The amazing thing isn't that Troy Brown played both ways Sunday in Cincinnati -- actually, three ways, when you count special teams, too -- but that he's playing at all.

He is, after all, 35 years old and in his 14th year in the National Football League, all of them -- count your blessings, Patriots fans -- with New England.

And, lest we forget, no less a football genius than Bill Vince Papa Bear Amos Alonzo Knute Parcells cut Brown prior to the 1994 season, after a rookie year in which the eighth-round draft choice out of Marshall -- bear in mind, too, that the NFL Draft no longer even lasts eight rounds -- was used primarily as a punt and kickoff returner.

Parcells, to give him his due, was savvy enough to re-sign Brown midway through the '94 season, and he has been with the Patriots ever since, although it was not until Bill Belichick took over the team in 2000 that Brown became more than a part-time player.

After starting only seven games in seven years (six of them in 1997, Pete Carroll's first year in New England), Brown was moved into a starting role by Belichick and, for three consecutive years, led the Patriots in receptions, topped by a career-high and team-record-setting, 101 -- for 1,199 yards (also a career-high) and 5 TDs (his career-high of 6 came in '97) -- in 2001, the year the Patriots won the Super Bowl for the first time by upsetting the Rams.

It also was against the Rams, three years later in St. Louis, that Brown first saw action as a defensive back.

Riddled by injuries in the secondary -- starting corners Ty Law and Tyrone Poole both were out, and Asante Samuel was hurt on the Rams' first passing play -- Brown was pressed into service as a defensive back.

That was a memorable game, because not only was Brown credited with a pass defensed and three solo tackles, but he also caught three passes, including a 4-yard TD toss from kicker Adam Vinatieri on a fake field goal.

"I do whatever I'm asked to do," said Brown, who has done it all in his career with the Patriots. "Any chance I have, I want to be out there. I love this game. I love to play. I'm having a ball."

Out of necessity, Belichick has been forced to keep putting Brown out there on defense, as injury problems have continued to beset the New England secondary in recent years.

"I don't want to put him on defense," Belichick said Monday, "but he's one of our best players and, if we need to, we've got to use him."

Truth be told, the Pats have had better pass receivers over the years -- the all-time best being Stanley Morgan, who was one of the league's premier deep threats from 1977 through '89. Better punt returners, too -- Irving Fryar, Mike Haynes and Carl Garrett, to name a few. And New England of course has had many better defensive backs.

But better all-around football players? That's debatable.

Brown is a throwback to the days of leather helmets and iron men, when substitution was limited and most players played both offense and defense.

In a different era, it would have been fun to see players like Haynes and Law play wide receiver, just as it would have been interesting to see Fryar -- or tough-guy quarterback Steve Grogan, for that matter -- play in the defensive backfield.

But Brown actually has done it. And continues to do it -- an achievement his teammates never fail to admire and appreciate.

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

"He's incredible," quarterback Tom Brady said. "He's just the ultimate football player."

How many other players in the modern era can boast -- not that Brown would boast; it's not his style -- not only of 524 career receptions (only 10 shy of Morgan's team record), but also of three career interceptions, as well as having returned three punts for touchdowns?

He also has caught 49 postseason passes -- two for TDs -- and, in the AFC Championship Game in Pittsburgh in 2001, returned a punt 55 yards for a touchdown while also making 8 receptions for 121 yards and recovering a blocked field-goal attempt that resulted in a touchdown when Brown lateraled to Antwan Harris, who ran 49 yards for the score.

"Troy's been a key player for us," Belichick said. "He does a lot of things. I'm glad we've got him.

"He certainly is a guy who gives you everything he's got, all the time. You just love coaching guys like that."

Brown has been asked whether he thinks of himself as an offensive player or a defensive player.

"I think of myself," he replied, "as a football player."

Which is the way that anyone who has had the pleasure of watching him over the years thinks of him, too.

jdonalds@projo.com / (401) 277-7340