The Huntdown

Name: Joey Browner

Claim to Fame, Minnesota: played strong safety for the Purple from 1983-1991. He was good: six Pro Bowls, four All-Madden teams, Hall of Fame nominee, martial arts aficionado, freakishly strong hands. Said hands were in evidence the Monday night after the Minnesota Twins won the 1987 World Series, when he tackled Broncos running back Gerald Willhite from behind with one hand and vaporized Willhite’s leg. Thankfully, no YouTube clip exists of this, as it was really gross.

Claim to Fame, Everywhere Else: although I’m not officially a member of the media, I am duty-bound to note that he was in the same USC defensive backfield as Ronnie Lott, Jeff Fisher and Dennis Smith. Since I’m not officially a member of the media, I can also note that I don’t need to hear or read this factoid ever again. Everyone knows this now. Children yet to be born know this.

Where He Is Now: where isn’t he? He’s a member of the Metropolitian Council’s Central Corridor Community Outreach Staff, or as I like to call it, the MCCCCOS. Per the link, he also teaches “traditional martial arts at the Marshall Avenue School of Self Defense in St. Paul.” He co-hosts a radio show. Hey, he has a MySpace page, too. Unlike Roughkat, though, he has friends like Adrian Peterson and Keyshawn Johnson. Finally, in contrast to every other athlete I’ve hunted down, I’ve seen him at my grocery store in St. Cloud a couple times (I think he lives in the area). His hands are still terrifying.

Glorious Randomness: in the late ‘80s, the NFL required all teams to have a Browner or Zendejas on their active roster. Or that’s what it seemed like, at least.

Note from Stu: thanks to RandBall reader “fasolamatt” for his help on this.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Hunt Down, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.