Brown adds chapter to intriguing history.

Byline: Mark Purdy

OAKLAND, Calif. _ Tim Brown showed up in the ballroom of an Oakland hotel on Monday mostly to pose for a pretty picture.

Or so it seemed. There was an odd lack of emotion to the proceedings. Brown signed a ceremonial "contract" with the Raiders _ click, click, click went the lenses _ and thus ended the briefly unfortunate Tampa Bay interlude of his career.

Then, seconds later, Brown announced his retirement from the NFL.

"I'm very happy to move on to a different phase of my life," said Brown.

Part of this new phase, it turned out, was quickly grabbing the next flight to Los Angeles for another retirement news conference. Brown was in and out of the ballroom in about an hour. This left barely enough time for him to plug his new projects (which …