Brown says Seahawks didn’t appreciate him

Published 10:54 am Wednesday, September 17, 2008

RENTON — While he has nothing but good memories of his playing days with the Seattle Seahawks, the St. Louis Rams’ new kicker, Josh Brown, said Wednesday that he expects some backlash from the fans at Qwest Field.

“Honestly, I don’t know what’s going to come,” Brown said during a Wednesday morning conference call with Seattle reporters. “I’m praying that I get 50-50. I’m praying I get booed half the time and ‘yeah’ on the other half.

“I had a lot of people who supported me, but at the same time, I had a lot of people who were mad when I left. I’m going to come out and just kind of experience it as it goes.”

Brown signed a $14.5 million deal with the Rams in February. On Wednesday, he said that part of his reason for leaving Seattle was because he didn’t feel appreciated by the Seahawks.

“There’s a difference between looking at someone’s stats and looking at the effect a player had on the team,” he said. “Yes, there are some players who had better numbers here or there, who showed better than I did. But the impact I had on the team, and and the effect my field goals had on the team, yeah, I felt like they didn’t really see me as a major value. They compared me to kickers in the league who I really didn’t feel were of the same caliber.”

Brown and the Rams face the Seahawks on Sunday.