Colts suspend former Alabama defensive back
The Indianapolis Colts have suspended cornerback Tony Brown and wide receiver Isaiah McKenzie for three games “for conduct detrimental to the team.”
The NFL team announced the former Alabama defensive back and McKenzie had been moved from the active roster to reserve/suspended status in one sentence in a release on personnel transactions on Tuesday afternoon. The team did not elaborate on what the players had done to merit suspension.
The suspensions will keep the players sidelined for the remainder of the regular season. The Colts visit the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday and close their schedule with home games against the Las Vegas Raiders on Dec. 31 and Houston Texans on Jan. 7.
Multiple-game suspensions by NFL teams are unusual. Suspensions of that magnitude are more often imposed by the NFL for violations of the league’s Personal Conduct Policy, Program and Policy on Substances of Abuse or Policy on Performance-Enhancing Substances.
Brown played in 12 of Indianapolis’ first 13 games this season, but he was a healthy scratch for Saturday’s 30-13 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Brown had been on the field for 56 defensive snaps and 252 special-teams plays in the 2023 season. All but one of his defensive snaps came in the Colts’ 38-27 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Oct. 29.
Brown blocked a punt in a 31-28 overtime victory against the Tennessee Titans on Dec. 3.
Brown re-signed with Indianapolis in the offseason after a comeback campaign with the Colts in 2022, when he had 303 special-teams plays.
Brown played on two CFP national championship teams at Alabama, and he had an interception in his final game with the Crimson Tide — a 26-23 overtime victory against Georgia in the national title game for the 2017 season.
Brown went to training camp with the Los Angeles Chargers in 2018 as an undrafted rookie. After the Chargers released Brown at the end of the preseason, he landed on the Green Bay Packers’ practice squad before being signed for the active roster in the fourth week of the 2018 season.
Brown had 34 tackles, five pass breakups, two forced fumbles and a tackle for loss as he played 287 defensive snaps in 11 games for Green Bay. In his 50 NFL regular-season games since then, Brown has played 207 defensive snaps.
Brown played in nine games for Green Bay in 2019. He did not play after Nov. 24 and also missed two games in October with a hamstring injury. Brown appeared on the Packers’ injury report with a heel problem for the first three weeks of December.
The Bengals claimed Brown off waivers on Dec. 30, 2019, after Green Bay released him the day before its final regular-season game.
With Cincinnati in 2020, Brown played in 13 games. In his only start of the season, Brown made nine tackles, including two behind the line of scrimmage, and broke up a pass in a 36-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Nov. 15, 2020.
Brown did not survive the cut to the regular-season roster limit after the 2021 preseason and spent time on the practice squads of the Bengals and Las Vegas Raiders without appearing in a regular-season game that season.
Brown signed with the Colts in 2022. He started the 2022 season on the practice squad but joined the active roster in the second week.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.