From an early age, he was one special athlete, where it was on the hardwood, on the grass with a stick or on the diamond, and on the track, he was special. After a standout collegiate career in upstate New York, he would go on to be one of the greatest players in NFL history in less than a decade. His second act saw him be sensational on the silver screen and as an activist being the voice for the voiceless when it came to issues that affected the minority community. He also had a complicated life off the field and silver screen when it came to how he treated the opposite. In the end, he was someone that made an impact that had the attention of everyone. Last week, we said goodbye to this sports legend.
Last Thursday, NFL Hall of Famer, actor
and activist Jim Brown passed away at his home in Los Angeles, CA. He was 87
years old.
A spokeswoman for the Brown family said
that the NFL legend passed away from natural causes at his home in L.A.
He is survived by his wife, Monique, of
nearly three decades in Monique and five of his six children, Kim, and Kevin
Brown; Jim N. Brown, Jr.; Morgan Brown; Aris Brown; Kimberly B. Brown. Jim, Jr.
and twins Kim and Kevin are children of Mr. Brown and his first wife Sue of
nine years Sue from 1959-68.
Brown’s daughter, Karen Brown Ward,
according to The Brunswick News had passed away in 2016.
“It is with profound sadness that I
announce the passing of my husband, Jim Brown. He passed peacefully last night
at our L.A. home. To the world he was an activist, actor, and football star,”
Monique said on her Instagram page at @Mrs.MoniqueBrown at the end of last
week.
“To our family, he was a loving and
wonderful husband, father, and grandfather. Our hearts our broken…”
While Brown was an all-around athlete
going back to his days at Manhasset High School in Long Island, NY, his
well-known greatness came on the gridiron, especially in the NFL as not just
one of the greatest running backs but one of the greatest football players in
that league’s history.
Upon his retirement from the NFL (1957-65)
at age 29, Brown was the NFL’s all-time leading rusher (12,312 yards),
including holding the single-season leader in rushing yards (1,863 rushing
yards in 1963: 14-game season). Both rushing marks have been eclipsed. But
Brown still remains the golden mark for that specific skilled position in the
NFL in terms of toughness, strength, and durability.
Despite his bruising style and playing a
position that you take a great deal of hits, Brown played in all 118 career
games.
At 6-foot-2, 230 pounds, Brown changed the
perception of running backs in NFL using a relentless attitude in a
ball-carrying style where he often dragged multiple defenders for extra yards.
He would very often push and stiff-arm would-be tacklers and delivered
punishing blow after punishing blow as the aggressor.
Brown in an interview once with NFL Films
said that his arms were like his “protectors and weapons.”
“Jim Brown was a gifted athlete—one of the
most dominant players to ever step on the athletic field—but also a cultural
figure who helped to promote change,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said last
Friday. “During his nine-year NFL career, which coincided with the civil rights
movement here at home, he became a forerunner and role model for athletes being
involved in social initiatives outside their sport.”
Brown was also a running back that was
exceptional receiver in his NFL career registering for his career 262
reception, 2,499 receiving yards, and 20 receiving touchdowns.
Jim Brown’s NFL Career
Resume
NFL Rookie of the Year (1957)
Three-time NFL MVP (1957-58, 1965)
NFL Champion (1964)
Nine-time Pro Bowler
Eight-Time NFL All-Pro selection
Eight-time NFL rushing leader
Retired as the NFL’s all-time rushing leader
Elected to Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971
12,312 career rushing yards: 11th NFL history
106 career rushing touchdowns: 6th NFL history
“Jim Brown is a true icon of not just the
Cleveland Browns but the entire NFL,” Browns Governors Jimmy and Dean Haslem
said on Friday.
“He was certainly the greatest to ever put
on a Browns uniform and arguably one of the greatest players in NFL history.
Jim was one of the reasons the Browns have such a tremendous fan base today. So
many people grew up watching him just dominate every time he stepped onto the
football field, but his countless accolades on the field only tell a smart part
of his story.”
To put into perspective how impactful
Brown was in NFL history, he once told fellow Hall of Fame Tight End that when
anyone tries to “tackle” you remember how much it hurts.
“He lived by that philosophy, and I always
followed that advice,” Mackey added about what Brown said to him.
Mr. Brown was born Feb. 17, 1936, at St.
Simons Island off the Southern coast of Georgia raised by his grandmother until
the age of 8. He moved to Long Island, NY to live with his mother first in
Great Neck, NY and then in an apartment in Manhasset, NY.
His legendary football journey as well as
his dominance as a high school athlete where he averaged 14.9 yards per rush in
football, 38 points per contest in basketball, and pitched “a couple of
no-hitters” in his words on diamond.
Brown always insisted that he “wasn’t a
good” player in baseball. But his talents got the attention of then New York
Yankees Manager Casey Stengel where he wrote him a letter expressing interest
in him joining the “Bronx Bombers.”
Brown best sport that he and his coaches
in high school said was lacrosse, which he played in college than anyone else
before or since him.
To put into context how great of an
athlete Brown was in high school, he earned 13 varsity letters in football,
lacrosse, basketball, baseball, and track.
Brown once confided to a coach that his
intention was to make football his career due to the fact that he never ran
into any racial barriers in football.
For much of his young life in Manhasset,
Brown said he never recalled how he did not experience “no racism” and was very
moved by the support from the mostly Caucasian Manhasset, NY community gave
him.
One moment in particular that Brown
recalled in his young life is when Syracuse University declined to offer him a
scholarship until he proved his worthiness at the varsity level.
Then Manhasset attorney Ken Molloy
organized a fundraiser that paid for Brown’s first year of college.
In his career with the Orangemen, Brown
lettered in football, basketball, and track. Among the records that Brown set
in football for the Orangemen included scoring 43 points in a game against
Colgate.
Along with being a member of the Pro
Football and College Football Hall of Fame, Mr. Brown is also a member of the
Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
Retiring at the height of his football
powers, Brown’s second act of his life saw him emerge as something that very
few minority Americans became back in the 1960s: a movie star.
His movie credits consist of 30 films
that include, “Any Given Sunday (1999),” “He Got Game (1998),” “I’m Gonna Get
You Sucka (1988),” “Mars Attacks! (1996),” and “100 Rifles.”
It was from the set of shooting “The Dirty
Dozen (1967)” in England that Brown informed the Browns of his surprise
retirement from the NFL as a player.
“People ask me, ‘Why would you want to
quit [football]?’” Brown later said.
His answer to that was “make more money
[acting], have Raquel Welch as a leading lady, I don’t get hit, they call me
Mr. Brown…”
Along with his emergence as an actor, Mr.
Brown found his other calling, becoming an activist. He referred to himself as
a “born activist” where he used his public platform and voice in advancement of
several causes, including his organization of “The Cleveland Summit” in 1967.
It was a meeting of the nation’s top Black
athletes, which included NBA Hall of Famers in 11-time NBA champion Bill
Russell and six-time NBA champion and six-time Kia MVP Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who
was Lew Alcindor back then to support boxing legend Muhammad Ali’s fight
against serving in Vietnam War.
Brown in the later years of advocacy
included his work to curb gang violence in the Los Angeles, CA and in 1988
founded the “Amer-I-Can” program that focused on helping disadvantaged kids and
ex-convicts in inner-cities.
“I hope every Black athlete takes the time
to educate themselves about this incredible man and what he did to change all
of our lives,” NBA perennial All-Star and four-time Kia MVP or the Los Angeles
Lakers LeBron James said of Mr. Brown. “We all stand on your shoulders Jim
Brown. If you grew up in Northeast Ohio and were Black, Jim Brown was a God.”
“As a kid who loved football, I really
just thought of him as the greatest Cleveland Brown to ever play. Then I
started my own professional athlete and realized what he did socially was his
true greatness. When I choose to speak out, I always think about Jim Brown. I
can only speak because Jim broke down those walls for me.”
James has used his voice and influence to
give back in supporting non-profit organizations like “After-School All-Stars,”
“Boys & Girls Clubs of America,” and “Children’s Defense Fund.
He also has his own charity foundation,
the LeBron James Family Foundation, which is based out of hometown of Akron,
OH, which since 2005 has held an annual bike-a-thon to raise money for various
causes.
In November 2017, James’ hometown’s school
board approved the “I, Promise School,” a public elementary school, which
officially opened on July 30, 2018 that was created in a partnership with
James’ foundation as a way to help students that struggled in school remain in
school.
Brown even with his positive marks on and
off the athletic field, he did have many confrontational moments from getting
arrested six times, mostly on charges of hitting women. That included an
incident in June 1999 when Brown’s wife Monique called 911 where she said that
Brown smashed her car with a shovel and threatened her life.
The case went to trail and Mrs. Brown
recanted that accusation and Mr. Brown was acquitted of the charge of domestic
violence but was charged with misdemeanor vandalism and was sentenced by an
L.A. judge to serve six months in prison for his refusal to attending domestic
violence counseling.
Jim Brown’s career highlights have stood
the test of time, even though the footage from then today might look a little
grainy and slightly blurred.
While running backs in today’s NFL are not
an important part of the offense, there is no devaluing Brown’s role that era
of the NFL, where grinding out yards on the ground and a cloud of dust and the
mud of converted baseball diamonds was the path to wins compared to the
fast-quick-strike offense through the air by the arms of the quarterback today.
Brown being one of best offensive players
in that era is how he was voted the best football player of the 20th
century 24 years ago. In 2010, NFL Films ranked Mr. Brown as the second-best
player in NFL history behind fellow Hall of Fame wideout Jerry Rice.
His post playing days on one hand were
good with what he did on the silver and small screen. On the other hand, it was
a complicated one because of his anger issues that have led him down some dark
paths.
Jim Brown was an individual that never had
a problem expressing his feelings on any topic from the gridiron to what is
going on in the world. He always walked to the beat of his own drum and made an
impact on this world and was remarkable and unforgettable.
No comments:
Post a Comment