Quite arguably the best RB to ever play the game. He wasn’t the most pleasant poerson to be around, but you had to admire his abilities.
He could definitely be prickly, but at the same time I greatly appreciated his passion for community and dedication to standing up for what he felt was right. Huge loss.
Alumnus of my high school. Word was that as great a football player as he was, he was a better lacrosse player.
Oddly enough, I remember him mostly for this:
This is the first one that comes to mind for me:
He is in both the NFL and Lacrosse Halls of Fame.
I’m old enough to remember him playing for the Browns. He ran more vertically than most running backs and rarely led wth his head (which may explain his longevity and hs never developimg CTE). He seemed to wade through low tackles and would simply drop his shoulder to take on high ones. Yet the power he generated was tremendous. HOF tackle Bob Lilly said he once tackled Brown head on and after the play looked down to see his crushed face mask in his lap. When Brown got to the second level of the defense, it seemed that the field had tilted down in his favor. His most remarkable stat: 5.3 yds. per carry for his nine-year career.
Near the beginning of this hghlight reel is a 5-yard TD run vs. the Cowboys. Brown sweeps left and looksl like he wiil be trapped for a loss, but then simply explodes through the defense. Cleveland Head Coach Blanton Collier called it the greatest run he had ever seen.
I liked what Richard Pryor recounted. I won’t do it justice. In a game against (insert team), it takes all 11 opponents to finally bring him down after a run.
When he gets up from the bottom of the pile the last opponent jumps up and says “What the $&@>€% you bit my goddang hand you {¥*^#!!”
Jim’s response in a deep guttural timbre “Listen maynnnn. Anything on the outside of this mask is yours, anything on the inside is mine.”
Jim was before my time, but I’ve seen alot of clips of him. I love his power running, something I wish we had more of in the modern game.