RIP Samurai

Dayum....65 is too young to meet your maker.

RIP, tough weekend for Vikings org and us fans. We lost 2 great ones.

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The #Vikings are mourning the loss of Ring of Honor Safety Joey Browner.

Browner, a 6-time Pro Bowler and 4-time 1st Team All-Pro, was named to the NFL 1980s All-Decade Team and a part of the 50 Greatest Vikings announced in 2010.

📰: https://t.co/N96K2hUiEQ pic.twitter.com/tQxi9ieRuc

— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) March 29, 2026

This really hurts, one of the all time greats and amazing person, huge loss.

Joey Browner, a Vikings safety great who was named to the team’s Ring of Honor in 2013 after intercepting 37 passes and reaching six Pro Bowls during his nine seasons with the team, died at the age of 65 on Saturday, March 28, the Vikings announced.

Browner, the 19th overall pick in the 1983 NFL draft, remains the highest-drafted safety in Vikings history and was the only one the team had selected in the first round until Harrison Smith was taken 29th overall in 2012. Browner was named a first-team All-Pro three times in his time with the Vikings, while earning another second-team honor.

The third of four brothers who all played in the NFL, Browner made his mark with the Vikings because of his nose for the football, intercepting at least five passes during each of his last five seasons with the team. He ranks third in team history with 17 forced fumbles, and his 37 interceptions are the fifth most in Vikings history. Smith, who has played 14 seasons in Minnesota, ranks just ahead of Browner with 39.

“He was a guy who helped define what it is to be a safety,” Smith said after he intercepted his 38th pass against Washington in December to surpass Browner. “We probably had kind of similar games: pretty physical guys but could also turn the ball over well. Been fortunate enough to talk to him . Just an honor to be mentioned him.”

Browner had dealt with significant health issues in recent years, leading former teammates Tommy Kramer, Ted Brown and Scott Studwell to partner with former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura last August for a sports memorabilia autograph event to raise money for Browner’s medical care. All items at the event in Fridley sold for $47, in honor of Browner’s jersey number with the Vikings. Kramer posted on his website that fans purchased more than 525 items at the event.

Browner died the same day as Jeff Siemon, the Vikings middle linebacker who played 11 seasons for the team and was selected alongside Browner to the “50 Greatest Vikings” team the club assembled for its 50th anniversary in 2010.

Strib

One of my favorite players growing up. Could take over games from the safety position. John Madden once said if he could start with two players on defense it would be LT56 and #47.
RIP.

that really sucks one of my favorite vikings ever

Just took the air out of my day. RIP Joey and Jeff.

RIP JB - Loved watching him play.

I argued till I was blue in the face and anyone who would listen he was the better Safety than Ronnie Lott.  I may (or may not ) have been right but he was in my eyes.  Biased as a Vikes fan but he was a HOF in my book. RIP

Remember when he ran down Gerald Willhite - brought him down & leg snapped.....nasty injury

does anybody else remember the Browner samurai poster from the 80s? I have been looking for one online to add to this thread and I cant find an image online.

Don't remember that poster ^^^- But I had the Anthony Carter NIKE poster where he is horizontal

Had a great one from the '70's Vikings in the snow...was awesome.

Reusse: Joey Browner played nine seasons for the Vikings. He was compensated more in praise than in dollars.

Joey Browner, a Vikings’ all-time great and one of their best NFL draft selections, died at a care facility in Walker, Minn. on Saturday, March 28. He was at 65.

The 1986 Vikings were the first team with Jerry Burns as the head coach, and they were taking a 6-5 record into late November. They were long shots to earn a wild-card playoff spot as they traveled to Cincinnati on Nov. 23, and then faced Tampa Bay in the Metrodome on Nov. 30.

These games did provide an excellent angle for the Star Tribune to turn loose Steve Aschburner for one of his lengthy Sunday readers:
Joey Browner was in his fourth season as a safety, and continuing to prove that drafting him 19th overall in 1983 rated among the team’s greatest selections — then, and still 40-plus years later.

The interesting part of this was Joey would face his oldest brother, Ross, a much-honored defensive lineman, in Cincinnati, and a younger brother, Keith, an excellent linebacker, when the Buccaneers came to town.

There were six Browner brothers in all, with Ross, Joey and Keith being NFL standouts and Jimmie getting some NFL time, and two other brothers — Willard and Gerald – that were well-recruited collegians.

The family came from Warren, Ohio, one of the nation’s foremost steel cities in the middle of the last century. Father Jimmie Lee “Red” Browner worked hard, long hours at the steel mill. He spent a lot of time coughing when he got home after a shift, and he died at 49 in 1976.

Ross at that time was a junior at Notre Dame. He went on to win the Outland Trophy as the nation’s best lineman and the Maxwell Trophy as the nation’s best player. He was part of two Irish teams voted as national champions.

Julia moved to the Atlanta area a few years after her husband’s death into a house bought by Ross. He became the substitute father, in a way, for his younger brothers.

Joey Browner said this about Ross in Aschburner’s 1986 piece: “The things he did for us, he didn’t have to do. He didn’t have to buy my mother a house; he didn’t have to make sure we all went to school. But he did.

“We let him know we appreciate that every day.”

As for mother Julia, what was the difference between a house filled with young, hungry athletes, squeezed together in age, and now the place in Atlanta — maybe with visits from two daughters, a niece or a nephew.

“I learned to cook,” Julia said. “Now, I have to learn how not to cook.”

Julia died in 1990. She was 55.

And for all the football glory, there is a presence of early death that follows the Browners of Warren, Ohio — starting with Red, then Mom, and now five of the six sons had died, the latest being our guy Joey, a Vikings all-time great, dying at a care facility in Walker, Minn., on Saturday, March 28.

Before him, youngest brother Gerald — a talented lineman who was recruited to Georgia and played at Morgan State — died of a heart attack in 2002 at 38. Ross died of a heart attack at 67 in 2022. Jimmie died at 68 in 2024. Keith died at 63 in 2025 while awaiting treatment for an undisclosed ailment.

Only brother Willard remains alive among the brothers, living in suburban Georgia.

And now Joey, at 65, died near his adopted home in the Walker area. Browner did some volunteer work with Tribal groups there years back and developed a fondness for those North Woods.

He played nine seasons for the Vikings, one more with Tampa Bay — he never got paid as a great player deserved … he had a shaky money handler — and declared bankruptcy in the early ’90s. The Vikings awarded him a place in the Ring of Honor in 2013.

There was a greater honor, privately, three years ago, according to a Facebook post this week from WCCO-TV’s Mike Max. It was one of the last Vikings events that Bud Grant would attend before his death in March 2023.

Bud waved over Browner, who was sitting at a nearby table, and told Joey he was one of the greatest players he had coached and how much he appreciated him. Max wrote that they “both teared up.”

Bud only had two seasons of Browner — 1983 and 1985. Burns had him for six (1986-91). His praise for Browner, those great, strong hands and the endless effort, was always enthused. The adjectives would flow when Burnsie was asked about Browner, asked why he would use such a valuable player constantly on punt and kickoff coverage.

“So I can sleep at night,” Burnsie would bark, and with the “bleeps” deleted here.

Greg Coleman was a teammate, friend and grateful recipient of having Browner to cover his punts with the Vikings.

“It made a difference with Bud — and then Burnsie — having Joey and Carl Lee covering my kicks," Coleman said this week. “Joey probably saved my career … Joey and Bud, with his belief in the importance of special teams. Bud would say, ‘You win or lose three games a year because of special teams.’"

“So, there were times when I would be punting, and I had Joey covering, and my tackles were Matt Blair and Freddie McNeill,” Coleman continued. “Can you imagine that much defensive talent, out there covering kicks?

Coleman had more to say:

“I don’t know how much the public saw it, but Joey was really a jovial guy. Then, he put on a jersey and was a stone-cold warrior. He did taekwondo, other martial arts, and brought those skills with him to the field.

“When they outlawed the horse collar in the NFL, they must have looked back at some old tapes of Joey, just reaching out with one hand and snatching a runner out of his cleats. Those Browner boys, they all had the God-given strength, but there has to be something else in those genetics that are taking them away from us.

“What a football family, though. I remember their mom, being at the game in Cincinnati in ’86, and she was wearing a split jersey — half Vikings, half Bengals. Ross and Joey had good laughs over that."

STRIB

My God, Joey dead at 65, his mom at 55, brothers dead at 38, 67, 68 and 63.

MaroonBells wrote:
My God, Joey dead at 65, his mom at 55, brothers dead at 38, 67, 68 and 63.

Dont forget the olde man died at 49 too...RIP all of em.

This dude never got the credit he fully deserved. With the Ronnie Lotts and Steve Atwaters of the NFL world at that time, but Browner was as good or better than either one of them. Hit harder, covered more field and was down right a menace back there.

I recall a game, and I don't remember who, but I am pretty sure it was a Tampa Bay Bucs RB. Somewhere around 89. Browner hit the guy so hard, I remember John Madden saying "Browner hit that guy so hard his grandkids are gonna feel it."

RIP