One young fellow, who had been viewed generally as a prime troublemaker, we were able to turn into a crackerjack director of our youth center; we have six Cleveland Browns athletes doing volunteer work under him. The suit said Karras had sustained repeated head trauma. Whenever any human being feels threatenedit doesnt matter if hes right or wronghe starts reacting defensively, negatively. Im sure not taking anything away from any of those you namedand others like James Earl Jones. Brown: About 100, at least, from stars to rookies, from old-timers like me down to young kids like Lew Alcindor. I use the expression friendships because I dont want to be guilty of doing the same thing that I accuse people of doing to mejust see me talking with some white woman and instantly they assume, There goes sex. I cant tell you how many times that has made me sick in this country. In the period of a few months, two girls accused him of molesting them. Evidently, the lawyer reported to Otto that I didnt wish to be cooperative. It never would have gone to court if I had been guilty; I would have dealt with it the way a man should deal with a thing of that nature. In the leg maneuvers, Id limber-leg, offering one leg, then jerking it away when somebody grabbed. Dessert was a quart of ice cream topped by a can of peaches. I told him I remembered the man was about 25 or 30 yards away when the golf ball hit him, and I didnt really remember too many other details. The 10-second dash? I hope that black freedom can be won peaceably. I think maybe its time I reveal something I havent before that might cast a light on his real reason. But he was a pro wrestler first, and it was a role he returned to again and again throughout his life, including a major angle with Dick the Bruiser which made national headlines in 1963. I got on with that cast as well as I ever have with any group in my whole life. I dont like to knock the man, but truth is truth, thats all. Thats why a black man, if hes got any sense at all, will never get swept away with special treatment if he happens to be famous, because he knows that the minute he isnt where somebody recognizes who he is, then hes just another nigger. I had my best year and we took second place in the Eastern Conference. I know youve heard that I was supposed to have a reputation for being distant, aloof and hard to get along with, especially in football seasons, most especially close to gametime. Karras insisted he only wagered cigarettes or cigars with close friends. You know how you blink and your eyes still wont clear? Alex Karras was selected to the Pro Bowl four times. He had suffered though dementia, he had suffered through cancer, his body just eventually gave way. Born on an island off the Georgia coast, he spent his first years in the care of a great-grandmother. He also portrayed the father in the 1980s sitcom "Webster," along with his actress-wife Susan Clark, and was in the "Monday Night Football" broadcast booth along the way. Soon the Cleveland Browns were at practicewithout their star fullback. On a third-down play, I fell pretty heavily on Lou Michaels, whos now with Baltimore. 2023 Cox Media Group. And in the end, a dementia victim who blamed the NFL for his illness along with thousands of former players in lawsuits accusing the league of not doing enough to protect them from the long-term effects of head injuries. Brown: Are you kidding? "Alex Karras was an outstanding player during a time when the NFL emerged as America's favorite sport," the league said in a statement. September 29, 2017. What made you blow your usual cool? I could feel and understand why he did what he did. Then came my really big breakagainst Cornell. Ive been able to do this myself a few times in a few places. Brown: Well, I never saw that quote, but Ill assume its true, because Otto has made a lot of other comments disparaging my playing ability. Once a riot gets started, of course, the Communists, along with a lot of others, will be out there fanning the flames. All they want is decent salaries; they have to eat, to live, just like anyone else. So much has been done to them, its pins-and-needles job to make them believe anybody actually will do anything for them. The people who in another setting would smile to see their kids rushing you for autographs. Karras, who had six children, wrote about his life in Even Big Guys Cry and Alex Karras: My Life in Football, Television & Movies., Additional reporting by Christine Kearney in New York; Editing by Doina Chiacu. One day we got to the office and found a small crowd there being regaled by Muhammad Ali. Haley: Youve strayed from our original question: Are you an advocate of black violence? He tackled show business, first as host of a modest daily radio show in Cleveland, then as a Negro cavalry trooper in Rio Conchos, a movie Western. Brown disclaimed membership in the sect but said that he felt its views voiced the true feelings of most Negroes. But you say I made the sweep runs famous; thats very flattering, but the fact is that I never would have been able to make them without a lot of companywithout guys like John Wooten and Gene Hickerson, the Browns guards, to clear a path for me. But the crown didnt rest easily on Browns head. Then they stopped as suddenly as they had begun, both sweat-soaked and laughing. Summary. He played for nine seasons with four teams, winning a championship with the Chicago Bears in 1963 as a guard. Karras did not earn a football letter for the 1955 season. He says, The white woman can be made! Haley: Have you encountered any other kind of overt discrimination since you became well-known? He was recognized by the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a defensive tackle on the All-Decade Team of the 1960s and retired from the NFL in 1970 at age 35. My business relationship in Main Bout with Herbert Muhammad and John Ali was a very pleasant and compatible one, however, and I respect the organization for instilling black people with pride in their race and for teaching black people to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and take care of their own. Thats why weve never really been able to get together, why we havent had more cooperative business ventures. Brown: Look, in the Browns system, I simply wasnt cast to do blocking; our offense was geared for me to run. It really wasnt much of a fight, but we both were put out of the game. And in the end, a dementia victim who blamed the NFL for his illness along with thousands of former players in lawsuits accusing the league of not doing enough to protect them from the long-term effects of head injuries. And theres one thing in particular that Id think about a long, long time if I were any citys police chief or mayor or a state governorand thats the curfews that get slapped down whenever theres trouble. I find this new career just as satisfying, and even more rewarding financially, and something I can keep at far longer than I could have lasted in football. The only other time I swung on anybody was with Joe Robb of the Cardinals. So whats the reason the white man has her pictured in his mind as hypnotized and helpless with a black man? WebAlexander George Karras (July 15, 1935 October 10, 2012) was an American football player, professional wrestler, sportscaster, and actor. When we hit, Id dip a shoulder, hitting his pads, and cross either with a straight-arm to the helmet or a clubbing forearm. He played until 1970 and made four Pro Bowls. He died on October 10, 2012 in Los Angeles, California, USA. WebAlex Karras. Haley: How did you evolve this strategy of liberation through economic self-help? In addition, it was also published within Alex Haley: The Playboy Interviews by Ballantine Books in July 1993.). Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. We were also able to get the Greater Cleveland Foundation to fund a youth center for us. Now I accelerate and I shoot through the gap. Karras, who gained fame in the Let me give you an example, just one of the common examples. How is one supposed to feel about that? He is best known for his exceptional and record-setting nine-year career as a running back for the NFL Cleveland Browns from 1957 to 1965. Theyre still after political points. OK, weve got that settledso lets go on to something important! When I was in college, I dated both black and white coeds. Brown: No, I dont. He suffered from dementia for the last decade of his life, Mitnick said. We got together with the city administration and with the Greater Cleveland Foundation and persuaded them to cooperate, through the N.N.I.E.U., with those who were truly in control of the ghettothe kind of people who really control every ghetto, people your average sociologists couldnt even talk to, because they dont know their language, even. He was a four-time Pro Bowl player with the Detroit Lions of the National Football League Theres not going to be any turning back now. Thats your power plays, which can be just as important as some flashy run. Brown: It was unrealistic, it seems to me, to expect that the people sealed up in these ghettos would remain quiet in them forever. "He will always be remembered as one of the most colorful characters in NFL history.". But when I cant get the Vice Presidents committee to fund such a summer program, I think something is radically wrong. All that matters is to see more and more black people mobilized and working toward constructive self-help goals. And in a move coinciding with occasional outings as a commentator on closed-circuit theater telecasts of boxing matches, he allied himself with Main Bout, Inc., a sports-promotion agency. Thats great, the way it needs to be, because thats progress, thats advancement. I know that if a man hits me, Im going to try to hit him twiceharderbecause I want him to do a lot of thinking before he ever hits me again. But I cant remember one single time when, before I got through the crowd, I didnt catch some white faces giving me that frowned-up, dirty look that was saying, Him and white women again! Something beautiful and completely platonic disrupted by somebody who didnt even know us. Packers guard Jerry Kramer wrote in his diary of the 1967 season about his trepidation over having to face Karras. But Karras also had run-ins with the NFL long before his lawsuit. He was real mad about it, and when I got up, I was moving off and I heard him holler, Why dont you go back to the Mafia, Brown? I stopped and hollered back, Mafia? (Reuters) - Alex Karras, the Detroit Lions football star with the puckish personality who turned to acting and won legions of fans for punching out a horse in the Lou Karras and Alex Karras, also played in the NFL. Brown: LookI loved playing football. At the other place, I hadnt been eager to live around white people; I had just wanted a place near the field where the Browns practiced, which would be more convenient for me. Have you ever been to any Negro theater with a movie going, with a Negro in it? Karras, who gained fame in the NFL as a fearsome defensive lineman and later as an actor, has died. I knew I had it working right when I started seeing plays in my mind almost like I was watching television. Massive thighs, like some huge frog. I see myself making all kinds of instantaneous adjustments, step by step, through their secondaryand then into the clear and all the way for a TD. office, at public appearances and on the golf coursewhere he chafes if his scores reach the upper 70s. Alex Karras never won a Super Bowl. I can see the order in which the tacklers are going to come. The cop was saying, You hear me, nigger? Well, my emotions were such that I hardly trusted myself to speak. Haley: And you won the Hickok belt as the years best professional athlete. And the best people to monitor that is these tough guys: Give them jobs doing it. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. But there are many, many great blockers in pro football and relatively few very good runners. And when Im called to go before the cameras, like I used to do before a game, I just cut off my emotions and go act out whatever the script calls for me to do. If in my lifetime I can see that this idea really has taken hold, then I will have the satisfaction of knowing that true freedomas black men and as black Americanswill finally be within our grasp. WebHow many games did Alex Karras play? Thats another way of saying that eventually I hope to be regarded as a good professional actorI mean by other actors. J.T. He broke into the business world by traveling and interning as a marketing executive for the Pepsi-Cola company. I had to hit the line, just one yard, for a touchdown. Every tackle, whether Id just had a brush block or Id really been clobberedlike this timeI always reacted the same way. Youve earned the money to buy yourself a better home in a better residential area, and you havent even signed the papers before the word leaks out and white people start running before theyd live near you. If he had just been willing to compromise, to adjust only a little, he could have remained the top coach in pro ball. That doesnt even matter to me. He was 77. The Balboa concert was filmed for Howard Cosells new TV show on ABC called Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell and included an appearance on stage by Alex Karras. He plays football up there. That was my reprieve. Brown: First and foremost, Id define it as a creation of the white press. (Alex Haley Interviews Jim Brown was originally published in the February 1968 issue of Playboy Magazine. Alexs final assignment in the Sixties was his outspoken interview with football great and action hero Jim Brown (February 1968). Well, shortly after that, I read the sports headline that Otto Graham said I couldnt or wouldnt block and the Browns would maybe do better without me. You could start with the American Revolution. Theres the full or half straight-arm, or just the forearm, then the shoulder. And, yeah, a lot of them do more than think about it; they decide to find out. Nobody caught in that curfew net ever will think the same again. But Ill just stick it out, walk tall and wait for the truth to be vindicated. If he gets anywhere around white men with her, fellow athletes or not, pretty soon that black man is going to get reminded that he is not free, that hes still black in white mens eyes, star on the field or not. It was tough for me to shift the ball from hand to hand in open field, as I liked to do when running. Brown: Not nearly as much as Id like. Millen played as a linebacker for 12 years for the Oakland and Los Angeles Raiders, San Francisco 49ers, and Washington Redskins, playing on four Super Bowl-winning teams and winning a Super Bowl ring for It has deflected their energies from effective programming into sloganeering. The kind who are the most dangerous people in any society. 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I say this because I head up an organizationthe N.N.I.E.U.that offers, free, some of the greatest black talent in this country, most of it never used before. So its one of those There but for the grace of God things with meand its the same for all the other athletes I know. Haley: But many otherscoaches, players and fans alikehave made the same charge about you. Drafted by the Detroit Lions in the first round (tenth overall) of the 1958 NFL draft. He doesnt care who likes him or who doesnt, so he doesnt try to be liked. Former NFL great Alex Karras made his transition to acting appear almost too easy, only to further defy expectations by taking on roles that skewed away from the tough guy image he had cultivated as a professional athlete. Everybody knew I had everything to learn, and they knocked themselves out helping me; so I probably learned faster than most rookies in films. I truly think that if we can expand, were capable of conducting special programs simultaneously in at least six major cities. Karras grew up in Gary, Indiana, and was an All-American at the University of Iowa. Unwillingly and briefly, Brown adopted yet another persona in 1965. Whatever program there is has to be followed up, day to day. Ive never seen any difference in white or black women. You see, I believe a man grows up. Sure, theyre hostile and suspicious, but theyll talk sincerely with you if they figure youre with them. "This physical beating that he took as a football player has impacted his life, and therefore it has impacted his family life," Clark told the AP earlier this year. Alex Karras was an NFL football player and actor. I believe that whatever any two consenting adultsblack or whitedo in their own privacy, without causing harm to any other party, is entirely their own business. I strongly identified with Jefferson. "He is interested in making the game of football safer and hoping that other families of retired players will have a healthier and happier retirement.". Former player Devin Hester named one of 15 finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2023. Then, in the next game, against Colgate, I made two touchdowns. Brown: If by fomented they mean planned, like some kind of revolutionary battle strategy, they just dont understand the explosive state of every ghetto in this country. Now, heres what seems to me a hell of a program, but it needs your help to get wide community support behind it. In most cases, these guys will give 100-percent support. Haley: What made you decide to quit football so abruptly at the height of your career? Your email address will not be published. The really tough cats, you know? Head down, Brown would probe for an opening, while Ali danced, dodged and swatted back. He said, Hell, this is beautiful all around! He called me about five one morning and said if there was a part I could play in Ice Station Zebra, hed have me in Hollywood the next day. And we decided to make use of black professional peoplethese middle-class Negroes we hear so much talk aboutto draw them in with us, to lend their talents to young Negroes in all the various ways they could. The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Nobodys used to blows like that. By using this website, you accept the terms of our Visitor Agreement and Privacy Policy, and understand your options regarding Ad Choices. Then, in 1964, we won the league championship. Im a man, a black man, in a culture where black manhood has been kicked around and threatened for generations. Lovable TV dad. And Alex Karrasin pro football, hes just a little cat, just 250 pounds, but hes built like a stump, with a boxers sneering mouth. We dont want to have to be somebody special to be treated with respect. Now, in saying all this, by no means am I letting the white man off the hook. It did a lot for me; it changed my life. The dementia took that energy away., While he made hundreds of tackles on the football field, Karras most memorable take-down occurred on a movie screen when he played Mongo, a dull-witted brute who knocked down a horse in Mel Brooks 1974 comic Western film, Blazing Saddles.. Alex Karras last played in 1970. But it was like, Jesus! Haley: You seem to be much more optimistic about the racial situation than you were a few years agoand much less cynical about the prospects of white cooperation. But we no longer want or need the same kind of help theyve offered in the past: We dont want them to march with us anymore, because marches are a thing of the past; and we dont want them to work with us in the ghetto anymore. Direccin: Calzada de Guadalupe No. They are not trying to be assimilated; but they believe there should be, and must be, equality. I recognize this boy. The message in that fact for black people, I think, is loud and clear: Get off the streets and into the schoolrooms and the colleges and the libraries. Well, I dont need that kind of concern for my welfare. Karras was known to teammates as The Godfather - a glib, wise-cracking figure who enjoyed big cigars, even in the shower. We only take whites. I wound up buying the home we have now, in a nice, modest, predominantly Negro neighborhood. One of the first things we did was establish courses in black history, business administration, economics and many other such self-help subjects. Haley: You said the riots may escalate if nothing is done to prevent them. Splits. He works for us like a Trojan in his off time. Hodges, Returning Hall of Famers Autograph Session, Black College Football Hall of Fame Classic Weekend, 2023 Paul Krause Hall of Fame Golf Classic. Lovable TV dad. DETROIT -- Alex Karras was one of the NFL's most feared defensive tackles throughout the 1960s, a player who hounded quarterbacks and bulled past opposing linemen. Anyway, Id be watching them mentally across the line and sizing up the moves they might make against me. Quite a few white athletes have come in with us, too, as investors in black business ideas. I always took Glen Kellys point of view: He said he wouldnt hitch a race horse to a milk truck. You cant blame her for respondingand you cant blame him for responding to her, because hes the same man who for 300 years couldnt open his mouth or he would die, while he saw the white man having sex as he pleased with the black woman. He has sinned; he has held the black man down for centuries. The game had accelerated very fast, see, until any coach not utilizing long passes or frequent touchdown-run threats was bound to become obsolete. I love him! By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. There was nothing really uncommon about the incident itself in the average Negros experience, particularly in the South. Of all the blows I got, though, theres one Ill never forget. In a Giant game two weeks before, Id been hit and gouged in the eye seven or eight times, until I was half blinded for the next couple of weeks. Then Im drifting, to let my guard in front of me get into position. Beyond that lay a three-year contract with MGM that involved several more motion pictures. When the referee told him to call heads or tails, Karras responded, Im sorry, sir, Im not permitted to gamble.. I always went after the finest-looking, the real foxes! Splits. Its just common sense: Physically, many guys in pro football are more than my equalsbig, strong, fast son of a guns. Alex Karras attended the University of Iowa. Visually, I appreciate anything that I consider beautifulif its a car, if its a suit, a painting, a woman or what have you. Im looking for that end first, or maybe that outside linebacker, since no one could get to him right away. Its natural for the players to get emotional and fired up in a game. The suspicions and hostilities, born of 300 years of white bigotry and betrayal, run too deep. So Im sure that Im doing no big damage by looking. Browns phenomenal prowess led the editor of Sport interviews to label him the Babe Ruth of football, who sits alone, indestructible, superhuman. It also gave him the additionaland more tangiblehonor of taking home the biggest pay check in pro ball, an estimated $65,000 a year. All that mattered to me was pretty girls. Logs. He planned to return in time for fall football practice; but in England, heavy rains kept delaying the filming. In that secondary, it was just a step-by-step thing, using brainwork and instinct; but sometimes it got down to just out-and-out strength and brute force. "I'm thinking about him every minute," Kramer wrote. He had already become known through George Plimpton's behind-the-scenes book "Paper Lion: Confessions of a Last-String Quarterback," about what it was like to be an NFL player in Detroit. He just kept on getting slapped around, and only when he started to slap back did he begin to get any kind of respect. Man, I loved to runespecially on those outside sweeps; that was my major touchdown potential. Haley: Speaking of babies, you were once the defendant in a paternity suit filed by an 18-year-old Cleveland girl. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. Another invitation to disaster is to use your head as a battering ram. Its the sad truth that we continue to drink the best imported Scotch, to wear the finest shoes, to drive the biggest Cadillacs, and we dont own one single distillery, shoe factory or Cadillac agencyat least not to my knowledge we dont. My interests have expanded in various areasin racial relations, my various investments and, of course, my new movie career, but most of all in my sense of responsibility to my people. At six feet two and 230 pounds, Brown was the most powerful and elusive running back ever to play the game. Sanitiza tu hogar o negocio con los mejores resultados. Then, turning pro with the Cleveland Browns, he seteven in his rookie yearnew professional records. Among the player fines, the Lions organization was fined $4,000 for not pursuing reports about their players who were Always, youre going to have young guys coming along and improving. Haley: Didnt your physical condition have anything to do with it? Karras was also hampered that season by a cracked ankle bone. Ive always refused to fire back at him, feeling that he said it in the mistaken belief that I didnt want to testify in his behalf. If theres anything the vast majority of Negroes in this country have proved, however, its that they arent Communist-inclined. Haley: Have you read the polls that show that a large majority of Negroes think the whites would lose in a race war? I was Robert Jefferson, a college-trained soldier condemned to death for murdering a white racist who had brutally assaulted me. But the most heartening sign to me is the fact that Negroes are competing withand winning againstwhite candidates on the basis of personal qualifications rather than skin color, and winning with white support. Besides that, my other activities are benefited, especially working to increase Negro participation in the countrys economic life. FILE - This is a 1971 file photo showing Detroit Lions football player Alex Karras. He was 81. Well, I stuck my head in there, and Vrooom! headquarters address is 105-15 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44106? Brown: Oh, sure. In addition, it was also published within Alex Haley: The Playboy Interviews by Ballantine Books in July 1993.) I just made myself Robert Jefferson in my mind. Brown: Well, aside from a couple dozen new black businesses now in operation, I think we could rightly claim some major credit for the fact that last year, Cleveland didnt prove to be the nations number-one riot area, as had been predicted by the so-called experts. Ill tell you the very first thing that always knocks me out about that question. I think they symbolize a lot of those their age who are sick of passive resistance, who are really fighting for freedomyoung Negroes with great pride in themselves and their race. After the Watts trouble, which involved only a few of the Negroes in Los Angeles, suddenly a riot area curfew was declared that went far beyond the locale of the riotingall the way to the borders of the total black community in Los Angeles, excepting only the handful of so-called upper-middle-class blacks who happened to be living in so-called integrated high-income areas. It didnt matter to me. Encyclopdia Britannica, and create and manage the relationships between them. DETROIT Alex Karras was a man of many roles. I was busy practicing for a game when Ottos attorney came on the field asking me a lot of questions about the event. So when I felt Scotts fingers grabbing for me, I just swung on him and we had that little scuffle. Do you think anyone ever will equal or better those records? Hilarious big-screen cowboy. Just about whenever Ive stood up and spoken my mind about situations that bothered me as a black man, somebody I thought I trusted, somebody I thought knew and understood me, has advised and urged and all but begged mewith the best of intentionsnot to express my objections publicly. It was like Id been caught in a vise between their tackle and end; then a Mack truck crashed against my helmet. "It's an ironic tragedy that Alex had to live with devastating effects from playing the game he loved," Mitnick said. Finally, I began to feel that Id just rather not see my old friends in that kind of situation.