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http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2010/08/cleveland_browns_legend_jim_br.html

Cleveland Browns legend Jim Brown is planning to skip Ring of Honor ceremony: NFL Insider

Sunday, August 22, 2010, 7:35 AM
Tony Grossi, The Plain Dealer

Jim Brown, arguably the greatest Browns player of all time, does not plan to participate in the club's inaugural Ring of Honor ceremony at the home opener Sept. 19.

The Browns have been holding off an announcement of the creation of the Ring of Honor until the proposed inductees in the first class, or family members, confirmed their attendance. The first class will be made up of the Browns' 16 Pro Football Hall of Famers.

The Browns have not heard directly from Brown that he will not attend.

"He won't be able to make it," said Monique Brown, Jim's wife, speaking for him. "He tried to move a few things around [his schedule], but wasn't able to."

The profound snub speaks to the suddenly frosty relations between the franchise and its greatest player. Brown had been very visible since the franchise returned in 1999 and was named an executive adviser to owner Randy Lerner a few years ago with a six-figure salary.

Brown had the title removed by Mike Holmgren shortly after Holmgren joined the Browns as team president in January. Holmgren offered a reduced role for Brown, and a pay cut, but Brown declined.

At the time, Brown said he would make himself available to the Browns if he were called. He participated in the team's draft in New York -- at the request of the NFL -- and also answered a call from coach Eric Mangini to speak to the club's rookies.

Brown was informed of the club's intent to create a Ring of Honor several months ago. He was non-committal about attending. But two things have stung him, said a source close to him. The Browns curtailed their financial involvement in Brown's Amer-I-Can program, and Brown has not heard from Lerner since their parting.

"I'm afraid we've seen the last of Jim Brown around here," said the source.

The Browns are expected to formally unveil plans for their Ring of Honor this week. Their show will go on.

Browns Legends: The Browns Legends program is back after a one-year hiatus.

The streamlined program has two major changes. The number of inductees each year is reduced from four to two. Also, the inductees don't have to come from separate eras in the team's history.

A third change is that fans will not have the opportunity to cast votes on the Browns' team website. In the past, the fan vote counted a small percentage of the overall vote.

One who got away: Remember Don Carey, the Browns' sixth-round pick in 2009 who was waived/injured in training camp and claimed by Jacksonville? He has recovered from shoulder surgery and is competing for the Jaguars' nickelback slot.

The Jags' starting tandem of Rashean Mathis and Derek Cox are solid. If Carey progresses to the point of No. 3 cornerback, even No. 4, the Browns' release of Carey would represent a major error. Considering the Browns' questionable depth behind their top three corners, Carey would have been a viable candidate to push Brandon McDonald for the No. 4 job here. Camp fires: Here's a quarterback name to watch: Matt Flynn. The Packers really like the backup to Aaron Rodgers but probably will have to trade him rather than lose him in free agency. He's got two years left on his rookie contract and might be ready to start in 2012 when he can be a free agent. . . . The Packers were surprised by the Browns' blitzing in their preseason meeting last week. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel calculated the Browns blitzed (five or more pass rushers) on 11 of Rodgers' 13 dropbacks. "I don't think anybody's blitzed us this much in the five years that [coach] Mike [McCarthy] has been here," offensive coordinator Joe Philbin told the newspaper. "We were talking about it on the phones. Any game. None that I remember." . . . The Chiefs are excited about the potential of second-round pick Javier Arenas as a return specialist. In his first game, the Alabama cornerback had one kick return for 42 yards and another of 99 nullified by penalty. Clip and save: "I can promise you this, not that I have ever set out as a goal to play 20 years, [but] 20 years and I'm done. This is the last year of my contract." -- Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre, upon unretiring for the umpteenth time.

I won't miss him, I think we always took his opinion of things WAY too seriously...

I get it Jim, you were a great RB... That doesn't mean your opinion on current sports matters...

Those are cogent points, but he needs to be there.

If he was an executive adviser to Randy Lerner how can Holmgren fire him? wouldn't that be up to Randy?

I do agree that sometimes Brown seemed to have too much weight with the team.

His name needs to be there.

He can stay away.

He was a great player. He is an ass who thinks that the entire world should revolve around him.

I'd like a 6 figure salary to stand around at practice and sit in the owners box on gameday, and say stupid things to the media. I'm sure I can handle the position.

I don't disagree he leaves a lot to be desired in terms of personality.

My opinion stems from the fact that there are deceased memebers of the HOF that cannot be there at all.

This is his opportunity to bury the hatchet; but he won't.

It is what it is. But if they hold his funeral in public, you'll never see the end of the line in northeast Ohio.

As everyone else has said Brown was once a great RB.

That being said I think the guy may have dementia and shouldn't be allowed near a camera ever again. Kind of sad that he's slapping Browns fans in the face by not showing up at the ceremony.

I wasn't speaking out against anything you said, just stating how being a whiner about losing a job that was basically made up by Lerner to make Brown feel important is living in fantasy. If he couldn't see he was overpaid for doing nothing, then he is even more delusional than first thought.

Oh, I know, and I didn't take it that way. I was just trying to clarify my statement. If he ain't there, he ain't. I believe he should be. That he does, or doesn't deserve to be, may be a quandry for some folks,...I would just like to see him there.

Imagine him and Hickerson both there, or, ALL of the group that played on the 1964 Title Team,....(Warfield, Kelly, et al, etc.)

Eh, he's only hurting himself.

Check !

I wonder if something has been going on even before he was 'officially' dismissed by Holmgren -- Brown would go to a lot of Browns events in the last few years but just recently I haven't seen him at any. I try to go to events where players will be as I collect autographs and always looking for Brown since that's just a great auto to have. But in the last year or so, I have not seen him at anything and before that, you'd see him regularly.

It's too bad things went south w/ him for whatever reason(s), some of which we may never really know.

If Jim Brown is salty about being removed from a position that he sucked at, well that's his problem.

Bernie is still a paid advisor because he has some actual football and business sense.

i think he's really, really bitter at the way these players have it now, versus the way things used to be.

and while he likes the browns and the fans, he always tries to push his own agendas.

i don't wanna say he overstayed his welcome but i think longerm, holmgren did the right thing.

still sucks that he won't be at the ceremony, considering he's probably the franchise's greatest player, hell he's the game's greatest player.

J/C

Perhaps off topic, but why aren't there any statues at Cleveland Browns Stadium?

I'm not hating on the "Ring of Honor" thing, but IMO a few statues around the outside of the stadium would be a good idea in addition to the Legends Club idea. There are a lot of Browns through the era's that are Browns legends - Groza, Hickerson, Ozzie, Bernie etc. - but there are a couple that are legends of football. Paul Brown and Jim Brown the obvious ones and perhaps Otto.

Just doesn't make any sense to me why it hasn't happened at any point through time.

i think there should be a bernie statue. i know he's not on the same level as a jb or even graham. but nobody represents what cleveland football is all about like bk has and still does.

a guy who did what he did, just so he could play for his favorite team, and ended up being a pretty damn good qb in his time? that should be the statue.

Too bad Brown won't be at the ceremony. However, his legacy as one of the greatest football players of all time will live on. I'm sure he feels disrespected by the Browns and the new regime. It's unfortunate that for such a strong man, his feelings are so easily bruised.

I just bought a #32 Jim Brown jersey and will always wear it with pride to signify the man's accomplishments on the field. Good luck, Jim.

Maybe he is taking his talents to South Beach.

Jim Brown is a jerk IMO anyway.....one of the greatest players to play the game but still a jerk.

I read the entire text of Jim Brown's letter to Holmgren on the PD site, then this Bill Livingston commentary. Interesting stuff.
Thoughts?

Quote:

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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Jim Brown, in upstaging the Browns' Ring of Honor by declaring his intention to skip the induction ceremonies, once again makes the discussion all about himself.

The other inductees feel honored. At 74, indisputably the Browns' greatest player, as well as probably the oldest ex-player to have the ear of a team owner in pro football history, Brown feels snubbed.

Since the great icon says he will sit out the September induction ceremony, Leroy Kelly, Mike McCormack, Paul Warfield and the others to be honored are suddenly cast in the shadows by the ego of one recalcitrant player.

Great as Brown was on the field -- and in this estimation he was the greatest football player ever, and that goes for everywhere, not just with the Browns -- he is divisive, angry and bitter off it.

As usual, he casts the issue in racial terms, despite members of racial minorities holding political office, including the Presidency of the United States, and despite Cleveland's own demonstrated history of racial progressiveness in sports.

Brown endured real, venomous bigotry in his playing career. His world view will forever-more be black and white. That was evident in his indefensible evocation of a "plantation" mentality at Ohio State in the Maurice Clarett scandal, in which, while defending the ex-con running back, Brown called athletic director Andy Geiger a "slave master." It is evident in his latest racially charged language to the Browns' front office. The proud protester fights injustices he conjures out of thin air.

Brown's most inflammatory statements include putting in team president Mike Holmgren's mouth the statement that "one monkey don't stop the show."

As with Geiger at Ohio State, so with Holmgren now: It is virtually impossible for a man to reach such a lofty position as athletic director at OSU or president of an NFL team and hold such beliefs or speak in such terms. He would betray his bigotry in a hundred ways. In the meritocracy of sports, he would be dismissed from his job.

Brown says he refused to be a "greeter" or "mascot" with the team, instead seeking a more meaningful role.

One might ask how well things worked out during the years when Brown advised team owner Randy Lerner?

The disaffected legend ended his letter to Holmgren and Lerner by writing: "So let me end with a little humor, because as you say, one monkey don't stop the show, and as I say 'Willie Lynch missed a few of us,' and there will be no Buck Dancing."

Along with the reference to African-Americans as monkeys, Brown apparently brings up lynching, and a derogatory term (Buck) for African-American males. There might be echoes of a minstrel show in "Buck Dancing" or to lynching. It's unclear at exactly whom the man aims his "humor."

One thing is clear, though. What organization with a lick of sense would let someone who sees the world this way speak for it?

---

I've always felt Brown spoke what was on his mind, the question was always "What is on his mind". He often said things that were best left unsaid, or at the very least worded better. One must know how and when to speak, particularly when representing a organization or corporation.

I respect Brown as a player, but never really cared for him as the person he exhibits in the public realm.

as not being old enough to remember seeing JB play, my only exposure to him has been public. I've never liked him as a person as was glad holmgren realized that he shouldn't be advising anyone. The man is old, bitter, and racist. He needs to just disappear and keep his distance from the team. Yeah he was a great player, but he also sold his team out in his prime to become a wanna be movie star. So as far as I'm concerned, the Cleveland Browns owe him nothing.

I'm 30 years old. Of course, I never saw Jim Brown play in person. All I have to go on is what I've read/heard through the years and by all accounts he was at least one of the greatest of all time - but I do know Jim Brown the man by what I've seen/heard him say and I find him to be an ugly, bitter, extrememly bigoted man that is getting worse as the years go by.

His language and references in this note to Holmgren are rude and uncalled for in my opinion. I hate the so called "n-word" and words associated with it like "monkey" and a new word to me as of this morning "buck". They're ugly, ignorant terms and in my circle of freinds where it gets thrown about I make it clear I don't like it - and to read it from Jim Brown today in a letter to Mike Holmgren for a preceived "diss" is just sad. Holmgren by all accounts is a good man; yet you throw out lynching, buck dancing and other things because you haven't had your ass kissed enough? Ridiculous.

Ohio State is a plantation. Gilbert is a slave master. We didn't love LeBron enough. Apparently in Berea lynching is okay. Sure thing Jim.

As of this morning, Jim Brown is about as dead to me as one can get while living. I've worn a #32 jersey for years, it's now retired.

Quote:

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Brown endured real, venomous bigotry in his playing career. His world view will forever-more be black and white. ......... The proud protester fights injustices he conjures out of thin air.

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This is the key. Each of us, regardless of age, regardless of whether you are black or white, should be thankful that those who went before us worked and fought for change. While we are obviously still not a perfect social society, most of us cannot fathom what those who went before us endured (unless you were of the aristocratic class I suppose)..

The hard part is that when one lives through it, and then the vast majority of it goes away, it's hard I guess to admit that it's gone. Surely racism and bigotry still exist on some level but at a level far more benign than they were in the 40s, 50s, and 60s.. and while we must always remember, we must also celebrate the success we've had and continue to look forward.

Folks like Jim Brown, Jesse Jackson and others seem intent on looking back and acting as if no progress has been made at all.... and if there is no REAL injustice to fight, then they fabricate it out of thin air.. which takes the focus off of those pockets of racism and injustice that do still exist, that do still need addressed... if there is one place where the issue of race has been mitigated probably more so than any other place, it is in professional sports.

Jim Brown needs to come into the 21st century.

Jim Brown the player was great . Jim Brown the man ...not so much . The guy has done some good things and some boneheaded things . He needs to realize he is no longer relevant and go quietly into the backround , nod in the right places when someone wants to do a story about past greats and be content in his old age .

I too am only 30 so I've also never lived during the Jim Brown era. While driving home yesterday listening to Afternoon R&R on 850 Reghia made a comment I wasn't aware of before. He stated that Jim Brown was loyal to the Browns/Fans when it was beneficial to him. He stated that:

1) He left the team in his prime to be a movie star. (I was aware of this and I really don't care. He at least won a championship before he called it quits.)

2) Not sure on the time period (Late 70's possibly) but Reghia stated he was sporting LA Raider gear and hanging with LA Raider players. (Was not aware of this nor did Reghia go into the specifics behind why he was wearing Raider gear)

3) Stood side by side with Art Modell when he moved to Baltimore in hopes of getting a job with the organization. (Was defiantly not aware of this.)

So when he needed the Browns he was loyal, when there was other avenues available to him he was not.

Jim Brown needs to give the racist crap a rest.He is starting to get as annoying as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton on the subject.When are these guys going to realize that there is just as much racism in the black community as there is in the white.Problem is they close their eyes to the black folks way of thinking and only see the white.
Hopefully some day there won't be anything for them to get puffed up about and racism will go away.I just don't see it happening very soon,especially when guys like this put it where there is none and find a way to make it look like someone is being racist.

He really needs to be there -- for his own good. He needs to man up to the fact that the only reason he ever came into a position of public acknowledgement was because he was a great football player. He would never have had the pulpit to do some of the stupid, moronic and good things he has done in his post-football life.

Jim Brown confuses the hell out of me.

I've met him, he's personable, friendly and has a HUGE smile and firm handshake. Then he opens his mouth and frankly, a lot of rubbish comes out.

He says stuff that don't make sense.. Like the article points out,, how in the world can ANYONE come to the defense of Clarett.. I mean, the kid had the world on a string.. a national championship and free ride in college.. all in all, and extremely bright future. And he was dumb enough to blow that.. Nobody did anything to him,, it was his decision..

Brown defends that and his other issues.. I don't get it.

Also, Lerner paid him to be an advisor for years,, it's VERY apparent that any advice he gave Lerner didn't work.. Anyone of us tells our boss how to do things and they backfire, we get canned.. what's so odd about him getting canned..

He's 74 years old,, a team and city wants to honor him and he's snubbing them.. makes no sense to me.

Anyway,, if he doesn't want to show up, I'm ok with it. Let's be bigger than him. Let's honor him and be kind to his memory.. and then let's honor the rest of them as well.

Contrary to his belief, the world does not revolve around JIM BROWN.

Yep, agree,...I ain't selling my Jim Brown rookie (card).

Quote:

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One might ask how well things worked out during the years when Brown advised team owner Randy Lerner?

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This here is why your ass got canned. Man up and accept it.

Brown needs to shut his mouth for awhile and leave the Browns alone.

I'm a fan of the guy for what he did on the field, not the wife beating man he was off the field.