By Nick Wagoner

Senior Writer

A simple twist of fate brought Josh Brown home or at least as close as he can get to home Saturday morning.

In the prime of his career as one of the league’s top place kickers, Brown had a good grasp on his options as recently as Thursday night. Those choices didn’t include St. Louis.

By Friday morning, Rams kicker Jeff Wilkins had retired and the Rams immediately knew they didn’t have to travel too far outside the NFC West Division to find Wilkins’ replacement.

So it was only fitting as the man they called “Money” retired that the Rams pursued Brown and gave him plenty of currency to ensure he would be in St. Louis for the next five years.

With that, the Rams made Brown one of the highest paid kickers in the league, signing him to a five-year deal worth about $14 million Saturday morning.

“It’s a strange current of events,” Brown said. “St. Louis wasn’t even on the radar and I got a call late Friday morning and was on a plane later that night. I had dinner with everybody last night and they just blew me away with their offer and I can’t tell you exactly how it feels to be received and wanted that way by a ball club.”

While Rams coach Scott Linehan, President of Football Operations Jay Zygmunt and Executive V.P. of Player Personnel Billy Devaney came to a consensus that Brown would be their top target, Wilkins’ role in the move to land Brown can’t be underestimated.

Wilkins had been agonizing over the decision about whether to call it quits because of some health issues he alluded to at the end of the season. With free agency looming and no decision made, the Rams could have been staring at a bare market had Wilkins not come to a conclusion.

But as Wilkins did so many times in his 14-year career, he came through for the Rams one last time, meeting with Linehan and Zygmunt on Friday morning and declaring his intention to retire.

Soon after, the Rams were on the phone with Robert Roche, Brown’s agent, and expressing serious interest in his client.

“My respect for Jeff Wilkins is off the charts,” Devaney said. “The way he handled this whole thing was really helpful. Our worst case is him saying he needs some time to think about it or maybe he’ll give it a try and we are left in the lurch. I can’t say enough good things about Jeff Wilkins and the way he handled this whole situation.”

While Devaney said he doesn’t know Wilkins personally, he was plenty familiar with Brown. In his time as a decision maker in Atlanta, Devaney had evaluated and developed a fondness for Brown.

Devaney and the Falcons targeted Brown in free agency last year, but the Seahawks placed the franchise tag on him, keeping him off the market.

While the Rams would have loved to see Brown leave the division, especially after he almost single handedly kept them out of the playoffs with two game winning field goals in 2006, his staying in Seattle turned out to be another fortunate twist. 

Brown posted another strong season in 2007 for the Seahawks, hitting 28 of 34 field goals and all of his 43 extra point attempts.

Entering this offseason, though, Seattle had a choice to make between using the tag again on Brown or slapping it on top cornerback Marcus Trufant.

The Seahawks opted to use it on Trufant, but continued to negotiate with Brown. With no agreement imminent, Brown had begun discussions with Kansas City and Atlanta about contracts and possible visits.

When he heard about the newfound opportunity in St. Louis, Brown jumped at the chance.

“Out of nowhere my agent calls me and says ‘Hey, Jeff Wilkins just retired,’” Brown said. “Well, that’s an interesting job considering it’s five hours from my parents’ house and in a dome and in the division. I was kind of nervous about another team in the division and I thought ‘Oh, I’m going to get massacred by the Seattle fans now.’ It’s all part of the game; it’s a great opportunity to be closer to my family and closer to my college.”

Brown’s entire family, including his parents and three siblings, live in Tulsa, Okla., meaning they will have an opportunity to attend all of the Rams’ home games. In addition, Brown gets the chance to escape rainy Seattle and kick in the warm and dry confines of the Edward Jones Dome eight times a year.

Not that Brown needs the better climate to have success. Even kicking in the windy and wet conditions at Qwest Field, Brown was able to convert 80 percent of his field goals in five seasons with the Seahawks.

Perhaps the best news for the Rams, though, is that no longer will they have to worry about Brown hurting them in the twice-yearly meetings with Seattle. When Brown arrived Friday night for dinner with Rams officials, the team told him some of the nicknames he has around town.

The only printable one that didn’t involve a four-letter word was “Ram Killer,” a nickname Brown took some pride in because of the amount of respect it showed for his kicking talents.

“I took that as a sign of respect and a compliment,” Brown said. “It’s kind of crazy. Now they’re going to have me on their side, and I’ll get the opportunity to kick some game winners for you guys and put us in position to get back to the show and make an impact.”

The chance to move closer to home, the indoor stadium and the size of the check made the move easier for Brown. For the Rams, it was even more of a no brainer, for the team had him ranked as the top available (read: non-franchised) free agent on their board.

“The Rams family lost what is arguably, in my opinion, the best kicker in franchise history to retirement and that was a tough thing to deal with and an even tougher thing was what we were going to do to replace such a guy because you can’t really replace somebody like that,” Linehan said. “It’s a pretty unique situation in that we lost one of the best kickers in pro football and the best kicker in our franchise’s history and signed the best kicker in pro football the same day. We are fortunate now that he is a member of our family. We are very excited about it.”