Veteran wide receiver Troy Brown gave his team a little bit of everything yesterday, on both sides of the ball.

01:00 AM EST on Monday, November 8, 2004

BY JIM DONALDSON
Journal Sports Writer

ST. LOUIS -- Put Troy Brown in a leather helmet. Then put him in at either wide receiver or defensive back. Send him back to return punts, too, while you're at it.

Throw away his face mask. Then throw the ball his way. If the pass is from his quarterback, he'll catch it. If it's from the other team's quarterback, he'll knock it down.

As good as Brown has been as a wide receiver during his 12 years playing for the New England Patriots, he'd have been even better back in the days when players went both ways.

"I'm a football player," he said, after playing both wide receiver and defensive back in yesterday's 40-22 rout of the Rams.

He is that, and more.

He is a throwback. He's a 60-minute man. In this age of the specialist, when many players on both sides of the ball get on the field only in specific down-and-distance situations, Brown is the sort of player who would have been right at home with the likes of Brown University's famous "11 Iron Men" of the late 1920s.

"I just want to play football," he said. "Any chance I have, I want to be out there. Whenever I can get on the field, I just like playing ball."

You've got to love this guy.

Remember, he was cut by Bill Parcells in 1994 after having been an 8th-round draft choice out of Marshall the previous year. Re-signed by New England midway through the '94 season, he didn't make his first career start until 1997, when he filled in for the injured Terry Glenn.

It wasn't until the 2000 season, when Bill Belichick came to New England, that Brown finally became a star -- catching 83 passes that year, 101 in 2001, and 97 in 2002.

Still, Brown never forgot his roots, never lost his willingness to do whatever he could to help the Patriots win.

Yesterday, that meant catching 3 passes for 30 yards and a touchdown, the score coming on a 4-yard pass from kicker Adam Vinatieri when the Rams were expecting a field goal.

More importantly, it meant Brown stepping in to play defense whenever the Patriots used five or six backs in the secondary.

"I couldn't play wide receiver," said Rodney Harrison, the Pats' veteran strong safety. "For Troy to make plays on offense, then come back in and play the slot receiver man-to-man, shows how versatile he is."

Brown knew that, with starting corners Ty Law and Tyrone Poole both out with injuries, there was a chance he'd be pressed into action on defense yesterday.

But he never expected it to happen as quickly as it did.

When Asante Samuel injured his shoulder making the tackle on the Rams' first pass play, Brown knew he was in for a busy afternoon.

"When he got hurt," Brown said, "I knew I'd better get ready pretty quick. As soon as he went down, I started stretching."

With receivers such as Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt, a strong-armed young quarterback in Marc Bulger, and a creative offensive mind in coach Mike Martz, the Rams are renowned for stretching defenses.

"I was a little nervous," Brown said. "To have to come in against the Rams, of all teams. Their speed can be intimidating. Tory and Isaac are two of the best ever to play the game. And they've got some young guys who can run. But I knew I had to stay calm and hold my own."

He did that, and more.

Although he was called once for pass interference, it was only an 8-yard penalty and came in the fourth quarter when the Patriots had the game well in hand.

Thanks, in part, to Brown's TD catch on the pass from Vinatieri.

That came on the Pats' first possesion of the second half, when it appeared they were going to have to settle for what would have been Vinatieri's fifth field goal of the game.

"We couldn't snap the ball fast enough to suit me," said Brown, who went unnoticed by the Rams as he loitered near the left sideline.

"We called the play on third down," he said. "If we didn't get in (the end zone), we were going to run that play."

Brown's job is to make sure an official notices that he first comes inside the numbers painted on the field before drifting back toward the sideline, while at the same time going unnoticed by the defenders.

"I don't think the Rams' coaches saw me, either," he said. "Usually, if they do, the coaches start screaming and jumping up and down."

Vinatieri checks to see if Brown is left uncovered and, if he is, calls for a direct snap and then lobs the ball into the end zone.

"We practiced it a few times this week," said Brown. "He was a little erratic with it."

When it counted, however, Vinatieri's throw was right on target.

"Troy kind of hid on the outside," Vinatieri said, "and we snapped the ball before they noticed him, and I just threw it out there. I knew if I got it anywhere close, he's got such good hands that he'd catch it."

Brown also proved to be adept at preventing people from catching the ball.

He was credited with breaking up a pass, and had a chance at an interception when he got his hands on a deflected ball, but couldn't hang on. He also made three tackles.

"I got a little winded," he said, "because I hadn't been playing a whole lot on either offense or defense."

Injuries had kept Brown on the sidelines for four games, and most of a fifth, before he returned to action last week at Pittsburgh.

"He did everything we asked him to do," Pats quarterback Tom Brady said. "He almost had an interception. That was great to see. On the fake field goal, I was glad to see it work. Adam made a nice throw, and Troy made an easy catch and walked in. He's just the ultimate football player."