SUPER BOWL XXX / Cowboys 27, Steelers 17 : Brown Leaves Tragedy Behind

He had just intercepted two passes for the Dallas Cowboys and returned them for more yards than Emmitt Smith gained.

He had just been the first defender in 10 years to be named the ultimate player in football’s ultimate game.

He had just been rushed away from an interview with reporters to take a telephone call from the President.

But his teammates knew that when Larry Brown put his head to a pillow early Monday morning, none of that would matter.

Because his teammates know that, for now, even the greatest triumph in Larry Brown’s life can’t make him forget his greatest tragedy.

“The loss of his son will still be with Larry Brown,” said Darren Woodson, fellow Cowboy defensive back. “No matter what goes on today, he will still be dealing with it.”

Few who watched the Super Bowl’s most valuable player cavort around the field with two interceptions worth 77 yards and eventually two touchdowns knew.

It is unlikely that the Pittsburgh Steelers and quarterback Neil O’Donnell, who threw those interceptions, knew.

But on Nov. 16, Brown’s infant son, Christopher, who was born 15 weeks premature nearly three months earlier and weighed one pound at birth, was taken off life-support systems and died.

Brown, a Los Angeles High and Southwest L.A. College graduate, played against the Oakland Raiders only three days later, one day after the funeral.

For the first time Sunday night, in distant tones and with few details, he talked about it.

“I thank God I had the strength to get through the last year,” he said. “It was rough. But the organization supported me through everything.”

He said he always thinks about it. But with a high-profile job on the field and at his Dallas-area home with 2-year-old daughter Kristen, he said he has realized he must move forward.

“It stays on your mind, it stays in the back of your head,” Brown said. “But you’ve got to learn from it. You’ve got to move on.”

There is much he has been forced to learn--although none of it as difficult--since graduating from Los Angeles High in 1987.

“It was wonderful to see, but I can honestly say that it never crossed my mind that Larry would be playing in college, and of course not the Super Bowl, not with his size and ability back in school,” said John Watson, his high school coach.

Brown only played his senior season at L.A. High.

“He had some problems in the home with his family.” Watson said. “Just some of the things that kids get into that stop them from playing.

“He came to us and said that he had played when he was young [in Pop Warner] and that he wanted to play on the team.”

He was immediately judged a bit small, and a bit slow.

“He wasn’t one of the three best players on the team,” Watson said. “But he had the best attitude.”

In his only season, the team finished 12-2 and lost to Reseda in the City Section playoffs. It is typical that of the only 14 academically eligible players who suited up for that game, Brown was one of them.

“He was just one of those players who hung tough all the time,” Watson said.

By the time he had worked his way through junior college, and then two years at Texas Christian, “He was a totally different player,” Watson said. “It was all hard work. He knew what he wanted and worked till he got it.”

But there were more obstacles. He was only a 12th-round draft pick by the Cowboys in 1991.

By the way, there were only 12 rounds in that year’s draft.

“He was disappointed that he went in the last round, but he just said, ‘Coach I’m gonna make it. You watch,’ ” Watson said. “And he did.”

But what did he make? How about a Cowboy team where he has always been considered a weak link.

Even though he was in the starting lineup by the fourth game of his rookie year, and has missed only four starts in the last four years, he was always the guy on the bubble.

He was burned by the San Francisco 49ers’ Jerry Rice twice last year--for a 57-yard touchdown in their regular-season game and a 28-yard touchdown in the playoffs.

It was enough to make Jerry Jones, the owner of whom Brown speaks so fondly, hire Deion Sanders.

“Can you imagine Deion and Kevin Smith in our defensive backfield?” Jones said at the time.

But Smith suffered an Achilles’ tendon injury in this season’s opening game and has not played since.

Even though Smith should return next year and probably bump Brown out of the starting lineup. . . . Well, who knows if he will?

The way Brown played Sunday, one can imagine anything.

“Whatever they want me to do, I’ll do, “ he said, perhaps aware of more important things. “I’m just blessed to be here today.”

Times Staff Writer George Dohrmann contributed to this story.

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The Larry Brown File

* Position: Cornerback.

* Height: 5 feet 11.

* Weight: 186 pounds.

* Age: 26; born Nov. 30, 1969.

* Drafted: 1991, 12th round.

* Personal: Larry Brown was an All-City selection in football and track at Los Angeles High and graduated in 1987 before heading to Southwest L.A. College. He transferred to Texas Christian University in 1989 and earned MVP honors in the 1991 Blue-Gray All-Star game. He received his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, and he and his wife, Cheryl, live in Colleyville, Texas, with their daughter Kristen, 2. In his spare time, he owns and runs Universal Vending in Forth Worth and has opened a restaurant in Grapevine, Texas, called Boxies Cafe, specializing in soups, salads and espresso.

* Pro highlights: For being the 57th defensive back taken in the 1991 NFL draft, Brown made an impact in a hurry. He worked his way into the starting lineup in only his fourth game and has missed only two starts in the last four years.