Anthony James "A.B." Brown (born December 4, 1965) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

who played for the

West Virginia Mountaineers The West Virginia Mountaineers are the athletic teams that represent West Virginia University, an American university located in Morgantown, West Virginia. The school is a member of National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I. The Moun ...

in collegiate play and played for the

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The J ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL). He also played RB for the Salem High School Rams.

Collegiate career

Brown, a transfer from

Big East The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

rival

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, was one of the premiere backs for the Mountaineers during their 1988 run to the National Championship, where they lost to the

Notre Dame Fighting Irish The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are the athletic teams that represent the University of Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish participate in 23 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I intercollegiate sports and in the NCAA's Division ...

. Brown, along with

Undra Johnson Undra Jerome Johnson (born January 8, 1966) is a former American football running back in the National Football League (NFL) for the Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints, and the Dallas Cowboys. High school career Johnson played high school footba ...

and Eugene Napoleon, made up the great depth at running back. Brown, whose final game as a Pitt Panther was his 100-yard performance against the Mountaineers, ranks as one of the more memorable backs in

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State College ...

. In his senior year, Brown led West Virginia with 913 yards on 167 carries. After his senior year at West Virginia, Brown entered the

1989 NFL Draft The 1989 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 23–24, 1989, at the Marriott Marq ...

. Seen by many NFL teams as a highly coveted running back with great potential, Brown was projected as a late first-round to early second-round pick, but in the days before the draft Brown unexpectedly dropped on the draft boards to the eighth-round for unknown reasons.

Professional career and life after football

Brown was selected by the Jets in the eighth round of the

. As a professional in the NFL, A.B. rushed for a career 117 yards with a touchdown in his four-season career with the

Personal life and endorsements

Brown was born on December 4, 1965, in Salem, New Jersey, to Henry Wright Sr.and Shirley Brown. He also has a brother Steve Brown A.K.A. "Fly D".

References

External links

Bio from 1992 Jets yearbook
1965 births Living people American football running backs New York Jets players People from Salem, New Jersey Pittsburgh Panthers football players Players of American football from New Jersey Salem High School (New Jersey) alumni Sportspeople from Salem County, New Jersey West Virginia Mountaineers football players {{runningback-1960s-stub