Sitting out an entire season

[sportscurmudgeon]

Jim Brown is probably the best pure football player I ever saw play the game. And the first football game I ever saw was in 1948. In the NFL he averaged over 100 rushing yards per game FOR HIS CAREER. And that was done against defenses that often had 5 defensive linemen and two linebackers. the 4-3 defense was introduced after he got into the league and was not the prevalent defense until about the final two or three years of his career.

Jim Brown is widely considered to be the best lacrosse player ever by people who follow lacrosse and know something about the game. I don't follow lacrosse and don't pretend to know anything about it. I'm just telling you what other people say.

Jim Brown was a starter on the Syracuse varsity basketball team for one of the years that he was at Syracuse.

Jim Brown was offered a bonus to sign a minor league baseball contract with the NY Yankees and the Detroit Tigers. He turned both of them down and said that baseball was only a game and not a sport in his mind.

The reason I recite all of this for you is to suggest that Jim Brown might have some credentials as "the best athlete of all time" - even though that argument will never be settled...