Throwback Thursday: Just Talking About Jim Brown

From 1957-65, Jim Brown broke down defenses and defenders. We can watch old films of him running over, through, and past defensive players. Players that entered a game with the Cleveland Browns with one goal in mind. Stop Jim Brown. Few ever really did. Here's some words from players that played against and with Jim Brown. As well as words from those observing from a safe distance.

He was the most devastating ball carrier in the history of the NFL.
     -Browns radio announcer Ken Coleman

I always thought Superman was white and wore a cape. Then I found out he was black, wore number 32, and played for the Cleveland Browns.
     -an NFL defender

When you've got the biggest cannon. You shoot it.
     -Browns coach Paul Brown

Whenever I mention Manhasset, people say Jim Brown.
     -former Manhasset lacrosse coach Bob Rule

Every other college athlete was compared to Jim Brown after Jim Brown.
     -Ernie Accorsi

Forty-eight straight games and I watched this man in every type of weather, every type of situation, and he always came through. I saw him play football in a way that I never saw anybody else play. There's something about every runner that's exciting and tells you that he's a great runner, but they just don't step out on the field and everybody knows that the boss is there. But that's the way it was with Jim. He would pull on his pants and everyone would get excited, "The big man's ready to run."
     -Hall of Fame back Bobby Mitchell

It was early in the third quarter, and here came Jim Brown through a hole and there I was to meet him. I hit that big sucker head-on and my headgear snapped down and cut my nose and my teeth hit together so hard that the enamel popped off. He broke my nose, broke my teeth, and knocked me cold. I woke up in the training room with an ice pack on my head and my nose bleeding. My teeth were killing me.
     -Giants Hall of Fame linebacker Sam Huff

You couldn't help but be awed.
     -Browns lineman John Wooten

He busted four of my ribs. I was trying to tackle him and he dropped that big forearm-it looked like a tree trunk- and put it in my ribs and that was it. The next time I opened my eyes I was in the dressing room.
     -Packers corner Bobby Jeter

We only needed to give him a crack-18 inches-and he would be in the secondary.
     -Browns center John Morrow

After watching films of Jim Brown, I noticed that he never ran out of bounds. He always ran North aand South and that's what I turned my style into. I was a North and South runner.
     -Hall of Fame back Earl Campbell

As had happened to him once in a game against the New York Giants, when Brown would go to the ground, Colts players would step on his hands and kick him in the legs or ribs. Hands and fingers probed through the face mask, which had two bars that protected the lower portion of his face, leaving the eyes exposed, and the Colts attempted to gouge them out. All of the abuse and pain only served to make Brown angry.
   -author Mike Freeman

Defenses didn't like Jim Brown when he was angry.
     -me

The closest thing there's ever been to Superman on a football field
     -another NFL defender

For mercurial speed, airy nimbleness, and explosive violence in one package of undistilled evil, there is no other like Jim Brown.
     -Red Smith