Jim Brown

I learned a long time ago that advice is a quick trip to nowhere. It's the commitment that only you can make in yourself, the responsibility to assume control of yourself.

You cannot get me to be disloyal to a friend. You just can't do it. Loyalty is a part of what I live by. I didn't say I was going to be loyal to my friend because he was right. I'm going to be loyal to my friend because he's my friend.

I could run 200 yards at a stretch, I could duck between players, I felt free to make plays that suited me best. It wasn't like football then and basketball today, where coaches tell you what foot to put down.

Even though the money is great and the fame is great, you still have a lot of disenfranchised young men that are participating in the NFL that are not very happy. A lot of them are very bitter. A lot them are very angry. So many of them have had no fathers and no home life, and basically, no education.

When you go out on a football field, you are responsible for taking care of yourself. The more rules you get, the less players truly take care of themselves.

Capitalistic society teaches kids to be No. 1, but true self-esteem doesn't come from money. It doesn't come from winning the Super Bowl.

I would love to have a role with the Browns. I think that's what every ex-player would like to do most of all: to be a contributor to the success of an organization that he was a player that brought a certain amount of success.

AI don't make a big thing out of my race. If you try to preach, people give you a little sympathy and then they want to get out of the way. So you don't preach; you tell the story.

Money has changed today's black athletes. Those who have the ability as African men to bring a change in a community that so desperately needs it are concentrating only on their own careers, some charities and how much money they can make.

I'd rather play lacrosse six days a week and football on the seventh.

There was no publicity. You had to like it. There was no pressure, just great competition. The attitude of the coaches and players was exceptional.

...you could be the best team or the best player in different generations and people respect each other. Nobody cares who was the best.

I don't teach kids to be number 1. Organizations and people that tell you you have to be number 1; that's not it. You don't have to be number 1. What I teach is to be as good as you can be. Use what you have and be as good as you can be. That's all you can do, anyway.

People think that coaches are always right, but it's difficult to teach a runner how to run, because every runner is different. You have to have an understanding of how to assist what that runner has, so they know how to assist what you have without taking away your special ability, because you're not like anybody else.