![]() ![]() Time Magazine in 1965, with more than a trace of racism, described Brown this way: "Jimmy seems to be shooting for still another title: Most Controversial Athlete of the Year. The broadcaster later pulled Brown aside in the locker room: "I've always admired you as a football player, Jim. ![]() (It was the Colin Kaepernick effect but in the 1960s.) A Cleveland sports broadcaster once said during a newscast that Brown should stop talking about race and only concentrate on football. He didn't care when white members of the press scolded him for talking about issues of race. It's difficult to put into words how much he fought racism in both Hollywood and the NFL. In the end, Brown was not a good dude, but he was a great man. ![]() When I wrote a book about Brown that was published in 2006, what was easy to see was Brown was someone of numerous contradictions. He wouldn't allow it because his will was a ball of energy that could power a team, a league, a movie set, a grudge or a civilization. It's fitting the only thing that could stop Brown is death. Mostly, Brown was unapologetically himself, for better and worse, and that fact made him a block of cement that could not be broken. You cannot discuss the life of Brown without looking at the total picture, and that picture is a kaleidoscope of barrier breaking and rules breaking of remarkable firsts and horrid worsts of historic feats in Hollywood, shattering racial ceilings, as well as the spirits of the women he physically abused over the years. A through line in his long and distinguished life is a trail of domestic abuse incidents and then, in recent years, his backing of Donald Trump which betrayed all of the work he'd done to empower Black people and defeat racism. It was Brown who brokered the remarkable Cleveland Summit that featured Ali, Bill Russell and Lew Alcindor.īut in these moments we must also tell the truth, and the truth is, Brown at times, in real life, was the anti-hero he portrayed in the movies. He confronted issues of race and class with the type of fearlessness few American athletes not named Ali or Jackie Robinson ever have. He negotiated truces with gangs in Los Angeles. Away from the field, he fought for the rights of Black players, for their humanity. For so long, he was viewed as the best football player ever, and that is a debate for another time, in another moment. He became a millionaire not long after leaving the Cleveland Browns. Those salaries at the time were high and few Black actors earned money like that. He got $40,000 for "The Dirty Dozen" and for his movie with Welch, his eighth, he was paid $200,000 in salary and received five percent of the film's box-office gross. He earned $37,000 for "Rio Conchos," which was his first movie. Like in so many other aspects of his life, he could be a bully on the set, but he was also bankable. ![]() Nothing like that had ever been on the screen before. He starred alongside Raquel Welch, one of the huge stars at the time, and their interracial love scenes were a significant turning point in cinematic history. Jim Brown had walked away from football at the age of 30, and not long after that was starring in a movie called "100 Rifles." In that movie, in essence, Brown had become the first Hollywood Black action hero. The year was 1969, so long ago, but in the history of Hollywood, it's a signature moment. ![]()
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