First, can you let me know what you’ve been up to since football and how you made the transition to post-NFL life?
I’m living here in San Antonio, Texas – I got my real estate license and have begun selling and buying houses here.
For me the transition was a little bit difficult. My career ended sooner than I anticipated. I signed a two-year contract with Pittsburgh and was released after that first year. I wasn’t picked up by anyone after that.
Why did they release you?
I think that it was just about having one too many offensive linemen. I was a guard-tackle – I could play both sides. But Dermontti Dawson was getting older – he wasn’t practicing as much and was injured a bit. So they had to decide whether they wanted a guard-tackle as a backup or someone who could be a backup at center. They went with center obviously.
Stepping back, you went to high school in Germany. How were you even discovered by Utah?
I was a military brat. It’s a crazy story. I was living overseas in Germany and there aren’t many college coaches coming overseas to scout kids in Germany. My brother is Mike Brown though – he was a former basketball coach with the Lakers and now Head Coach at Sacramento. He was a great basketball player, but had the same issues I did with scouts knowing who he was and seeing him in Germany. He ended up playing for an international team after he graduated high school.
Well, the coach of that team was from Arizona and knew the head coach – who was also the athletic director – of Mesa Community College. Mike ended up playing there for two years. When I went to visit him my senior year of high school, the football coach met with me and I ended up committing to play there as well for two years. That’s when Utah saw some film on me after that and found me that way.
And after playing in Cincinnati for four years, you end up in Pittsburgh. How did that come about?
It was a really odd situation to be honest – to end up in Pittsburgh of all places. I played four years in Cincinnati and liked it there. I liked the offensive line coach – Coach Alexander.
But free agency – it was one of those things where you try to get that bigger second contract. I worked out for Jacksonville – another division rival – and then Pittsburgh had me come in and work out for them. Kent Stephenson liked my workout and they signed me after that.
Any fun grief from Steelers or Bengals players after that?
It wasn’t too bad. There wasn’t much grief from Steelers players. It was more when we played Cincinnati – it was weird going up against guys I blocked in practice every day. There was some good, honest trash-talking. Just the “We’re coming after you AB!” stuff. Good stuff – it was just weird playing them – especially twice.
Any fun memories stand out most to you of your time there?
From what I remember – Shar Pourdanesh was an odd character. He and Kent Stephenson did not have a good relationship – they argued a lot.
Shar was an oddball. Before games he would just sit in the middle of the locker room floor doing yoga – this 6’6″, 310 pound guy!
Any other memories stand out to you?
Just hanging out with the guys. Faneca…Strelczyk used to have a Halloween costume party at his house which was fun.
I was close to Wayne Gandy too. When Cincinnati drafted Willie Anderson – he knew Wayne from college and I got introduced to Wayne through Willie. Wayne and I connected well.
Vrabel – practicing against him – he was a handful in one-on-one drills. Levon Kirkland was a beast too – he was another handful to maintain.
What were some of the differences you noticed between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh?
The Bengals practice facility was very nice. But it was located near a dog food plant. That smell would come across the field every morning and just linger there all day. It was really bad! Other than that the two organizations were run close to the same way.
Pittsburgh got a new practice facility – it was phenomenal.
What happened when you were released after that first season – what did they tell you?
I have a lot of respect for Coach Cowher. They didn’t have me meet with Kent or a personnel guy to tell me I was released like many teams would have. They kept me until the last cuts then Coach met with me himself in his office. He looked me right in the eyes and told me I was a hell of a player. That they would like to keep me but they had to let me go due to the issues they had on the offensive line.
I thanked him for the opportunity and told him I really enjoyed playing there. No one liked getting fired from their job, but he called me in and looked me in the eye and told me himself. I respected that. I understood – that’s part of football.
I enjoyed my time there – I enjoyed the organization. One thing they do do differently than Cincinnati when I think about it – the Steelers family is so tight-knit They keep in touch with all of the former players. Cincinnati doesn’t do that – at least they didn’t.
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