New Patriot Profile: Trent Brown
BOSTON (CBS) -- The first thing you notice about Trent Brown is that he's hard not to notice.
Brown stands at 6-foot-8 and weighs 380 pounds. He was born big, at six pounds, nine ounces, despite arriving a month early. And he just kept growing from there.
"One summer, my sophomore year going into my junior year, I grew like four inches," Brown told WBZ-TV ahead of Patriots training camp. "I went from 6-foot-2, 6-foot-3 to 6-foot-7. It felt weird. I woke up one morning and was taller than everyone in the house."
Brown comes from a big family, with his father and brother both standing 6-foot-7. His father, Reginald, played college basketball, and while his son had offers to play hoop at Old Dominion and Alabama State coming out of high school, football won out. Dad was more than fine with that decision.
"He's very excited. Very proud is a better word," said Brown. "To see all the work that he put in and everything that we did, everything he instilled in me growing up. To see me turn out the way I have, [he's] more proud than anything."
Brown's reputation as an NFL tackle is growing, too. In fact, just last season, six-time Pro Bowl defensive end Von Miller of the Denver Broncos called Brown "the best right tackle in the NFL, and maybe even a top-five tackle, period."
That kind of praise means a lot to the 25-year-old Brown.
"I'm always appreciative of the high praise from a great player like him," said Brown. "Speaks to my work ethic and how I approach the game. Coming from a guy like that -- I've had a lot of doubts about me, drafted in the seventh round. To get high praise like that from a guy drafted in the first round, high accolades, one of the highest-paid defenders out there, Super Bowl MVP, it speaks levels about my work ethic and how I approach the offseason and coming into camp."
Brown said that he and Miller have become close friends, training together in Miami during the offseason. Miller has been a notorious Patriots killer, and wasn't very nice when chatting with Brown about his new team.
"He just said y'all cheating over there," Brown said with a smile.
Needless to say, Brown is excited to be a Patriot.
"It's funny how life comes full circle. My high school mascot was a Patriot," he said with another booming laugh. "I just love to play the game of football. Watch for me to play hard and do my best work to keep whoever's back there in the backfield upright."
That man he wants to keep standing would be one Tom Brady.
"The GOAT in my eyes. There's none like him," Brown said of the future Hall of Famer. "He's just, the amount of years he's played, the high level he's played for such a long time. Really nothing bad you can say about anything like that."
At his gigantic size, traveling has not been fun for Brown. But at least now he'll have the luxury of traveling in the Patriots new "Airkrafts" to road games, which the behemoth lineman is extremely grateful for.
"I could always fly, I just couldn't take a [trip to the bathroom]. Can't fit," he explained. "It's hard. I for sure am not going to be able to visit any European countries."