Former Chicago Bears safety Mike Brown endeared himself to fans of the team forever back in two memorable weeks during the 2001 season.
Brown spent the 2000-08 seasons with the Bears, playing in 100 games and starting 99. During his time in the Windy City, the hard-hitting safety amassed 510 solo tackles, 5.0 sacks, eight forced fumbles, seven fumble recoveries, 43 PBUs and 20 interceptions (stats via Pro Football Reference).
He’s most well known for the back-to-back game-winning interceptions he notched during Chicago’s 13-3 campaign in 2001. First, there was Brown’s pick-six in overtime against the San Francisco 49ers on October 28, sealing the win for the Bears. Then, one week later, he did it again against the Cleveland Browns.
Something that will never happen again:
Bears DB Mike Brown scores walk-off OT touchdowns off interceptions in consecutive weeks to defeat the 49ers and Browns, respectively.
Brown’s seven defensive touchdowns ranks second in Bears history, so he knows a thing or two about defensive playmakers — and he took to Twitter to send a message to one of the team’s standouts on ‘D’.
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Brown Saw Career Shortened By Injuries
Injuries cut Brown’s career short. He played in all 64 games (with 63 starts) during his first four seasons with the Bears, getting named a first-team All-Pro in 2001. The injury bug started biting the talented safety hard in 2004, after ligament damage in his right foot required surgery and kept him out of 14 games that season.
Brown also suffered a season-ending calf injury the following year in 2005, a Lisfranc injury in 2006 and a torn ACL the first week of the 2007 regular season. He played his final season for the Bears in 2008 and retired after a lone year with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2009, but those big overtime wins cemented his status in Bears’ lore.
“Mike Brown remains the only player in NFL history to win consecutive overtime games with a touchdown. That’s 102 seasons, close to 17,000 games — with Mike Brown standing alone.” Windy City Gridiron historian Jack Silverstein wrote in October of 2021.
“This defies imagination,” Brown said about his back-to-back walk off interceptions, via the team’s official website. “If a book was written about it, I don’t think anyone would believe it. It seems like it’s fiction. I don’t know how to explain it: higher power, luck, destiny, whatever you want to call it.”
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Brown on Roquan Smith: He’s ‘About to Tackle Everything in Sight’
Brown, who was one of the better tacklers in the NFL in his day, took to Twitter to send Bears linebacker Roquan Smith a message shortly after Smith ended his “hold-in.” The 25-year-old linebacker had stopped practicing and working out with the team during a recent contract dispute with general manager Ryan Poles, and after the two sides could not agree on an extension, Smith re-joined the squad on August 20.
“RO about to be tackling everything in sight!” Brown tweeted, adding: “AS A BEAR FAN, Thank You! We love seeing you doing your thang!”
RO about to be tackling everything in sight!
AS A BEAR FAN,
Thank You!
We love seeing you doing your thang!
The latter comment was presumably referring to Smith asking to be the league’s highest-paid linebacker during negotiations and holding firm on his request despite not getting what he wanted.
Brown was part of the last Bears defense to go to the Super Bowl (after the 2006 season), and he’s clearly still following what the Bears are doing on that side of the ball.
Smith has already been a tackling machine over his first four seasons, netting over 500 total tackles, so if Brown is correct and the young LB is about to go off even more, opposing offenses had better be on mega-high alert.
Last two players with 300+ tackles and 30+ tackles for loss in a 2-year span in NFL history:
Roquan Smith (2020-2021)
Ray Lewis (1999-2000)
That’s called dominance 😤
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Bears Great Sends Strong Message to Roquan Smith