Douglas Robert Zachariah Brien (born November 24, 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 wi ...

placekicker and American businessman. He played twelve seasons 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) for seven teams:

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

, Indianapolis,

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Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

, New York Jets, and

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. Brien was picked in the third round of the

1994 NFL Draft The 1994 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 24–25, 1994, at the Marriott Ma ...

(85th overall) by San Francisco out of the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. After retiring from the NFL, Brien co-founded the real estate investment firms Waypoint Homes and Mynd.

High school career

Brien attended De La Salle High School in

Concord, California Concord ( ) is the largest city in Contra Costa County, California. According to an estimate completed by the United States Census Bureau, the city had a population of 129,295 in 2019 making it the eighth largest city in the San Francisco Bay ...

, where he was a placekicker for the Spartans' football team his senior year.

College career

At California, he was a member of the teams that won the Citrus Bowl in 1991 and the

Alamo Bowl The Alamo Bowl is an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football bowl game played annually since 1993 in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. Since 2010 it matches the second choice team from the Pac-12 Conference and the secon ...

in 1993. Off the field, he was a member of the

Sigma Alpha Epsilon Sigma Alpha Epsilon (), commonly known as SAE, is a North American Greek-letter social college fraternity. It was founded at the University of Alabama on March 9, 1856. Of all existing national social fraternities today, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is t ...

fraternity.

Professional career

Brien was drafted in the 3rd round (85th overall) in the 1994 NFL draft. He was the only kicker to be taken during the draft and moved across the bay to join the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

. Brien struggled during his rookie year, converting 15 of 20 field goals (20th of 28 qualified kickers) and 60 of 62 PATs (19th of 24 qualified kickers) for the 49ers. The 49ers, led by

Steve Young Jon Steven Young (born October 11, 1961) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons, primarily with the San Francisco 49ers. He also played for the Tampa Bay Buccane ...

, went on to win Super Bowl XXIX over the San Diego Chargers by a score of 49–26, a game in which Brien missed his only field goal attempt, a 47-yard try before halftime. Brien nonetheless set the record for most PATs during a single postseason with 17 (on 18 attempts) en route to earning a Super Bowl ring that season. Brien also had a fumble recovery during the NFC Championship game. The following year, Brien made only 58% of his field goals for San Francisco, and was cut after missing a potential game-winning field goal against the Indianapolis Colts. He signed a few weeks later with the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

. Brien went on to play a total of 12 seasons in the NFL for 7 different organizations including 6 seasons with the Saints. He was elected a team captain as well as the

NFLPA The National Football League Players Association, or NFLPA, is a labor union representing National Football League (NFL) players. The NFLPA, which has headquarters in Washington, D.C., is led by president J. C. Tretter and executive director DeM ...

player rep for the Saints. Over the course of his career, Brien was regarded as one of the most reliable kickers in the league. One huge exception to this was during the 2004 Divisional Playoff game in Pittsburgh against the Steelers. Brien missed two 4th-quarter field goals from 47 and 43 yards which would have won the game for the New York Jets. At the time of his retirement, he was one of the 10 most accurate field goal kickers of all time, and currently ranks 60th. During his career, Brien converted 80.2% of field goals and 98% of PATs. Brien accounted for 915 points over his 12-year career and has a career long make from 56 yards. He was also an alternate to the Pro Bowl on two occasions.

References

External links

kicking.com
- Doug Brien
NFL.com
- Doug Brien {{DEFAULTSORT:Brien, Doug 1970 births Living people People from Bloomfield, New Jersey American football placekickers California Golden Bears football players San Francisco 49ers players Indianapolis Colts players New Orleans Saints players Tampa Bay Buccaneers players Minnesota Vikings players New York Jets players Chicago Bears players De La Salle High School (Concord, California) alumni Players of American football from New Jersey