By Kevin Kelly
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Every long-term relationship experiences a few bumps along the way. The player and the sweat-suit-wearing, maverick owner were no different.

But through the years, and in the past five or six, wide receiver Tim Brown and longtime Raiders owner Al Davis have come to an understanding about each other.

"We've reached the point where he understands that I'm all about winning," Brown said. "I didn't want to be a Raider to be a superstar or come to California to get near Hollywood or something.

"I came out here to play good football."

Faithful to the Raiders for 16 years, the 1987 Heisman Trophy winner has endeared himself to colleagues and to those frighteningly obsessive Raiders fans with his underrated talent and Hall of Fame-worthy statistics.

The Bengals visit Oakland Sunday.

"Tim Brown is The Man," said Cincinnati defensive back Tory James, who played with Brown in Oakland the previous three seasons.

"He's one of the best ever to play the game at the wide receiver position. He gets the respect in the locker room from all the players and throughout the league."

Once considered the NFL's version of Ernie Banks or Patrick Ewing, a great player who never made it to a championship game, the 37-year-old Brown shed that stigma in January.

The Raiders, who lost the AFC Championship game in 1991 and 2001, played the Buccaneers in Super Bowl XXXVII.

"We were elated for Tim," Raiders head coach Bill Callahan said. "All the years that you toil to try and get into that position, it's great to reward a player of his experience with an opportunity like that."

Brown's first Super Bowl appearance added to a resume that includes more than 1,000 career receptions, 14,000 yards and 90 touchdowns.

But an ugly 48-21 loss to Tampa Bay, one in which Brown caught one pass for 9 yards, left him with something still to chase.

"Obviously we would've liked a better outcome or to even play a better football game," Brown said. "So that sort of gave us an emphasis this year to come back and do this thing one more time and see if we can get to the big game again and finish it off."

But if the Raiders are to do that, it probably will be with Brown playing a lesser role in Oakland's offense.

He caught 81 passes for 930 yards and just two touchdowns last season. It broke a string of nine consecutive seasons with 1,000 or more receiving yards and 11 seasons with at least five touchdowns.

Brown's work ethic was undeterred.

"Tim is just a hard worker," James said. "He studies the game, knows the game.

"Just being there watching him practice and play was something special to see how he worked and how much he wanted to win."

Opposing teams still must consider Brown a threat in a pass-oriented offense that features certain Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice and sure-handed running back Charlie Garner.

"Their offense is built around those guys," Bengals cornerback Jeff Burris said. "It makes it nearly impossible to cover them.

"They know what to do, know how to get open, and that makes it tougher."

When you've been around as long as Brown, or Rice for that matter, there's little to fear from opposing defenses.

"There's never going to be a situation where we're going to be confused out there," Brown said. "You're going to get beat physically every once in a while. ... Somebody is going to jam you up and you won't be able to get out of it.

"For the most part ... we're able to adjust and just keep moving on. Even when a guy thinks he has you covered, sometimes you have him right where you want him to be."

Tim Brown file
Team: Raiders.
Position: Wide receiver.
NFL Experience: 16th season.
Acquired: No. 1 pick in 1988 draft.
Games: 225.
Games started: 184.
Receptions: 1,023.
Yards: 14,231.
Touchdowns: 98.

---

E-mail kkelly@enquirer.com

Return to Bengals front page...