RIP Jim Brown

I vaguely remember seeing him in his last two seasons, but I wasn’t a diehard football fan yet. Too young. I became a Rams’ fanatic the following season, in 1966, and remember some year-after retrospectives. To me, there’s no question: greatest running back ever. One can make an argument for greatest football player ever — though I’m fan-partial to Deacon, Merlin, and AD for that accolade.

But if you think in terms of the overall career, and winning all of those rushing titles, and All-Pro selections . . . he was great every year. No off years, which isn’t really the case with other players we remember as “great,” primarily because they played a bit too long. Brown left the game still on top.

And his life off the field was even better, especially his Civil Rights work.

wv wrote:

Certainly by some measures, he was the ‘best NFL player, ever’. For starters, i dont know of any NFL player that created so much distance between the best and the second best player. Seemed like there was a consensus he was the best, and the second-best was nowhere in sight of Jim Brown. w v

That’s a good point. The distance between the next best.

One could argue a few “might have beens.” Like, if Dickerson had actually visited the gym once or twice, he might have elevated from all-time great to the best ever. I loved his game. A true wonder to watch, at least when he was a Ram. :>) But he basically relied on his incredible size/speed/power combo, as is. No real attention paid to working out, at least not consistently. And he played a few years too long too.

Sayers is another. Terrible, career-ending injuries. But he didn’t have Brown’s size. I think Sayers was 6′ 200. Extremely fast, with great moves, in the Sanders realm (though more fluid). But not as powerful as Brown.

Sad that the position seems to have been devalued in recent years.