Will Brown’s Seattle return be triumphant?

Published 11:56 pm Wednesday, September 17, 2008

RENTON — When Josh Brown left the Seattle Seahawks in late February, he did so with the grace of a superstar.

A superstar named Alex Rodriguez.

Brown’s departure created the kind of local uproar that hadn’t been seen in this town since the Texas Rangers showed A-Rod the money. The Seahawks kicker took a five-year, $14.2 million contract from the rival St. Louis Rams, and Seattle fans were ready to carry him out of town on a bed of nails.

On Sunday, Brown will make his return to Qwest Field. And he knows the fan reaction might not be pretty.

“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.”

While he was playing in Seattle, Brown earned his stripes as one of the biggest fan favorites on the Seahawks. His six game-winning field goals, four of which came in 2006, were a franchise record. He ranks among the top four in franchise history in points (571), field goals (116) and point-after-touchdowns (177).

And yet he didn’t feel fully appreciated by the team. That, Brown said Wednesday, was a big factor in his decision to leave.

“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 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.”

The Seahawks claim that their offer to Brown was close to the one he accepted with St. Louis. The team wanted to bring him back, but they weren’t willing to break the bank for a kicker who has never gone to the Pro Bowl.

And so Brown not only left town, but he did it to sign with the Seahawks’ biggest rival.

“Sometimes, a fresh start is the best thing for a player,” Brown said Wednesday. “With the situation that was presented to me, that was exactly what I needed to do.”

Brown added that he has yet to hear a negative comment from a single Seahawks fan, even though he still owns a home in Chelan and has been back to Seattle numerous times.

“Every time we’re in the city, people have shown their admiration and shook my hand and told me they appreciated me for being the person I was while I was in Seattle,” said Brown, whose new wife, Molly, is from the area. “I love the people there. I don’t have any hard feelings for those people.”

Brown said he is happy in his new home, where he lives with Molly and her two sons, 6 and 9 years old. He’s also having a typical season, making all three of his field goal attempts, two of which were from 54 yards.

But Brown’s earlier statement about wanting to play for a winner — he said as much during a March interview with a Seattle radio station — has not exactly panned out. The Rams have been outscored 79-16 in two games this season, and things have gotten so bad that head coach Scott Linehan’s job could be at risk.

Brown said Wednesday that his comment was not what he had intended to say.

“I think that was taken a little bit out of context,” he said Wednesday. “But I also think that was athlete error, allowing the media to get to me and reacting. (I was) coming from a team that’s won the division four times in a row.

“But I’m at a place that has a winning history here.”

Seahawks head coach Mike Holmgren said he was “disappointed” when Brown left. The coach called Brown as free agency approached, and Holmgren told reporters Wednesday that he came out of the conversation thinking Brown would re-sign.

“I thought it was done,” he said during his weekly press conference Wednesday afternoon. “Then, when it didn’t get done, I was very surprised.”

A lot of people were surprised when Brown left Seattle. On Sunday, many of them will get a chance to show him how they feel.

“I’m expecting the boos,” he said. “I won’t take it any differently than I did anywhere else, because I know I’ve still got fans in Seattle (and) I’ve still got friends and family in Seattle. Seattle will always be the place where I got my start.”