John Wooten is a year younger than Jim Brown, who turns 80 on Wednesday. He came into the NFL two years after Brown, and they won a championship together in Cleveland in 1964.
So much of what Wooten says he became as an athlete and a man, he owes to his close friend and former teammate — including chairing the Fritz Pollard Alliance to diversify the NFL’s coaching and front-office positions.
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"All of this, so much of this, comes from Jim’s leadership," Wooten said Tuesday from his Arlington, Texas, home.