CLEVELAND (AP) — Jim Brown has come back to the team he helped lead to its last NFL championship.
Brown will return in an unspecified role with the Cleveland Browns, who will formally reunite with the Hall of Famer at a news conference on Wednesday. Browns owner Jimmy Haslam is expected to announce Brown’s new position with the team he starred with from 1957-65 before retiring to pursue an acting career.
Brown previously worked as a senior adviser with the Browns. However, his role was eliminated by former team president Mike Holmgren and Brown had been estranged from the team for a few years. He returned to play in an alumni golf outing last summer, when he met with Haslam, who had just bought the team from Randy Lerner.
At the time, the outspoken Brown talked about his desire to work again with the team.
“I would love to have a role with the Browns,” he said. “I think that’s what every ex-player would like to do most of all, to be a contributor to the success of an organization. I’m stuck with being No. 32 of the Cleveland Browns and I can’t do anything about it. I don’t want to do anything about it. If you didn’t like the ball, that’s one thing. You’re not going to always like my politics, but we are married because of that history. If I can be a part of the development of a new winning attitude and help get some victories, man that would be fantastic.
“Imagine us having a championship team here again?”
The Browns last won a title in 1964.
Brown is the team’s career rushing leader with 12,312 yards and 106 touchdowns.
Haslam’s arrival seemed to help the Browns patch up any differences with arguably the greatest player in their franchise’s history. Haslam said at the NFL owner’s meetings in March that he anticipated Brown coming back to work for the team.
