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Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Brown was a 'natural'




By Adam Kilgore

January 29, 2010

For the first two years of his career, former Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson played alongside Corwin Brown, then a Patriots safety and, as of today, now a Patriots assistant coach. In a telephone conversation, Johnson recalled what he remembered about Brown as a teammate.

“Corwin, he was very much a leader on the special teams,” said Johnson, now an analyst for NESN. "He was kind of a Larry Izzo of special teams. He was the special teams captain. Very bright. Very intense. He took a lot of pride in that role that he was put in. Of course, he played safety as well. What I remember about him is, just another coach on the field in special teams. As a rookie, I remember him getting after me quite a bit. He had high expectations for the special teams units."

Brown's special teams prowess may have helped him land his first job in coaching -- Virginia coach Al Groh hired him as his special teams coach in 2001. While Johnson watched Brown prepare and practice, Johnson assumed Brown would make a future coach.

“Oh, yeah. Absolutely," Johnson said. "There’s just guys that you can just tell have the natural, high football acumen. He was always asking questions. Players help each other out – he coached the guys he was playing with. It doesn’t surprise me that’s the profession he chose.”

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