Texans' first receivers coach Kippy Brown, who also interviewed for head coaching job, dead at 71
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Kippy Brown, who was the Houston Texans' first wide receivers coach and later interviewed for the team's head coaching job, died this week at 71 years old.
Brown spent 22 seasons as an NFL assistant, including four years with the Texans, beginning when Dom Capers hired him in February 2002, seven months before the franchise's first game.
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His time in Houston included three seasons coaching Hall of Famer Andre Johnson, who often credited Brown with helping him becoming a true professional.
"We talked a lot," Johnson told the Houston Chronicle in 2009. "He always told me, 'Just keep working, things aren't going to be the way they were in college.'"
After the Texans went 2-14 in 2005, Capers was fired and Brown was interviewed for the head coaching job, which eventually went to Gary Kubiak.
Brown's first NFL job came in 1990 when he was hired to coach running backs for the New York Jets. He also was an assistant with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Miami Dolphins, Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions and Seattle Seahawks. He was the Dolphins' offensive coordinator under Jimmy Johnson for two seasons and the Lions' associate head coach under Rod Marinelli during Detroit's dreadful 0-16 season in 2008. He won a Super Bowl ring as the Seahawks receivers coach in 2014 and retired a year later.
Brown also was head coach of the Memphis Maniax in the short-lived XFL in 2001.
As a player, Brown was the first Black quarterback to play at Memphis, when he led the school, which was then known as Memphis State, from 1974-77.
Brown had three separate stints as an assistant at the University of Tennessee. He first coached receivers there under Johnny Majors from 1983-89 when the school became known as "Wide Receiver U." for some of the talent it produced, including Alvin Harper, Carl Pickens, Anthony Miller and Tim McGee.
He returned to work under Phil Fulmer for two seasons in 1993-94, then briefly came back again when Lane Kiffin hired him as receivers coach and passing game coordinator in December 2009. A month later, Kiffin bolted Tennessee after just one season to take the head coaching job at USC. Brown was named interim head coach, but was passed over for the full-time job when it was given to Derek Dooley.
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