Notre Dame has always been strong at tight end but you could argue the Fighting Irish went from being strong at the position to simply being the best at it in the early 1990’s with a huge part of that being because of Derek Brown.
A few greats like dave casper, ken mcafee, and mark bavaro came before Brown but he was the first domino that led to a slew of Notre Dame tight ends being drafted ever since.
Brown played at Notre Dame from 1988 through 1991 and caught three touchdown passes during the championship season of ’88. In all, he’d catch 62 passes with the Irish for 899 yards and eight total touchdowns before becoming the 14th overall pick in the 1992 NFL draft by the New York Giants.
Previous to Brown being drafted, three Notre Dame tight ends had been selected in the first two rounds of the NFL draft all-time. Starting with Brown in ’92, eight Notre Dame tight ends have had their names called in the first two rounds since, including Irv Smith who was selected in the first round one year later.
In April of 2013, Her Loyal Sons caught up with Brown where he shared how he ultimately chose Notre Dame.
“One Saturday morning during the winter of my senior year of high school I popped in this video tape that I had that was called “Wake up the Echoes.” No one was home and I started watching it and the video gave me goose bumps and at that moment I thought, ‘Screw it. I’m going to Notre Dame.’”
Brown went on to play in the NFL from 1992-1999 with the Giants, Jaguars, Raiders, and Cardinals and caught 43 passes during that time.
Check out a few photos of Brown’s football career below!