The Secret Lives of the Players' Wives

Kim Brown doesn't know where she is. Her husband picked her up from Logan last night and brought her here, to his unassuming condo in an unassuming complex in Norton. But she doesn't know the address. Doesn't know the phone number, either. So forget about navigating the local roads to grab some lunch.

And, anyway, if it were up to her, she'd rather eat at McDonald's than this tablecloth-and-cutlery establishment. She'd also rather be in sweatpants. As it is, she's decked out in slim jeans and a chic brocade jacket — but don't let that fool you. "I'm a bargain shopper. Everything I buy is on sale. People are like, Why don't you go to Saks? I'm like, why? I can get the same thing at Marshalls for a lot cheaper," she says without a touch of flush creeping across her perfect caffè latte complexion. "I shop at the same places I shopped at when I didn't have a dime."

Of course, Kim Brown has vast piles of dimes these days, married as she is to former Patriots star wide receiver Troy Brown — not that his fat salary and endorsement payola have changed the way they live. "He never made a lot of money as a football player until recently, so we said that we'll create a lifestyle that we can maintain when this is all gone," she says. "So we live way below our means. When he finishes playing football or if something happens, we can maintain our lifestyle on my salary. We just decided that's how we're going to live."  

And the way they live, well, that's just flat-out logistical Ping-Pong. She works as a chemist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and raises their two young sons in West Virginia, a place where Troy lives only two months a year. She does fly to Boston at least once a month and burns up the phone lines every night, but, still, it's hard. "From April all the way to February he's gone, either part-time or full-time. Then this year, because of the Super Bowl, he was gone all the time doing public appearances — so we didn't see much of Troy this year."

In other words, she says as she picks over some crab cakes, don't think this superstar life is all glitz. "The pressure is unbelievable. He's played this game for 12 years, and every day he comes home wondering, 'Am I gonna have a job tomorrow?' And I wouldn't wish that on anybody. People don't realize the stress. They think, 'Oh, they just go out there and play football and there's nothing to worry about.' You're worrying that you're going to be able to walk in five years. Taking all the hits — is your mind going to be right? It's not what people think it is. They can think it's wonderful and glamorous, but we don't think like that."

Certainly not these days. Barely a month after her husband won the Super Bowl, culminating a season in which one Globe sportswriter called him the greatest Patriot to ever play the game, Troy Brown was unceremoniously released from the team. Without even a courtesy call.

It's all part of the sometimes wonderful but not always glamorous world of being the wife of a professional athlete.