Call him ‘Mr. Clutch’

KIRKLAND, Wash. – By his best recollection, it all started with the Whitney Bears.

Josh Brown was in the sixth grade, playing guard for that local basketball team, when he got his first chance to win a game. With the clock winding down, the 12-year old got the ball deep in the right corner, pulled up for an off-balance shot, and watched the desperation heave go through the net as time expired.

It was then that Mr. Clutch delivered his first game-winner.

“That was awesome,” the Seattle Seahawks place-kicker said Wednesday. “You leave the floor screaming and yelling.

“I can remember hitting big home runs in baseball and stuff like that, but nothing where the moment overtakes you like a last-second shot or field goal.”

In his past 11 regular-season games, Brown has felt a similar state of euphoria three times. The difference, of course, is that he did it on a football field – and with hundreds of thousands of people watching.

“I’ve always enjoyed the moment of having the opportunity to be that guy,” Brown said, “no matter the sport or whether I was the starter or coming off the bench.”

A well-rounded athlete – he won the Oklahoma state high jump title as a high school senior and played some wide receiver at the University of Nebraska – Brown remembers winning games by nailing 3-pointers on the basketball court, belting home runs on the baseball diamond and drilling penalty kicks on the soccer field.

But none of that compares to kicking a game-winning field goal on the gridiron. The stakes are higher because kickers don’t put in the same physical exertion that their teammates do, yet they’re often called upon to win or lose the game.

“That’s where the pressure’s applied,” said Brown, who beat Dallas and the New York Giants with last-second field goals last season and won Sunday’s game at Detroit with a 42-yarder as time expired. “You look around and say, ‘These are my buddies, my teammates, my friends, my neighbors, and they just killed themselves to get here. Some with broken bones, head injuries.’

“They’re out there suffering, and then little old me, who’s over here having a Gatorade, has to come out and either make the day or ruin everybody’s week.”

Not that the fourth-year NFL veteran has delivered every time.

In an Oct. 2, 2005, game against the Washington Redskins, Brown had a chance to win a game in regulation when he ran onto the field with the score tied and only a few seconds left on the clock. His 47-yard field-goal attempt hit the left upright, and the Redskins went on to win in overtime.

Afterward, several teammates tried to console Brown, but he wanted none of it.

“I wanted to be left alone,” he said, recalling the aftermath of that 20-17 loss. “I know what it’s like to depend on someone else and to be let down. I know what that feeling’s like.

“Guys are polite – ‘we still believe in you,’ and all that stuff – but I also understand that there’s anger there, and disappointment and frustration. That’s part of it.

“So I want to be by myself for a while, regain my thoughts and (eventually) get a chance to prove myself. And I got that chance in the Dallas game.”

Brown hit a 50-yarder at the end of regulation to beat Dallas 13-10 on Oct. 23, 2005.

He added another game-winner five weeks later against the New York Giants, and a third in Sunday’s win over Detroit.

His heroics have earned Brown quite a reputation within the Seahawks locker room.

“To me, he’s probably the best kicker in the league,” fullback Mack Strong said. “He’s definitely one of the best clutch kickers.”