Tucker’s Thomas Brown on verge of earning second Super Bowl ring

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — In his football travels that have taken him from Tucker High to winning a Super Bowl ring, Thomas Brown had not crossed paths with Mike Vrabel.

The New England coach had just landed the head coaching spot with one of this former teams and reached out to Brown.

“It’s really amazing,” Brown said. “Just because most of my career, most of the jobs that I’ve been hired for were with people that I didn’t know or haven’t had connections with. So, it’s been more so, it’s just been my reputation or word of mouth.”

Brown was hired to be New England’s passing-game coordinator/tight ends coach. He’ll be working the sideline with Vrabel when the Patriots face the Seahawks in the Super Bowl at 6:30 p.m. Sunday at Levi’s Stadium.

“He called me one afternoon, kind of out of the blue,” Brown recalled. “We got to kind of talking about some opportunities. He gave me a chance to interview. We kind of hit it off as far as just the belief system, the mentality toward the game of football and philosophy-wise. It’s been a great experience.”

After his playing career at Georgia, Brown was drafted by the Falcons in the sixth round (172nd overall) in 2008. His knees didn’t want to cooperate, and after two seasons on injured reserve, Brown got in to coaching as the strength-and-conditioning coach at Georgia in 2011.

“Most jobs I’ve had, other than working with coach (Mark) Richt at Georgia, and also following him to University of Miami, every head coach I’ve been hired by, I had no prior connection to,” Brown said. “I mean, obviously, Sean McVay and I were from the same area. We obviously went to rival high schools, but we didn’t know each other in high school. We weren’t like friends in high school.”

Brown, who has head coaching aspirations, was on McVay’s Rams staff that won the Super Bowl in February 2022. He was the assistant head coach.

“So, I’ve kind of learned to be less surprised by that, but also just trusting God’s plan for my life,” Brown said. “In some aspects, stop trying to make my own plans, try to be where my feet are. Be focused where I am right now.”

The Patriots’ passing attack is triggered by second-year quarterback Drake Maye, who led the NFL with a 72.0% completion percentage. Brown also has made good use of tight ends Hunter Henry, Austin Hooper and CJ Dippre.

Brown said he believes his time at Georgia as a player and coach has been instrumental in his coaching career.

“It was extremely important,” he said. “The funny thing was growing up in Georgia, I didn’t know about University of Georgia, couldn’t tell you where Athens was, until I was probably a junior in high school.

“I grew up a huge Florida State and Miami fan. That was all I kind of watched and talked about.”

After his junior year at Tucker, he found out about Georgia.

“I started making some of those earlier connections,” Brown said. “Plus also, I have a chance to still be connected to my family. So, I grew up 50 minutes from Athens. It was close by. I had the support system, made some lifelong friends, but also just learned a lot of values of hard work and perseverance.”

Going to Georgia was a good move for Brown.

“Walked into a super-talented running back (group) as a freshman,” he said. “Many people thought I probably shouldn’t go to Georgia because they had this guy, that guy, whatever else. But again, it was a study in how I was raised.”

Brown’s father, Thomas Brown Sr., was a pastor and became a bishop in the Christian Methodist Episcopal church.

“I was always raised to be competitive, to have belief in myself and work for what you want,” Brown said. “So, it definitely helped to shape my football career, but also my early coaching career, as well.”

The Cardinals requested to interview Brown this coaching cycle. He’s had other interviews for head coaching spots in the past.

He watched as 10 openings were filled this coaching cycle and no Black assistant coaches were hired. Only one minority — Robert Saleh by Tennessee — was named a head coach.

“I think I’m passionate about what I do,” Brown said. “I try to be excellent with everything I do on a regular basis. I understand what the stats are in general. I think it’s maybe what, been 26, 27 black head coaches at all time in NFL?”