Written by Jerry Roche

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An NFL Network special on "The Player of the Millennium" last week brought back some welcome and fond memories to one local fan who is old enough to remember the Browns' 27-0 whitewashing of the Johnny Unitas-led Baltimore Colts in the 1964 NFL championship game, two years before the first Super Bowl.

The game was held in old Municipal Stadium. At the appointed hour, I sat at our family's dining-room table intently listening to the dulcet tones of Jim Graner on my little portable radio, since the game was blacked out locally. Thankfully, the following week, one of the local television stations aired a film of the game in its entirety.

Focus of last week's TV show, which originally aired in the year 2000, was -- of course -- Jim Brown, the best running back in the history of the league.

Yes, O.J. Simpson broke Brown's single-season rushing record with 2,003 yards in 1973, 10 years after Brown rushed for 1,863 yards. Yes, Emmitt Smith (18,355 yards in 226 games), Walter Payton (16,726 yards in 190 games) and five others eclipsed the 12,312 yards that Brown amassed on the ground in just 118 career games.

But when it comes to Jim Brown, you can throw the statistics out the window. That is a strong statement when you consider the fact that his average of 104.3 yards rushing per game is still an all-time career record.

No, he wasn't as shifty as Gayle Sayers, and he wasn't quite as powerful as Earl Campbell. But he was the most intense, the most prepared, the most competitive, the most passionate, and the most physical runner the game has ever seen. On many occasions, he used what he called his "limp leg" tactic in the open field. On others, he delivered forearm and shoulder shivvers that did cold-cocked those in his pursuit. And when he went into that patented Jim-Brown gallop 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage, the sportswriters would immediately begin to write "T.D." in their game notes. He would be across the goalline before they finished their "D."

I was in Municipal Stadium the Sunday in October, 1965, that Jim Brown turned in the most electrifying short run from scrimmage that I have ever seen. (To this day, The Owner Who Must Not Be Named agrees.) Brown swept left end from the Dallas Cowboys' four-yard line. He was hit twice before he got to the line of scrimmage and four more times -- solidly -- before he stumbled-dove into the end zone. Mere words cannot describe the glory of that run, so I won't even try. It was an exhibition of sheer will that no statistic could ever capture, either.

I had the pleasure to meet Brown in 1995, when he was 59 years old. I was 6-foot-2, 205 pounds, but I felt like a midget next to him. And the guy flat-out had the biggest hands I'd ever seen on a human being.

During the NFL Network program, here is what some Hall of Famers said about Jim Brown:

Paul Warfield: "Call him Zeus or Hercules. His torso was sculptured, obviously, by God himself. Jim was perhaps the perfect instrument to run a football."

Sam Huff: "He came running off tackle, and I put my helmet right into his midsection. I don't remember whether I got him or not, but I had to get him, as hard as I hit him. But he knocked me colder than a cucumber, and the enamel popped off my teeth. I remember laying on that table, and I thought all my teeth was gone."

Bob Lilly: "I got squared off in a great football position and I let him have it as hard as I could ... and when I woke up, my helmet was bent all over my face, and it was turned sideways, and my nose was bleeding."

Johnny Sample: "My tooth was chipped, my mouth was bleeding. I went back to the huddle and said, ‘Guys, somebody's got to hit him, because the next time y'all let him through like that, I'm not gonna get in his way."

Chuck Bednarik: "He'd come at you again and again. You'd just say, ‘What the hell? What's with this guy? How much more can he take?'"

Bobby Mitchell: "If we had the capability [then] to show him from 15 different angles, people would say that was not a human."

David "Deacon" Jones: "You'd intimidate him but you couldn't stop him. All the defensive players in the league were very, very delighted when he decided to go into the movie business."

Paul Hornung: "I think he's the only guy that could have challenged (Muhammad) Ali in his heyday. He's that only guy that that, at 50 years old, could've gained a thousand yards in the NFL."

During the program, Adrian Peterson and Donte Whitner appeared in commercials. Were I either of those players, I would not have allowed my commercials to be aired immediately after newsreels showing Brown sitting shirtless on a locker-room bench.

"Jim Brown is the greatest running back that has ever breathed," Sample concluded appropriately.

Brown was NFL Rookie of the Year in 1957 and played in nine straight Pro Bowls. He was the league's leading rusher eight of those nine years and league MVP in 1958 and 1965. But when it comes to Jim Brown, you can throw statistics out the window. He was -- and is -- one of a kind, the greatest runner in the history of the game.

FOR THE RECORD: Jim Brown's amazing short run noted in my March 2 article took place in the Cotton Bowl on Nov. 21, 1965, not in Municipal Stadium. I saw the home game against Dallas in person that year, watched that short-distance run on television, and got them mixed up. Thanks to reader Jeff Slaby for setting the record straight. That was 45 years ago. I must be getting old.