Jim Brown
James Nathaniel Brown (February 17, 1936 – May 18, 2023) was an American football fullback, civil rights activist, and actor. He played for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL) from 1957 through 1965. Considered one of the greatest running backs of all time, as well as one of the greatest players in NFL history,[1] Brown was a Pro Bowl invitee every season he was in the league, was recognized as the AP NFL Most Valuable Player three times, and won an NFL championship with the Browns in 1964. He led the league in rushing yards in eight out of his nine seasons, and by the time he retired, he held most major rushing records. In 2002, he was named by The Sporting News as the greatest professional football player ever.[2]
For other people named Jim Brown, see Jim Brown (disambiguation).No. 32
February 17, 1936
St. Simons, Georgia, U.S.
May 18, 2023 (aged 87)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
232 lb (105 kg)
Syracuse (1954–1956)
1957 / Round: 1 / Pick: 6
12,312
12,312
5.2
106
262
2,499
20
Brown earned unanimous All-America honors playing college football at Syracuse University, where he was an all-around player for the Syracuse Orangemen football team. The team later retired his number 44 jersey, and he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1995. He is also widely considered one of the greatest lacrosse players of all time,[3][4][5] and the Premier Lacrosse League MVP Award is named in his honor.[6] Brown also excelled in basketball and track and field.[7]
In his professional career, Brown carried the ball 2,359 times for 12,312 rushing yards and 106 touchdowns, which were all records when he retired. He averaged 104.3 rushing yards per game and is the only player in NFL history to average over 100 rushing yards per game for his career. Brown was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971. He was named to the NFL's 50th, 75th, and 100th Anniversary All-Time Teams, composed of the best players in NFL history. Brown was honored at the 2020 College Football Playoff National Championship as the greatest college football player of all time.[8][9] His number 32 jersey is retired by the Browns.
Shortly before the end of his football career, Brown became an actor. He retired at the peak of his football career to pursue an acting career. He obtained 53 acting credits and several leading roles throughout the 1970s.[10][11][12] He has been described as Hollywood's first black action hero and his role in the 1969 film 100 Rifles made cinematic history for featuring interracial love scenes.[13]
Brown was one of the few athletes, and among the most prominent African Americans, to speak out on racial issues as the civil rights movement was growing in the 1950s. He participated in the Cleveland Summit after Muhammad Ali faced imprisonment for refusing to enter the draft for the Vietnam War, and he founded the Black Economic Union to help promote economic opportunities for minority-owned businesses. Brown later launched a foundation focused on diverting at-risk youth from violence through teaching them life skills, through which he facilitated the Watts truce between rival street gangs in Los Angeles.
Civil rights work[edit]
Brown was one of the few athletes to speak out on racial issues in the 1950s as the civil rights movement was growing.[46] He was one of the most prominent African American athletes to engage in civil rights activism, and he called on other African American athletes to become involved in similar initiatives off the field.[75] In 1967, Brown, alongside Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Carl Stokes, were all members of the Cleveland Summit, a meeting with Muhammad Ali held with the intention of convincing the four to rally behind and recruit others to help Ali's cause of civil rights in the United States.[76] Because Ali was a "pariah" in American society at the time because of his opposition to the Vietnam War and refusal to enter the draft, his boxing license had been revoked, and he faced up to five years in prison. For Brown and the other participants to stand with Ali in support of him and his position consequently put "their reputations and their careers" at risk.[77][78] The Cleveland Summit was later called "a significant turning point for the role of the athlete in society" and "one of the most important civil rights acts in sports history", as well as a predecessor of the 21st century protest movement initiated by Colin Kaepernick.[77]
In 1966, Brown founded the Negro Industrial Economic Union, later known as the Black Economic Union (BEU), to help promote economic opportunities for minority owned businesses.[79] Brown later stated in a 1968 Ebony interview, "We've got to stop wasting all our energy and money marching and picketing and going things like camping-down in Washington on a Poor People's Campaign...We've got to get off the emotional stuff and do something that will bring about real change. We've got to have industries and commercial enterprises and build our own sustaining economic base. Then we can face white folks man-to-man and we can deal."[80] The BEU secured loans and grants, including from the Ford Foundation, to support community initiatives related to food, medicines and farm and economic ventures in specific counties, starting with Marshall County, Mississippi.[18] Because of Brown's economic advocacy for the African American community, Richard Nixon expressed support for black capitalism in his campaign in the 1968 United States presidential election and received an endorsement from Brown.[18] In 1988, Brown founded the Amer-I-Can Foundation, an organization that sought to divert gang members and prisoners from violence by teaching them life skills.[46][81][82] Through the foundation, Brown helped establish the Watts truce between rival street gangs in Los Angeles.[83][84]
Perceiving Brown and other outspoken African-American athletes as a threat, the Federal Bureau of Investigation monitored Brown and his organizations. Files declassified in 2003 showed that the FBI, the United States Secret Service, and several police departments had monitored Brown and the Black Economic Union, attempting to smear the group as a source of Communist and radical Muslim extremism and collecting information to damage Brown's reputation.[18][85]
Assault allegations[edit]
Brown was arrested at least seven times for assault, mainly against women.[103] During the era when the incidents occurred, prominent men were usually not scrutinized for reported offenses against women.[46] He was never found guilty of a major crime;[46] in most of the cases, the women refused to press charges after calling the police.[104] In 1965, Brown was arrested in his hotel room for assault and battery against 18-year-old Brenda Ayres; he was later acquitted of those charges.[105] A year later, he fought paternity allegations that he fathered her child.[106]
In 1968, Brown was charged with assault with intent to commit murder after model Eva Bohn-Chin was found beneath the balcony of Brown's second-floor apartment.[107] The charges were later dismissed after Bohn-Chin refused to cooperate with the prosecutor's office. Brown was also ordered to pay a $300 fine for striking a deputy sheriff involved in the investigation during the incident. In Brown's autobiography, he stated that Bohn-Chin was angry and jealous over an affair he had been having with Gloria Steinem, and this argument is what led to the "misunderstanding with the police".[108]
In 1970, Brown was found not guilty of assault and battery, the charges stemming from a road-rage incident that had occurred in 1969.[109] In 1975, Brown was convicted of misdemeanor battery for beating and choking his golfing partner, Frank Snow. He was sentenced to one day in jail, two years' probation, and a fine of $500.[110][111] In 1985, Brown was charged with raping a 33-year-old woman.[112] The charges were later dismissed.[113] In 1986, he was arrested for assaulting his fiancée Debra Clark.[114] Clark refused to press charges, and he was released.[115]
According to several victims and witnesses, who were interviewed for the 2022 documentary series Secrets of Playboy, Brown brutally raped and assaulted numerous women at the Playboy Mansion.[116][117] These alleged incidents occurred from the late 1970s into the 1990s.[118] According to the documentary, as well as other sources and numerous interviews,[119] other perpetrators of rape and assault at the Playboy Mansion included Roman Polanski and Bill Cosby.[120]
In 1999, Brown was arrested and charged with making terroristic threats toward his wife Monique. According to Brown, "The only time [we] ever have an argument is during [her menstrual period]". Later that year, he was found guilty of vandalism for smashing her car with a shovel.[121] He was sentenced to three years' probation, one year of domestic violence counseling, and 400 hours of community service or 40 hours on a work crew along with a $1,800 fine.[122] Brown ignored the terms of his sentence and in 2000 was sentenced to six months in jail, which he began serving in 2002 after refusing the court-ordered counseling and community service.[123] He was released after three months.[124][125]
"There is no excuse for violence," said Brown in 2015.[54] "There is never a justification for anyone to impose themselves on someone else. And it will always be incorrect when it comes to a man and a woman, regardless of what might have happened. You need to be man enough to take the blow. That is always the best way. Do not put your hands on a woman."[54]
In other media[edit]
Brown was portrayed by David Ajala in the London cast of the 2013 play One Night in Miami[135] and by Aldis Hodge in the subsequent 2021 film adaptation of the same name.[136] According to Hodge, he heard "through the grapevine" that Brown - the only subject of the film alive at the film's release - liked the film and approved of Hodge's portrayal of him.[137]