Jim Brown Had No Greater Fan Than Cleveland Browns Coach Kevin Stefanski

To say Jim Brown was a sport changer for the Cleveland Browns after they chose him with the sixth choose of the 1957 draft doesn’t do justice to the good man’s profession.

Jim Brown, who died final week at age 87, was not only a sport changer, however a franchise changer and a sport changer. He modified the very material of the NFL itself.

Within the 9 years previous to Brown’s arrival within the NFL in 1957, seven completely different operating backs led the league in speeding.

In Brown’s 9 years within the league, he led the league in speeding yearly however one – and in most of these years it wasn’t even shut. He was a one-man offensive revolution, and his dying hit dwelling hardest in Cleveland, dwelling of the one crew for which he performed.

“We misplaced someone essential to our franchise, to our league, to our society. The influence he had was immeasurable,” stated Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski.

In 1956, the yr earlier than Brown’s arrival in Cleveland, the Browns had a report of 5-7, and their main rusher was Preston Carpenter, with 756 yards and no touchdowns.

In 1957 Jim Brown was chosen by the Browns with the sixth choose within the first spherical of the draft, behind, so as, Paul Hornung, Jon Arnett, John Brodie, Ron Kramer and Len Dawson. In Brown’s rookie season, the Browns’ report jumped to 9-2-1, and the unstoppable rookie led the league in each yards speeding (942), and speeding touchdowns (9).

That was the opening salvo in a nine-year profession that, to opposing defenses making an attempt to neutralize the sport’s best participant, should have felt like a 20-year profession.

“I’ll always remember speaking to him the primary day I received employed (because the Browns’ coach), Stefanski stated. “I received on the telephone with him, which was a thrill. I used to be capable of meet Jim through the years a pair instances. Only a mountain of a person in some ways. We misplaced a really massive a part of our household.”

Jim Brown arrived in Cleveland at age 21, and he was gone after his age 29 season, selecting retirement over the choice, which was the specter of a sequence of fines from Browns proprietor Artwork Modell, who, in the summertime of 1966, felt Brown must be in coaching camp along with his teammates, and never in England filming the World Conflict II film “The Soiled Dozen”.

Brown’s 9 years within the NFL produced 9 of probably the most spectacular statistical seasons within the historical past of the league. Uncertain it’s that any participant squeezed extra excellence into 9 years of NFL fight than the neatly-chiseled, indefatigable Brown who, till his dying on Could 18, was not solely a hero to soccer followers all over the place, however to soccer heroes all over the place.

“My dad grew up in Philadelphia, however was an enormous Jim Brown fan,” stated Stefanski. “That’s not unusual for lots of people rising up at that age. I don’t care the place you have been rising up, you turned a Browns fan. You turned a Jim Brown fan early in your life.”

So when Stefanski was employed because the Browns’ coach in 2020, and after he spoke on the telephone that day with Jim Brown, Stefanski’s subsequent order of enterprise was apparent.

“After I hung up the telephone with Jim, I in a short time known as my dad, and he couldn’t imagine it,” Stefanski stated.

By the years Jim Brown was a frequent customer to the Browns’ facility, and he attended most of the crew’s dwelling video games. There’s a statue of Brown outdoors the Browns’ First Vitality Stadium, the place Brown was a frequent customer on sport days, and on different events all through the years.

“It’s unbelievable what he’s been by means of in his life, and we’ve educated our gamers on that,” Stefanski stated.

Final yr Stefanski took his crew to the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame in Canton, Ohio, which is about 60 miles south of Cleveland. Whereas on the Corridor of Fame the Browns gamers watched the film ‘A Soccer Life: Jim Brown’.

Jim Brown is a member of the Browns’ Ring of Honor at First Vitality Stadium, and the crew is planning additional methods to honor his legacy through the coming season.

“It’s my job to proceed to teach our guys on what he’s meant to our franchise, to our league,” Stefanski stated. “You stand on the shoulders of giants, and that’s Jim Brown.”