Was lucky enough to see Jim Brown play live in old Cleveland Municipal Stadium. My dad was a Kroger manager in the Akron area and year after year after year won the bakery goods sales contest that Kroger ran for its managers. HIs prize each year - season tickets to the Browns.

We'd race out of Sunday school in Ellet, head home to Goodyear Heights to change clothes and then speed up old Route 8 and then into Cleveland for the game. Interestingly enough, we had seats in Section 32.

Jim Brown, Arnold Palmer and Willie Mays - those were my heroes back in the day. Now sadly, two are gone.

He threw a woman out a second story window. 11 cases of domestic assault.

While Brown retired while on top of this playing career, Mays hung on too long, not unlike many professional athletes. I too saw him in Riverfront as a New York Met in his final year.

He was beyond "issues". I'm not celebrating this guy

These two things are obviously related. When you retire early your stat totals suffer but your rate totals benefit. This is one of the arguments that can really send you down a rabbit hole when you start arguing about the GOAT. For my line of thinking if you keep playing but are still good enough that you are not taking playing time or a roster spot from someone better then you are still helping your team and you deserve some measure of credit above and beyond what you would have if you had retired while you were still elite.

A lot of Emmitt Smith's totals were due to volume but he was able to keep himself a pretty good back despite the pounding until, well, at least very near the end. Smith and Brown played on better teams than Sanders. I often think that we overweigh this when arguing individual accomplishments. I think sometimes to the contrary. A lot of backs would have been at least modestly successful behind Smith's line. Sanders put up some of the best stats in the NFL most years of his career on teams where almost everyone would have struggled.

To the point of when longevity matters and when you go on too long to hurt your team, Pete Rose to me is the best example. He was a hometown guy and because of his style of play when at his best he was just beloved by a team's fanbase and because of where he was in hits with respect to Cobb he was a ticket draw no matter what. On top of that, he was his own manager. He was able to carry on for decent while after it was pretty clear he was, not just no longer an all-start, but no longer a major league caliber player.

Again, he threw a woman out second story window, onto a concrete sidewalk. She was found bleeding and unconscious, covered in glass. If this didn't result in permanent injuries (and you'd have a hard time convincing me of that), his intent was to kill or maim her.

His violent actions occurred over a period of more than 30 years, from the mid-1960s to 1999.

If you know anything about his post-career relationship with the Cleveland Browns, you know he was a prima donna who was paid a large salary for doing next to nothing. The Browns couldn't afford to turn their backs on him because he would - and often did - complain of mistreatment and racism.

He was a great, great running back, but he was an animal. There's no nuance in that.

Palmer yes - twice - once at Tanglewood Country Club in Cleveland and once at Athens County Club with Dow Finsterwald for a fundraiser for the OU golf team. Had I had an extra $5000 at the time, I would have ponied up and gotten to play 9 with each guy. Alas, I paid $25 a ticket to see it with my mom and dad and got pictures taken with The King. Willie - just got to see him play.

Well, it wasn't a window but a balcony. And, the woman involved, Eva Bohn-Chin, later said she tripped and fell off the balcony as she was running away from him. Don't know which version of the story is true. Neither puts Brown in the best of lights, but they are different stories that paint significantly different word pictures.

Again, I'm not excusing his behavior. I'm also not ready to jump on the Jim Brown son-of-perdition bandwagon either.

Everyone of his accusers ended up saying it was their fault. coincidence?

Your URL posting is the first I knew about his political persuasion. I really didn't pay any attention to that aspect of his life. If he had supported Hiliary Clinton and Joe Biden, it would not have changed what I've said one bit. Nice try, though.

+1