Sports Redux: What Brown Did For Us

If the rumors are true, Troy Brown is expected to retire from the Patriots and the NFL today. He's been a Patriot since 1993, from the first year of the Bill Parcells era, and has been the kind of steady, reliable guy that sometimes gets overlooked. It'll be nice to have the spotlight on him for one more day.

Brown was a favorite target of both Bledsoe and Brady - a guy who was always open for those 7-to-10 yard passes, and a guy who more than a few times got himself open for a long one. In 2001, he set a team record with 101 catches and got his first trip to the Pro Bowl. That's also the year Brown made his best play ever, the punt return that set the tone for the Pats' upset in Pittsburgh on the way to the first Super Bowl win (the punt return is at 1:07 in this video). In his later years, he balanced a diminished receiving game with more great special-teams work and some snaps on defense, getting three interceptions in 2004. Thanks for everything, Troy. We'll miss you. We already do.

The Red Sox weren't too hung over to slap Cleveland around for four in the first inning last night. Maybe it kicked in later, when they blew the lead and had to settle for a Jeff Bailey triple and a Mark Kotsay RBI double in the 8th to secure the 5-4 win. Manny Delcarmen got the save (it's not too hard to imagine that our usual closer may have been hung over), and J.D. Drew played for four innings, for his first action since his back problems flared up in mid-August. Tampa Bay won, too, so the tiny window of opportunity to win the East got a little tinier. Meanwhile, the Yankees may be getting some outside help.

Individual-game Celtics tickets go on sale tomorrow. Good luck.

Photo from Marshall University.