I saw two great coaches get run out of town with the EXTREMELY STUPID statement: "The Game has passed him by!".
Paul Brown vowed revenge ...
Got me going, my Dad loved Brown, and Ted Williams,
regaled me with the tales. I felt like I knew Otto Graham personally.
Told me he thought Graham's standing by his friend the Doc who was
accused, (and effectively publicly "found guilty") of murdering his wife had destroyed Graham publicly.
That was the character basis of "The Fugitive".
Doc was eventually found to have been innocent.
Anyway, found this book....
Neat excerpt, I think relevant to your post. Fun to read, even if it isn't..
Hope the post is not too big...
JIM BROWN The Fierce Life of an American Hero
MIKE FREEMAN
from p104
Otto Graham was an assistant coach for the all-star game under
Lambeau, and within the irst few days of practice, Graham ap-
proached Jim and told him: “You will never make it in the NFL.”
“Otto would change and become a diferent person later in his
life, I believe,” said one black Hall of Fame player who knew Gra-
ham and asked not to be identiied. “But Otto told a number of
black players they would be no good. He told me that. He told Gale
Sayers that. He told several other black players the same thing, and
a bunch of the black players he told that would end up in the Hall
of Fame.” In 1964 Graham would go even further, claiming at a Pro
Football Hall of Fame luncheon that “the Browns won’t win any-
thing as long as [Jim] Brown is there.”
The players on the Browns were as curious about Jim as he was
about them. They had heard of this supposedly fearsome and hardy
runner and had watched him on television in the all-star game.
What Jim did off the field had also caught their attention. Jim was
the first player in professional football to use an agent—an extremely
controversial decision at the time. Players in the NFL feared
using representation because it was commonplace for owners to
refuse to negotiate with any player who attempted to use an agent,
and even trade a player who hinted at utilizing one. Jim hired his
longtime supporter from Manhasset, Ken Molloy, to handle his
contract with Paul Brown. When the several days of discussions
between Molloy and Paul concluded, it was decided that Brown
would earn a base salary of $12,000 and a signing bonus of $3,000. It
was the most money any Browns rookie had ever been paid up to
that point.
The Browns were a collection of gritty, tough stars, many of
whom had played for Paul for some time. They knew Paul’s system
and what to expect from Paul himself, and in the summer of 1957
they began to pull Jim aside, one on one, informing Jim of what
life was like under Paul, whom some called “the Man.” One of
those players who initially approached Jim was Lenny Ford, the all-
American from the University of Michigan. Ford symbolized the
stoutness of the Browns. In his first season as a professional, against
the Chicago Cardinals, Ford suffered a broken nose, two cheek-
bone fractures, and three lost teeth when Chicago fullback Pat
Harder elbowed him. It took plastic surgery to repair Ford’s face.
He returned later in the season wearing a specially fitted mask for
protection. Ford was so intimidating as a defender that Cleveland
shifted its defense from a six-man front to a four-man line so the
defense could better take advantage of Ford’s pass-rushing skills.
On one of the irst days of training camp, Ford spoke to Jim,
and what Ford said was stunning to a man who was quickly becoming
numb to what seemed like a series of eye-opening experiences.
As Brown recounted in his 1964 book, Ford told him: “First, when
you’re running through plays in practice, always run twenty yards
downfield. Don’t just run through the hole and then jog a few steps
and lip the ball back. The man doesn’t like that. Run hard for
twenty yards, even if you feel silly. He likes to see that.”
Ford paused, and looked harder at Brown, attempting to emphasize
what was coming next. “Secondly, keep your mouth shut
when he speaks to you. When he tells you how to run a play, run it
the way he tells you. If you have an idea for improving the play,
keep it to yourself. Suggestions make the man mad. If you’re pretty
sure you can make more ground by changing the play, change it in
the game. Don’t change it in practice. Run it your way in the game
and hope it works, and if it does, don’t say anything. Just make your
yardage and act like it was a mistake.”
Jim was taken aback by Ford’s warnings. To Jim, it sounded as if
the team feared Paul so much they would rather deceive him than
level with him. “Also,” finished Ford, “don’t start any conversations
with the man. Don’t initiate anything. You see something wrong,
let it go. He does all the talking here.”
Jim was perplexed. His initial talks with Paul showed no con-
trolling aspects in Paul’s nature. Paul was smiling and approving
in his dealings with Jim as the summer practice months turned into
preseason games. In the second game, against the Pittsburgh Steel-
ers, Jim scored a touchdown from 40 yards out in the third quarter
after outrunning the entire Steelers secondary. Paul pulled Jim out
of the game, waving for Jim to stand next to him.
“You’re my fullback,” Paul said. Then Paul casually moved away
from Jim down the sideline.
Jim would consider that moment one of the greatest of his
career. Paul Brown wanted him. Jim at first thought he and Paul
would share the kind of umbilical closeness Jim had shared with
Walsh and the coaches back at Manhasset. Jim did not understand
why the players feared and at times hated Paul.
Just a short time later, Jim and Paul would become quiet enemies,
two men that reviled each other, but rarely spoke a cross word about each other in public.
The relationship between Paul and Jim should not have been
one made in dysfunctional hell. Paul had courageously signed black
players when to do so was socially unacceptable, possibly even dan-
gerous, and Jim initially saw Paul as a white man stemming from
the same genetic mold as Walsh, Molloy, and Simmons, men who
had been beneicial to his life and career, not hurtful.
The core of Jim and Paul’s problems was not just a changing
football league, but a shifting society.
Paul could not deal with an
America that was changing so quickly. Jim was a child of that
change. The country’s emphasis on individual rights and freedoms
began trickling down to football. But individuality was contrary to
Paul’s beliefs. A young Jim was maturing into an activist who re-
fused to bend to Paul’s will, and Paul declined to change the ways
that had made him the most successful coach in football.
“Jim was not going to score touchdowns and get beat up physi-
cally and then stay quiet and say nothing once the game was over,”
said former Cleveland teammate Bobby Mitchell. “He found the
notion offensive that he was supposed to be this quiet brute. Jim
was anything but quiet. Jim was opinionated. Under Paul, players
were not supposed to be opinionated. You were supposed to just
shut up and play.”
Mike Freeman - Jim Brown.pdf - Jim Brown
//nfl-media.com/Libros_Football/Mike%20Freeman%20-%20Jim%20Brown.pdf
