Former Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell has been a finalist or semifinalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame eight times, but he has yet to be elected.
Modell, who died in 2012 at age 87, played an important role in the growth and popularity of the NFL on television in the 1960s and ‘70s. But he is also remembered for some very regrettable decisions, one of which cost fans the opportunity to see more of perhaps the greatest football player of all time: Jim Brown.
Of course, the No. 1 reason Modell will likely never get into the Hall of Fame is because he was responsible for moving his historic franchise from Cleveland to Baltimore in 1995. Modell’s team became the Baltimore Ravens, and Cleveland fans got back a new version of the Browns in 1999.
But what Modell did 60 years ago directly led to the end of Jim Brown’s legendary career, even though the running back still had several productive years in the tank.
Brown was one of the most unique players the NFL has ever produced. At 6-foot-2, 230 pounds, he was an unstoppable force at running back. A combination of great speed and brute force, Brown was nearly impossible to tackle.
As a rookie in 1957, he led the NFL with 942 rushing yards. It was one of only two seasons in which Brown didn’t rush for at least 1,000 yards. When he rushed for 996 yards in 1962, it was the only season of his nine-year career in which he didn’t win the rushing title.
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In 1965, Brown rushed for 1,544 yards and 17 touchdowns, capturing his third MVP crown. It was his fifth season with at least 1,400 rushing yards, his third in a row. He was already the NFL’s all-time leading rusher — with nearly 3,000 more yards than Joe Perry, who held the record previously.
Brown turned 30 two months after the 1965 season ended; there’s no doubt he could have added a few thousand more yards to his career totals.
But Brown was cultivating a side gig: acting.
He appeared in his first motion picture in 1964. After the 1965 season ended, he went to London to film his second movie, The Dirty Dozen. Production of the World War II movie, which also starred the likes of Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine and Charles Bronson, dragged into the summer.
When it became apparent that Brown would still be in London working on The Dirty Dozen when NFL training camps were set to open, Modell — who had bought the Browns in 1961 — told his superstar player that he would be fined for missing any days of camp.
Clearly, the Browns needed Jim Brown more than he needed them.
On July 13, 1966, Brown retired.
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What if?
Thanks to Modell’s hard-line stance, football fans are left to wonder “what if?” Brown still ranks 12th on the all-time rushing list with 12,312 yards and seventh on the all-time list with 106 rushing touchdowns.
Brown played nine seasons; no player ahead of him on those lists played fewer than 10 seasons. The top three all-time rushers — Emmitt Smith, Walter Payton and Frank Gore — played 15, 13 and 16 seasons, respectively.
Brown averaged 1,368 yards and 11 touchdowns per season. If he had played just two more years and maintained that pace, he’d currently rank in the top five in both categories.
As for his acting career, Brown would appear in 44 movies, many of them in a starring role.
“I’m a rookie in a new career, a very glamorous career,” Brown said upon announcing his retirement from the NFL. “A career that is more worldwide renowned than football will ever be.”
A few years ago, I talked to actor/comedian Keenan Ivory Wayans, who cast Brown in his directorial debut, the 1987 blaxploitation spoof I’m Gonna Git You Sucka.
“He loved the idea that I was this young black man trying to make a movie,” said Wayans. “And I think that the independence and sort of brashness of that idea he wanted to support. So he lent his stardom. I didn’t think in a million years I would be able to get him.”
There’s a scene in the movie where Brown’s character asks Wayans’ character: “What make you think you can be a black hero?”
The reply: “Because I’m an ex-football player.”
“I never thought Jim Brown could be funny, but he was masterful,” said Wayans.
