New England Patriots Links 1/29/10 - Ex-Notre Dame DC Corwin Brown Hired As New DB Coach

Albert Breer reports that ex-Notre Dame assistant Corwin Brown -- one of the guys let go along with head coach Charlie Weis -- has been installed as secondary coach in New England.

The buzz in Mobile the last couple days was that, in fact, Weis had helped place Brown with an NFL team, but it was unclear which one. Now, it is clear.

I did an extensive story on Brown back in 2007 for this publication, and got some pretty good stories along the way. Here's one pretty good one, that you might have seen alluded to here on Twitter ...

When Bill Belichick arrived to coach the Patriots defensive backs in 1996, Brown was in his fourth NFL season and already knew that, after he was done playing, he wanted to coach. He made this clear to Belichick, and the coach found ways to help tutor him, staying late to watch extra film and such to show Brown how to see the game from a coach's eyes. Brown followed Belichick, and Bill Parcells, to the Jets in 1997 and spent two seasons there, so those two are pretty tight.

Brown got his start in coaching with Al Groh -- his defensive coordinator in his four seasons as a Patriot -- at Virginia from 2001-03, and was one of the few held over from Herm Edwards' Jets staff by Eric Mangini. He's been at Notre Dame the last three years, where he was co-defensive coordinator and associate head coach.

Heath Evans brings a bit of the Patriots Way to the Saints.

Coach Payton ask me today at lunch what I thought about the team schedule. I told him I thought it was perfect! The guys had Monday to Wednesday off, except for some conditioning and some light weightlifting and a few Super Bowl logistics meetings.

His question got me thinking about the 2007 season run to the Super Bowl and the tough days of practice we had leading up to departing for Arizona. All year, we had been fighting the bug of complacency. We started and finished the year in such a dominant fashion that Coach Bill kept the pressure on us at all times to not buy into the lie that we were unbeatable. Needless to say, that years’ prep for the Super Bowl was far from easy.

When asked for advice by Coach Payton, it is so hard not to see everything through the eyes of Bill Belichick. I grew so deeply rooted in the "Patriot Way" during my stay in New England that my mind is forever ingrained with the Patriot DNA, that I feel like I am always trying to bring a little bit of New England to New Orleans.

I guess what I love the most about being a Saint is that we have a coaching staff that is always willing to learn something new. I love the fact that we have coaches that aren’t ashamed to ask how something was done somewhere else out of respect from where I have come.

TEAM SHOTS

• Erik Scalavino looks at where the Patriots currently stand at the wide receiver position.
• Andy Hart looks at what resources the Patriots will have at its disposal heading into the Draft. As it stands New England has eight picks, with four in the first 53 choices.

LOCAL LINKS

• Chris Gasper says one way or another the Patriots are going to pay for Vince Wilfork - either through a hefty new contract, or it will be in lost games without him in the middle of their defense.
• Christopher Price discusses Vince Wilfork's loose lips with the Florida media.
• Ron Borges notes the Tim Tebow ad bashers have a choice too. They can pay up and speak their mind instead of demanding the other side sit down.
• Chad Finn lets ESPN analyst Tom Jackson try to explain one of his most absurd comments ever, "That’s the thing about Brett Favre - he’s not afraid to throw an interception. That’s one of the things I most admire about him.’’
• Mike Reiss offers the transcript of his weekday online chat. Well worth the read.
• Christopher Price presents a snapshot of where the team stands with Defensive Linemen: Ron Brace, Jarvis Green, Myron Pryor, Ty Warren, Vince Wilfork, Mike Wright. (Adrian Grady and Darryl Richard are on the practice squad.)
• Mike Reiss ranks the top five people in the Patriots franchise that will have the greatest impact over the next decade: Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft, Sebastian Vollmer and Jerod Mayo.
• Ian Rapoport looks at the pass rush prospects at the Senior Bowl who are getting looked at by the Patriots scouts.
• Ian Rapoport offers a peek at five Draft prospects that could fill the void at DE/OLB. Sergio Kindle, Everson Griffen, Brandon Graham, Ricky Sapp and Jared Odrick.
• Mike Reiss looks at CB draft prospects Chris Cook (Virginia),Kyle Wilson (Boise State) and Devin McCourty (Rutgers). "They popped out as high-character, good kids."
• Ian Rapoport Senior Bowl Notes: Intriguing players Seminole star and Rhodes Scholar S Myron Rolle plus Boston College C Matt Tennant.
• Mike Reiss looks at the Patriots short history against Kurt Warner, noting Bill Belichick felt Warner's intelligence was one of his greatest assets.
• AP Roger Goodell: Pro Bowl switch already a success. Huh?

NATIONAL NEWS

• Omar Kelly (South Florida Sun Sentinal) Vince Wilfork: Playing in Florida would be "a dream".  Come on Vince, you don't need to shill so openly to the enemy like that.
• Tim Graham (ESPN) AFC East: Biggest Super Bowl plays: Five best and five worst.
• John Clayton (ESPN) The top 10 plays in Super Bowl history. Adam Vinatieri's game-winning field goal to clinch SB XXXVI is number 7.
• Tim Cowlishaw (Dallas Morning News) DId you hear the one about the Pro Bowl? What began with one really terrible idea – playing the game before the Super Bowl to eliminate the players from the league's two best teams – has just turned into a running joke.
• Michael David Smith (ProFootballTalk) Pereira admits missed calls in championship games. Vikings QB Brett Favre and Jets QB Mark Sanchez both took hits that should have resulted in penalties but were not flagged.
• Mike Florio (ProFootballTalk) Pereira tallks about controversial calls in Saints-Vikings overtime.
• Matthew T. Hall (San Diego Union-Tribune) Average public share of stadium costs: 54%. On average since 2002, the public has paid for more than half the construction costs of major football stadium projects around the country.
• Jeff Legwold (Denver Post) NFL coordinators predict a Belichick-like defense for Broncos.
• Mike Klis (Denver Post) The Broncos officially promoted Don "Wink" Martindale from linebackers coach to defensive coordinator today.
• Gregg Rosenthal (ProFootballTalk) Peyton Manning nearing contract year.
• Doug Auer (Staten Island Advance) Staten Island man, a Jets fan, is viciously beaten while attending Colts game in Indianapolis.
• Mike Florio (Sporting News) Non-Super Bowl Super Bowl week storylines.
• Tom Pedulla (USA Today) Terrell Owens says he'd be chasing Jerry Rice's records if he played with better QBs.
• Adam Schein (Fox Sports) Super Bowl game-plan wrinkles.