Brown Sacks Jets

The Tennessee Titans season comes down to one game.

Beat the Indianapolis Colts next on Sunday night Football next week and the Tennessee Titans go to the playoffs for the first time since 2003.

Lose and the season is over.

Now, you’re going to read everywhere about how Kyle Vanden Bosch had three of Tennessee's six sacks.

Nonetheless, the season could have been over today had it not been for a homegrown member of the Titans.

Tony Brown sacked New York Jets quarterback Chad Pennington on 4th down late in the game to stop a Jets drive and allow Tennessee to run out the clock.

Brown is about as Tennessee as a Titan could be.

He was born in Chattanooga and grew up playing in the prestigious Brainerd Bills Youth Football organization.

Brown attended Chattanooga City High where he played linebacker and tight end. He was named All-state as a linebacker his senior season.

He was a power forward on the City state championship basketball team as a freshman and lettered four years in baseball, football and basketball.

Brown went on to star at Memphis, where he was a three-year starter. As a senior Brown earned second-team All-Conference USA and recording 66 tackles, four sacks, one forced fumble, eight quarterback pressures and five passes defensed.

His junior year with the Tigers he had a career-high 68 tackles, seven sacks, one fumble recovery, one forced fumble, 17 quarterback pressures and four passes defensed.

The 6-3, 285-pound defensive lineman was released by the Carolina Panthers in September 2006.

It was the third time he had been cut by an NFL team and he returned home to Chattanooga.

Brown’s prayers were answered while sitting in church. He tells of feeling his cell phone vibrating and later discovering that it was a text message from his agent that the Titans wanted him.

Tennessee is happy that the franchise was able to acquire the homegrown talent.

Brown had a career-high 10 tackles against Oakland on Oct. 28. He is the second-ranked defender with 18 quarterback pressures entering the New York game.

He is married to Lachandra Brown and the couple splits time between Nashville and Chattanooga. He graduated in December 2002 with degree in sociology.

• List of favorites: (movie) “The Five Heartbeats”; (TV show) “The Wire”; (actress) Halle Berry; (music artist) Prince; (vacation getaway) “at the house”; (sports team other than Titans) New York Yankees; (school subject) math; and (food) hot dogs.
Some information obtained from http://www.titansonline.com/