Simply outstanding, Mr, Brown
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/11/2008 (6375 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
It’s hardly the sexiest gig in football. And, frankly, the beauty of it is often lost in the trenches amid all the grunts and groans, the double-teams, the mauled fingers and the ugly sight that is Doug Brown’s seemingly forever busted-up nose.
But talk to anybody in the know with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers or across the Canadian Football League about what Brown does from his defensive tackle position — he was named the East Division’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player on Tuesday — and the response is universal: Not only is the big man a dominant force, he may very well be the greatest we’ve ever seen at the position.
If nothing else, his name deserves to be mentioned among CFL D-tackle legends like John Barrow, Don Luzzi, Ed McQuarters, John Helton and Dave Fennell.
Yes, he’s been that good.
"Doug plays like he practices so what you see out there during the game I see every week with him," began Bomber D-line coach Richard Harris, a former first-round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles who spent eight years in the NFL. "He comes to work, he brings a lunch pail and he waits for the whistle to blow. Doug studies his opponent, he listens in the meetings and he brings it all together on the field.
"And then he unleashes the devil on whoever is across from him."
But, quite often, the work of that devil unleashed goes unnoticed. Others, like West Division defensive player Cam Wake, gobble up quarterback sacks coming off the edge. Linebackers are forever racking up tackles and dominant defensive backs are stealing passes from the air with much more flair than the grind a nosetackle is put through on every play.
Brown does show up on the stat sheet but, more often than not, it’s his ability to push the pile and disrupt things from the middle that is appreciated only by those who study trench warfare.
"Let’s get real, 90 per cent of the time he is double-teamed by the centre and the guard," said Bomber head coach Doug Berry. "To have the impact he has when he’s being double-teamed the majority of the time is… I mean everybody that voted for him, everybody that plays against him and for us as we watch him play, we’re aware of all the things he does and what’s being done to him."
Admittedly, Brown figures he has little chance for the top defensive player award against Wake, who finished with 23 sacks this year. Still, that shouldn’t diminish what he has accomplished in his eighth CFL season and 11th as a pro.
"I want to thank The Football Reporters of Canada and the coaches who vote on this for keeping my streak alive of going three years in a row to the major player awards and getting my ass handed to me," cracked Brown, who lost the Canadian vote to Jason Clermont and the defensive award to Brent Johnson in 2006. "I want to really thank them for that. I think Cameron Wake has more sacks this year than me in my first six years in the CFL."
We wonder, finally, what makes Doug Brown so good even after all these years. What drives him? What keeps him motivated? Turns out it’s a simple dedication to his craft and an increased attention to fitness.
"It’s really two things," Brown said. "First, football has always been an input-output industry for me. The harder I’ve worked and the more I’ve put into it the more I’ve gotten out of the game. Once you realize that, it becomes addictive to train harder and work harder because you want that level of success.
"But it’s that and, honestly, I’ve always been an insecure football player. I mean, look at Charlie Roberts… I’m not putting myself at his level, but it hits home that you’re never safe in this game. I’ve always had that paranoia that what you’re doing is never enough and that you’re either too old or you’re making too much money or there’s somebody better.
"That the kind of stuff that motivates me. And it motivates me even today."
ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca