Micah Brown sounds like a regular visitor to the Louvre or the National Gallery of Canada when he talks about the inner workings of the Montreal Alouettes defence.<\/p>\n
To Brown, Montreal defensive coordinator Noel Thorpe\u00a0is more artist than architect \u2014 more painter than play caller.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like how he expresses himself through his defence \u2013 the pressure, the simplicity,\u201d says Brown, a Diversity in Football Program presented by Securian Canada participant working with the Als during training camp in Quebec City.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember mentioning to him how I really enjoy how elegant his defence is, his terminology and how it flows with the responsibilities per position off one play call and how it all seamlessly works together.\u201d<\/p>\n
RELATED A quarterback by trade, Brown possesses a keen knowledge of how all the different positions work together on both offence and defence. He played 11 seasons of professional football in 10 countries, including Germany, Finland, Poland and France, and currently serves as the defensive backs coach for the Bishop\u2019s University Gaiters.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a short quarterback, you know, five-foot-10,\u201d said Brown, 39. \u201cAnd on top of that, I\u2019m a short Black athletic quarterback, which the game wasn\u2019t ready for at that time.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, I wasn\u2019t bigger than anybody, but I had to make sure that I could max out everything else. Could I be faster, could I be stronger, could I be quicker? I could do all those things to a certain degree or a certain level. But the one thing I knew that was untapped was my knowledge of the game and understanding and being able to apply that knowledge to the field. And that\u2019s ultimately how I beat my competition.\u201d<\/p>\n The opportunity to serve as an apprentice under Thorpe and head coach Jason Maas came through the CFL\u2019s Diversity in Football Program presented by Securian Canada. Now in its fifth year, the program opens doors for people from diverse cultural backgrounds, helping them gain momentum in their chosen football careers \u2014 or even assisting them in carving out a completely new path within the sport.<\/p>\n Brown is one of four Diversity in Football participants in the East Division. Jonathan Rose is embedded with the coaching staff in Ottawa, Leroy Ackom is working with the video crew in Toronto, and Myles Manalo is focusing on special teams, operations and personnel with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.<\/p>\n \u201cYou always want to work to be better and to be your best,\u201d Brown said. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s about watering the grass under my feet. Wherever I\u2019m at, I want it to be the best, and if I end up leaving, I want it to be better than it was when I got there. It\u2019s always one of those things about elevating.\u201d<\/p>\n Brown\u2019s path to Montreal hasn\u2019t exactly been straight. He\u2019s a journeyman, of sorts, with expertise in the fine art of moving house and walking into new locker rooms.<\/p>\n \u201cI created the portal before the portal was a thing,\u201d he said, referring to the modern era of player movement in college football. \u201cFor me, at the time, it was just going where opportunities were available for me to compete at the quarterback position. I went through a couple of different universities, learned a lot, met a lot of people, been through a lot of systems and different styles of offence. I think it\u2019s definitely helped me later in life as a coach.\u201d<\/p>\n Before arriving at Alouettes training camp, Brown took part in the 2026 Tampa Bay Buccaneers Coaching Academy. He was one of 25 finalists named out of nearly 1,000 applicants for the academy, which creates pathways for coaches who aspire to one day work in the National Football League.<\/p>\n For Brown, the academy served as a homecoming of sorts in the city where he grew up.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be able to circle back and go there for that program was absolutely amazing,\u201d he said. \u201cSuper grateful for that opportunity. It\u2019s something I couldn\u2019t even have imagined.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing able to leave there with a mentor, with coaches asking for my contact information and saying, \u2018Hey, let\u2019s keep in touch,\u2019 that was real to me,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI still call and chat with those guys now. We\u2019re keeping that relationship going, which I find really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n No matter where he\u2019s coaching \u2014\u00a0 Montreal, Tampa or at Bishop\u2019s in Sherbrooke, Que. \u2014 Brown calls football a people business. Thorpe, for example, might be an artist, but he also gets his players to buy in and\u00a0 play their part in the masterpiece.<\/p>\n Brown figures that many players instinctively sense that he understands the sacrifices they make in pursuit of their dream.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of guys relate with the grind and what I had to do,\u201d he said. \u201cI think they really respect the work ethic, the commitment, the mental fortitude, the resilience.<\/p>\n \u201cThey feel that, because that\u2019s the season they\u2019re in now, working through those things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Micah Brown sounds like a regular visitor to the Louvre or the National Gallery of Canada when he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-684958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u00bb\u00a0Diversity is strength videos, stories and much more<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Alicia Gladue finding her coaching path through CFL Women in Football Program<\/a>
\u00bb Women in Football Program opens new doors for Vera, Gray at CFL training camps<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Diversity in Football Program presented by Securian Canada welcomes 9 new participants<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Addison, de Vera embracing new opportunities through Diversity in Football Program<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Subscribe to the CFL\u2019s newsletter for exclusive offers and league updates<\/a><\/p>\n