chance to
lose that game, and I'm happy that I had a
chance to play in them, even though we lost it,
And I just think about it, it was a tremendous amount
(25:08):
of success that we were able to accomplish while I played.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Troy, I want to thank you very much, but I
want to thank you not only for what you did
in football, but the way you've conducted yourself as a
professional off the field as well. You're somebody that I
respect and I admire. I've enjoyed following your career as well.
And I urge people again to check out this wonderful book.
It's called Patriot Pride. It'll give you a great insight
into the players, some of the personalities, the organization and
(25:32):
the team as well. It's called Patriot Pride, My Life
in the New England Dynasty. Thank you very much, Troy
and come back and join us again here on Sports Byline.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Thanks for having me on, man. I like to say
peace to all the troops, so broad is taking care
of us and keeping us safe.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
This is a great book, folks, so check it out,
and he really talks very candidly, as you heard him
say in the interview about the coaches. We continue on
Sports Byline. You have been listening to Ron Bars Sports
Byline USA podcast on the eight Side Network.
Hi, I'm Ron Barr, and this is today's edition of
Ron Barr's Sports Byline USA podcast on the eight Side Network.
Troy Brown joins us on Sports Byline. The former NFL
wide receiver who played his entire fifteen year career with
the New England Patriots. He won three Super Bowl Championships.
He was drafted in the eighth round by the Pats
(00:20):
after playing his college ball at Marshall and he is
a member of the College Football Hall of Fame. But
he also has a wonderful book out that I hope
you'll check out. It's called Patriot Pride, My Life in
the New England Dynasty. You know, you're one of two
players that I've known over my broadcasting career that I
always thought that after they played their last game they
were going to have to rip the uniform off of them.
(00:42):
One was Jerry Rice and the other one was Troy Brown.
How hard was it for you to leave the game?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Oh? It was extremely hard. You know. The thing that
I felt like I was going to miss the most
was this structure that I had some football from being
in it for such a young age and being around
and around the guys, and I just felt like I
was going to have a hard time letting all that go.
And you know, it was difficult, but not as difficult
(01:09):
as a lot of the players that retired before me
got released and just never played again. Not a lot
of stuff as they said it was going to be,
you know when they described it from for themselves. I mean,
I never went through withdraws of watching football. I know
a lot of guys that just couldn't watch the game
when they retired, confined themselves to the basement, and you know,
(01:31):
they couldn't function because they didn't have football in their lives.
A lot of guys started drinking heavily because they didn't
have football in their lives anymore. And I didn't experience
all that, but I just had I was I was
just suffering from not being around the guys and being
an instructed environment for so long.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
You know, that's one of the things that I have
universally heard from my friends that played professional football that
when it ended, the comradeship that existed between the players
and between them and their teammates was something that was
very hard to get over. What can you explain what
that comradeship is really like?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Well, it's just I mean, you get close to a
lot of guys. Uh, you know, some teams in the
pro football. You know, with free agency, now you don't
get to stick with the guys you know, for for seven, eight, nine,
ten years, but there are a few guys that stick
around for that long. So you build those bonds with
people and you start to hang out a little bit.
You have dinner with their family, they have dinner with
(02:27):
your family. You hang out and go bowling, you go trips,
you see guys out in different cities. You know, even
during practice. It's just like the bond that you have
with people, and you develop those friendships, You develop those
ta families, develop Finnish friendships, and it's something that you
(02:49):
just you can't replace it. You can go out and
play all the golfer in the world with your golf groups,
you can go bowling with your bowling groups. You can
do all these different things, but there's nothing that compared
to you know, that that type of lifestyle when you're
a professional athlete. So and then it's just a tight
knit thing, man. And you know, we go through so
much and we play. I know it's a game, but
(03:10):
you prepare and the work you like, you know, it's
the you know, it's a life to death matter, and
you're getting ready to go out and you take your
your shield up and you get ready to go to battle,
and you know all the testimones type producing. You know,
things you can say and do get your team ready
to play, and you know, guys develop bonds from all
(03:31):
those things you know, and you can't replace it with
anything else in the world, because there's nothing else that
you have to be so competitive seen in your life.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
I've always felt that there's a structure and there's a
discipline that goes along in a rhythm as well, that
goes along with being part of a professional sports franchise
that is so totally different from the structure and the
rhythm and the discipline that we find normally in life.
Can you talk a little bit about the difference between
the two and did you find that something hard to
(04:01):
adjust to the real life discipline and also rhythm.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah, I think it's probably a little bit different in
the fact that when you're in sports you have, I know,
something to it to a certain degree. In real life
as well, you have so many other people accountable for
every little move and every little thing that you do.
I don't do correctly, you know, in your line of
(04:27):
work in football, you know, and it's if you don't
make this block or if you don't do that, then
everything else falls apart, you know. So you you become
accountable to so many different people, to so many different ways,
and when those blocks don't work, you know, and they
continue not to work for whatever reason, then you have
(04:49):
people to get fired and lose their jobs. You know.
It's a little bit different in the real world, you know,
but I've kind of applied the football to part to
my life because that discipline I think can be trans
furred over. But in real life, you know, it's like
it's not always that life that does matter if you
don't do the little things completely correct all the time.
(05:09):
So but in football, it's that is the way it is.
Things that happened in a split second, and if you
can't process what you learned during the week, or you know,
you don't have the discipline to to to be able
to react, to be able to keep your cool, and
certain situations that happened so fast sometimes that you know,
(05:29):
it's kind of hard to always respond correctly, and then
somebody's got to be held accountable for that. You know.
And so that's where the major disciplined parts of the
game come in in my in my opinion, because you
got to have it. If not, it's not going to
be just you that pays the price, you know, It's
(05:50):
going to be everybody around you. Coaches the heathen, they
get fired. The next guy that threw the ball to
you can't complete the pass. It could be my fault,
could be, you know, and it's just kind of snowballs
from there. You know. I hope that makes sense to you.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
No, it does. Let me take you back. Blackville, South Carolina.
Tell me about it.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Blackville, South Carolina. Man, it's a two stop like town.
Not very many people, not a whole lot going on.
Those two stoplights start flashing at like eight or nine
o'clock in the evening and they flash yellow. That meeds
to slow down. You don't have to stop, slow down
as he's coming through, you know. And uh so it's
(06:27):
a small town. It was basically a one factory town
back in my days when I was there. I think
they have no factories now in that town, but a
rural community where I grew up taking lear learning the
work by picking cucumbers and cantalopes and watermilla to make
a living and make ensie meet for my family. You know. Uh,
(06:50):
it's all about sports. One of those southern towns. It's
all about sports, especially football. They love their football there.
That's our entertainment for the week when you're there. But yeah,
that's that's what it is. Man. It's just one of
those small towns that you know right now is kind
of suffering from the economy and lack of manufacturing right
(07:10):
now and the life of you know, people that are
out doing a lot of the manual label jobs of
the ideas as a kid as far as picking watermelons
and chiecombers and all those things.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
How did you end up at Marshall University.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I ended up at Marshall because I went to juco
first at junior college first in North Carolina at Lee's
McCrae in Banner Up, North Carolina. I got there because
I think my high school coach knew a guy that
was coaching that team, and he had came and got
a couple of guys before me from my high school
that ended up going to school there. So he came
(07:46):
back the next year signed up three more guys. I
was the only one that ended up going to the
school that particular year went in there and didn't have
great that great of us a freshman, he ended up
playing halfway through and ended up playing pretty good. Uh.
My sophomore year, there were some coaches from Marshall University
there looking for some players. We had a great party.
(08:10):
We had one of the cold Quick cousins. He didn't
end up playing in the league, but Dustin cole quit
those guys from the from the UH from the UH
Denver Broncos and uh, that whole group that his uncle
kicked for the Pittsburgh Steelers back in the seventies. And
so we had a guy there and they were coming
to look at a couple of linemen that we had
to end up going to Clemson, a couple of defensive
(08:30):
backs that we had. Didn't look at those guys, and
and fortunately for me, that day happened to be late
from practice. We were practicing inside and uh and I
came in and that's kind of what got me noticed,
was being late for practice that day, and uh, the
coaches weren't too harsh on me, so they took notice
of that, and I asked who I was, and my
(08:52):
work asked, and the way I practiced and the way
I went about doing things in the timetime I was
at Leis. M craig prompted them to tell the coaches
that I was the hardest work of the had and
probably one of the better players because of So that
that little bit of conversation that those guys had been
pumped the coaches that turned their attention to me and
(09:12):
get me up for a visit to Marshall So and
the end they're giving me a full scholarship to go there.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Well, I know Marshall University because my grandparents lived in Parkersburg,
West Virginia, which was in a sense right up the road.
And I know that tragedy struck that university football team
when the plane went down, And with my grandparents, it
was one of many, many, many people in the state
of West Virginia who contributed to the rebuilding of the
(09:38):
football program there at Marshall University. Does that aura still
kind of hang over that football program down there? Is
it remembered still even today?
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yes, yes, it does. All the former all the coaches
that have come through here have always presented their players
and had them acknowledged. Effect of the plane crash nineteen
seventy Nervy November, the fountains shut off in honor of
those that lost their lives. Not calling that right now,
(10:09):
is doing a great job of taking those kids up
before the closest home game to the date and take
them up to the cemetery where all the the ones
who win the plane crash are buried. He does a
great job of doing that and inviting a lot of
the former players back and people from the community as well.
So it's a well nicked type community here because of
(10:33):
that playing crash. And this is again another one of
those small towns of college town. So everything revolves around
Marshall University. So everybody here in this community, everybody at
the school, very aware of the tragedy destruct Marshall University
in nineteen seventy.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Troy Brown is with us. We're talking about his early life,
we'll talk about his pro career. His book is called
Patriot Pride. We continue across the country and around the
world on Sports Byline. You're listening to Ron Barr's Sports
Big USA podcast. Troy Brown has joined us on Sports
Byline USA. Troy, of course fifteen years in the National
Football League. All of those in the New England Patriots uniform,
(11:10):
three super Bowl championships, and he has the book out
called Patriot Pride, My Life in the New England Dynasty.
You won a national championship at Marshall. How good was
that team?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Oh? That team was a very very good football team.
Even on my junior year, we went toe to toe
with North Carolina State, who was ranked number nine in
the country at that particular time. We still say we
got robbed in that game because we started them on
four down and we were called for alsas Kennedy that
kept that drive alive and me and they're beating us
with a few seconds to go in that game. But
(11:43):
the Marshall University teams were outstanding teams. Teams very well
coached by head coach Jim Donning, a lot of great
assistant coaches, and a lot of great football players on
that team. You know, we were a little hundred sized
up front, and we played some of the larger schools.
But I thought I players, and I tell all the
guys this too when we talk about it. Back when
(12:03):
I went to the NFL and I was there and
I was in camp and several years later, just I
just didn't see the talent in some of the guys
that were bringing in that I felt like we had
at Marshall University, especially at the skill position. So we
had a lot of talented players that I thought never
really got a shot. I never did get a chance
to even go to an NFL camp to get a
(12:24):
legitimate chance at being NFL player, But we felt like
we had a lot. I felt like we had a
lot of guys that could have played, you know, a
few years to maybe teny years in the NFL. They
were given the chance.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Troy, you know as well as I do. There are
programs football factories in which the football players they major
in basket weaving. But I was caught by by the
fact that your major was computer science, which is extremely
rare for an NFL player. Please explain that to me.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Well, I'll tell you what happened on that. You know
that they never changed that on wikipedious whatever. He But
I did start off in computer science, and you know,
I ended up switching it to sports management in marketing
because it was just too much of a low. It
was very tough on me trying to do football and
trying to do talk computer science as well. So monda
(13:17):
if I think if I wasn't playing football, was staying
with it. But I did stay in the area that
I did like as far as going into sports managing
in the marketing. So yeah, that's where I started off,
but I finished up with sports manager in the marketing.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Well, I'm impressed with sports management and marketing as well.
You were drafted in the eighth round, but you were
waived in the final cut in the preseason. Tell me
a little bit about your introduction to professional football and
your first coach was Bill Parcells. Tell me the first
time you met him, what you thought of him.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Oh, Man, Bill Parcells. Everything that I had heard about him,
that he was a tough guy to play for. He
was a disciplinarian type and you know, he didn't take
much crap from his players, and he helped people come
and that was my first impression of him, and that
he was right off the bat, you know, he was
setting the tone with guys. I was brought in in
(14:08):
nineteen ninety three draft his first year there in New England,
and he proceeded to clean house as a lot of
us young guys. Jrew Blesso, one of those guys were
all coming in. He proceeded to pay house of all
the guys he felt like were going to be a
problem and not the great examples to players like myself.
So so it was from that point on, I think
(14:28):
he had everybody's attention that he wasn't playing uh with
his rules and he's I think he's still for everything
that you uh, that we heard about him and uh
and I'll tell you this about Bill Parcells man as
tough as he was, you know as a football coach,
I think he was just a teddy bear when it
(14:50):
came to being a man and a human being. You know,
I think he cared more about his players than any
coach I've ever been around. Uh. He would talk to
you about anything and everything outside of football. He just
used to be at the front door some days as
we came to work to come through the front door,
and he would watch and see what kind of car,
(15:10):
how many different cars guys would pull up you, or
what kind of jewelry, how much jewelry they were wearing,
or what kind of clothes they were wearing when they
came through the front door. And he would make comments
to him, he's paying your taxes ground or that kind
of stuff, meaning like you know, what are you are
you being smart with your money? You know, are looking
(15:31):
at guy's clothes, if he had on a real polo shirt,
or if it was taking out how much jewelry that
guy was wearing. I see you pull up in two
three different cars, and he would kind of put guys
on the spot, you know, to be accountable for what
they were doing with that money, you know, and nobody.
I don't think people many people saw outside of Bill
Parcels except for the players that he made those comments too,
(15:53):
because he really he had saw a lot of guys
that he coached formerly that had lost all everything and
tell he told you to tell me stories about you know,
players who their own family stole their money from them,
you know, and the guys who didn't pay their taxes
ended up paying heavily at the end. So you know,
that's the Bill Parcells that I got to know, you know.
(16:14):
And not not to get off checking with the question
you asked me, but I figured that stuff that I
had to tell you about Bill Parcells, that he's just
a great human being, a great guy, far from what
you saw on the football field, always schollaring that people
in and then fussing that guy, He's far from from
that when it comes to Bill just a human.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Being, Troy Brown, how did that compare to the interpersonal
skills of Bill Belichick?
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Bill was a little more reserved. He wasn't as in
your face as Bill Belichick when it came I mean
Bill Parcells when it came to coaching. You know, he
rather be more on the softer side and call you
over and have a face to face discussion with me
about your performance on the field wherever it may be.
And uh, Bill was not quite as personal as Bill
(16:59):
Parsons else but with Bill, with Bill, budch like if
you sparked that conversation with him, you know, on somewhat
of a personal level, he would have that talk with you.
He's able to speak about many things outside of football,
and people think that he's just football. He's just that. Uh,
He's a very intelligent man that can speak about any
(17:21):
and everything on life or whatever it may be. Asked
for advice about life things, he could give it to you,
you know. And I know he doesn't strike you as
that kind of person either, but he is that kind
of guy. I get you wanted that for him, you know,
wanting to be included in some of the things that
guys were doing. And you know, Randy Moss ended up
inviting him to a Halloween party and he jumped on
(17:45):
it like a little kid. You you wouldn't believe how
happy he was to be invited to that. And somebody
asked him the questions because he never came before, and
his answer was, nobody ever asked, you know. So he
was more of the kind that with the guys. If
you I'm going to ask him, you come and do
those things, he will get those things out of him.
And you know, he's really been a loose, loose person,
(18:06):
and he likes for guys to crack jokes on him.
He likes for guys to pull pranks on him and
talk about him whatever it is. He doesn't like guys
being all up tight. I know he may set that
tone sometimes with his personality where he comes off sometimes,
but he doesn't like guys being all lot tighter. But
he wants them to loosen up and beat himselves. And
you know, half three, you know you gotta take jokes
on somebody and clue him too.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Let me in your book, Patriot Pride, you talk about
your career and the one thing I've always known about you,
from following your career and from others that I've don
in the NFL that knew about your career. If there's
one word that you could attach to Troy Brown, it
was versatile. I mean, you were a wide receiver, a
very good one. You were a kick return you played
(18:49):
defense as well, and during the two thousand and six
preseason you lined up as an emergency quarterback. And when
questioned as to why Brown had appeared there, Bill Parson,
Bill Plijack, I should say joke that he had lined
you up there to develop your legend.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Yeah, exactly. The funny thing about that was the very
there was a fumble by I think Patrick Cobb fumbled
on one of my hands off them, I think my
third plague into the drive. He ended up fumbling and
lost the ball. Well, the very next play was going
to be my pass play in that game. So the
legend never developed fully because I didn't get to go
to that pass because we fumbled the ball away. He
(19:29):
did just put me back in, So I mean, yeah,
he's known for doing those kinds of things with his
football players.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Troy, you can probably give me a wonderful perspective, an
honest perspective on the New England Patriots. I mean, they've
had such great success. They have a wonderful owner in
Bob Kraft, they have a Hall of Fame coach and
Bill Belichack a Hall of Fame quarterback. But they're also
the other side the perception of the organization with the
Flakegate and other type of things that upset a lot
(19:57):
of people. Put it into perspective for me, are people
not getting and why does the organization seem to have
this are about it that people don't like them for
some particular reason.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Well, I think it comes with the territory. When you
went a lot, I think people are looking to attach
certain things to it or other things, and you know,
and look at the way we did it, we didn't
do it with a lot of Uh, we don't have
any pro Bowl I mean, we don't have any Hall
of famers to this day on our team. We don't
have any guys being nominated for the Hall of Fame.
(20:31):
Even though I thought Tyle lostould have been one of
those guys off the bet he wasn't nominated for it,
you know, but and there's talk about it. There would
never be any guys on our team to be in
the Hall of Fame. And then you know, we didn't
have a lot of huge, big name, big time football players,
and that doesn't want that's not what makes you good
is what the media says about you, how much they
hap you up. But makes it good as what you
(20:52):
do on the field. And we had a ton of
ton of very very very very good intelligence, smart, physical,
tough football players is what we had on our football team.
And people don't understand that. They don't understand the kind
of work that we put into it at the time
we put into it. Uh the attention to all the
little tiny details that we put into it. You know,
(21:15):
they don't understand all those things. There's guys that come in.
We had Reggie Wayne come in this past year and
he quit. He basically quit because the work environment wasn't
what he expected, you know. And you can you can
expect that you can make that to whatever you want
to make it to be. But when you say the
work environment is not for you, then that just tells
you that we work hard, you know, and to us
(21:36):
it's like every day it's every day thing for us.
I've had guys, We've got guys lead lead the organization
and come back and say, man, this is why we
win here is because nobody's putting in the kind of
work that we put in. And that's the biggest difference.
So that's the thing I think people are overlooking. So
when they get a chance to get a hold of
something like deflay gate or whatever and along with it,
(21:56):
you know, and mind you, this is coming from some
of the same guys you know, talking about the headstones
and the headsets and doing little things. You know. We had,
you know, one coach talking about those things happening new
anyone all the time when it comes to headsets. You know,
we had a quarterback talking about, uh, the Patriots broken
underwritten the rule because they shifted in the middle of
(22:17):
a play, a defensive play. I mean, if we were
on defense and they shifted, like we had never heard
of such thing, you know. But it's just people that
you know, Meanwhile, these guys are cutting off guys from
running touchdowns, don't kick off returns while they're walking on
the field, you know, doing things like that, you know,
And and it's but you know, we don't look at
those things and make a big deal about those old things.
(22:38):
We just go out and keep preparing whatever it is
that they call the play, they called it, They call
the flags when they throw a flag on it, you know,
and we keep moving. You know, we don't spend a
whole lot of time complaining about the problem. You know,
most of our time it's spent on the solution and
how they correct it. And and then we go out
and execute that solution. And that's it, man, And that's
that's the Patriot way.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Uh. The three super bowl that you played in and won,
tell me about the moments and the couple of minutes
we have left here that stick out to you that
still stay with Troy Brown even today.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Oh man. The Super Bowls, Gosh, the first one that
we won in New Orders against the Saint I mean
against the Rams. It was that season I think just
kind of defined the way things were. They it was
meant to be because nine eleven happened earlier that year. Then,
you know, then as a sports level, you know, Tom Brady,
(23:34):
Tom Brady went through u a transition where Drew Blesso
was benched in favor of him, and you know, so
many things that could have threw our team down, and
we lost Terry Grant to suspension, and we lost a quarterback, coach,
coach early in the season. So I think the way
things happened and there were nine eleven tom at the
beginning of the season and have the Patios win. You
(23:57):
know what, what better way in the season that year
with us being champions. So that was remarkable in itself.
From going out and beating the Rams, who were a
heck of a football team, well coached, you know, so
many great athletes on that team, we were able to
go out and beat them, so and the things I
take from it, I just remember being the being able
to get my kids down on to see what's doing
the game was over, yeah, you know, and sharing that
(24:19):
movement with them. And every time I see those clips
of me carry my boys and then you know, trying
to catch some fitty as it's falling down, you know, man,
almost bringing me the tears sometimes and I see those moments.
But you know, it's all those little things like that
that mean the most of me. When I think about
those championships.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
We've got about thirty seconds left. Is there a moment
in your career that, when you sit back and think
about it, it kind of brings a smile to Troy
Brown's face.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Oh yeah, man. When I sit back and think about it,
just think about how much he won. At the time,
I was so disappointed that we lost a couple of
Super Bowls that I was in. But when I sit
back and think about it, you know, you know as
many of guys who would love to have been in
my shoes, and and it's been having a chance to
lose that game, and I'm happy that I had a
chance to play in them, even though we lost it,
And I just think about it, it was a tremendous amount
(25:08):
of success that we were able to accomplish while I played.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Troy, I want to thank you very much, but I
want to thank you not only for what you did
in football, but the way you've conducted yourself as a
professional off the field as well. You're somebody that I
respect and I admire. I've enjoyed following your career as well.
And I urge people again to check out this wonderful book.
It's called Patriot Pride. It'll give you a great insight
into the players, some of the personalities, the organization and
(25:32):
the team as well. It's called Patriot Pride, My Life
in the New England Dynasty. Thank you very much, Troy
and come back and join us again here on Sports Byline.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Thanks for having me on, man. I like to say
peace to all the troops, so broad is taking care
of us and keeping us safe.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
This is a great book, folks, so check it out,
and he really talks very candidly, as you heard him
say in the interview about the coaches. We continue on
Sports Byline. You have been listening to Ron Bars Sports
Byline USA podcast on the eight Side Network.
Host
Ron Barr
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