Jim Brown – An Angry Young Man

The big new controversy in Cleveland (we’ve now moved beyond Lebron James) is Jim Brown not participating in the Ring of Honor ceremony in a few weeks honoring the 16 members of the Hall of Fame that are Cleveland Browns.  It seems Mr. Brown was “disrespected” by new Browns President Mike Holmgren.  Mr. Brown wrote an open letter to Mr. Holmgren that was published in the Plain Dealer. 

I would hope that you would take the time to read my agreement with the Clevelend Browns. I had no contract, but I was asked to write a job description so that my duties would be clear.

That job description included two things that I think are important. As Executive Advisor to the owner, my job was to use my intelligence, and my logic to advise Mr. Lerner. The second most important thing to me was a clause in that agreement that stated that I answered to no one except Randy Lerner. These two thing were highly important to me because I truly believed, with my educational background, having been a Cleveland Brown for 9 yrs, and having a pretty good knowledge of football, that I could contribute in a valuable way to the organization.

When you called me for a meeting in your office, there was no conversation about that agreement, no conversation about my duties, no conversation about what I felt, no conversation about my relationship with the players, no conversation about my relationship with the coaches, no conversation about my relationship with the head coach, and no conversation about my community work. Ultimately there was no conversation about anything that I felt was related to my job.

Your ultimatum to me was that you would offer me the opportunity of being that of the greeter, that of a mascot, that of a person that would represent special events by his physical presence, and for those things, I would receive a salary of $100,000. All of those things that you offered me would be controlled by you.

All of us have probably experienced job controversy.  We get a new boss, we have job duties changed.  Mr. Brown obviously had no job description and nebulous duties.  Holmgren as the new President is trying to build order and organization.  Rarely do we go public with it.  But Mr. Brown goes well beyond that and plays the race card yet again.

I was able to study your press conference and found your statements to be consistent in the way that you value me, and I observed the comments of the key players that sat by your side, and here was the impression I got: Your most powerful statement about me was that, and I must laugh, one monkey don’t stop the show. The two players that were with you, one of them made the statement that he was overwhelmed to be honored, and the other started talking about a subject that was highly important, and that was the pension plan, and the improvement that he would hope would happen, but stated that he was there to discuss the Ring of Honor.

Holmgren of course never said “one monkey don’t stop the show”.  This is Brown injecting race into yet another argument.  Aren’t you tired of this act – of people interjecting race where it doesn’t belong?  If Mr. Brown doesn’t want to attend the Ring of Honor ceremony because of some beef with the Browns, that is his right.  Never mind that he would let down the fans or his fellow teammates.  But pllllllease don’t make it a race issue.  Mr. Brown concludes with two more racial related slams.

But in my conclusion, I’ve never danced in the end zone, I always gave the ball to the referee, so you should know I don’t dance. Also Mike, I don’t hang out on the Westside of town. I’m an Eastside guy. I play my golf at Highland Golf Course.

The implication here is that all the whites live on the west side of town and all the blacks live on the east side of town.  Highland Golf Course (a nice course) is owned by a minority and is heavily frequented by minorities.

I don’t have any trophies in my home on display. I don’t claim to be the best at anything, and I emphatically do not need validation from any man, so I will not participate in your Ring of Honor.
Mike, there’s only one thing that I control in life, and that’s being a man. So let me end with a little humor, because as you say, one monkey don’t stop the show, and as I say “Willie Lynch missed a few of us”, and there will be no Buck Dancing.

Enough said – the angry young black men of the 60’s and 70’s need to redirect some of that anger.  Mr. Brown (and Mr. Jesse Jackson, etc.) this is not a race issue.  If you want to be angry and feel disrespected and turn down your 100k job, then fine, but don’t bring race into it.