Buffalo Bills Annual Information: February 2018

CURTIS BROWN

Fullback

No. 47

Missouri

CURTIS BROWN: BUFFALO'S QUIET MVP

Since Becoming A Starter, The Low-Keyed Fullback Has Added Leadership And Spark To The Bills

"To find Curtis Brown's locker in the Buffalo Bills' dressing room, you really have to look. The last cubicle in the row, it is tucked away in an alcove in the corner of the room.

It's a spot that seems to suit Brown just fine. He is the quiet man of the Bills, the last man to call attention to himself off the field.

He probably wouldn't mind skipping the postgame press interviews. He'd just as soon slip out and go home to dinner with his family.

That was easy to do his rookie year and the first few games of 1978. Then, around October, he started to blow his cover. For three hours each Sunday afternoon, he demanded attention from opposing teams.

Brown, more than any other individual, was the spark that ignited the Bills offense. His teammates recognized it, voting him their most valuable player.

As the Bills head through their 1979 season, the quiet man will again be called on to provide a measure of leadership on the field.

'I think, even now, he's the one we've got to get the ball to because he is the big-play guy,' says guard Joe DeLamielleure.

'He's the kind of back who makes offensive linemen look good. He can improvise.'

It took Brown about a year and a half to gain recognition in Buffalo, stepping out of the shadow of O.J. Simpson, Jim Braxton and even Terry Miller.

In the National Football League, he has yet to fully achieve it. When you mention the Buffalo offense, everybody talks about Fergurson, Chandler, Miller ...

'That's true except when you go to the Pro Bowl,' corrected DeLamielleure, an annual participant in the annual postseason all-star game. 'Everybody there says 'Who the hell is that guy 47?' They don't know his name yet, either, but they know his number.'

That's a big step on the road to proper recognition and it's one of several in Brown's two-year climb.

His pro career has had several turning points since he was drafted third out of Missouri in 1977, and perhaps the biggest is the least known.

It occurred July 22, 1978, at Edinboro State College, where the Bills were scrimmaging the Cleveland Browns' rookies. Brown went down to the scrimmage as a halfback. He returned as a fullback.

'We got a kid hurt in a scrimmage at Edinboro (Walter Wingard) and we were short on fullbacks. We only had Stan Winfrey,' backfield coach Elijiah Pitts recalls. 'We wanted to get Winfrey some rest, so I took Curtis on the sidelines and worked him on some fullback plays.'

Pitts didn't see a polished fullback when Brown went in, but he saw something else. 'He didn't know the techniques of the steps or anything like that ... he just took off with the football,' Pitts says.

'That made me think he was a natural in our type of offense for fullback. He has the quickness and he's got great sliding ability.'

The critics contend that Brown lacks the size to be a fullback. At 5-10, 203 pounds, he certainly isn't the prototype. But the deceiving thing about him is his strength- it enables him to break tackles and carry a crowd for a few extra yards.

Pitts got his first eyeful last summer from a machine called a 'tackle-matic.' It's a spring-operated device designed to simulate the driving force of a charging blocker or tackler. A huge bag- the kind boxers punch- is mounted on a heavy spring and comes barreling down at the player when released.

Most backs stand about a yard from it and dig in to catch it and push it back. Pitts once inadvertently triggered it with Brown about two and half yards back and not ready. To the amazement of his teammates, Curtis caught it and threw it back to its original position.

'That showed the unusual strength in his arms,' the coach recalls.

Brown says he always had the upper body strength; the leg strength came after his rookie season when he was rehabilitating a knee injury. That injury was one of several obstacles Brown has overcome in Buffalo- the first being drafted by a team that had O.J. Simpson at halfback.

'Buffalo was the last thing on my mind,' Brown recalls. 'When I was young my dad told me someone he worked with said I was going to end up going to Buffalo. After the draft, they kidded me about it.'

But playing behind Simpson and Roland Hooks was no joking matter.

'When I came in, I knew I wasn't going to get a chance to start or play for a while. I was willing to do that and do the best I could on special teams,' he says.

Simpson's knee injury could have been a big break for Brown, but the rookie suffered a sprained knee in the same game. The ensuing off-season must have contained a series of highs and lows- first the elation of the Simpson trade and then the disappointment of learning the Bills had selected Miller in the first round of the draft.

'I remember when they traded Juice ... my mother called me and told me, and when I hung up the phone, hollering, I was so happy,' Brown says.

'When they drafted Terry, at first I said damn. Then I said, at least we got a good person.'

After the summer switch to fullback, it didn't Brown long to oust incumbent Jim Braxton. In the fourth game of the year, he ran a kickoff back 102 yards. The next week, he broke four tackles on a 22-yard touchdown run, and by week 6 he was the starter.

Braxton's departure followed immediately, and the veteran charged that he didn't lose the job; that it was handed to Brown. Brown harbors no hard feelings because of those statements.

'When I first came here as a rookie, Braxton was the one who helped me along,' he says. 'He was the man who taught me the things I needed to learn in pro football.

'My agent called to tell me he was traded, and for a couple of hours I was sort of upset ... When I came in here the next day, Braxton was getting his shoes and stuff and I still felt bad.

'He had been telling me all along, 'Be patient, you'll get your chance.' ... There were no hard feelings. He just told me, 'Get in and do the best you can.' '

The trade gave Brown all the confidence he needed. He proceeded to pick up the offense and ended the year with 591 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Along the way, he won the respect and admiration of his teammates. And now, with a year of starting under his belt, the quiet man has the look of self-assurance.

He'll never hold court with reporters in the locker room or have his own talk show, but his teammates see a different of Curtis.

'He's more open now,' says Roland Hooks, his roommate on the road.

'Curtis is a very outgoing person, but he's very quiet,' says Pitts. That's not the contradiction it might seem. 'He never normally starts any conversation, but he participates very well. He's not an introvert,' Pitts explains.

'Curtis has a little mischief in him,' Pitts laughs. 'He probably starts most of the pranks and then quietly gets out.'

Among other things, Brown is the principal protagonist when it comes to nicknaming teammates. He comes up with most of them and they're not always complimentary.

To his teammates, he is just C.B., and that fits him well as a nickname. It's low-key, just like him.

Give Brown his druthers and he'll pass up the bright lights for a quiet afternoon in the park with his wife and his three-and-a-half-year-old daughter. Add a little breeze, some beer, music and a barbecue, and Mr. Brown is happy.

As Brown entered his third year in the NFL, he realized there is still room for improvement in his play. For one, both he and Miller must become more accomplished blockers. And he must cut down on the costly fumbles that plagued all the young backs last season.

'When he first started to start, he was very, very nervous prior to the ballgame,' Pitts recalls. 'He often wouldn't play well in the first series.

'I'd try to get to him immediately after a mistake. I'd get on him for it later, but at that time I'd just try to help him shake it off.'

To his credit, Brown is able to do that. He come back with the big play to overcome the error. Some fumbles, he realizes, are part of the game.

'A guy who is a very elusive runner like Curtis, who breaks a lot of tackles and gets out of a lot of traffic, is more inclined to fumble because he is getting hit more,' Pitts says.

'Some plays you can't help it. You run into somebody and there goes the ball,' Brown adds. 'They're slapping at the ball and you're looking at somebody else ... Out here [at practice], we have guys slapping at it and that's keeping us more conscious of it.'

As the Bills geared up for the season, the offensive line talked of aiming for two 1,000-yard backs in Buffalo. And like everything else, C.B. takes such talk in stride.

'I'd like to get 1,000 yards, but I'd really like to get whatever it takes to win,' he says. 'If that means less than 1,000 yards for me, fine.'

The Pro Bowl? That would be fine, too.

Publicity? 'I'd like to have it to send home to my mother. I don't really care that much about it.'

Whether he is describing a 102-yard touchdown run or a costly fumble, Brown is the same- quiet and concise.

And after last year, he really doesn't have to talk much. The three letters after his name say it for him- Curtis Brown, MVP."

-Mike Dodd, The Buffalo Evening News (Football Digest, December 1979)

DENNIS D. JOHNSON

Running Back
No. 39
Mississippi State
"Another of the Bills' superb crop of 1978 rookies, Dennis proved to be a valuable member of the club's offensive unit. A second-team All-Southeastern Conference pick in 1976, he was sidelined part of 1977 due to a knee injury requiring surgery.
Dennis was a physical education major at Mississippi State."

-1979 Topps No. 216

Buffalo Bills Annual Information

Monday, February 19, 2018

1979 Profile: Dennis L. Johnson

1979 Profiles: Curtis Brown and Dennis D. Johnson

Thursday, February 8, 2018

1979 Profile: Rusty Jackson