Parkhead skipper thanks Celtic and Rangers fans for backing after abuse
34-year-old revealed that the incident outside Ibrox Stadium was far from the first time he has been on the receiving end of such taunts about his late sibling, but he has vowed that he will continue to enjoy his football in the face of such abhorrent comments.
“You can shout and swear at me as much as you want on the park but don’t go into detail off the park like that,” he said.
“It’s not just one incident, it’s happened over the last 12 years of my career. It’s hard, it’s sad and it shouldn’t be happening.
“It’s hard because people can do it on Twitter and send it to you directly. It can be done on Instagram. It can be done on the street and no-one else can stop that.
“It’s one person with a daft 30 seconds which they may probably regret afterwards, but they said it and that’s the problem.
“You get it all the time walking down streets and on Twitter, it doesn’t bother you too much.
You just walk away from them because there are a lot of people who could get tempted into doing something silly.
“It’s part and parcel. It’s about being mentally strong. People can shout things and say things. I just focus on what I need to do. Here’s hoping that’s the end of it.
“I don’t really like to comment on it because it is something that still hurts me to this day.
“It shouldn’t be in football, but it is. For me, it’s about how I go on and prove everyone wrong. I just keep playing football with a smile on my face and, hopefully, it doesn’t happen to anyone else.
“It is not a nice thing because you never know what could happen with your family or who it can happen to. What’s happened to me has happened to a lot of other people as well. It’s not just about me. It’s happening with other players.
“It is not a nice thing to be said. But it’s about how you deal with it.”
Meanwhile, Brown has paid tribute to the Celtic backline for the role they played in the win over Rangers, with four Old Firm debutants playing a part in the makeshift defence.
“It was always going to be hard going to Ibrox with a new back four,” Brown said.
“We had relied on [Mikael] Lustig, [Kris] Ajer, Kieran Tierney and Jozo [Simunovic] for so long and none of them played.
“But I thought the back four were phenomenal against Rangers. They defended well, they were composed. On big occasions big players show how good they are and all the new guys did that at Ibrox.”