It is Fridaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!

Last night I was watching the Cleveland Browns vs Buffalo Bills game last night and the commentator mentioned that the Browns would be honoring the legendary Jim Brown at halftime. At the time, I did not give much thought to it because I think I heard something earlier in the week about the Browns honoring him. I naturally  assumed they were honoring him for some type of milestone or anniversary. Wrong. Upon returning to NFL Network to finish watching the game after another jaw dropping season premiere of Scandal, I learned that the Browns had inducted Brown into their Ring of Honor. *raises hand* Hol lup. Yes. Hol lup, you mean to tell me Jim Brown was not already in the Ring? THIS IS JIM BROWN!! THE JIM BROWN WHO AVERAGED MORE THAN 100 YARDS PER GAME IN HIS CAREER. No one else has done that. THE JIM BROWN  WHO RAN FOR 12,312 YARDS IN NINE SEASONS. Seasons where they only played 12 & 14 games. THE JIM BROWN WHO AVERAGED 5.2 YARDS PER CARRY FOR HIS CAREER. THIS IS 2013!! How is arguably the NFL’s greatest running back not in the Browns Ring of Honor? Am I missing something here? I have got to be.

Now ya’ll know Google is my friend. So off to the Cleveland Browns website I went in search of answers. While watching the game, my boy Mike and I could tell there were other names in the Ring which left us shaking our heads. Shocked much? The Browns website informed me that the Ring of Honor was established in 2010. Brown was a part of the initial Ring of Honor class but had not officially been inducted. It was in reading that little tidbit that I remembered the dispute he had with former Browns president Mike Holmgren. Brown has never been one to bite his tongue and he expressed vocally how he felt about Holmgren relieving him of his special advisor duties in 2010, shortly after the Ring was established. As a result, when it came time for the Ring induction that year Brown refused to be honored.

I try to some extent to keep up with the Browns because they were my granddaddy’s favorite team but yeah this totally got by me. So now new owner Jimmy Haslam has righted the ship. He fired Holmgren, rehired Brown and saw to it that Brown’s name went into the place it belonged, the Cleveland Browns Ring of Honor. All is well. I guess. I still have an issue though. I am still in total disbelief that it took until the year 2010 for the Browns to establish a Ring of Honor. Jim Brown has been in the NFL Hall of Fame since 1971. That is 42 years man!!! Even if they could not afford to do a ring, they could have done a semi-circle or something. This was long overdue. Seriously. No wonder Jim does no tongue biting. If this is how the Browns treat their GREATEST ambassador then one does not have to wonder very long as to why the organization has been nothing but below sub par since Brown retired. Hey, do not mind me. I am just Jim Browning. Telling it like it is.

Until next time…TOODELLS.