Jim Brown played only nine seasons in the NFL.
He led the league in rushing in eight of them.
That might be the simplest way to explain why, nearly 60 years after his final game, Jim Brown remains in the conversation for the greatest running back in NFL history.
Brown didn’t simply dominate his era. For nine seasons, he practically owned it.
A Superstar Before the NFL
Long before Cleveland, Brown was already one of the most extraordinary athletes in American sports.
At Syracuse University, Brown starred in football, but football wasn’t his only sport. He also competed in basketball, track and field, and lacrosse. His ability in lacrosse was so extraordinary that he is remembered as one of the greatest players in the history of that sport as well.
On the football field, Brown became a consensus All-American and finished fifth in the 1956 Heisman Trophy voting. His final college football game gave the NFL a preview of what was coming.
In the 1957 Cotton Bowl against TCU, Brown scored three rushing touchdowns, caught another touchdown and kicked extra points in a remarkable individual performance.
The Cleveland Browns selected him sixth overall in the 1957 NFL Draft.
The rest became football history.
Dominant From Day One
Brown didn’t need time to develop.
As a rookie, he led the NFL with 942 rushing yards and was named NFL Rookie of the Year.
Then came 1958.
Brown rushed for 1,527 yards and 17 touchdowns in only 12 games, numbers that look impressive today and were almost absurd for that era. He won the first of his three NFL MVP awards and established himself as the league’s premier running back.
From there, leading the NFL in rushing almost became routine.
Brown won the rushing title in each of his first five seasons. After finishing fourth in rushing in 1962, he responded by leading the league for another three consecutive years.
Nine seasons.
Eight rushing titles.
Think about how ridiculous that is.
Built Differently
Brown was listed around 6-foot-2 and 230 pounds, giving him the size of some players who lined up on the line of scrimmage during his era.
But he didn’t move like someone that size.
Brown possessed an extraordinary combination of power, speed and balance. He could run through defenders, outrun them in open space or simply drag them along for additional yards.
There is also something important to remember when comparing his statistics with modern players: Brown played primarily during 12- and 14-game seasons.
He didn’t have 17 games to accumulate his numbers.
He frequently didn’t even have 16.
Yet the production was enormous.
In 1963, Brown rushed for 1,863 yards in only 14 games, averaging an astonishing 6.4 yards per carry. That season earned him another NFL MVP award.
Two years later, at age 29, Brown rushed for 1,544 yards and 17 touchdowns, again leading the NFL in both categories and winning his third MVP.
That turned out to be his final season.
A Champion in Cleveland
Individual dominance wasn’t the only thing on Brown’s résumé.
In 1964, Brown helped lead Cleveland to the NFL Championship, rushing for 114 yards in a 27-0 victory over the Baltimore Colts.
That championship remains especially significant in Cleveland sports history. For more than half a century afterward, no major professional sports team from the city won another championship until the Cavaliers broke the drought in 2016.
Brown was the centerpiece of that Browns offense.
Defenses knew Cleveland wanted to give him the football.
It usually didn’t matter.
Walking Away on Top
Perhaps the craziest part of Jim Brown’s career is how it ended.
There wasn’t a gradual decline.
There wasn’t a farewell season where he was clearly a shell of his former self.
Brown simply chose to walk away from football and pursue a new career.
He was 30 years old.
And remember what he had just done in his final season: 1,544 rushing yards, 17 rushing touchdowns, an NFL rushing title and an NFL MVP.
Imagine winning MVP and then deciding it was time for the next chapter of your life.
Brown left football while he was arguably still its best running back.
Numbers That Survived Generations
Brown retired with 12,312 rushing yards and 106 rushing touchdowns.
At the time, both were extraordinary numbers.
His career average of 5.2 yards per carry remains one of the most impressive statistics attached to his legacy. Maintaining that level of efficiency over 2,359 rushing attempts is remarkable.
He also never missed a game during his nine-year NFL career.
Brown was selected to the Pro Bowl in all nine of his seasons and earned eight First-Team All-Pro selections.
So let’s put the résumé together.
Nine seasons.
Eight rushing titles.
Eight First-Team All-Pro selections.
Nine Pro Bowls.
Three NFL MVP awards.
An NFL championship.
And zero missed games.
That’s not merely greatness.
That’s domination.
One of the NFL’s Immortals
Brown was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971, his first year of eligibility.
His reputation only grew as generations passed. He was selected to the NFL’s 50th, 75th and 100th Anniversary All-Time Teams, putting him among the small group of players whose greatness has remained recognized throughout virtually every era of NFL history.
For decades, Brown was the standard against which running backs were measured.
Walter Payton eventually passed his career rushing total. Emmitt Smith eventually passed Payton. Other running backs produced longer careers and accumulated larger numbers.
But very few players in NFL history ever dominated their contemporaries the way Jim Brown did.
He didn’t need 15 seasons to build his résumé.
He needed nine.
Number Two
There is a legitimate argument for Jim Brown at number one.
If someone told me he was the greatest running back in NFL history, I wouldn’t call that opinion crazy. The statistical dominance relative to his era is almost impossible to replicate.
But my number one spot belongs to a running back whose combination of production, explosiveness and individual running ability gives him the slightest edge.
That doesn’t diminish Brown.
He entered the NFL as a rushing champion.
He left the NFL as a rushing champion and MVP.
And during the nine seasons in between, almost nobody could stop him.
Jim Brown is number two on my list of the greatest running backs in NFL history.
Next up: #1 Barry Sanders.
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