I’m not nearly old enough to have ever seen him play, but I know he’s widely regarded as at least a top-5 greatest NFL player ever, if not top-3. He was basically unstoppable is the gist of what I’ve seen and heard about the man and I believe all of it.
Damn, he was great and a fun actor.
He was a real life superman!
He was the Gretzky, the Jordan, the Babe Ruth of his sport.
Nor am I, but my father lived in Cleveland in the '60s, and saw Brown (and Lou Groza). Dad said that he was incredible to watch.
Here in the Detroit area there used to be a morning radio show called Drew and Mike, and on several occasions they called Barry Sander’s dad, who was a cantankerous, odd duck who showed little or no pride in his son. They’d goad him by asking “who’s the best running back, in your opinion?” and Sanders Sr. would say “ ain’t nobody better than Jim Brown! He averaged (X) yards per carry in his career; Barry only averages (less than X) yards per carry.”
He starred in Tick Tick Tick as a newly elected black sheriff in a southern town, filmed in Colusa CA. I don’t think anyone outside of Colusa County saw the film, but it was a big deal. And Colusa was very redneck, but who did like having a running back great come make a movie in your town even if he was black?
The school bus scene was filled with 2nd graders from my next door class. One of the shocked kids was my best friend back then Robbie.
Oh man, you just brought back a memory for me. I remember hearing those bits (RIP Mike).
mmm
I’m too young to have watched him play, but he was a beast of a runner. Very hard to stop.
Here’s a stat that will be hard to break: to date he is the only rusher in NFL history to average over 100 yards per game for a career. And that stat is nearly 60 years old.
How do we measure greatest Running Back?
If you ask me, Jim Brown is the name that come up immediately though I didn’t see him play.
Of those I saw, I lean towards Barry Sanders or maybe Sweetness.
Accumulation stats I think point to Emmitt Smith.
Roku channel “The B-Zone” is showing his movies today.
An interesting bit of trivia which I just learned: when the band Earth, Wind & Fire were starting out in the early 1970s, Brown was their manager for a time.