Pro Football: A Knack for Running

There are countless football fans who still insist that Jim Thorpe, or maybe Bronco Nagurski, was the best running back who ever lived. But in the Cotton Bowl last week, there was not a man on the Dallas Cowboys’ defensive unit who was not convinced that the best back in history was crouching just across the line of scrimmage with No. 32 on his back.

Linemen get bigger and defenses get cannier, but nothing stops the Cleveland Browns’ fullback Jimmy Brown, 27. In this year’s opener against Washington, he scored three touchdowns on dazzling bursts of 10, 80 and 83 yds. He gained 162 yds. on the ground (v. 71 yds. for the whole Washington team), caught three passes for another 100 yds. Cleveland won the game 37-14.

Last week, with the ball on Cleveland’s 29, Jimmy took a handoff from Quarterback Frank Ryan and cracked into the Dallas line. A pile-up—and a sigh of relief from the stands. It became a groan as Jimmy popped out the other side of the pile and thundered 71 yds. into the end zone. Before the day was out, dazed Dallas fans saw him sprint 62 yds. for another TD and riddle the Cowboy defenses for 232 yds. in 20 carries as Cleveland coasted to its sec ond straight victory, 41-24. “If we had Jimmy Brown,” said Dallas Coach Tom Landry, “we would have to change our whole offensive system. Needless to say, I’d be willing to do it.”

Get a Gun. Jimmy Brown weighs in at 235 Ibs., and teammates call him “the only player in football who looks bigger with his uniform off.” With all that shock power, he is still the fastest man on the team. His balance is un canny: threading through the secondary, he tricks tacklers into loosening their grasp by relaxing as if he were about to fall—then spins and spurts away. Giant Linebacker Sam Huff still mutters about a Brown touchdown last year: “He was hit by nine guys as he went into the end zone from the seven.

No one could stop him.” Says Giant Coach Allie Sherman: “The best way to bring him down? Get a gun, I guess.”

Son of a sometime prizefighter, Jimmy averaged 14.9 yds. a try as a high school halfback. Spurning baseball offers (from the New York Yankees and Milwaukee Braves), he packed off to Syracuse, majored in football and sociology and minored in track, lacrosse and basketball. As a greenhorn pro, he rushed for 942 yds., scored ten TDs and powered Cleveland to the N.F.L.’s Eastern Conference championship. The next year he set an alltime rushing record of 1,527 yds. and for five years topped all N.F.L. ground gainers.

Jimmy was bothered all last season by a severely sprained wrist, and lost the rushing title to Green Bay’s Jim Taylor. But now the wrist is fine, and Jimmy, football’s highest-paid star at $45,000, is running as if he needs a raise.

Hard & High. “On inside runs,” he explains, “I go in hard and high with an open mind. On outside runs, I start at full speed, shift down to three-quarter speed to see my block developing, then go back to high and try to be just one-half step behind the guard when he throws his block—so I can be past the tackier and on my way before he recovers.” Jimmy rarely tries to fake a cut. “You have to fake from an upright position and you don’t get power that way.” He much prefers to use a clubbing forearm punch to discourage tacklers.

No pro football player has ever gained a mile on the ground in one season. But if Jimmy keeps on ripping off yards at his current pace, he will be working on his second mile before the season is two-thirds over. And why not? “Physically,” says Jimmy, “I feel about the same as my rookie year.”