The Cleveland Browns leveraged the occasion of Jim Brown’s 80th birthday to announce that the team will place a statue of the Hall of Famer outside of FirstEnergy Stadium.
The popular move to honor one of the franchise’s and NFL’s greatest players may have ignited an unintended public relations storm for the team, according to a report by Tony Grossi at ESPN Cleveland.
Grossi spoke with several of the team’s alumni, who want to remind everyone that as great as Brown was, the team existed before and after he played in Cleveland.
“The fans value the past, and the past is more than Jim Brown,” said linebacker Dick “Bam-Bam” Ambrose, who played for the Browns from 1975 to 1983.