Brown addressed Cavs owner Gilbert's comments on James, besides Brown's possible Ring of Honor ceremony absence and various NFL issues.
Former Cleveland Browns running back great Jim Brown.Cleveland, Ohio -- Cleveland Browns running back legend Jim Brown indicated during an interview today with a Syracuse, N.Y., radio station that he doesn't feel respected by the Browns, as Plain Dealer Browns beat writer Mary Kay Cabot reported earlier today.
Brown has not said that he will attend the Browns Ring of Honor cermony on Sept. 19 at Cleveland Browns Stadium. During the Danny Parkins Show interview on The Score 1260, Brown was asked about possibly skipping the ceremony. Part of his response, as included in Cabot's report:
"I'm a very sensitive person. I do like to be respected. I'm very loyal. I like it to be a two-way street. "I've been very quiet about the situation in Cleveland. Sometimes when you comment on things, all you do is create problems. The last thing I want to do is create problems for anyone or disrupt the team or ownership or the plans of other people. "On the other hand, as an individual I have plans of my own. I have a dignity and character of my own that I also protect. I don't really need to comment on where I go, why I go, why I don't go."
Plain Dealer Browns beat writer Tony Grossi reported on Sunday that Brown did not plan to attend the Ring of Honor ceremony. Grossi had reported on June 5 that Brown, according to sources, had been fired as a Browns executive advisor earlier this year by new team president Mike Holmgren. Brown was asked about other issues on the Danny Parkins Show. For instance:
* On the possibility of the NFL going to an 18-game regular season schedule:
I don't know if it's too many or it isn't too many.
There are so many issues dealing with health now that have to be worked out.
The concussion situation is one Congress is even looking at. Bryant Gumbel did a show that was very revealing about certain medical situations that occur. I don't know if two more games would make that much of a difference. But I think it's going to be a labor issue. it's going to be drawn out and it's going to be hard to solve. That is the one thing I do know.
The commissioner made a comment about fans not liking pre-season football and that's pretty true. preseason football is not very exciting. They will have to come to some agreement but it will be a labor problem.
* Brown was asked if he could have played 18 games.
We do what we do....If you play hard in a preseason game you can get hurt. if you don't play hard you can get hurt. Football is a physical sport....I would never have imagined 18 games. We started at 12 and went to 14....It would have been very difficult for me, probably.
* With the contract between the owners and players expiring after the 2010 season, Brown was asked if he thought there will be a strike.
I don't think there's going to be a strike. I think there's going to be a lockout. I think the issue is one that's very complicated. The owners want the players to take a cut in their share of the pie.I don't know how a union leader can talk to his players about taking a cut in revenues.
* Brown was asked if he thinks a lockout would affect the popularity of the NFL.
I think the NFL is going to be very popular. It has been very well handled in the past. They've done some great things. They've gotten away with some things that are very bad. The pension plan is one of the worst in the world and the health care situation is not good. But they have been able market the product tremenously and the players have been very exciting. So it's a great American sport. But I think right now with all the money being made and the fans realizing how much money is being made and with so many ancillary situations making money, it would leave a very bad taste in the mouth of the fans if there is a lockout and it's based upon money.
* Brown was asked if the NFL has done enough to address issues such as players' health care and pensions.
Oh, no. The pension plan has to be redone and heal the care has to be redone....They are making progress. The commissioner is an individual who truly wants to make major changes and is doing everything he can do. But the configuration of the players and the union and player development and all these organizations are not sitting down and getting together as human beings. I don't know if labor negotiations can solve these problems. It's going to have to be human negotiations...Rules are going to have to be broken.
* Brown was asked about Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert's criticism of LeBron James after free agent James left the Cavaliers for the Miami Heat.
I thought it was the ugliest diatribe that I've heard. Terrible. It was very insensitive. It was ugly. I wouldn't say it was racist because I would not go that far. But it hinged on everything an African-American male would not want to be called.