Tyler Bieber
CFL.ca
If there is such a thing as a storybook ending in football, than Winnipeg Blue Bombers defensive tackle Doug Brown has a chance to write a happy ending.
Prior to the 2011 season, Brown made it clear to the public that it would be his final season in the Canadian Football League; an eleven year career with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers would come to an end.
Brown wasn’t always a member of the Blue Bombers though. He was originally drafted in the 1997 CFL Canadian Draft by the Calgary Stampeders, who selected Brown with the fifth overall pick.
The Stamps would never see Brown in action however, as he signed with the Buffalo Bills in the NFL for the 1997 season, where he would stay on the practice roster for the entire season.
His first chance to shine at the pro level would come in 1998 with the Washington Redskins. Brown cracked the Redskins lineup to play in ten games that season, and started in eight of them. He would remain with the Redskins until the end of the 1999 season.
After not playing in the 2000 season, Brown decided to follow his Canadian roots, and came back to the team that had drafted him in Calgary. His stay there would not last long.
Just prior to the 2001 season, Brown was traded by the Stampeders to the Blue Bombers in exchange for a first and a third round draft pick in the 2002 Canadian Draft.
The Stamps would miss out as Brown would go on to have an outstanding career with the Blue Bombers. In his very first game in Winnipeg, Brown had a quarterback sack, two tackles, and a fumble recovery for a touchdown.
Over the course of his career, Brown has made the CFL all-star team a total of seven times. He has been a divisional all-star eight times, and in his first season in 2001, won the league’s award for the Most Outstanding Canadian player. Brown has also been the East Division nominee on two other occasions, in 2006 and 2007.
There is however one thing that Brown has not achieved in his illustrious career. That would be winning the big one.
The Bombers ran through the East Division in the 2001 season, on their way to hosting, and winning the Eastern Final in Winnipeg. A week later, Brown and the Bombers were stunned by the heavy underdog Calgary Stampeders, who earned the Grey Cup win by a score of 27-19.
Winnipeg would struggle over the course of the next five years, winning just one playoff game, and missing the playoffs in two of the five seasons.
It was the 2007 season that the Bombers would return to the top. After finishing in second place with a record of 10-7-1, they knocked off the Toronto Argonauts 19-9 to claim the East Division and make it to their second Grey Cup game in six years.
Once again, it was not meant to be for Brown and the Bombers, as they lost 23-19 to the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Brown’s veteran teammate, Milt Stegall, who had also never won a Grey Cup ring, lost his final chance to claim glory in that game, as he retired after the 2008 season – a year where the Bombers would lost in the Eastern Semi-Finals.
On Sunday, Brown’s career comes full circle, as he plays in the final game of his career not too far from home. Brown was born in New Westminster, British Columbia, and played CIS football at Simon Fraser University.
For Doug Brown, will the third time be the charm?
