Happy Birthday to ‘The Greatest’

By STEVE KING

People in and around the Browns call him simply “The Greatest,” for that’s indeed what Jim Brown is.
And now the greatest football player ever is turning 85 on Wednesday. The Pro Football Hall of Famer was born on Feb. 17, 1936 in St. Simons Island, Ga. He now lives in Los Angeles with his second wife, Monique, and continues to work as an executive advisor with the Browns.
Brown, a Syracuse product, was chosen by the Browns at No. 6 overall in the 1957 NFL Draft, but only after the rival Pittsburgh Steelers selected the player at No. 5 who head coach.General Manager Paul Brown really wanted, quarterback Len Dawson of Purdue and Alliance High School. He played his entire nine-year career (1957-65) with the Browns, including two seasons (1960-61) with Dawson after the Hall of Famer busted out in Pittsburgh. He was only 29, with seemingly at least three or four good years left, when he surprisingly retired just before the start of training camp in 1966. He made the announcement in London, where he was shooting a movie. He went on to have an acting career.
When Brown exited the Browns, he was far and away the NFL’s all-time leading rusher with 12,312 yards, averaging 5.2 yards per carry and scoring 106 touchdowns. He also had 20 TD catches, and his 262 receptions are one of the best totals in Browns history.

Those are video-game-like numbers, to be sure, which is why HOF middle linebacker Chuck Bednarik of the Philadelphia Eagles, who faced him twice a year for Brown’s first six seasons as the teams were both members of theEasstern Conference, said, “Jim Brown is the closest thing to Superman there’s ever been on a football field. He’s stronger and faster than everyone else, and he’s virtually indestructible.” Brown missed only a handful of plays in his career.
For those of you — especially younger people — who doubt Brown’s greatness, go online and watch some of runs. You won’t believe what you’re seeing.
People — even the so-called “experts” — can point to this player or that player as the greatest, and while I respect their opinions, there is clearly just one man who is “The Greatest” in the game’s history.
He’s the man who has that nickname, Jim Brown.