Cameron Brown has ridden in several NBA championship parades thanks to his father, Sacramento Kings coach Mike Brown. And if the San Francisco 49ers win the Super Bowl, the proud father hopes he is available to ride in a championship parade on his son’s coattails this time.
“He can definitely be in the parade,” Cameron Brown told Andscape. “They probably want him in the parade more than me anyways.”
Said Mike Brown to Andscape: “I am going to try to get to that parade. I’m so excited.”
The 49ers face the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday in Las Vegas. The Super Bowl comes with countless storylines, among them R&B superstar Usher highlighting the halftime performance and the quarterback battle between Chiefs superstar Patrick Mahomes and 49ers rising star Brock Purdy.
Mike Brown’s son, Cameron, is a first-year defensive quality control coach with the Niners. In his role, Cameron says he makes “easily digestible” analytic breakdowns on opposing offenses, including insight into those offenses in the red zone and two-minute drills. He also looks for situational statistical tips for the Niners’ defense and makes analytical reports on the next opponent.
For Cameron, there is a lot of film work and long hours. Niners defensive coordinator Steve Wilks said it’s been “great” working with Brown this season and says he has a lot of potential.
“Cameron is so detailed,” Wilks said. “He’s a smart young man. He does a tremendous job with all the things I give him to do. He and I meet every week to go over all the analytic stuff. He preps me in my communication. He’s a guy I communicate with during the game on certain things about personnel, which tight end is in, which running back is in, all the things we talk about throughout the week.”
Mike Brown
From Tim Duncan to LeBron James to Stephen Curry, Mike Brown’s sons, Elijah and Cameron, grew up around the NBA.
Mike Brown played college basketball at the University of San Diego before his NBA coaching career. He’s been a head coach with the Kings, Los Angeles Lakers and the Cleveland Cavaliers and an assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs, Indiana Pacers and Washington Wizards. The two-time NBA Coach of the Year coached LeBron James and the Cavaliers to the 2007 NBA Finals and won four NBA titles as an assistant coach with the Spurs (2003) and Warriors (2017, 2018, 2022).
One of Mike Brown’s fondest championship was being able to drink with his then-old enough sons after the Warriors won the 2022 NBA title in Boston.
“That is one of my best memories with my boys. We turned up!” Mike Brown said.
Said Cameron Brown, “My favorite memory was the Warriors winning the Finals in Cleveland (2017). That was a really sweet moment for him after all that he had been through in his coaching career. To see the smile on his face was really rewarding.”
Elijah Brown played college basketball at Butler, New Mexico and Oregon, where he shared the backcourt with Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard before playing professionally in Europe. He recently retired from playing basketball and is currently a Kings video intern. Cameron Brown, however, became more attracted to football at Mater Dei High School (Calif.). He also felt his bulky 6-foot-2 build was more Michael Singletary than Michael Jordan and better suited for the gridiron than the hardwood.
“He really got into football when I was head coach of the Lakers,” Mike Brown said. “The boys went to Mater Dei High School. That’s when the light switch went on and he really started enjoying it, embraced it and really worked hard to be good at it.”
One major influence on Cameron Brown going the football route was his uncle, Anthony Brown. The University of Utah Athletics Hall of Famer was an All-American offensive lineman who played in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals from 1995-98 and the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1999. The 6-foot-5, 315-pounder started in 17 of 52 career NFL games.
Cameron Brown saw some of his uncle’s NFL games and received some guidance from him as well.
“A big part of it was my uncle being able to watch him and be around him when I was younger and seeing the success I had,” Cameron Brown told Andscape. “I played football and basketball growing up. But as I stopped growing, I got better at football than basketball. So, I stuck with football.”
Mike Brown
Cameron Brown went on to become a standout defensive end at Division III Case Western Reserve University (Ohio) from 2016-19. The two-time Presidents’ Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year ended his career as CWRU’s all-time leader in career (34.5) and single season (15.0) sacks. He was also a three-time All-PAC first-team selection, an AFCA Division III Coaches All-America second team honoree in 2018, and a two-time D3football.com All-Region honoree. He graduated with a business management degree in 2020.
While it wasn’t easy to get to his son’s games in the Midwest while working for the Warriors, Mike Brown attended as many as he could and watched the rest online.
“I had a pretty good college career,” Cameron Brown said. “There are always things I wish I could’ve done better. I wish we could have better team success. I wish we could have done better overall, but I wish we won a national championship.”
Said Mike Brown: “He had a fantastic Division III career.”
Cameron Brown’s first dive into coaching was tutoring youth interested in football. He played defensive line for the Cineplexx Blue Devils of the Austrian Football League, and also coached as well for the first time. That was when Mike Brown realized that his son had a potential future in coaching. Cameron Brown went on to join CSWRU’s staff as a volunteer assistant defensive line coach prior to the start of the 2021 season and was named the outside linebacker coach prior to the 2022 campaign.
“I could tell he was passionate about it and that he wanted to do it from the time he was putting in,” Mike Brown said.
Mike Brown suggested to his son that in order to differentiate himself as a coach he should get educated on statistics in sports. Cameron Brown took his father’s advice to take an online program on Sports Performance Analytics with the University of Michigan Online. UM Online describes the course as an “introduction to the field of sports analytics designed for sports managers, coaches, physical therapists, as well as sports fans who want to understand the science behind athlete performance and game prediction.”
“The one thing in today’s sports world is analytics plays a major part,” Mike Brown said. “I said, ‘You should look into trying to take an analytics course.’
“It doesn’t matter if you get a certificate or degree in analytics. You just need to be well-versed in it and be able to add that to your résumé. Cam is a guy that wants to keep bettering himself.”
Said Cameron Brown: “I really liked doing it because it helped me break down some things and understand where I should be grabbing tendencies from with different opponents. It’s been very valuable to my development.”
Cameron Brown used defensive analytics reports to have a major impact on the CWRU football team during the 2022 season. Wilks said that the Niners discovered Cameron Brown from a recommendation given to Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan. He originally interviewed with the Niners for a Bill Walsh Internship. But after getting acquainted with his football and statistics knowledge, they decided to interview him for the quality control coach position instead. Wilks said Brown blew the interview “out the water.”
Cameron Brown never played in the NFL but he got in the league when he landed the position. And his father couldn’t be prouder.
“Once I heard I was hired, I didn’t know what to do,” Cameron Brown said. “I just had a permanent grin on my face for about a week.”
Said Mike Brown: “I still pinch myself every day. I don’t want to wake up and think this didn’t happen. It’s huge… Cameron doesn’t take it for granted at all. He really is trying to help the organization while learning himself.”
Mike Brown
Cameron Brown’s new NFL job is now about 115 miles away from his father and older brother in Sacramento. He says that it has been phenomenal working with the Niners staff and players and he feels that his “opinion is heard.”
“I’m learning how football should be played,” Cameron Brown said. “There are so many different intricacies ways that things should be done as a defensive. I’m learning how a defense marries together and how to throw off an offense. There is so much I didn’t think about through my career previously.”
Cameron Brown gets occasional questions from Niners players and coaches about his father and the NBA, most notably about being around LeBron James and the NBA as a kid. Mike Brown says he attended the Niners’ NFC Divisional Playoff win against the Green Bay Packers. Mike Brown says he was extremely nervous during the Niners’ NFC Championship Game comeback victory against the Detroit Lions to advance to the Super Bowl.
“I was into it. It’s tough to sit there, be hopeless and to hope, pray and cheer that they got it done,” Mike Brown said. “And they got it done. I’m so excited. It’s nerve-racking. It’s more stressful than coaching, really. You want your family member, in my case my son, and his team to do so well.
“You’re into it. You’re trying to use any type of positive energy to send it through the TV or if you’re at the game looking at that field. There is nothing better when they come out on top.”
Said Cameron Brown: “It means a lot knowing how much he supports me and is pulling for me. It’s kind of funny because I feel the same way watching his games. When I watch his games, I shut the door to my office and try to not to be too loud. I get real nervous watching his games, too.”
Cameron Brown said it would be a “perfect start to his NFL career” to win a Super Bowl. He will have a lot of family, including his mother, brother and friends in Las Vegas for the Super Bowl supporting him and the Niners. Unfortunately, his father won’t be able to be there as the Kings play on the road against the Oklahoma City Thunder at 3 p.m. ET. The Super Bowl begins at 6:30 p.m. ET. A direct commercial flight from Oklahoma City to Las Vegas is about three hours.
Brown says that a private jet probably would have cost him a hefty amount and its uncertain when he would even get to the game. So, he will be watching from afar on television instead. Meanwhile, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce’s superstar girlfriend Taylor Swift is expected to depart from Tokyo on Saturday after a concert in time to get to the Super Bowl.
“Taylor got a little bit more cheese than I do,” Mike Brown joked.
ESPN writer Nick Wagoner contributed to this story.
