I don’t remember when it was that I decided to become a Cleveland Browns fan. I think it was when Otto Graham passed for three TDs and ran for three more in the 56-10 win over the Detroit Lions in the 1954 NFL championship game that I became an official Browns fanatic. I lived or died with the Browns, and then something special happened.
Jim Brown, All-American fullback out of Syracuse, was drafted by the Browns in 1957. He was the 6th pick overall. That fall, I watched him on TV in black and white as he ran over and through people like Sam Huff, Ray Nitschke, Dick Butkus, and others. Nobody could stop him, He shed tacklers like a black snake at molting time. He carried three and four men into the end zone with punishing dives up the middle and sweeping escapes around the end.
I remember watching in horror each time he picked himself up off the turf after the tackle. He looked like he wouldn’t make it back to the huddle, then he would plow ten yards through the defense on the next play.
He was truly amazing
In his somewhat brief career, he rushed for 12,312 yards and averaged 5.2 yards per carry. He also was named a Pro Bowler every year he played. He led the Browns to the league championship game three times, winning the title in 1964, and was named MVP three times.
He ran for at least 100 yards in 58 of his 118 regular-season games, never missing a game. He rushed for more than 1,000 yards in seven seasons, including 1,527 yards in one 12-game season and 1,863 in a 14-game season.
Then, in 1966, Brown retired in his prime at age 29 after nine years in the NFL to become a film star.
Jim Brown died last week at the age of 87. Brown was not a very good man – he had a propensity for hitting women, but he was undeniably the greatest football player who ever lived.