The Kansas City Chiefs kept superstar receiver/return man Antonio Brown and all of his teammates out of the end zone in Sunday’s 18-16 playoff loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, but didn’t do nearly stellar a job against Brown as the Kansas Jayhawks did nine years and a few months earlier.
KU defeated Brown’s Central Michigan squad, 52-7, in the 2007 season-opener, Brown’s collegiate debut and Todd Reesing’s first start.
Brown averaged 18 yards on four kickoff returns, carried the ball once for 13 yards and caught four passes for 23 yards, an average of 5.8 yards per catch, against KU.
He went on to finish that season, his first of three at Central Michigan, with 1,003 receiving yards. Brown must have been relieved to discover that not all college cornerbacks covered as well as first-team All-American Aqib Talib.
Brown caught six passes for 108 yards against the Chiefs and returned two punts for nine yards.
There was a return for a touchdown in the Central Michigan-Kansas game, but it wasn’t by Brown.
Raimond Pendleton returned a punt for a TD and famously executed a memorable dive into the end zone, a dive that made such an impression on KU coach Mark Mangino that it turned him into a world-class sprinter. Mangino’s feedback on the dive was delivered at such close range that he cut his lip on Pendleton’s face mask.
