All right, should be some more posts this week, as a package arrived this afternoon. More on that tomorrow, hopefully.
This week’s Card of the Week honoring a football player who forged a career in acting is the man who started the trend of retiring early to do so–Jim Brown.
Widely considered the best running back ever to play the game, Brown was actually a two sport star at Syracuse in college, and was considered by many to be the greatest Lacrosse player ever as well. (Factoid I learned in writing this–he was born on St. Simons Island, Georgia, where my grandparents used to vacation in the winter. I wonder if I saw signs when I visited them).
Alas, they didn’t have pro lacrosse back in the day–at least, not big leagues–so Brown was drafted by the Cleveland…Browns, in the frist round in 1957.
Brown played for just 9 seasons in the NFL, but managed to set several records before he retired–including single season rushing record (1,863), career rushing yardage (12.312), career rushing touchdowns (106), career touchdowns (126), all-purpose yardage (15,549). He was the first player to surpass the 100 career touchdown mark, and was still the fastest to reach it until LaDanian Tomlinson came along.
He did all that, in just nine season. Four of which only had a 12 game schedule, the other five having 14 games. He also played in nine pro bowls.
Brown firs started acting in the film Rio Conchos in 1964, and was filming a role in the World War II movie The Dirty Dozen in 1966, when Browns owner Art Modell insisted he report to training camp. On July 14,1966, at the age of 30, Brown announced his retirement.
He went on to star in several more movies and TV shows, including several with another actor who may just make it into the Card of the Week files, if eBay will cooperate. Sadly, the role I know him best for is his role in Mars Attacks!
The card shown above is a 2007 Donruss Threads Gridiron King Green Framed Parallel Insert, serial #’d 14/25. I pulled the card last summer, when I finally found a local card shop that carried decent hobby boxes, and I sunk further into into the hobby, much to my wife’s dismay. If I remember right, the card books for about $15. I’m pretty sure I have some more Brown cards laying around somewhere, but none of his vintage cards, unfortunately.
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Jim Brown was great in I’m Gonna Get You Sucka, a parody of movies like Shaft and Superfly with the Wayan brothers. That movie is vastly underrated and is a must see.