Larry Brown Sports

Jim Brown is one of the most competitive athletes to ever live. We know this because the Cleveland Browns legend has never been one to turn down a challenge — no matter what the contest. As crazy as it may sound, there was a point in the mid 1960s where Brown wanted to box Muhammad Ali.

No, he wasn’t joking. Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated recently sat down with 80-year-old Bob Arum, who is the most powerful promoter in boxing today and one of the most influential in fighting history. It was Brown who introduced Arum to Ali, and Brown who decided a fight between one of the greatest athletes in sports history the greatest fighter of all-time would bring home a fortune. Arum proposed the idea to Ali, and this is how it went from there.

“So I went to talk to Ali,” Arum recalled. “He says, ‘Jim wants to do what? Bring him here.’ So I took him to Hyde Park in London, where Ali used to run. Ali said, ‘Jimmy, here’s what we’re going to do: You hit me as hard as you can.’ So Brown starts swinging and swinging, and he can’t hit him. He’s swinging wildly and not even coming close. This goes on for, like, 30 seconds. Then Ali hits him with this quick one-two to his face. Jimmy just stops and says, ‘OK, I get the point.’”

That sounds about right. Brown is all about challenges. Remember the time he played and lost to Andre Agassi when Agassi was only 9 years old? He may be the greatest running back of all time and the greatest lacrosse player to ever live, but it’s no surprise to hear he backed down from Ali after realizing he wouldn’t last 15 seconds. Would everyone involved have made a lot of money? Yes. Would it have been worth the embarrassment for the Cleveland legend? Probably not.

Glove tap to Yahoo! Sports Boxing Experts Blog

Jim Brown, the greatest running back in Cleveland Browns and arguably NFL history, has expressed on two occasions that he does not think highly of Trent Richardson, who was drafted third overall by the team in April.

Richardson finally responded to Brown’s criticism.

“He has his own thoughts. That’s him being him,” Richardson said earlier this month, according to ESPN’s Jamison Henley. “I have no problem with it. I just wish the best of luck for him whatever he’s doing in life.

“I laugh at the situation,” Richardson said. “You don’t know me from spic to span. But he’s Jim Brown. He’s done a lot here and I haven’t done anything yet. I have a lot to accomplish and big shoes to fill. When it comes down to it, I have to work and make sure I make him a believer. I haven’t done anything yet.”

Brown may not know Richardson, but he’s certainly entitled to evaluate him as a running back. The best thing for the Browns would be for Richardson to use the slights as motivation to dominate on the field. We already know Brown said he’d apologize if Richardson proves him wrong, so at least he’s pledging to be fair about the situation.

For the record, I lean more toward Brown’s evaluation of Richardson rather than Cleveland’s.

Helmet knock to Pro Football Talk

From the moment the Browns traded up to select Trent Richardson with the third overall pick in the 2012 draft, Jim Brown has made it clear that he does not agree with the decision. Many view Richardson as an electric player who can become a game-changer for the Browns’ offense, but the best running back in Cleveland history doesn’t see it that way. Brown reiterated that during an interview with ESPN Cleveland on Wedensday.

When radio host Tony Grossi told Brown that many have compared Richardson to Emmitt Smith, Brown said Smith was a “warrior” but he wouldn’t put him in his top tier of running backs anyway.

“If you look at Emmitt Smith and the kind of blocking he had, I don’t think he’d have close to the career he had (without it),” Brown said. “But if you take a Gale Sayers, Walter Payton, Eric Dickerson … Earl Campbell, there’s something special there.

“Emmitt was a warrior. But when it comes to the first level of backs, Emmitt would not be in my first level. So when I look at Richardson, I see adequate speed, adequate power, and a good attitude. But I don’t see anything special. And I don’t know if anyone can tell me there’s anything special.”

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The Cleveland Browns clearly are not soliciting player analysis opinions from Jim Brown, because they traded up to select Trent Richardson No. 3 overall in the 2012 NFL Draft on Thursday. Earlier in the day, Brown, the best running back in Cleveland’s franchise history (and perhaps all time), expressed doubt about Richardson’s ability.

Asked about the Browns potentially drafting Richardson — which they did — Brown was unenthusiastic.

“I’m not overwhelmed with it. The problem is that he’s ordinary,” Brown told The Scott Van Pelt Show on ESPN Radio. “I think he’s ordinary.”

Asked what about him is ordinary, Brown said, “the size, the speed, his moves.”

Brown was not impressed by any of the running backs in the draft, saying “It’s not a good year.”

Brown believes the importance of running backs has become marginalized because the NFL is a passing league, and thinks a team should only draft one early if he’s great.

I agree with Brown’s analysis all the way around. The problem is Cleveland needs a quarterback and Washington beat them out by acquiring the No. 2 overall pick from the Rams. Instead, they moved up to take Richardson and settled on Brandon Weeden at No. 22. I still think their offense has a long way to go.

Helmet knock to Pro Football Talk

So I received my copy of SI in the mail Friday and finally got to dig into the excerpts of Andre Agassi’s book with more detail than reading the shocking headline that “he did Meth!!!” Needless to say, the excerpts were quite intriguing and accomplished their job of whetting the appetite for the book. One of the cool stories from the book was mentioned by Shutdown Corner and it’s the anecdote of Andre Agassi beating Jim Brown as a 9-year-old kid. Here’s the meat of the tale:

After asking the 9-year-old some questions about his skills (Agassi told him he never loses) and getting warned by the club owner not to take the bet, Brown and Mike Agassi agreed that they’d set the amount after he and Andre played two sets. After dropping two straight sets by a score of 3-6, Brown politely declined the 10K wager and offered $500 for the third. He lost, 6-2.

Now the question I have is if Brown later realized that the Andre Agassi who was number one in the world was the same 9-year-old kid that beat him years before. Think about this — Jim Brown is one of the best football players of all-time, not to mention one of the best lacrosse players ever. And he was beaten by a 9-year-old! Goes to show you how talented Agassi was.

Since the theme from Agassi’s book seems to be how much he (and many other youngsters pushed by their parents) hated tennis, I would like to know whether or not he’s proud of his accomplishments in the sport. After all, there’s no way to say that all the hard work didn’t pay off — he has gone down in history as one of the greats in the game.

Fred Taylor may be one of the top 20 career rushing leaders, but that didn’t help him reach a Pro Bowl until his 10th year in the league. Fred used to say that making the Pro Bowl didn’t matter to him, adding that he ignores criticism from the media. Why is that the case? Taylor always said he didn’t need validation from the media because he had the respect of the one man who mattered — Jim Brown, who told Fred he liked the way he ran. Jim Brown also had this famous line to say in his autobiography, Out of Bounds:

“Two things I always knew about my league, the NFL: You don’t ask for favors, you don’t hang around. A man might love the game, but the game loves no one. The game will use what he has, [then] discard him. The sh– isn’t personal.”

That line was last brought up in Jim Trotter’s article about LaDainian Tomlinson’s negotiations this offseason with the Chargers. It’s also quite applicable to Taylor’s situation with the Jags — after 11 seasons with the team, he finally was released Monday. Rather than hanging on a year too long, long enough to get burned by injuries caused by the game, Taylor should have walked away after the ’07 season when he was on top. It was that season that he made the Pro Bowl — the first of his career — rushing for 5.4 yards per carry, which was the highest of his career. Taylor could have gone out on top, like Jim Brown, and avoided this spectacle. Now he must beg for a team to pick him up for what is likely one last year, or decide to retire. Either way, the game did not end on his terms.