amna: One of the greatest
legends of the NFL has died.
Hall-of-famer Jim brown, running
back for the Cleveland browns
from 1957 through the 1965
season, blazed an athletic path
few have equaled.
He left the game as its
most-famous and best player to
pursue a life in acting, and in
activism; as the civil rights
movement rolled through the
1960s.
Unstoppable as brown was on the
field, off the field he led a
complicated, at times brutal
life.
He was arrested half-a-dozen
times, mostly for domestic
abuse.
He died yesterday in Los Angeles
at age 87.
With me now to discuss his life,
and legacy is Kevin blackistone,
sportswriter and professor at
the Phillip Merrill school of
journalism at the university of
Maryland.
As you know, Jim brown was not
only one of the best to ever
play the game, he was one of the
NFL's first superstars.
How did he become one of the
greats?
Prof. Blackistone: Anytime you
watch the old video of Jim
brown, you see people trying to
bring him down and completely
unsuccessful.
He went through, over and around
people.
He was considered the greatest
running back in the history of
the NFL, even to this day.
Some of the records he set have
yet to be broken.
For example, he led the league
in all-purpose yards, meaning
catches and handoffs out of the
backfield for five years in a
row.
In many of the records -- and
many of the records stood for
decades.
He was that much of a power.
Not only that, just talking
about his athleticism in
general, he was a fouport
start in Syracuse.
Many people consider him the
greatest lacrosse player of all
time.
He played maybe 30 games, scored
77 goals and had 80 20, 30
assists.
One of the greatest athletes
we've ever seen.
Amna: He was still very much in
his prime, only 30 years old,
when he decided to walk away
from football.
What we know about why he made
that decision?
Prof. Blackistone: He got
infatuated with Hollywood and
trying to become an actor.
Many of us may remember the
movie "The dirty dozen."
That pulled him into Hollywood.
He walked away from the
Cleveland browns to try his hand
at acting.
The owner at the time started to
find him for not coming back and
being ready and in shape to play
football.
Sooner or later, they parted
ways.
He was truly one of the first
free agents, you could say, in
professional sports.
He became his own man and
refused to do what the browns
wanted him to do.
Jim brown would only do what he
wanted to do.
Amna: He used his platform and
voice to advance calls for
equality during the civil rights
movement.
Tell us about that part of his
life.
Prof. Blackistone: In a lot of
ways when I think about Jim
brown, I think about him as this
emperor of black masculinity.
Particularly in the 1960's.
There are couple of things that
really made him stand out.
One is a famous photograph of
Jim brown with Muhammad Ali and
a group of other very famous
black athletes in the 1960's and
was called the Cleveland summit.
It is a misinterpreted
photograph because a lot of
people have said incorrectly to
support Muhammad Ali's refusal
to join the military and
continue his boxing career, but
the real reason for the meeting,
those guys, including Jim brown
as the ringleader, wanted to get
Ali to drop his fight against
the military and continue as an
athlete.
One of the reasons Jim brown
wanted to do that.
At the end of the day, Jim brown
was a capitalist and he had a
business deal for Ali's next
fight and wanted him out there.
Ali, to his credit, he stood
down the most powerful black men
in athletics and told them this
is what I decided to do.
They created a unified front
with Ali.
That's one of the first times we
saw Jim brown as an activist on
the black front.
The other time is when he
started a black economic
organization that is still
around today to invest in homes
and real estate and business
opportunities in Kansas City.
He's had a great impact when it
comes to black capitalism in
this country.
Amna: Jim brown came out in 2018
and had vocally supported than
president trump, something he
said at the time would make him
"Very unpopular" in the black
community.
Did it?
Prof. Blackistone: Absolutely it
did, I wrote about in the
Washington post and I was
perplexed as to why Jim brown
would do this.
At the end of the day, Jim brown
was very much a capitalist.
I suspect that fit into the
reasons why he met with Donald
Trump.
He thought for whatever reasons
that Donald Trump would do
something for black America but
Donald Trump wound up never
doing.
That's the complexity of talking
about Jim brown.
He was dogged throughout his
life, certainly as an adult man,
of being a terror to the women
in his life.
A number of times, he was
accused of battery against
women.
There is a famous story about a
girlfriend that he threw off of
a balcony.
He was once arrested in the
1990's over domestic violence
and convicted.
He was a very complex person.
He was not just a great athlete,
not just this actor who played
these often times single name
roles where he flexed his
muscle.
He was this black male power
figure on the screen.
There were some uncomfortable
moments in his life.
Amna: A complicated life and
legacy.
Kevin, thank you for joining us.
Prof. Blackistone: Thank you.
♪♪