Update of an Old Friend

[Colts And Orioles]

o


In 1964, the Cleveland Browns won the world championship.

In 1965, the Cleveland Browns made it to the world championship game, losing a close one to the Green Bay Packers ....... the first of 3 consecutive world championship titles for that Packers franchise.

The Browns had a young man playing running back by the name of Jim Brown. In 1965, Brown led the NFL in yards (1,544 yards, in a 14-game season), and averaged 5.3 YPC. Brown also led the NFL in rushing TD's (17), and had 21 TD's overall, just one behind what was the all-time record at the time (22, by Gale Sayers in that same 1965 season.)

In July of 1965, the Browns opened training camp, and Jim Brown was not there ...... he was in Europe, where he was working on a movie called The Dirty Dozen. On July 13th, a very antsy Art Modell called Brown and threatened to fine him if he didn't immediately come back to the United Stated and report to training camp. What was Brown's response ??? He said, l "Yeah OK, Mr. Modell. I quit football. I'm an actor now. Good luck to you and the Browns."

So 8 weeks before the start of the 1966 season ....... with the Browns coming off of back-to-back world championship appearances, and with a 30-year-old Jim Brown coming off one of the best seasons of his Hall-of-Fame career ....... Brown very politely told Art Modell and the Browns to go fuck themselves, and that they were on their own in their quest for a 3rd consecutive world championship appearance (in what turned out to be the very first Super Bowl ever.)

o