RIP Jim Brown

Brown as Dad remembered him

Legendary professional running back Jim Brown has died.  

Jim Brown was a name that loomed large in my childhood.  That's because my dad was as much a Jim Brown fan as he was a Frank Sinatra fan.  Dad was sort of a Cleveland Browns fan as a result, though I always felt his allegiance was tied more to Jim Brown's time with the Browns than with the Browns themselves.  On my mom's side, her oldest brother and her dad were true, blue Browns fans.  My uncle, in fact, never missed going to a Browns home game until the last years of his life, when health interfered. 

Nonetheless, for my dad, I think had Jim Brown been on any other team, that team would have been a favorite.  He not only liked, but he admired him.  As one not afraid to speak out about America's sins, he didn't mind as Jim Brown became more vocal in his Civil Rights advocacy.  That's not to say he always agreed with Brown.  My dad was of that time where disagreeing didn't negate and sever all ties and relationships. 

For Brown's part, he was definitely one of the greats in American sports.  A running back with few rivals, he was as comfortable running over his opponents as running around them.  Watching old games, it's easy to see how you couldn't imagine him getting up after a particularly brutal hit. Then, when the next play started, he was up and running like a tank. 

Like not a few high profile athletes, especially football players, Brown tried his hand at acting.  Though it wasn't his first line of work, he wasn't half bad.  One of his highest profile roles was in the movie The Dirty Dozen, released in the Summer of Love and a smash hit at the same time.  Strange. 

Brown plays one of the convicts, and the movie wasn't afraid to show the racism aimed at him.  Toward the end of the movie, when the mission is coming to fruition, it is Brown's character who is charged with running across an open parkway, throwing hand grenades down into a series of exhaust vents.  I must admit, the movie is worth watching if, for no other reason, you can watch him run.  In that brief couple seconds of him running, you realize just what made him so legendary as a running back, an athlete, and competitor. 

With the miracle of the Internet, I've had the chance to watch old clips of Brown, and I must say my dad's hype was not overstated.  As an individual, of his life and beliefs, I know little.  I know there was scandal and accusations and the dirty laundry that comes with fame in the mass media age.  In any event, he was someone who my dad admired, and that was not a large fraternity.  Dad divvied out high respect and admiration with an eyedropper.  But if you earned it, he was willing to overlook a multitude of sins (though never deny or ignore them, just like with America).  For that reason alone, I pray Brown will receive that loving grace from the Eternal One, and a small part of the happiness he brought millions, including my dad.