Jim Brown's presence will live on

In his 87 years, Jim Brown was many, many things. But let's start with the most obvious. Jim Brown was the greatest football player of all-time. Some will say there's a debate about that, but it seems to me the debate only comes from people who never saw him play. I never saw Brown play. He retired 15 years before I was born. But those who saw him play are clear about one thing: Jim Brown was different. The numbers he put up in a nine-year career say that. He never missed a game. He won eight rushing titles. But then there's the film. No one runs like Jim Brown today. But no one ran like him then, either. He was powerful, almost unstoppable. He ran through tackles, ran through traffic. So much toughness. Yet there was a grace, a beauty to what he did on the football field. And 58 years since he took his last snap, his presence remains. You can't tell the story of the Cleveland Browns, or the National Football League without him. Presence. That's the word that keeps coming up. Brown had a presence on the football field, and had just as much of one off of it. That presence remained and continued long after his career ended. It's something that time never dulled. Brown died last week. His talent and accomplishments, on and off the field, are worthy of great praise. But his legacy is complicated. I remember the first time I saw an interview with Brown. He did an interview with Roy Firestone about his 1989 autobiography "Out of Bounds." Firestone asked him about having an attitude problem. Brown denied it. "I don't bother other people," Brown said. "But I don't let other people bother me." Jim Brown was unafraid to take on important issues. He was a tireless advocate for civil rights, and got directly involved in curbing gang violence. His work in those areas is commendable. But Brown had a dark side, especially when it came to domestic violence and treatment of women. He was arrested at least seven times for assault. He never served significant jail time, but the stories of violence are impossible to ignore. In the end, Jim Brown was many things. Many, magnificent. Some, beyond troubling. But he will be impossible to forget. The greatest football player of all time. And a presence that will go on long after his life has ended. Zach Baker is the sports editor of The Courier and Review Times.