CFHOF Profile: Doug Brown
Legends in sports are a funny thing as they can usual come at the most unexpected times and involve some of the most unexpected people.
Players who become legendary figures in the cities they play in cannot be created because fans know when someone is trying too hard.
When a player looks to become that legend it often falls short and quite often the best players are not those that become the legends.
Of course, they are known as great players and their names are mentioned when speaking of past performances.
The best players will always hold a special place in every fans’ heart and that place gets bigger when those players retire.
Thinking back to the great days is a favourite thing of every sports fan and when debating the best teams those great players that put up massive numbers are always mentioned.
Still, these great players are often not necessarily considered the cult heroes when the played or even after they retired.
There is a different formula that creates those heroes and it does involve skill but that skill is less important than any number of other factors.
These heroes are more often than not the guys who were never supposed to be put in the limelight but are noticed by the fans.
They are not the superstars on the team but could be a player that seems to be physically inferior to other players and yet still comes up big at big times.
They are players who rarely get the glory but go to work and get their job done year after year.
These are the favourite players that people have in the sports world and it really all boils down to one aspect.
That aspect is as simple as hard work. There has never been a cult hero player who is naturally gifted from the point they started playing to their pro days.
Instead, they are the players that come into the sport already behind due to physical restrictions that everyone faces.
They are either too big or too small or too slow or not strong enough.
They are players that have to earn everything they get because they can’t simply coast on the natural ability they have been blessed with.
They are players who spend the extra time in the gym and the film room to get some type of edge that can keep them in the league.
The CFL has had plenty of these guys as most of the players who make their way to the CFL have already been overlooked by the NFL.
They are not necessarily the fastest or the strongest but they do have that work ethic and that attitude where nothing will stop them from achieving a dream of playing football for a living.
To be a cult hero in the CFL takes someone who is especially willing to work with everything they have to be one of the best.
There is no taking time off in a league full of people battling for their football lives every week.
It takes a special person to solidify themselves as a cult hero in a league full of players that could easily be considered cult heroes.
Although it is tough it is certainly not impossible and Doug Brown is the perfect example of that as the hero of Winnipeg became one of the most beloved athletes in Winnipeg sports.
He was not necessarily the most diminutive person in the league at 6’8” and 290 lbs but for some reason, he always seemed like a bit of an outsider.
He never seemed like he was the best natural athlete on the field and yet he worked hard to become one of the best athletes on the field.
In the CFL cult heroes often have another big factor that can make them easy to love and that is being Canadian.
Canadians may be mandated in the league but that certainly doesn’t mean that they are the stars of any team.
For an entire country watching there is always a special place for those Canadians who can truly make an impact in the league.
Brown was a native of New Westminster, British Columbia and although he didn’t immediately head to the CFL, spending time with the Buffalo Bills, he eventually made his way to Winnipeg,
That move turned out to be a great one as Brown quickly became one of the best defensive linemen in the league.
He plugged holes with the best of them and got to the quarterback at a great pace.
He was a star for the Bombers when the winning seasons were far from consistent and he quickly became a favourite for every fan.
His work ethic, the fact that he was Canadian, and perhaps most importantly that he stayed with the Bombers for his entire career made him a native son of Winnipeg.
The Winnipeg fans will be watching closely when Montreal takes on Hamilton at the home of the Canadian Hall of Fame in Hamilton.
It will be a day for so many to remember as the hero of the Bombers takes his rightful place among the best players in the game.
The Sport Addiction 