Jim Brown Had No Bigger Fan Than Cleveland Browns Coach Kevin Stefanski

To say Jim Brown was a game changer for the Cleveland Browns after they selected him with the sixth pick of the 1957 draft does not do justice to the great man’s career.

Jim Brown, who died last week at age 87, was not just a game changer, but a franchise changer and a sport changer. He changed the very fabric of the NFL itself.

In the nine years prior to Brown’s arrival in the NFL in 1957, seven different running backs led the league in rushing.

In Brown’s nine years in the league, he led the league in rushing every year but one – and in most of those years it wasn’t even close. He was a one-man offensive revolution, and his death hit home hardest in Cleveland, home of the only team for which he played.

“We lost somebody very important to our franchise, to our league, to our society. The impact he had was immeasurable,” said Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski.

In 1956, the year before Brown’s arrival in Cleveland, the Browns had a record of 5-7, and their leading rusher was Preston Carpenter, with 756 yards and no touchdowns.

In 1957 Jim Brown was selected by the Browns with the sixth pick in the first round of the draft, behind, in order, Paul Hornung, Jon Arnett, John Brodie, Ron Kramer and Len Dawson. In Brown’s rookie season, the Browns’ record jumped to 9-2-1, and the unstoppable rookie led the league in both yards rushing (942), and rushing touchdowns (nine).

That was the opening salvo in a nine-year career that, to opposing defenses trying to neutralize the game’s greatest player, must have felt like a 20-year career.

“I’ll never forget talking to him the first day I got hired (as the Browns’ coach), Stefanski said. “I got on the phone with him, which was a thrill. I was able to meet Jim over the years a couple times. Just a mountain of a man in many ways. We lost a very big part of our family.”

Jim Brown arrived in Cleveland at age 21, and he was gone after his age 29 season, choosing retirement over the alternative, which was the threat of a series of fines from Browns owner Art Modell, who, in the summer of 1966, felt Brown should be in training camp with his teammates, and not in England filming the World War II movie “The Dirty Dozen”.

Brown’s nine years in the NFL produced nine of the most impressive statistical seasons in the history of the league. Doubtful it is that any player squeezed more excellence into nine years of NFL combat than the neatly-chiseled, indefatigable Brown who, until his death on May 18, was not only a hero to football fans everywhere, but to football heroes everywhere.

“My dad grew up in Philadelphia, but was a huge Jim Brown fan,” said Stefanski. “That’s not uncommon for a lot of people growing up at that age. I don’t care where you were growing up, you became a Browns fan. You became a Jim Brown fan early in your life.”

So when Stefanski was hired as the Browns’ coach in 2020, and after he spoke on the phone that day with Jim Brown, Stefanski’s next order of business was obvious.

“After I hung up the phone with Jim, I very quickly called my dad, and he couldn’t believe it,” Stefanski said.

Through the years Jim Brown was a frequent visitor to the Browns’ facility, and he attended many of the team’s home games. There’s a statue of Brown outside the Browns’ First Energy Stadium, where Brown was a frequent visitor on game days, and on other occasions throughout the years.

“It’s unbelievable what he’s been through in his life, and we’ve educated our players on that,” Stefanski said.

Last year Stefanski took his team to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, which is about 60 miles south of Cleveland. While at the Hall of Fame the Browns players watched the movie ‘A Football Life: Jim Brown’.

Jim Brown is a member of the Browns’ Ring of Honor at First Energy Stadium, and the team is planning further ways to honor his legacy during the coming season.

“It’s my job to continue to educate our guys on what he’s meant to our franchise, to our league,” Stefanski said. “You stand on the shoulders of giants, and that’s Jim Brown.”