In the NFL, free agency can be a dangerous game to play. Not every new signing can be Reggie White or Drew Brees. Most of the time, free agency is a fool’s gold situation, where a player gets signed by a new team to a massive contract that they very quickly begin to regret. That’s probably why the Steelers have strayed away from it for so long, only recently signing players from outside the organization to large deals. Unfortunately, the Steelers have also been on the other end of this situation, where they let a player walk that ends up being just as, or more, successful with their new team. Perhaps one of the first examples of this is Chad Brown.
Brown was a linebacker drafted by the Steelers in the second round of the 1993 draft. He was on the team from 1993 to 1996, being named First-team All-Pro once and making one Pro Bowl. Brown was a good player, but unfortunately, the Steelers had to allow him to test the market after the 1996 season. He went on to sign with the Seattle Seahawks, racking up 48 sacks, 55 tackles for loss, and three interceptions with them, as well as making two more Pro Bowls and being named First-team All-Pro one more time. In a recent interview with The Hawk’s Nest on YouTube, former Seahawks’ executive Randy Mueller discussed how the Seahawks signed Brown.
”We actually picked Chad up in a jet at midnight when free agency started in Denver, and his agent, Peter Schaffer. Brought them to Seattle, thinking that we had to be first, we had to throw our biggest offer at him, and if he left, it was gonna be very risky for him to get that somewhere else.”
Today, there would probably be investigations into tampering for that kind of behavior, but in 1997, it was what you had to do. Mueller’s description of free agency like a frenzy where you only get to eat if you get to the table first is still accurate for today. Sometimes, a player just can’t walk away from a certain amount of money, and as Mueller goes on to explain, they gave Brown a lot of money.
“Mickey Loomis was our contract and cap guy, the longtime GM of the Saints. Mickey and I were working on this deal with Peter, and we actually slid a check for $7 million across the table in front of Chad. He was scheduled to go to Carolina the next day to make a visit there, and we said, ‘That’s fine, you can go to Carolina, but you’re gonna be walking away from $7 million on this check.’ And it was a legitimate check, it was gonna be his signing bonus.”
Brown went on to sign that deal because walking away from $7 million in 1997 would’ve been insane, especially considering that was just his signing bonus. Neither Brown nor the Seahawks went on to regret their decision either, as Brown continued his success in Seattle until he left after the 2004 season, which funnily enough is just one year before the Seahawks played the Steelers in the Super Bowl.
Brown’s decision also wasn’t based purely on money either, as he got the opportunity in Seattle to rush the passer more than he did with the Steelers. To start his career, Brown was an inside linebacker, but during his best season with the Steelers in 1996, he was actually an edge rusher. Clearly, this switch affected Brown, as playing in Seattle gave him a chance to continue rushing the passer more.
It hasn’t been very often that the Steelers have allowed a good homegrown player to leave their building, but Brown is one such case. Recently, they’ve had players like Mike Hilton and Javon Hargrave leave and still maintain their high quality of play, but neither of those players was as good elsewhere as Brown was. Perhaps that’s a result of Brown playing slightly out of positions with the Steelers, as they already had players like Jason Gildon and Greg Lloyd at edge rusher. Regardless, Brown is one of the ones who got away, but the Steelers still got the last laugh after beating the Seahawks in Super Bowl 40. Shaun Alexander certainly seems to still be unhappy about that game.
