Football
Sep 20 (Sat)
8:15 p.m.
- Title:
- Assistant Coach/Safeties
- Phone:
- 303-492-9787
Brett Maxie, in his second year on the Colorado staff, was hired as safeties coach on March 5, 2020, as he completed Karl Dorrell’s inaugural coaching staff, coming to CU from the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.
Dorrell announced on Jan. 29, 2021 that he had promoted Maxie to defensive passing game coordinator. He will continue to coach the safeties, the group he helped navigate and help improve despite injuries and inexperience in his first season at Colorado.
Maxie, 59, is a veteran secondary coach of 22 combined seasons between the professional and collegiate ranks, which followed 13-year career as a defensive back in the National Football League. He had spent the 2019 season as the defensive coordinator at the IMG Academy, a preparatory boarding school and sports training destination founded in 2002.
In 1998, after he retired from playing, the NFL’s Carolina Panthers gave him his start in coaching, as he was the team’s quality control coach along with working with the defensive backs. He moved on to the San Francisco 49ers for five seasons (1999-2003), the first three seasons as the assistant secondary coach and the last two years (2002-03) as the secondary coach. During the three-year period from 2001-03, Maxie’s secondary totaled 66 interceptions – the third highest number in the NFL in that time frame. Atlanta then hired him as its defensive backs coach for three seasons (2004-06).
Maxie moved on to the Miami Dolphins for the 2007 season as their secondary coach, with Dallas his next stop, as he was the Cowboys defensive backfield tutor for four years (2008-11). He then served in a similar capacity for the Tennessee Titans for the 2012 and 2013 seasons, remaining in Nashville for the following two years, coaching Vanderbilt’s entire secondary in 2014 and specifically the cornerbacks in 2015. He returned to the NFL in 2016 as the secondary coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he would tutor the defensive backs for three seasons (2016-18). After landing at Tampa Bay (NFC South), he became one the few coaches in NFL history to coach at all four teams in the same division.
He coached several players who earned Pro Bowl selections, including two-time pick DeAngelo Hall (Atlanta, 2005 & 2006), Mike Jenkins (Dallas, 2009), Terence Newman (Dallas, 2009), Alterraun Verner (Tennessee, 2013) and Brent Grimes (Tampa Bay, 2016). While with the Dallas Cowboys, he had the honor of serving as the defensive coordinator in the 2010 East-West Shrine Game.
A 1985 graduate of Texas Southern University, where he earned a degree in Biology and was an active member of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc., he signed with the New Orleans Saints as an undrafted free agent and went on to play with the team for nine seasons (1985-93). He played four more seasons in the NFL, with Atlanta (1994), Carolina (1995-96) and San Francisco (1997). In 153 NFL games that included 104 starts, Maxie had 588 tackles with six fumble recoveries along with 23 interceptions he returned for 300 yards and three touchdowns while playing primarily at strong safety throughout his career.
In 1987, he was credited with a key fourth down tackle against the Pittsburgh Steelers that enabled the Saints to clinch their first winning season in the 20-year history of the franchise. As a member of the Carolina Panthers in 1995, the team’s first year of existence, he was the recipient of the Ed Block Courage Award and recorded the first interception in franchise history, which came in the season opener against Atlanta (Carolina opened 0-5 but would finish 7-9, the best record of an expansion team in its first season of competition). During his career, he also served as a player representative and executive board member under NFLPA Executive Director Gene Upshaw.
He was born January 13, 1962 in Dallas, Texas, and graduated from its James Madison High School where he lettered in football and baseball. His hobbies include fishing, golfing and reading (favorite books include Malcolm X and Mark Batterson’s Chase the Lion). He is married to the former Angela Mayon, and the couple has four grown children: Brett II, Adam, Maya and Olivia. Brett II (Dallas Cowboys) and Adam (Las Vegas Raiders) are both NFL scouts.
AT-A-GLANCE—He has coached in 341 games as a full-time coach, 30 Division I-A (FBS) games (24 with Vanderbilt, 6 with Colorado) and one bowl game (2020 Alamo), and 311 in the National Football League (San Francisco 83, including three postseason; Dallas 66, two postseason; Atlanta 50, two postseason; Tampa Bay 48, Tennessee 32, Carolina 16, Miami 16).
COACHING EXPERIENCE
| 1998 | Carolina (NFL) | Quality Control Defense / Defensive Backs |
| 1999-2001 | San Francisco (NFL) | Assistant Defensive Backs |
| 2002-03 | San Francisco (NFL) | Defensive Backs |
| 2004-06 | Atlanta (NFL) | Defensive Backs |
| 2007 | Miami (NFL) | Secondary |
| 2008-11 | Dallas (NFL) | Defensive Backs |
| 2012-13 | Tennessee (NFL) | Defensive Backs |
| 2014 | Vanderbilt | Secondary |
| 2015 | Vanderbilt | Cornerbacks |
| 2016-18 | Tampa Bay (NFL) | Defensive Backs |
| 2019 | IMG Academy | Defensive Coordinator |
| 2020 | Colorado | Safeties |
| 2021- | Colorado | Defensive Pssing Game Coordinator / Safeties |
