FOXBORO, Mass. (AP) – Patriots punter Josh Miller finally stood near Troy Brown, the returner who ran past him and the rest of the Pittsburgh Steelers for a touchdown in the AFC championship game in 2002.

When they saw each other last week as teammates with New England, Miller couldn’t resist.

“I finally got a chance to touch Troy the other day,” Miller said. “He was walking by. I just grabbed him like, I want to make sure you’re not a ghost.”‘

Brown just burst out laughing.

“When he started speaking I knew what he was going to say,” Brown said. “We give him a little hard time about it every once in a while.”

At least Miller, who signed as a free agent on March 15, should improve the Super Bowl champions’ punting game after Ken Walter finished 24th in the NFL with a 33.6-yard net average and tied for next to last in the league with three touchbacks.

“I felt for him and feel for him,” Miller said. “He’ll go to a place that’s a good situation, and it’s amazing. It’s like pitchers. You go to a new place and it’s like, OK, it’s a new start, and somehow you’re rolling.”

Miller is making a new start after spending all eight of his NFL seasons with Pittsburgh, where he was a Pro Bowl alternate in the 1999 season.

After playing in all 16 games last season with a net average of 36 yards, Miller was released on March 6 when the Steelers unexpectedly signed free agent punter Chris Gardocki to a five-year contract. Gardocki and Miller both had gross punting averages of 41.9 yards last season.

The move surprised Miller after coach Bill Cowher expressed no public dissatisfaction with him last season.

“I had a great talk with coach Cowher” at the end of the season, Miller said. But two assistants who had coached Gardocki in the past “liked him as a person. They came through and said, “Hey, he’s not a better punter than you, but we want him here.”‘

Nine days later, Miller joined the team that beat his Steelers 24-17 for the AFC title then went on to beat St. Louis 20-17 for the first of its two Super Bowl titles in three years.

“I knew I made the right decision even if they were booing me,” he said a few minutes after fans cheered him at a training camp practice last Friday. “They’re Super Bowl champs and any time coach (Bill Belichick) personally asks you to be a part of it, you can’t say no.”

Miller also will take over Walter’s job of holding for placekicker Adam Vinatieri, whose field goals with no time left against St. Louis in 2002 and with four seconds remaining against Carolina this year won those Super Bowls.

Although Miller hasn’t held for several years, “Josh and I get along well,” Vinatieri said. “He’s figuring out how I like the ball held, so we’re going to get along just fine.”

The more they practice together, the more they should improve.

“Anything you do 100 times a day, you’re going to get it,” Miller said.

That didn’t apply to the officials at the 2002 AFC title game, who made a mistake by placing the ball on the wrong hash mark for Miller’s punt that Brown returned 55 yards for the game’s first touchdown.

Miller punted the ball 64 yards and it went behind Brown but had to kick again when Pittsburgh’s Troy Edwards was penalized for stepping out of bounds then coming back on the field.

Cowher said that officials then lined up the ball on the wrong hash mark and that was one reason Miller punted the ball down the middle of the field. Brown then raced back up the middle for a 55-yard touchdown.

The officials “really did” make a mistake, Miller said calmly. “It’s in the past, but they really did.”

“We all knew that,” Brown said with a smile, “but we’re not going to tell anybody. It’s after the fact. That’s part of the game.”

AP-ES-08-02-04 1935EDT