RIP Jim Brown

[ladypanther]

https://theathletic.com/2796576/2021/09/07/nfl-100-at-no-2-unstoppable-force-jim-brown-was-fast-as-the-fastest-hard-as-the-hardest/#:~:text=In the second,had it all.”

In the second quarter of a game in 1963, Jim Brown caught a screen pass from Frank Ryan. The fullback burst past Washington defensive back Jim Steffen, put a move on defensive back Johnny Sample, broke a tackle attempt by defensive back Dale Hackbart, spun away from cornerback Lonnie Sanders and linebacker Bob Pellegrini, and then ran away from defensive lineman Andy Stynchula and Hackbart for an 83-yard touchdown.

The play told us everything about Brown. He had the athleticism to make the catch, the steps as quick as fingers on a keyboard, the body control to leave a defender lunging at air, the violence to trample, the light-footedness to whirl out of trouble and the sixth gear to separate.

Which is to say, he lacked nothing.

“Guys that are extremely strong may not be as agile,” former Raiders running back Marcus Allen said in the documentary “Jim Brown: A Football Life.” “Some guys have all the speed in the world but may not have the balance. Jim had it all.”

His physique could have been carved in Florence, Italy, during the Renaissance. Befitting a player who was called a fullback but ran like a halfback, Brown was 6-foot-2, 230 pounds, with a 32-inch waist. With the ball in Brown’s hands, alleged tacklers looked like hobbits at his ankles.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick told Sports Illustrated that Brown moved as if he weighed 185 pounds. Legend has it in 1958, he ran a 4.5-second 40-yard dash wearing pads and starting from a three-point stance. Cleveland’s fastest player before Brown joined the team was Ray Renfro, who had run a 4.7 and weighed 40 pounds less than Brown.

The son of a professional boxer, Brown stood out in any sporting arena. In addition to being a Hall of Famer in football, he also was inducted into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame. Brown excelled at the sport at Syracuse, as he did in basketball and track. The fifth time he tried golfing, he shot a 77.  So confident was he in his abilities that he proposed a boxing match against his friend Muhammad Ali when Ali was the 24-year-old heavyweight champion.

But in football, he separated himself from every other who played the game. In 1958, Rams defensive tackle Glenn Holtzman told Sports Illustrated that tackling Brown was like tackling a locomotive. “Fast as the fastest, hard as the hardest,” Holtzman said. “He gets off to the quickest start of any big man I’ve ever seen.”

In that 1963 game against Washington, Brown also had an 80-yard run and accounted for 262 scrimmage yards. He was voted first-team All-Pro that season — one of eight times he was so honored in his nine-year career. He made the Pro Bowl, as he did in every season he played. He also led the league in rushing as he did seven other times. His 1,863 yards in 1963 were the most in a season in NFL history up to that point.

But really, it was just another year for Brown, who won the NFL MVP award in three other seasons but was beaten out in 1963 by Giants quarterback Y.A.

“Keep in mind, third-and-8, third-and-9 was not a passing down in Cleveland,” Browns guard John Wooten said. “It was just a case of whether we were going to flip the ball to him, or throw a little flare pass.”

At the 1957 College All-Star Game, Browns great Otto Graham, serving as an assistant coach, told Brown, who had just been picked sixth in the draft, that he never would make it in the NFL. The comment probably made Brown more resolute, but he did not need extra motivation.

“I’ll tell you why I’m the way I am,” Brown said. “It doesn’t start on the field. It starts as a person. I was dealing with race since I was born. And in my inner self, my strength was unbending when it came to accepting that BS, racial discrimination. Because I was never going to let anybody make me feel like I was not top-shelf. And that was the battle that raged. And I could use a lot of that on the field.”

Brown attended mostly white Manhasset High School in Long Island, N.Y.

“Race was always an issue everywhere, and I was the only African-American on the team,” he said. “That was very difficult based upon the racial attitudes of some people.”

The NFL Brown played in was primarily White, and Black players dealt with segregation issues when traveling. His coach Paul Brown separated the Black players from White in the team cafeteria. In interviews with sportswriters, Brown often steered the conversation to racism and civil rights. In 1966, he created the ***** Industrial Economic Union to help Black-owned businesses, and 22 years later started Amer-I-Can, a program to guide gang members.

Brown’s forceful will was evident in everything thing he did.

“He probably has the spirit of a 350-pound man,” Wooten said in the documentary “Jim Brown: All-American.” “And sometimes Jim would just make up his mind. He would not go down.”

Brown refused to drink water during games because he believed it would make him feel satisfied and diminish his drive. He never missed a game in his career. Len Dawson, who played with him for two years, said he never even saw Brown in the training room.

“He stayed away because he didn’t want people to think he was weak, and he would just fight through pain,” Dawson said, according to “Jim Brown: The Fierce Life of an American Hero.” “I mean, he never got his ankles taped.”

When it came to pain, Brown undoubtedly gave more than he got. Lions defensive end Bill Glass said getting blasted with Brown’s forearm was like getting hit with a lead pipe.

“Some of the biggest, toughest guys in the NFL got pretty scared when they saw Jim swinging that arm of his,” Glass said. “Jim Brown could knock you senseless.”

Hall of Fame coach George Allen said because Brown was stronger and more determined than his opponents, he wore them down. In his 1989 autobiography, “Jim Brown: Out of Bounds,” Brown wrote, “The key in the NFL is to hit a man so hard, so often, he doesn’t want to play anymore.”

Brown sneered at runners who were averse to contact. Eighteen years after he retired, Brown threatened to make a comeback at the age of 47 because Franco Harris was nearing his career yardage total, a record at the time. Brown thought Harris, who frequently ran out of bounds, was an unworthy successor as rushing king.

“A fullback running out of bounds is like a Hell’s Angel driving a Rabbit,” Brown wrote. “Bogie smoking a Swisher Sweet. It just isn’t right.”

Brown probably would have dominated if he relied strictly on brute force. But he also was a thinking man’s runner. He spent hours before every game visualizing where each run would take him and how he would counter every defender’s move. Wooten spoke of Brown’s “great analytical knowledge” and said Brown watched film with the offense and told blockers how to align on plays.

“He is incredibly perceptive about running the football,” said Belichick, who enlisted Brown’s help when he was coaching the Browns. “Tremendous understanding of how to beat defenders, how to attack their leverage to give them a two-way go. He has great insight into what a runner sees, and he could explain it in very simple terms. Here is the tackler, here is your leverage point.”

Brown may have been a little too perceptive for the good of his first coach, the legendary Paul Brown. When Paul Brown’s offense became stale and predictable in the early 1960s, Jim Brown sought to change the team, just as he sought to change race relations. Jim Brown led a player movement that led to Paul Brown’s firing. New coach Blanton Collier and assistant Dub Jones sought Jim Brown’s input on the playbook. As Brown had wished, they subsequently relied more on sweeps, option blocks and passes to the fullback.

In Collier’s second season, Cleveland won its only championship during Brown’s career.

“I felt … potent,” Brown wrote in “Out of Bounds.” “Sentimental. Grateful. Whole. My goddamn melon hurt from smiling. I also felt intense relief. Unless he wins a championship, even a superstar is never fully accepted.”

When Brown was filming “The Dirty Dozen” in London in the summer of 1966, Browns owner Art Modell told the press he would fine Brown heavily if he did not report to camp on time. It was enough to push Brown to walk away when he still could have run for who knows how many thousands of yards.

One of a kind.

[Mr. Scot]

Hall of Fame linebacker Sam Huff had a story about Brown (related to me by a longtime Browns fan)...

Brown took a handoff and got stuffed for little to no gain by Huff, who followed up the play by telling Brown "You stink!"

Next play? Same result, and again with a little more emphasis, Huff said "Man, you STINK!" He was feeling pretty good right about that time.

On the next play though, Brown blew past him and ran for a 79 yard touchdown.

On the way to the end zone, Brown turned around and asked a pursuing Huff, "How do I smell from here, mother&@#$er?"

Edited May 20, 2023 by Mr. Scot

[Jon Snow]

RIP to great football player and an even greater man. 

[TheSpecialJuan]

 

[Donald LaFell]

Definitely one of greatest running backs ever, and one of the greatest lacrosse players ever too. 

Very likely not a good person too, based on the amount of violent incidents he’s had in his life. 

[LxDunn]

RIP Jim Brown, greatest football player

[NanuqoftheNorth]

12 hours ago, TheSpecialJuan said:

 

Knowing Brown's playing style, I wouldn't be one bit surprised if he suffered from CTE.  It would certainly help to explain his tendency towards violence.

[Cullenator]

Great(ist?) football player.

 

Even greater human being.  His run ins with the law dont undo the mountains of good he did in this world

[KatsAzz]

R.I.P. Jim Brown. One of the greatest players in NFL history.

[Ricky Spanish]

Complicated legacy. He did some great things but I don't think he was a great guy based on the long list of women he either assaulted or tried to murder

[NAS]

 

@SheenaQ

[Khyber53]

On 5/19/2023 at 4:56 PM, ladypanther said:

 

 

He was a legend on the field, he was a brave man during the Civil Rights movement and he successfully made the move from sports to acting. Those weren't easy things to do and he did it with so many people actively working against him.

He was, however, a man with difficulties and I have a hard time reconciling my praise for him on the field with his history of domestic violence... in a time when domestic violence cases weren't taken as seriously as they are now. 

All our heroes, cast as statues of bronze, have feet of clay I guess.

[PantherPhann89]

R.I.P. to one the greatest to ever do it!