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Modell wanted Brown in training camp and made his dissatisfaction public. Forget that Brown was voted the league’s MVP. Shooting had been delayed but Browns owner Art Modell didn’t care. He was in London filming The Dirty Dozen. When the Browns opened training camp in 1966, Brown was a no-show.

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Flood’s battle eventually opened the door to free agency.īut the episode that activated my sense of resistance was Brown’s sudden retirement from football in July 1966. I was 19 when All-Star center fielder Curt Flood took on the MLB over the reserve clause, which kept players chained to their teams in perpetuity.Their bold demonstration showed me how Black athletes could use their visibility to resist tyranny and champion the rights of African Americans in the United States.

I was 18 when world-class sprinters Tommy Smith and John Carlos staged their iconic human rights demonstration on the victory stand at the Mexico City Games.

I was 17 when Jim Brown organized the Cleveland Summit where 11 prominent Black athletes and one politician met to publicly support Ali.

I was 16 when Muhammad Ali refused to be drafted into the military.

Those athletes influenced my thinking about how Black athletes could dynamically impact the battle for civil rights even as they were beholden to the white men who controlled sports. Still, while I was not stunned by the news of Brown’s death, I was saddened.īrown was one of the five Black athletes who had a significant impact on my life when I was in a high school and an aspiring journalist. Like Wilson, I realize that no one escapes the clutches of death, though if anyone could, it would be Brown, the NFL’s greatest running back, whose stock in trade was breaking tackles. I felt the same way about Jim Brown, who died May 18 at age 87.

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That haunting statement was made in 1990 by a high school friend of the legendary Nathaniel “Sweetwater” Clifton upon learning that Clifton, one of the first African Americans to play pro basketball, had died at age 67. I guess he’s one fella we all thought would last forever.” - Pete Wilson

“ At our age you expect people to expire, but Sweets, I don’t know.