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By Perry Green, AFRO Sports Editor, [email protected]
Jim Brown recently said that if he was a general manager of an NFL team that he wouldn’t sign Colin Kaepernick.
Brown, a former Pro Football Hall of Famer for the Cleveland Browns, appeared as a guest on the Rich Eisen Show radio podcast and discussed how a recent meeting went with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Brown told Eisen that he discussed a potential “kneeling rule” with Goodell, and although he didn’t get the answers he wanted in terms of when and how a rule (governing players who choose to kneel in protest during the playing of the National Anthem) would be enforced, he did mention how he’s totally against kneeling.
“I think that we do the fans an injustice when we don’t stand up for the National anthem or for the flag,” Brown said during his interview with Eisen. “I’ve been totally against but we had an opportunity to talk about that and I think that’s the main thing, the communication.”
Eisen interrupted Brown to ask him to explain how he could be against players peacefully protesting by kneeling, when he was once had a huge presence in social activism and supported controversial protestors like Muhammad Ali during the late 1960s and ‘70s. Brown said the difference between him and Kaepernick is unity.
“We as superstars during my day, we had our secret meetings, we had our private meetings, we had our discussions. We came out of those discussions knowing exactly what our goals were. That’s the way we approached it,” said Brown. “Today you have a situation where you have just one guy taking a knee. The other players on his team aren’t taking a knee. When we were united, we came out with our point that we were all together. So the big difference is, if you got a gripe, work it out with your teammates first and the organization, and then take it public. Don’t have every guy out there with an individual position. You’re never going to solve it.”
Eisen also asked Brown if he thought Kaepernick should have a job in the NFL. Brown chuckled in laughter before saying he wouldn’t sign the quarterback if he was running a team.
“I think everyone should have a job that qualifies, but I think that there is a thing called entrepreneurship and ownership and investing in your business. And I’ll tell you what I really think: I think that every player should understand how privileged he is to be able to have a voice, notoriety and to make all that kind of money, so if you’re a player and you have that kind of situation, you should organize your other players and then you’ll come out as a unit,” Brown continued.
“Now, to directly say that this young man should be a quarterback, everyone should have the opportunity that has the ability. His ability is questioned to a certain degree. But, if I was the general manager, I would not want to take him on because I would not know what he’s going to do, and I would always want to know what my players are going to do and they would come to me first and we would discuss. My problem with him is that he has a right to express himself but he should not put himself out there as a one. That doesn’t work.”
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