By Corey Davis
Suwannee Democrat
Jasper —
Of all days to get notified, former Hamilton County High football star Alex Brown was released April Fool's Day from the Chicago Bears-only this wasn't a joke. After eight years in the Windy City, the Bears and Brown are parting ways.
Brown, 31, was informed of the team's intentions, while visiting family in Jennings after the death of an aunt.
Chicago spent the past week trying to trade Brown and after no takers, decided to release the veteran defensive end.
The move comes after the Bears recently signed free-agent defensive end Julius Peppers to a 20 million contract this season.
Brown told the Chicago Times, "I enjoyed my time and I appreciate the Bears for giving me the opportunity to play. The city of Chicago, there wasn't a better place to spend eight years of football. I got to see a lot of highs and lows and had a lot of fun with all of it."
Despite being released Brown is confident he can still play a few more years in the NFL.
"I believe I can play four or five more years, I mean good years," he said. "Shoot, over the last four, five years I have been so close to having the magical number everyone looks for as far as sacks (10). As far as what I have been doing, I'm in my prime still."
Brown, a fourth-round draft pick from the University of Florida in 2002, was most proud of his streak of playing in 127 consecutive regular-season games. He departs having made 483 tackles, 43 1/2 sacks and five interceptions. He ranks fourth in franchise history with 43Ω sacks, trailing only Richard Dent, Steve McMichael and Dan Hampton.
Last season, Brown registered 39 tackles, six sacks, two pass breakups, one fumble recovery and five tackles-for-loss while starting all 16 games.
According to the official Chicago Bears website chicagobears.com, Brown sent a message to the team and its fans via his Twitter account late Tuesday night.
"I am extremely grateful for my time as a Chicago Bear and I wish the Bears the best," he wrote. "I am glad that they gave me an opportunity to realize a dream I had as a child. I appreciate the fans, but as we all know, this is the nature of the business. Bear down."
Coming out of Hamilton County High, Brown was considered one of the nation's best elite prep linebackers in 1996. He was named to the PrepStar All-American Dream team, who recognized him as the number one linebacker in the nation. SuperPrep honored him as an All-American after ranking him among the nations top five linebackers and top 20 overall players in the country.
A first-team Class 3A All-State selection, Brown accumulated 117 tackles, seven tackles for loss, five blocked passes, four fumble recoveries, two fumble recoveries, two fumble caused and two blocked field goals.
As a quarterback, Brown rushed for 767 yards with 18 touchdowns, while passing for 863 yards and six touchdowns. In addition to playing football, Brown was quite an all-around athlete. As he was also selected the district MVP in basketball and was also a Class 3A state champion in the discus both his senior year.
Brown chose the University of Florida (UF) to continue his education and left there a three-time All-American. He redshirted his first season in 1997 and saw action in all 11 regular season and the Orange Bowl his freshman season in 1998.
By his sophomore season in 1999, Brown became just the third sophomore in school history to garner First-Team All-American honors. He was named First-Team All-American by Football News and Walter Camp Football Foundation, Second-team All-America by Associated Press and Third-team All-American by the Sporting News and an All-SEC First-Team selection.
His junior season in 2000 he was one of 12 semifinalist for the Lombardi award for the second straight year after being named a Second-team All-American by the Walter Camp Football Foundation and ABC Sports BCSFootball.com as well as an All-SEC selection by the AP, the Coaches and College Football News.
For his senior season at UF, Brown was named the top defensive end by the Sporting News in their pre-season rankings and was finalist for the Lombardi and Nagurski awards and a semi-finalist for Football News News National Defensive Player of the Year.
He was named the AP SEC Defensive Player of the Year as well as a First-team All-SEC selection for a third consecutive season.
Upon leaving UF, Brown finished his career with 33 career sacks (all-time leader), including 13 his sophomore season (tops in school history) and 46 career tackles for loss (sixth best). His final career college stats were 160 tackles and 120 big plays.
The Bears drafted him in the 2002 NFL draft in the fourth round where he played for eight seasons.
Don't look for Brown to be off the market long though, someone is surely to pick him up soon as a free agent.
