Some scars heal more quickly than others. And few in football have had to learn that lesson with more courage or grace than Scott Brown.
On the pitch, Brown inflicted as many of them as he received. In a relentless pursuit of silverware, Celtic’s combat hardened, shaven headed captain was prepared to put his own body on the line as well as those who were standing in his way. But there was a time when none of it mattered. When the flame that raged inside this fiery youngster was in danger of going out for good.
The death of sister Fiona at the age of 21 - following a year long fight against cancer - plunged Brown’s personal life into darkness just when his professional career was ready for take off. Brown left Hibs for Celtic in the summer of 2007. Less than 12 months later, Fiona passed away at home with her family around her.
Her illness had been kept behind closed doors. But Celtic manager Gordon Strachan and CEO Peter Lawwell were acutely aware of the agony the 22-year-old was enduring behind the scenes. Not least because Strachan’s right hand man Tommy Burns lost the same battle just one week earlier.
And, speaking in the Daily Record’s new Off The Record podcast, Brown reveals how the deep bonds forged during that time of despair, became a driving force behind his rise to the status as a Celtic legend. He said: “My form went up and down and that was understandable at the time.
“But, for me, the club was exceptional. Peter Lawwell was brilliant. And there’s not a lot of people that would get phone calls from the CEO just to ask how you are or how the family is doing.
“Tommy was going through the exact same. Tommy was exceptional. On the day he passed away he still managed to send my sister flowers. They arrived on the day Tommy died and that shows you what kind of a man he was.
“You look back and it shows you I made the right decision. I came to a huge family club that wants the best for you, not just on the pitch but away from it as well.
“After that 18 months the decision to come to Celtic was a no brainer because of the way they looked after my family and the way they looked after myself, with days off when I needed them. The bond between me and Gordon probably became a lot stronger as well. We still speak now and that shows you what kind of character he is.”
In the podcast, Brown recounts the night he discovered a news reporter from a now defunct Sunday tabloid was snooping around Fiona’s student residence in Dundee, shortly before her passing. He said: “For me it was like, ‘They can do what they like to me,’ but not my sister.
"She never asked for any of this. She never asked for me to be a footballer or to be in the public eye. She wanted her own personal space but they wouldn’t give her it - and that was the hardest thing to see.
“It just shows you that some people have no decency whatsoever. They just want a story. They just want to get in there and know everything.
“That’s the difference between yourselves and other people. I speak to you because of those situations. I spoke to Peter as well. I phoned Peter as soon as I found out there was somebody up there and he dealt with the whole situation.
“He was like, ‘You make sure you stay calm, stay focused. We’ll deal with the situation. Just go and pick your sister up and bring her back down the road,’. You know a club has got your back when something like that happens.”
And Brown reveals how this support influenced his decision to then turn down potential life changing moves to England’s Premier League in January 2009 - after being instructed by manager Tony Mowbray to find a new club. He said: “I had the chance to move to England with Tottenham and Newcastle but because of what the club had done for me in my time of need, I will always hold that in huge high regard.
"That’s what means more to me than anything. They looked after me during a hard time so for me to jump ship was never in question.”
Brown’s decision to dig in his heels paid off spectacularly. Over the subsequent 12 years, he would go on to captain the club to nine-in-a-row and claim a historic quadruple treble.
And in February 2011, he cemented his relationship with the supporters with an iconic goal celebration in the face of El Hadji Diouf during a heated Old Firm Scottish Cup tie at Ibrox. He said: “It was more of a shock to the Celtic fans that I scored with my left foot. They couldn’t believe it either!
“I’ve managed to whip it in past Greegsy, into the far away corner. It’s not often my left foot works but it did that day. Then that guy was just standing in front of me at the right time so it couldn’t have worked any better!
“But I’m still devastated I was booked for it. I’ve not ran, I’ve not taken my top off. I just stood and put my arms up and I got a yellow! That’s bad refereeing that by the way!”
Brown admits to later adopting a similar ‘wind up merchant’ policy during a series of jousts with current Rangers striker Alfredo Morelos. He said: “To be fair I won that one as well. No, I like to try to pick and choose my battles quite well.
“Morelos is a good player and so was Diouf. But I would always try to get in their head and let them see that I’m a decent player.
“You flick a switch and either get them a red card or control the game. That was my mentality - to try to get in their head early doors.
“Did it work? Now and then, yeah. But to be fair they tried to give it back as well. You don’t mind that. You want to see that kind of rivalry on the park and especially in a Rangers-Celtic game. You want to see somebody getting the better of others.
“I always wanted to get the better of him. I’d always try to wind him up, try to get on the ball and pull him in a little bit, pull him out of position. That’s what my game was.
"It was to try to slowly get into people but also at the same time it was to dictate play. To win the ball back and give it to the ten other better players on the park!”
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