Without further ado, one of the greatest to ever play the game: Jim Brown.
“I know I was supposed to come here and talk about myself. But I’d rather talk to you about history. Because people forget history. They forget who came before them. Which is fine…
But football really started here: Ohio. And it was started by a man named Paul Brown. Brown is the guy who invented the facemask, the first to use game film, he was the first coach in the All-American Football Conference to integrate his team, and he was my coach, too.
In Cleveland Paul Brown was such a legend that they named the team after him. And he turned the team into one of the greatest in the history of this sport. But that’s not the end of the Paul Brown story. Because after he and the Cleveland Browns parted ways, he was still hungry for more.
So he started another team in another city in Ohio: Cincinnati. It was 1968 when the Bengals started. But they never had to look hard for a rival.
So now tonight with the Browns coming into Paul Brown stadium to try and take down an undefeated Bengals team, there’s something else to think about: History. Remember what happened before tonight is why tonight means so much. Here in Ohio, and far, far beyond.”
