Meet the Coach: Seattle Seahawks Wide Receiver coach Kippy Brown

Welcome to a new feature on the coaches of the Seattle Seahawks. As everyone is familiar with Head Coach Pete Carroll, Offensive Coordinator Darrell Bevell and Defensive Coordinator Dan Quinn, we thought we would introduce you to the lesser known coaches on this team. A chance if you will, to look beyond the front line and meet some of the men who put as much work into every game as the players.

More from Seattle Seahawks News

• 4 prospects Seahawks could reach for at No. 20 in 2023 NFL Draft
• Seattle Seahawks Mock Draft: Post-first wave of free agency 
• Seahawks podcast: A review of the first week of free agency
• 4 experiments the Seattle Seahawks could cut short in 2023
• 3 pros and cons of Seattle Seahawks drafting Anthony Richardson

First up is Kippy Brown, Wide receivers coach

Brown started his own football career as a quarterback at Sweetwater High in Sweetwater, TN, taking his team to 2 consecutive state championships. At Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis) he again played quarterback, from 1975 to 1977.  Once he graduated,  he moved to the sidelines, starting his coaching career with his college alma mater,  one year as a RB coach, and the next two coaching the WR’s.

After a two year layoff, Brown moved on to the University of Louisville where one of his young  pupils was Mark Clayton, who later became a standout receiver with the Miami Dolphins and one of Dan Marino’s favorite targets.

His next stop was Tennessee. For 7 year he guided wide receivers, including the likes of Alvin Harper, Anthony Miller, Tim McGee and Carl Pickens. He made the leap to the pro ranks joining the New York Jets where he coaching the running backs for 3 years. In his second year with the Jets, his running backs ranked 5th in the NFL in rushing and the Jets made the playoffs for the first time in 6 years.

A second stint at Tennessee followed, as assistant head coach and wide receivers coach. During his tenure, the Vols went 18-6 and a young Peyton Manning spent his freshman year under Browns tutelage.

What followed were stops in the NFL with Tampa Bay, Miami, Green Bay, Houston and Detroit working variously with running backs and wide receivers, while adding assistant head coach and offensive coordinator titles to his resume. Brown also served as Head coach for a single year with the Memphis Maniacs of the now defunct XFL as well as a third and final stint in the collegiate ranks with Tennessee.

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

In 2010, then new Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll hired Brown to be his wide receivers coach, where Brown remains to this day. In 2011, the Seahawks signed an unknown rookie free agent receiver out of Stanford, Doug Baldwin. That year, Baldwin became only the 2nd rookie WR in NFL history to lead his team in receiving with 51 receptions for 788 yds and 4 tds.

In 2013 Brown’s core receiving group consisted of Baldwin, Golden Tate (a 2nd round draft pick in 2010 out of Notre Dame) and Jermaine Kearse, signed in 2012 as a rookie free agent out of the University of Washington. He guided this particular group, called “average”, through a grueling seasons worth of spectacular and improbable catches, and capped it off with a win in Super Bowl XLVIII,. That win included a 23 yard catch and run by Kearse where he pin balled through 4 tacklers to reach the end zone and a 10 yard reception that saw Baldwin elude would be tacklers and slither his way to a touchdown.

With nearly 40 years of coaching under his belt, a small role in the 2005 film “Friday Night Lights”, and now a SB ring, Kippy Brown has done much in his career. He has coached a future Hall of Famer and guided an unknown group of “appetizers” into a force to be taken seriously.. The Seahawks mantras, taken to heart by this man who travelled from the small town of Sweetwater, Tennessee to one of the biggest venues in sports – “Dare to Dream” and “What’s next?”.