Pharaoh Brown – March 24, 2025
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Monday, March 24, 2025
TE Pharaoh Brown
(Just generally speaking, why Miami? What attracted you Miami and what were some of your first impressions of Head Coach Mike McDaniel?) – “The opportunity kind of attracted me – what do they say? Sometimes beggars can’t be choosers. Nah, I’m just playing (laughter). Oh man, that’s hilarious. He’s an offensive-minded guy, I played for a defensive-minded coach last year and the last couple of years so it’s kind of a different ball game when the head man is a defensive guy. So as an offensive guy you want an offensive-minded guy to be running the show, so that’s exciting. First time meeting Coach (McDaniel), very smart. You can tell that he loves ball and knows a lot of ball and I’m excited to be able to learn from him.”
(So the Dolphins need to improve their run game and in order to do that, they need run blocking help from the tight ends and receivers. What have you been told about that? What have you seen on film? What’s your plan to help in that area?) – “I haven’t been told anything as far as that area. I think everybody around the league right now is trying to be better at running the ball after the show that Saquon (Barkley) put on last year. When you look around at all these teams that were in those big games where everybody wanted to be, they had a great run game. So I think that’s the emphasis around the whole league and me being good at blocking and a good blocking tight end, I think it’s going to be a collective of the o-line, the receivers, the tight ends, the fullbacks – I mean running the ball is one of those things that’s so cool because it takes the whole collective to get done, and once it’s done, it’s kind of like a beauty. I’m just ready to obviously learn the new offense and get in tuned and be able to help wherever I’m plugged at.”
(Have you always liked physical contact, even going back to peewee? Did you hit people, or did you play quarterback or something?) – “Hey, quarterbacks are just soft, I guess? That was the key then, if you just played quarterback, you was soft? (laughter) Man, when I was coming up all the drills that I was brought up in playing football is all banned now: nutcracker, bull in the ring, like we was really playing ball. I remember being young and I’m in the middle of the ring and guys running at you and you got to come meet them. It’s kind of like a fight in the backyard. It’s like you’re going to run and meet them. If you don’t even run and meet them, hitting them is just not good enough. You got to go run and meet that contact. So that’s kind of like how I was brought up, so that was just always football. It didn’t matter if you played quarterback either. The quarterback was getting in there where I played at so yeah, but that’s all banned now so a lot of people might not know what I’m talking about. This is some kind of stuff you don’t want to try at home.”
(So that leads perfectly into what I was going to ask you about, and it’s physicality and mentality. You being a blocking tight end, it’s kind of inherent in that title and that job, you have to be physical. You have to be aggressive. How do you impart that physicality and aggression on to your teammates? Do you talk to them? Do you do it by example? How do you impart that to your teammates?) – “I’ve never gone out and just think like, ‘oh, I’ve got to impart this.’ Everybody has their strong suit and there’s different ways to skin a cat. Some people might do it more finesse, some people may do it more physical. When I’m helping teammates, I’m just trying to help them wherever they’re at and I’ve been in a lot of different situations, been in a lot of offenses, had to a lot of different things. When I was at Oregon, I wasn’t a blocking tight end. I was undrafted so I had to find niche to be able to stay in the league, because when you’re undrafted, ain’t nobody paying you to come catch no balls. That’s down the line, that’s like being ‘so you undrafted but you’re going to be the scorer on basketball,’ like nah. You better get these rebounds, play some defense or something, you’ve got to be kidding me. You ain’t about to take no threes. (laughter) So that’s just kind of how I was able to find my niche to make a career out of this thing and I just try to help all of my teammates in whatever way I can, but I’m not set out to, ‘I got to make this team more physical.’ Like I think energy feeds off of energy, right? So once they see it and the momentum and just the energy, I think you kind of see that in teams, so hopefully it can be infectious.”
(The other part of that is, this is a team that had been accused of being soft and they need to be more physical, more aggressive and one of the aspects of that is supposedly they can’t play in cold weather. You were raised what, Cleveland, I guess. You’ve played in cold weather cities. Is there anything to that? Is there a difference in playing in cold weather than warm weather and can a team be not good at playing in cold weather?) – “I mean I’m not sure who ‘they’ is that are giving this information that you know like people are soft in the cold weather. I haven’t seen or been a part of that, but I mean no matter where you’re from or where you’re playing at, I grew up playing there, but it’s cold. I’m cold, it ain’t like I ain’t getting cold. If it’s cold out there, it’s cold out there, boy – 30 degrees is 30 degrees, it doesn’t matter if you – that negative wind chill get to kicking, I don’t care if you’ve lived there your whole life, bro, you’re going to be bundled up, you know what I’m saying? So I think it’s actually harder to play in the heat if I’m being honest with you because everybody’s not adjusted to that humidity and stuff like that. So the cold is cold for everybody and I’m not a believer in – you are who you are, you know what I mean? And people is who people is and it’s not like something like, ‘I’m going to make you tougher,’ or ‘you’ve got to go play in this freezing weather to be tougher.’ Some games you might just not win that game or some games you know what I mean, you didn’t handle the weather that good. Buffalo lost games in Buffalo when it was snowing to teams that weren’t from the snow, you know what I mean? All these northern teams would be undefeated if that was the case, I should say.”
(Just to ask you more about what you mentioned about you had to find a niche to stay in the league, did it occur to you then early in your career, “I need to become an elite in-line blocker” and what coaches helped you develop that skill?) – “It never occurred to me, it just happened. I mean I always blocked, but once you get to the league, you kind of get pigeonholed and boxed in into a certain category of what you can and can’t do. My whole career, I was always trying to prove that I could do both, that I could do more because I was never really getting my fair shot and fair opportunity. Just going through a lot of self-reflecting and just trying to clear the resentment and things that I had mentally and going on with me it’s just like, you know what? I’m already a Hall of Famer, you know what I mean? Like I’ve changed my family’s life, my neighborhood, like I’m a Hall of Famer when it comes to this Brown family and for me, that’s all that counted. So when I was like, I’ve made a career out of this thing by doing it, so now I’m like, I’m going to lean into this and I’m going to be the best Y-tight end, the best blocker, the best pass blocking guy, you know what I mean? And the ball comes to me, I’ll do what I do when I get it. That’s how it’s always been. Now it’s just like leaning into that and knowing that I am enough and just, it’s a lot of things from when I’m younger to I’m older that really matters, you know what I mean? Now, I want to be elite, and I haven’t felt like I’ve put my full self together yet and best is still out there so I’m just excited to keep working and really go out there and show the whole world – and myself more importantly.”
