The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

FOXBORO — In the end, it was the Baskin-Robbins that got him.

Asked yesterday what made Troy Brown decide it was time to call it a career, he traced it back to his frequent trips to the ice-cream parlor.

“I couldn’t stop going to Baskin-Robbins,” he said, laughing through the tears that kept his eyes shining throughout yesterday morning’s news conference. “When June comes around, I am usually on a pretty strict diet. When I was still going to Baskin-Robbins, I figured it was probably over.”

The man whom both New England owner Robert Kraft and head coach Bill Belichick called “the consummate Patriot” officially said goodbye yesterday, ending a storied 15-year career. Brown has been involved in nearly every big moment, every big game New England has enjoyed in that time, whether on offense, defense or special teams.

“I was thinking back that it was 14 years ago when we bought the team,” Kraft said. “Since that time, we have had three head coaches, dozens of assistant coaches and 820 players. There is only one player that has been a constant through that whole period, who was actually here before my family (took ownership).”

With his wife, Kimberly, and sons Sir’mon and SaanJay front and center, surrounded by action shots of himself throughout the usually bare media workroom at Gillette Stadium, the quiet yet unquestioned leader said he “can’t keep up anymore.”

An eighth-round draft pick in 1993, Brown embodies the selfless mantra that has become gospel within the Patriots since Belichick took over.

There isn’t anything Brown wouldn’t do to help his team win, including flipping over to the defensive side of the ball, as he did in 2004 with admirable success.

An emotional Belichick, whose voice caught in his throat on more than one occasion, ran down the list of memorable moments from Brown’s career.

From the touchdown pass he caught from fellow receiver David Patten against the Colts in 2001, to the three catches he had in New England’s Super Bowl-winning drive against Carolina, to the 27-yard punt return that set up Adam Vinatieri’s game-tying field goal in the Snow Bowl, to his interception of former teammate Drew Bledsoe against Buffalo in November 2004.

To the day in 2006 he lined up at cornerback against Green Bay and held NFC-leading receiver Donald Driver to one catch for 3 yards, and the long touchdown pass he caught from Tom Brady in Miami in overtime in 2003 to give the Pats their first early-season road win over the Dolphins in years.

That 82-yard bomb was yet another example of Brown changing minds about the too-small, too-slow South Carolina native.

“Nobody thought Troy could go deep. Nobody thought he could make the big plays. But all he did was make plays,” Belichick said. “He just kept making them.”

Though Belichick didn’t miss many of Brown’s big plays, there is one he forgot, and it is the most recent in the minds’ of Patriots fans: against San Diego in the AFC Divisonal playoffs in 2006.

Trailing the favored Chargers after allowing them back into the game in the second half, Tom Brady’s fourth-down pass attempt ended up in the arms of San Diego corner Marlon McCree.

But perhaps because of his practice as a nickelback, Brown stripped McCree of the ball and it was recovered by then-Patriot Reche Caldwell, and New England went on to win the game.

While he had seen a sharp decline in his receiving statistics the previous year, 2003, Brown wasn’t expecting it that training camp morning when defensive backs coach Eric Mangini approached him with a playbook.

A defensive playbook.

“I kind of thought they were joking. I always used to tease Ty [Law] about playing defensive back, and [Law would joke about playing receiver]. We did it for years,” he said. “[Eric Mangini] came in and said, ‘You always said you wanted to be a defensive back and you can do it, so here’s your chance.’ I’ll tell you, that first day was pretty bad.”

Offensive coordinator Charlie Weis was happy to see Brown struggle, because he figured that would be the end of the experiment and he’d get his player back.

But the next day, Belichick told him to try it again. In Week Nine, against the high-powered St. Louis Rams, Asante Samuel suffered an injury early, forcing Brown into emergency defensive duty.

A week later against the Bills, he had his first of three interceptions on the season.

As Brown noted, Belichick won’t put players on the field if he thinks they’ll hurt the team, so it meant a lot to him that the coach entrusted him in the cornerback role.

But, he joked, that may have been one occasion in which Belichick made a desperation move, as so many players in the defensive backfield lost time to injury that year.

Besides all his selflessness on the field, Brown made some selfless decisions off it as well: in 2005, after being released by New England for salary-cap reasons, he received a nice offer from New Orleans, one that would pay him more money than a new deal with the Pats. But his boys protested, saying they didn’t want to see their father play for any team but the Patriots.

After Belichick told Brown earlier this year that he wouldn’t be in the team’s plans for the season, he visited with the Jets, where Mangini now coaches and where the team colors are similar to those of his alma mater, Marshall, but in the end made his decision.

“I would give anything in the world to put those pads on again and do it. I had the opportunity to do it, but it just wasn’t the right (uniform) color. I didn’t think I looked good in green and white again,” Brown said. “The only colors you ever seen on my back (are) the red, white and blue of the New England Patriots. I am proud to say that.

“It’s been a wonderful ride. I can’t think of anything better in life than to enjoy a sunny afternoon playing football. Now I’ll enjoy those sunny afternoons watching football and still saying in my head, ‘I can make that play.’  ”

• No. 1 all-time Patriots receiver, with 557 catches

• No. 19 on all-time Patriots scoring list, with 206 points

• Three

interceptions in 2004

• Played on defense in the ’04, ’05 and ’06 regular seasons, and in the ’04 and ’05 playoffs

• All-time leading Patriots punt

returner, with 270 returns

• Eighth-leading Patriots kickoff returner, with 87 returns

smanza@projo.com