Chadwick Everett Brown (born July 12, 1970) 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 ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

of 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 was drafted by the

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

in the second round of the 1993 NFL Draft. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

Early life and college

Born in

Altadena, California Altadena () ("Alta", Spanish for "Upper", and "dena" from Pasadena) is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in the Verdugo Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, approximately 14 miles (23 km) from the downtown ...

, Brown graduated from

John Muir High School John Muir High School is a four-year comprehensive secondary school in Pasadena, California, United States and is a part of the Pasadena Unified School District. The school is named after preservationist John Muir. History In 1926 the Pasadena ...

in 1988. At the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...

, Brown was a four-year starter on the Colorado Buffaloes football team.

Professional career

Brown was initially drafted by the

in the second round, and became an important part of the "Blitzburgh" defense. Initially, he played at the inside linebacker position in the 3-4 with

Levon Kirkland Lorenzo Levon Kirkland (born February 17, 1969) is an American former football inside linebacker and coach. A second-round draft choice of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1992 NFL Draft, he played 11 years as a linebacker in the National Footba ...

. He started at right inside linebacker in Super Bowl XXX for the Steelers, a loss to the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

. He then moved to the outside when

Greg Lloyd Gregory Lenard Lloyd Sr. (born May 26, 1965) is a former American football outside linebacker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was named to five Pro Bowls and three All-Pro teams. College care ...

was lost for the 1996 season due to injury, where he went to his first

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players. The format has changed thro ...

after that season. His success would continue with the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

, going to two more Pro Bowls in the 1990s. He signed with the Patriots as a replacement for injured inside linebacker

Tedy Bruschi Tedy Lacap Bruschi (; born June 9, 1973) is a former professional American football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) for 13 seasons, who currently serves as the senior advisor to the head coach at University o ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

. After several games of what was thought to be subpar performance at his new position, Brown spent most of the rest of the season only on special teams. In September of

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, after re-signing with the Patriots, Brown was released by the Patriots as one of their final cuts. He then signed with the Steelers and finished the season on their

injured reserve The injured reserve list ( IR list) is a designation used in North American professional sports leagues for athletes who suffer injuries and become unable to play. The exact name of the list varies by league; it is known as "injured reserve" in th ...

. On July 19, 2007, he re-joined the Patriots but was released on September 1, 2007. On September 11, 2007, the Pats re-signed him, and released him again on October 10, 2007. Brown was re-signed by the Patriots yet again on November 27, 2007, after linebacker

Rosevelt Colvin Rosevelt Colvin, III (born September 5, 1977) is a former American football linebacker, who now works as a football analyst for the Big Ten Network. Drafted by the Chicago Bears in the fourth round of the 1999 NFL Draft, he played college footbal ...

was placed on season-ending injured reserve. He was released on December 27, 2007, before the Patriots became AFC champions for the season in Super Bowl XLII.

Broadcasting career

Since retiring as a player, Brown has worked as a color analyst and sideline reporter for college and NFL football on a variety of networks, including Compass Media Networks, the

Pac-12 Network The Pac-12 Network (P12N; also sometimes referred to as Pac-12 Networks) is an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network owned by the Pac-12 Conference. The network's studio and production facilities are headquart ...

ESPN3 ESPN3 (formerly ESPN360 and ESPN3.com) is an online streaming service owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications ...

Westwood One Westwood One is an American radio network There are two types of radio network currently in use around the world: the one-to-many (simplex communication) broadcast network commonly used for public information and mass-media entertainment, and ...

, and

NBCSN NBCSN was an American sports television television channel, channel owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It originally launched on July 1, 1995, as the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), which was dedicated t ...

. Brown is a sports-talk radio host in Denver on 104.3 The Fan.

Personal life

Since his NFL career began, Brown has also operated a business named Pro Exotics that sells non-venomous

snake Snakes are elongated, Limbless vertebrate, limbless, carnivore, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales. Ma ...

References

External links

New England Patriots bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Chad 1970 births Living people People from Altadena, California American football linebackers Colorado Buffaloes football players Pittsburgh Steelers players American Conference Pro Bowl players Seattle Seahawks players Sportspeople from Los Angeles County, California New England Patriots players Players of American football from California College football announcers National Football League announcers Ed Block Courage Award recipients