Jim Brown left Cleveland on his terms, and it may have cost the Browns a Super Bowl

On a warm summer day shortly before the Cleveland Browns were scheduled to report to training camp in 1966, John Wooten received a call from Jim Brown, his good friend and teammate.

Wooten was always one of Brown’s most trusted confidants. The bond began after the Browns drafted Wooten, an offensive lineman out of Colorado, in the fifth round in 1959. He was one of the seven Black rookies Brown gathered every morning in a dorm room at Hiram College, where the Browns held training camp, to discuss expectations. Among them: Brown insisted the Black rookies wear a coat and tie to the team’s three preseason road games. If they didn’t have one, he bought it for them.

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Brown trusted Wooten to assemble the proper power figures for the famous Cleveland Summit that Brown hosted in 1967 in support of Muhammad Ali’s refusal to serve in Vietnam. And on this day, this otherwise nondescript summer day in 1966, Brown chose Wooten to deliver the message that shook the NFL and forever altered the course of one of its most prominent franchises. 

“I want you to tell the guys so they’ll hear it before it hits the news,” Brown said. “I’m through. I’m not coming back to football.”

Jim Brown’s retirement from football stunned the sports world in 1966. The greatest to ever do it walked away on his own terms, just like always. Wooten was shocked. The Browns won a championship in 1964 and were coming off a loss in the championship game in ’65. Brown was 30 years old and still in his prime. He was a three-time MVP and led the league in rushing in eight of his nine seasons. He had never so much as hinted at retirement. Now he was giving Wooten two days’ notice to tell his guys in the locker room before it hit the press. Nevertheless, Wooten didn’t bother trying to talk his friend out of it. 

“I know Jim’s voice,” Wooten recalled over the weekend. “I know when he talks to me that way, he has already made up his mind.”

Brown’s death last week at the age of 87 concluded a complicated life and a scattered legacy. He became one of the country’s most powerful activists, propelling the Civil Rights movement forward by identifying education and economics as the two biggest factors necessary in preparing the Black community for success. What good are equal rights, Brown frequently told those close to him, if we don’t have the money and resources to buy homes in high-income neighborhoods?

His creation of the Negro Industrial and Economic Union, later renamed the Black Economic Union, received a $1 million grant from the Ford Foundation that ultimately provided a financial pathway for Black citizens in Cleveland and across the country to receive the funds necessary to start their own businesses. Brown’s union served as a sort of bank for the Black community to open grocery stores, barber shops, dry cleaners or any other business or service. His Amer-I-Can foundation empowered trainees, specifically gang members, to reach their potential by teaching them acceptable behavioral standards, emotional control, financial stability and aiding in job searches. But Brown was also arrested multiple times, mostly on charges of abusing women. He was never convicted. 

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In Cleveland, Brown is hailed a hero. All kids, Black and White alike, growing up in Cleveland in the late 1950s and ’60s argued over who could be Jim Brown during backyard football games. A statue of him was unveiled outside the stadium in 2016, the first Browns player to receive the honor. No one has worn the No. 32 jersey in Cleveland since his retirement, and he was one of the charter members of the organization’s Ring of Honor, established in 2010.

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His only championship came in 1964, two years before the creation of the Super Bowl. The Cleveland Browns are one of four franchises that have never appeared in a Super Bowl. Jim Brown is the one player who could have changed that.

In order to understand why Brown walked away when he did, it’s important to grasp why Brown and team owner Art Modell felt each owed the other a little respect and understanding. 

Modell made his fortune as an advertising and television executive in New York City before purchasing the Browns in 1961. Television was Modell’s expertise — he was the driving force behind the NFL creating Monday Night Football. For years, Modell told associates his deep Hollywood ties helped Brown land the role in “The Dirty Dozen,” the film that ultimately ended his NFL career. It was a favor to Brown that Modell wound up regretting. 

“From hearing Art’s side of the story, he was mad at Jim because he helped Jim get the film,” said James Bailey, executive vice president with the Browns and Baltimore Ravens and Modell’s right-hand man for more than two decades. “He needed to get Jimmy back and he was also getting pressure from (coach Blanton Collier). Art was feeling double pressure. But Jim had made a commitment to the movie. He wasn’t going to leave.”

The season didn’t kick off until Sept. 11. While filming ran long, Brown assured Modell he would be back in time for the start of the season. He was only going to miss a few practices. 

“I’ll be ready to fly,” Brown told Modell, according to Wooten. “I’ll be late, but when I get there I’ll be ready to fly.” 

At 6-foot-2 and 230 pounds, Brown was a physical terror and a punishing runner. He always kept himself in terrific shape, but that wasn’t good enough. Modell, who died in 2012, insisted on treating all players the same and publicly threatened to fine Brown if he wasn’t in camp on time. 

Brown had grown accustomed to flexing his substantial power within the organization and wasn’t used to anyone pushing back against him. Not even the owner.

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Cornerback Walter Beach was another of Brown’s close friends. Beach joined the military before he went to college and spent two years in the AFL, so he was 30 by the time he reached the NFL. He arrived in Cleveland in 1963 and Brown immediately took a liking to him. The two often played chess together and because he was a few years older, Brown nicknamed him “Doc.”

One morning during two-a-days in 1964, Beach was told to go to the head coach’s office and bring his playbook. He was being placed on waivers. He was back at his locker packing his things when Brown walked by.

“C’mon Doc, let’s go,” Brown said. 

Beach told him he was being released. Brown initially didn’t believe him before telling him to wait right there. Brown walked into Collier’s office and returned a few minutes later. 

“OK Doc, let’s go to practice,” Brown said again. Beach was stunned. He was back on the team.

“They started putting all my equipment back into my locker,” Beach said. “You’ve got to understand what that’s like. I can’t even tell you what that’s like. The owner and management told me I’m on waivers, and now I’m down in the locker room again with my shoulder pads on.”

Nobody ever told Beach he was back on the team. It was just sort of understood that Brown had flexed his considerable biceps. It went on that way for the next couple of years. As long as Brown was in Cleveland, so was Beach.

The day Brown retired, Beach received a call. Don’t bother coming to camp. He was being released. This time, they meant it.

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Brown clashed at times with Paul Brown, the Hall of Fame coach and founder of the team, and publicly backed Modell when he fired the legend after the 1962 season. Paul Brown was one of the original architects of football, a legend whose coaching tree includes Bill Walsh, Chuck Noll, Don Shula and Collier. He was above reproach, but Jim Brown didn’t always appreciate his style and often complained to his teammates about the play calling. The Browns missed the postseason the last four years under Paul Brown, and Modell sided with his star player. Brown was fired in January 1963. Browns fans were furious.

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“They were ready to hang Art from the Terminal Tower,” Wooten said. “Jim supported Art in the firing of Paul Brown, and because of that support, he felt he should’ve had special favor with Art. This wasn’t some dumbass football player just running the football. Jim took great pride in his knowledge of the game and how he prepared himself.

“I knew how important this team was to him. But he felt like he’d stuck with Art, and now you’re going to tell me you’re going to fine me like a regular football player? You’ve got to understand, as much as Jim loved football, he didn’t want you to look at him as just a football payer. He wanted you to look at him like a dignified man.”

Modell replaced Paul Brown with Collier, who was already working on staff. Collier was much more collaborative and open to Jim Brown’s ideas. The two gathered frequently after practices, watched film together, and Collier even gave Brown a voice in drawing up the plays and game plans. Brown studied the game. He knew teams’ and players’ tendencies. He offered small critiques, running plays wider or getting rid of the ball quicker on certain calls.

As a result, Brown thrived under Collier. In their first season together, he led the NFL with 1,863 yards in just 14 games, a whopping 6.4 yards per carry average that was up more than 2 yards per carry from Paul Brown’s final season in charge. The next closest back to him was Green Bay’s Jim Taylor with 1,018 yards.

“Paul Brown was a great coach with an outstanding mind,” Wooten said. “We don’t even question Paul Brown’s intellect. But you didn’t have the right to say, ‘Paul, just swing it this way over here’ or ‘run it that way.’ You didn’t have that under Paul Brown.

“Jim’s relationship with Blanton became how a head coach should respect his star no matter what color he is. That’s what you see in today’s world. Respecting the star players.”

The Browns went 9-5 in their first season without Brown, finishing two games behind the Dallas Cowboys and out of contention for a title. Leroy Kelly, himself a Hall of Fame running back, led the team with 1,141 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns in Brown’s absence, but he wasn’t Jim Brown. The Cowboys lost to the Packers in the NFL Championship Game in 1966. The Packers went on to beat the Chiefs in the inaugural Super Bowl. 

Wooten is convinced the Browns would have finished ahead of the Cowboys and beaten the Packers if Brown was still on the team in 1966. The Browns lost the championship game to the Packers in ’65 in part because quarterback Frank Ryan struggled badly.

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“No question about it. I wouldn’t be surprised if we would’ve won it in ’66,” Wooten said. “We were right where we wanted to be.”

Instead, there have been 57 Super Bowls played. Cleveland is still waiting for its first.

Brown eventually reconciled with Modell in 1984. The Browns were traveling to Los Angeles, where Brown resided after retirement, for a September game against the Rams. Brown reached out to Modell and asked to watch the game with him. 

They sat together all afternoon. Neither man apologized. 

“They were very friendly. They just let that one rest,” Bailey said. “Jim was just as stubborn, if not more stubborn, than Art. There was no compromise in that man.”

Brown had a deep love for the Browns throughout his adult life, enjoying an advisory role at various points and under various regimes. Bill Belichick often invited him back to speak to the players, particularly the rookies, before the franchise departed for Baltimore. Brown once tore into the rookies, telling them they hadn’t accomplished anything yet and introducing them to one of his Amer-I-Can graduates, praising the reformed gang member for accomplishing more than anyone else in the room that day.

He was given an official advisory role again after the team returned to the NFL in 1999, but Mike Holmgren angered him when he stripped away the title and reduced his role in 2010. Brown was furious Randy Lerner, then the owner, didn’t step in on his behalf — so upset that he refused to attend the team’s Ring of Honor unveiling that same year. The relationship was again mended when Jimmy and Dee Haslam bought the team and restored his role. 

On the night Baker Mayfield came off the bench his rookie year to rally the Browns to a Thursday night win over the Jets, snapping the team’s 19-game losing streak, Brown grinned widely as his wooden cane click-clacked across the carpet of an empty locker room.

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“Showed a lot of heart,” Brown said to no one in particular. “A lot of heart.”

Brown loved heart. And toughness.

Beach believes Brown easily could have played at least another 2-3 years. Wooten agrees. Three years, probably. Brown’s 12,312 rushing yards are still good for 11th all time. Had he played another three years, he could easily still rank in the top five despite playing in the era of 14-game seasons, not 16 and 17 like today.

His health had been fading in recent years. Wooten routinely spoke to Brown every couple of weeks, but he last saw his dear friend at the NFL Honors awards night in February. Brown kept asking him that night if he was OK financially or if he needed any money. Brown knew he was dying. He wanted to make sure one of his closest friends in life wasn’t going to struggle in his last years without him.

“That was his way,” Wooten said, “of telling me goodbye.”

Beach last communicated with Brown about a month ago, but by then he wasn’t really able to speak. Brown’s wife, Monique, called Beach and his wife, Gail, and held the phone up while they spoke to him. 

“He just wanted to hear our voices,” Walter said. 

Brown didn’t want a funeral service, according to Wooten. He wanted to be cremated and have his ashes spread at a particular spot on St. Simons Island in Georgia where he was born.

“When I laid down last night, I just could not believe I’ll never talk to this guy again,” Wooten said Sunday afternoon. “We were so used to talking to each other. I miss my friend.”

(Top photo: Getty Images)