Dave Brown is the man.
Not because he freelances for us, covering the New England Patriots. Not because writing about him gives yours truly a chance to get some attention, which, of course, I’ll gladly accept.
No. Dave Brown is the man because he’s a tough, fair writer who knows what fans are wondering about. He’s the man because he’s got the guts to challenge Bill Belichick, a football coach who never answered a truly relevant question in his life, and whose gaze and tone can often melt rock.
He’s the man because he doesn’t care what you think of him, and he’s the man because I believe him when he says his line of questioning – which along with Belichick’s responses, including one this week, are the reasons you’re reading this column – was in no way meant as self promotion.
No matter what some of the Boston heavyweights in the media might think.
I called Brown, 37, on Wednesday, after reading his first-rate column we ran in that day’s paper. I wanted to know his response to critics who say he’s in this for himself, after a pair of colorful, controversial scenarios involving himself and Belichick earned him mention on ESPN, WEEI and elsewhere.
“If I really wanted to do this to make a name for myself, I’d probably be asking about (Rob) Gronkowski’s girlfriend,” Brown told me. “Or I’d ask about Gisele (Bundchen, Tom Brady’s wife). There would be far more audacious ways to do it than asking if the team plans to sort out Jimmy’s (Garoppolo) health before they look for a backup quarterback.”
That’s what got Questiongate rolling, after Brown had already touched off a firestorm during the preseason in July. It was then that Belichick said Tom Brady would be his starting quarterback once his four-game Deflategate suspension had ended, and it was then that Brown called Belichick out.
Sure, Brady, perhaps the best QB of all time, logically would step back into his role, but, Brown knew, this was not Belichick’s normal philosophy. Hadn’t Belichick always said that players had to earn playing time, that no one was above anyone else? Hadn’t he always said things like “next man up” and all that jazz, Brown wondered?
Dumb question? In a sense, sure. Brown’s thinking, though, forced Belichick to comment as to why he had suddenly turned inconsistent in his thought process. Brown said he wouldn’t have touched the question with a 10-foot goal post had he not read something beforehand.
“When I read the transcripts, which said Tom would come back, that jumped off the page to me,” Brown told me. “Are you saying that even if Jimmy is great, Tom is coming back? That is the question that had to be put to him, about it being unconditional. I was trying to determine the parameters of him saying Tom is going to take over.”
Fair enough, I thought.
“Jesus Christ,” Belichick answered, obviously perturbed that someone had called him on what he had always claimed in the past, crazy as it was.
Boom. Dave Brown was on the map, the writer for the CON-cord Monitor who dared stir things up.
“Best player gets the job. That’s policy,” Brown tweeted shortly after the press conference. “The policy doesn’t apply here. This is based on PAST performance.”
To which Tom E. Curran, who works for Comcast SportsNet New England, responded, “You are presenting grade-school level hypotheticals and deluding yourself into thinking you cracked some code.”
Brown answered, “The whole franchise is predicated on no one being special.”
.@tomecurran: Predictable dance between @Patriots‘ Bill Belichick and media sometimes get testy Like today https://t.co/ehwQaMtWq6#Patriots
— CSN New England (@CSNNE) September 20, 2016
And he was right. What makes this scenario juicier is that a funny thing happened to Brady on his way back to the starter’s job: Based on statistics, Jimmy Garoppolo is ranked fourth in quarterback rating.
Yikes.
Move on to this week, when Brown asked the coach about Garoppolo and his injured shoulder. More than merely asking if he’d play, Brown asked if a diagnosis was needed before another backup might be brought in, signed as a free agent. And even if Garoppolo were cleared to play, would the Patriots sign another QB regardless, a third one, as an insurance policy?
Belichick wanted none of it, saying he was not a doctor, he was the coach and he wanted to do what was best for the team. Back and forth they went, the writer trying to chisel some meaningful information from the coach, the coach blatantly telling the writer that there was nothing to see here, so go away.
To which Doug Kyed, content producer for NESN’s digital department, wrote, “So here we are. The reporter makes himself the story again.”
Brown told me, “People are out there doing what they have to do every day. I respect everyone there. There is a certain standard procedure that when Bill shuts someone down, that is so common now that anyone who questions him could be seen as being disruptive.”
He continued: “My job is to ask a question, and I’m not going to stop asking because he either doesn’t understand or he’s pretending he doesn’t understand. I’m not going to let him use that to elude my question. I think it’s important we all treat Bill the same way we would treat anyone else standing at a podium.”
To which I say, bravo.
Brown is not some rookie hack covering sports. He’s got a master’s degree in journalism and his own law practice. He’s covered the Patriots for the Standard-Times in New Bedford, Mass., and he’s covered them in the postseason and at the Super Bowl.
He’s carefully polished his skills, crafting ways to ask Belichick questions in hopes of getting beyond a cliche or mere filler.
He balances respect and intelligence with a no-nonsense manner that reminds me of Bob Hohler, once a columnist for us and now an investigative sports writer for the Boston Globe.
Someone once called Hohler a teddy bear with a chainsaw, and I put Brown in this same category. He asks nicely, with no confrontational manner or whiff of arrogance, but he asks, all the same.
And if you dance around him like an angry presidential candidate, he’ll ask again.
Shame on him.
Brown is scheduled to be on the radio this morning with Dan Patrick, formerly of ESPN fame. He’ll be at Gillette Stadium tonight when the Patriots face the Houston Texans on short rest.
“How do you prepare a team on three days’ rest?” Brown said. “How do you prepare a rookie quarterback to start, and how do you also determine if your quarterback is healthy enough, and then do you try to figure out a way to bring someone in off the street?
“This means mountains of responsibility that the team has to deal with.”
Brown will be there for post-game interviews, covering a very hot topic, and you can bet no question will be off limits.
He’s the man.
(Ray Duckler can be reached at 369-3304 or rduckler@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @rayduckler.)