On Thursday night, Jim Brown, one of the true greats in NFL history and in life in general, passed away at the age of 87.
Many of today’s fans simply weren’t around to watch him play during his career, which started in 1957 and lasted through the 1965 season, and they only have stats and short, grainy film clips to go by.
Yet, the league created an award a few months ago to make sure his legacy will live on forever.
It created the “Jim Brown Award,” which is given to the league leader in rushing yards each year and was given out to the Las Vegas Raiders’ Josh Jacobs for the 2022 campaign.
Jim Brown was in attendance at the NFL Honors in February when the league created the “Jim Brown Award” which will be given every year to the league leader in rushing yards.
His legacy will live on forever.pic.twitter.com/8K9S033Wwt
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) May 19, 2023
Some may want to diminish Brown’s accomplishments because he played during the league’s embryonic era, but they speak for themselves.
He led the league in rushing yards in all but one of his nine seasons, and he ended up with 12,312 rushing yards and 106 rushing touchdowns in 118 games.
Brown was under 1,000 rushing yards in just two seasons (in 1962 he came close with 996 yards), and he went over 1,400 yards five times and 1,500 yards twice.
His numbers are even more impressive considering that NFL seasons were shorter back in his day (the league didn’t expand to a 16-game schedule until 1978).
He is still the only man to average at least 100 rushing yards a game for his entire career, and he even added 2,499 yards and 20 touchdowns in the air.
Off the field, Brown appeared in many films, and he was also a civil rights pioneer who affected positive change for the African-American community.
