On a day where Colin Kaepernick was lambasted by a slew of big names around the NFL — Jerry Rice, Rex Ryan, Bruce Arians, Drew Brees to name a few — he earned the support of arguably football’s greatest player.
Jim Brown.
The legendary Cleveland Browns running back joined the NFL Network for a special program on Monday, and aired his thoughts on the subject of Kaepernick protesting the national anthem.
“I listen to him, and he makes all the sense in the world,” Brown said. “He’s within his rights, and he’s telling the truth as he sees it. And I am with him 100 percent.”
Brown is crediting Kaepernick for helping chance the culture in sports.
“I think Pandora’s Box is open and I’m very happy that it is,” Brown said. “For so many years, we had the great Michael Jordan that stated that Republicans buy sneakers too so I’m not going to rock the boat, I’m going to make this money. For a couple of generations, it was about making money.”
Brown went on to say the biggest issue plaguing America today is black men committing homicides on other black men. Brown was a civil rights activist in the 1960s and fought for change in the NFL, change that happened over time.
“As a football player, six and eight African Americans were the number in my day. Six even, eight even, you could room together, etc. I fought that to say that don’t tell us that we’re not good enough to room with a Caucasian player,” Brown said. “We had to fight in a certain kind of way to make it better so that these young people can make the kind of money they’re making and the league can be about 80 percent African-American.”