Douglas Gordon Brown (born September 29, 1974) is a retired National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL)

defensive tackle A defensive tackle (DT) is a position in American football that will typically line up on the line of scrimmage, opposite one of the offensive guards, however he may also line up opposite one of the tackles. Defensive tackles are typically the la ...

. 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 ...

at Simon Fraser University. Brown won the

CFL's Most Outstanding Canadian Award The Most Outstanding Canadian Award is annually awarded to the best Canadian player in the Canadian Football League. The two nominees for the award are the Lew Hayman Trophy winner from the East Division, and the Dr. Beattie Martin Trophy winner ...

in 2001. He played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers from 2001 until his retirement in 2011, competing in three

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

, and

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

. He was a CFL All-Star eight times.

Career

Brown was drafted by the Calgary Stampeders 5th overall in the 1997 CFL draft. However, he did not play a game with them and signed with the

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

of the

NFL 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 major ...

, spending his entire time there on the practice squad. Following that he went to play for the Washington Redskins where he played ten games with the NFL team. The 2000 season was a wash, but the end of the season saw his rights traded to Winnipeg from Calgary. He started playing with the Bombers for the

2001 CFL season The 2001 CFL season is considered to be the 48th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 44th Canadian Football League season. CFL news in 2001 The Canadian Football League were able to get new corporate partnership ...

which saw him named as the CFL's Most Outstanding Canadian and a visit to the

2001 Grey Cup The 89th Grey Cup (Canadian Football League championship) was held in 2001 in Montreal. The Calgary Stampeders claimed their fifth championship in team history with a 27–19 win over the East Division champions and heavily favoured Winnipeg Blu ...

game which the Bombers ended up losing. He soon acquired the nickname "Big Bird" and again won as Winnipeg's MOC award again the following season. Next season, in 2004, Brown won his third recognition as the Bombers' MOC and also won the award for the Most Outstanding Defensive Player. 2006 was another strong season, and arguably his strongest with the Blue Bombers. However, he finished as runner up for the Most Outstanding Canadian award that year. Brown went to the 2007 Grey Cup, his second appearance in the penultimate CFL, but again came up short losing by four points to the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Brown won his fifth CFL All-Star recognition in 2008 and again finished as runner-up for the MODP award. 2009 saw a return to recognition for Brown where he again won Winnipeg's MOC and MODP awards. Despite being one of the oldest players in the CFL, Brown continued to excel during the 2010 season. He finished with his seventh CFL All-Star naming that year. The

2011 CFL season The 2011 CFL season was the 58th season of modern-day Canadian football. Officially, it was the 54th season of the Canadian Football League. The complete schedule was released on February 18 and featured the defending Grey Cup champion Montreal ...

saw Brown as a member of the self-titled "Swaggerville" defence for Winnipeg, which was one of the top defences in the league at that time. The 2011 season also saw Brown win his eighth East Division all-star nod. In 2016, he was finally inducted into the

Canadian Football Hall of Fame The Canadian Football Hall of Fame (CFHOF) is a not-for-profit corporation, located in Hamilton, Ontario, that celebrates great achievements in Canadian football. It is maintained by the Canadian Football League (CFL). It includes displays about t ...

Statistics

Personal

Brown credited former Coquitlam Cheetahs track and field coach Percy Perry with developing his running which enabled his progression to pro football.Coquitlam Now
Coquitlam loses coach, mentor
Retrieved on 27 December 2009 He currently writes a weekly sports column for the ''

Winnipeg Free Press The ''Winnipeg Free Press'' (or WFP; founded as the ''Manitoba Free Press'') is a daily (excluding Sunday) broadsheet newspaper in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It provides coverage of local, provincial, national, and international news, as well as ...

''. Brown also serves as colour commentator for Blue Bomber broadcasts on CJOB 680 AM radio in Winnipeg. Brown is also currently a KidSport Winnipeg Sport Ambassador, helping run an annual Football Camp for recipients of KidSport Winnipeg funding. He resides in Winnipeg.

References

External links

NFL StatsKidSport Winnipeg
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Doug 1974 births American football defensive tackles Buffalo Bills players Canadian expatriate American football people in the United States Canadian football defensive linemen Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees Canadian Football League Most Outstanding Canadian Award winners Canadian players of American football Living people Players of Canadian football from British Columbia Simon Fraser Clan football players Sportspeople from New Westminster Washington Redskins players Winnipeg Blue Bombers players