“He was always towering over everybody, as a child through adulthood, but his character has always been the same,” said high school friend Coach Chuck. “He really was a gentle giant. He really was about fairness and goodness for everybody, even at the expense of his own hurt, he still stood for that. He said, ‘That’s what means something.'”

In the 1990s, Floyd became a known rapper under the name Big Floyd, alongside DJ Screw and the hip hop group Screwed Up Click.

He ran into trouble with the law in his 20s and 30s, including theft in 1998 and drug charges in 2002 and 2005. He was charged in 2007 with armed robbery in a home invasion in Houston and was sentenced to five years in prison as part of a plea deal, according to court documents.

Friends said after serving time, he became an anti-violence advocate and decided to get a fresh start by moving to Minnesota in 2014.

“He was changing his life. He went to Minnesota. He was driving trucks,” Stephen Jackson, NBA champion basketball player and longtime friend of Floyd, said in an Instagram post. “Floyd was my brother, man. We called each other ‘twin.'”

Floyd’s roommate in St. Louis Park, Alvin Manago, said he became a man of faith and mostly kept to himself.

“God-fearing, things like that,” said Manago. “He just would read his little scriptures every once in a while. He had them by his bed.”

 Floyd worked several jobs in the Twin Cities, most recently as a security guard at Conga Latin Bistro in Minneapolis.

“He’s that type of person that if you need help, you can count on him,” said his former boss Jovanni Thunstrom. “Very nice guy. My employees loved him. My customers loved him. He was very respectful and a hard worker.”

Floyd was also a father of five, according to speakers at his memorial service Thursday.

His son, Quincy Mason, spoke in Minneapolis earlier this week, saying, “We deserve justice. That’s all I have to say.”

In an interview with ABC News, Floyd’s 6-year-old daughter Gianna said she wants the world to know “that I miss him.”

“My heart is broke for my baby. It’s broke,” said Gianna’s mother Roxie Washington. “I mean that was his baby. He loved his little girl.”

Floyd found love while living in Minneapolis. He met girlfriend Courteney Ross about three years ago. She said it was “love at first sight” and described him as funny, talkative and kind.

“He believed everyone in this world should get a chance. There’s no throwaway people. There’s nobody that doesn’t deserve love. He always showed that,” Ross said through tears.

Floyd’s six siblings said he stood for peace and unity.

“He always saw the lighter, the brighter side of things, and he made you feel like you could just do anything, like you could rule the world even if you’re going through something. That’s just how he spoke to you,” said brother Terrence Floyd. “That’s how I could just sum it up. He was a motivator, peaceful motivator.”

They hope his legacy will be one of change.

Floyd died at the age of 46 while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers.

Long before Khalil Mack arrived, Anthony Smith set the standard for Raiders pass-rushers. The defensive end got off to a hot start after entering the NFL as a first-round pick. Yet, his success on the field rarely gets discussed. That’s what happens when you go from being a star for one of the NFL’s biggest franchises to serving three life sentences for murder.

Anthony Smith quickly emerged as a star for the Raiders

Khalil Mack’s 40.5 sacks are the most by a player in his first 4 seasons with the @Raiders since Anthony Smith (42.0) from 1991-94.

The last @ChicagoBears player with more sacks through the first 4 seasons of his career was Super Bowl XX MVP Richard Dent (49.0) from 1983-86. https://t.co/L5EfzbOJA5

— Stats By STATS (@StatsBySTATS) September 1, 2018

RELATED: The Tragic Death of Former Patriots Star and Convicted Murderer Aaron Hernandez

Anthony Smith played his college ball at the University of Alabama and the University of Arizona. The 6-foot-3, 265-pound defensive end entered the 1990 NFL draft as a top prospect. Of course, that class featured a number of future defensive stars, including Junior Seau, Cortez Kennedy, and LeRoy Butler.

The then-Las Vegas Raiders selected Smith 11th overall. He joined a squad that already featured a star sack artist in Greg Townsend. The versatile front-seven defender had enjoyed six double-digit sack campaigns by the time Smith broke into the lineup in 1991.

That season turned out to be a terrific one for the dynamic defensive end duo. Townsend racked up a career-high 13 sacks while Smith totaled 10.5. He followed up with 13 of his own in 1992 despite starting just one game. Smith recorded 12.5 sacks in 1993 and seemed poised to become a long-term fixture in Las Vegas.

However, he never matched that same level of production. And eventually, the world would discover that Anthony Smith the NFL star led a different life away from the football field.

From playing in the NFL to facing four murder charges

RELATED: Travis Henry Went From Being Suspended for Marijuana to Going to Jail for Trafficking Cocaine

After a torrid start to his Raiders career, Smith regressed mightily. He recorded just 18.5 sacks in the final four years of his NFL career. Still, with 57.5 sacks in 98 career games, he more than lived up to his first-round draft status.

But as his NFL career came to a close, so too would Anthony Smith’s days as a free man. In March 2011, Smith and two other people were charged with murdering Maurilio Ponce. He had been beaten and shot in October 2008 in California. According to an AP report, prosecutors said Ponce’s death occurred after a business deal went bad.

The Ponce murder charge represented just one of four brought against Smith. And while jurors failed to reach a verdict in the Ponce murder case, they did come to an agreement on the other charges.

Smith got sentenced to three consecutive life terms in 2016

RELATED: Kellen Winslow Jr.’s Frightening Fall From Browns Star to Convicted Rapist

On January 22, 2016, Anthony Smith got sentenced to three consecutive life terms in prison without the possibility of parole. Just a few months earlier, an LA County jury convicted him on three counts of murder with special circumstances of torturing, kidnapping, and multiple murders.

Prosecutors provided details of the murders. Smith reportedly posed as a police officer before kidnapping Ricky and Kevin Nettles in November 1999. The two brothers had been kidnapped from their car wash business.

The Nettles brothers’ bodies were found about eight miles apart. Both had U-shaped branding burns on their cheeks, and Ricky Nettles had numerous burns across his abdomen and feet.

Less than two years later, Smith kidnapped Dennis Henderson before beating and stabbing him to death. Henderson’s body was found in a rental car with more than 40 stab wounds. He had been kidnapped on June 24, 2001, from the Mar Vista section of LA.

Prosecutors also said that Anthony Smith had multiple books on how to kill people in his possession. At the time of his sentencing, he was 48 years old.

HOUSTON — Years before a bystander’s video of George Floyd’s last moments turned his name into a global cry for justice, Floyd trained a camera on himself.

“I just want to speak to you all real quick,” Floyd says in one video, addressing the young men in his neighborhood who looked up to him. His 6-foot-7 frame crowds the picture.

“I’ve got my shortcomings and my flaws and I ain’t better than nobody else,” he says. “But, man, the shootings that’s going on, I don’t care what ‘hood you’re from, where you’re at, man. I love you and God loves you. Put them guns down.”

At the time, Floyd was respected as a man who spoke from hard, but hardly extraordinary, experience. He had nothing remotely like the stature he has gained in death, embraced as a universal symbol of the need to overhaul policing and held up as a heroic everyman.

But the reality of his 46 years on Earth, including sharp edges and setbacks Floyd himself acknowledged, was both much fuller and more complicated.

Once a star athlete with dreams of turning pro and enough talent to win a partial scholarship, Floyd returned home only to bounce between jobs before serving nearly five years in prison. Intensely proud of his roots in Houston’s Third Ward and admired as a mentor in a public housing project beset by poverty, he decided the only way forward was to leave it behind.

“He had made some mistakes that cost him some years of his life,” said Ronnie Lillard, a friend and rapper who performs under the name Reconcile. “And when he got out of that, I think the Lord greatly impacted his heart.”

___

Floyd was born in North Carolina. But his mother, a single parent, moved the family to Houston when he was 2, so she could search for work. They settled in the Cuney Homes, a low-slung warren of more than 500 apartments south of downtown nicknamed “The Bricks.”

The neighborhood, for decades a cornerstone of Houston’s black community, has gentrified in recent years. Texas Southern University, a historically black campus directly across the street from the projects, has long held itself out as a launchpad for those willing to strive. But many residents struggle, with incomes about half the city average and unemployment nearly four times higher, even before the recent economic collapse.

Yeura Hall, who grew up next door to Floyd, said even in the Third Ward other kids looked down on those who lived in public housing. To deflect the teasing, he, Floyd and other boys made up a song about themselves: “I don’t want to grow up, I’m a Cuney Homes kid. They got so many rats and roaches I can play with.”

Larcenia Floyd invested her hopes in her son, who as a second-grader wrote that he dreamed of being a U.S. Supreme Court justice.

“She thought that he would be the one that would bring them out of poverty and struggle,” said Travis Cains, a longtime friend.

Floyd was a star tight end for the football team at Jack Yates High School, playing for the losing side in the 1992 state championship game at Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin.

He was an atypical football player. “We used to call him ‘Big Friendly,'” said Cervaanz Williams, a former teammate.

“If you said something to him, his head would drop,” said Maurice McGowan, his football coach. “He just wasn’t going to ball up and act like he wanted to fight you.”

On the basketball court, Floyd’s height and strength won attention from George Walker, a former assistant coach at the University of Houston hired for the head job at what is now South Florida State College. The school was a 17-hour drive away, in a small town, but high school administrators and Floyd’s mother urged him to go, Walker said.

“They wanted George to really get out of the neighborhood, to do something, be something,” Walker said.

In Avon Park, Florida, Floyd and a few other players from Houston stood out for their size, accents and city cool. They lived in the Jacaranda Hotel, a historic lodge used as a dormitory, and were known as the “Jac Boys.”

“He was always telling me about the Third Ward of Houston, how rough it was, but how much he loved it,” said Robert Caldwell, a friend and fellow student who frequently traveled with the basketball team. “He said people know how to grind, as hard as it is, people know how to love.”

After two years in Avon Park, Floyd spent a year at Texas A&M University in Kingsville before returning to Houston and his mother’s apartment to find jobs in construction and security.

Larcenia Floyd, known throughout the neighborhood as Ms. Cissy, welcomed her son’s friends from childhood, offering their apartment as refuge when their lives grew stressful. When a neighbor went to prison on drug charges, Ms. Cissy took in the woman’s pre-teen son, Cal Wayne, deputizing George to play older brother for the next 2½ years.

“We would steal his jerseys and put his jerseys on and run around the house, go outside, jerseys all the way down to our ankles because he was so big and we were little,” said Wayne, now a well-known rapper who credits Floyd with encouraging him to pursue music.

George Floyd, he said, “was like a superhero.”

___

Floyd, too, dabbled in music, occasionally invited to rap with Robert Earl Davis Jr. — better known as DJ Screw, whose mixtapes have since been recognized as influential in charting Houston’s place as a hotbed of hip-hop.

But then, the man known throughout Cuney as “Big Floyd,” started finding trouble.

Between 1997 and 2005, Floyd was arrested several times on drug and theft charges, spending months in jail. Around that time, Wayne’s mother, Sheila Masters, recalled running into Floyd in the street and learning he was homeless.

“He’s so tall he’d pat me on my head … and say, ‘Mama you know it’s going to be all right,'” Masters said.

In August 2007, Floyd was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. Investigators said he and five other men barged into a woman’s apartment, and Floyd pushed a pistol into her abdomen before searching for items to steal. Floyd pleaded guilty in 2009 and was sentenced to five years in prison. By the time he was paroled, in January 2013, he was nearing 40.

“He came home with his head on right,” said friend Travis Cains.

At a Christian rap concert in the Third Ward, Floyd met Lillard and pastor Patrick “PT” Ngwolo, whose ministry was looking for ways to reach residents in Cuney Homes. Floyd, who seemed to know everyone in the project, volunteered to be their guide.

Soon Floyd was setting up a washtub on the Cuney basketball courts for baptisms by Ngwolo’s newly formed Resurrection Houston congregation. He joined three-on-three basketball tournaments and barbecues, organized by the ministry. He knocked on doors with Ngwolo, introducing residents as candidates for grocery deliveries or Bible study.

Another pastor, Christopher Johnson, recalled Floyd stopping by his office while Johnson’s mother was visiting. Decades had passed since Johnson’s mother had been a teacher at Floyd’s high school. It didn’t matter. He wrapped her in a bear hug.

“I don’t think he ever thought of himself as being big,” Johnson said. “There’s a lot of big dudes here, but he was a gentleman and a diplomat and I’m not putting any sauce on it.”

On the streets of Cuney, Floyd was increasingly embraced as an O.G. — literally “original gangster,” but bestowed as a title of respect for a mentor who’d learned from life experience.

In Tiffany Cofield’s classroom at a neighborhood charter school, some of her male students — many of whom had already had brushes with the law — told her to talk to “Big Floyd” if she wanted to understand.

Floyd would listen patiently as she voiced her frustrations with students’ bad behavior, she said. And he would try to explain the life of a young man in the projects.

After school, Floyd often met up with her students outside a corner store.

“How’s school going?” he’d ask. “Are you being respectful? How’s your mom? How’s your grandma?”

___

In 2014, Floyd began exploring the possibility of leaving the neighborhood.

As the father of five children from several relationships, he had bills to pay. And despite his stature in Cuney, everyday life could be trying. More than once, Floyd ended up in handcuffs when police came through the projects and detained a large number of men, Cofield said.

“He would show by example: ‘Yes, officer. No, officer.’ Very respectful. Very calm tone,” she said.

A friend of Floyd’s had already moved to the Twin Cities as part of a church discipleship program that offered men a route to self-sufficiency by changing their environment and helping them find jobs.

“He was looking to start over fresh, a new beginning,” said Christopher Harris, who preceded Floyd to Minneapolis. Friends provided Floyd with money and clothing to ease the transition.

In Minneapolis, Floyd found a job as a security guard at the Salvation Army’s Harbor Light Center — the city’s largest homeless shelter.

“He would regularly walk a couple of female co-workers out … at night and make sure they got to their cars safely and securely,” said Brian Molohon, director of development for the Army’s Minnesota office. “Just a big strong guy, but with a very tender side.”

Floyd left after a little over a year, training to drive trucks while working as a bouncer at a club called Conga Latin Bistro.

“He would dance badly to make people laugh,” said the owner, Jovanni Thunstrom. “I tried to teach him how to dance because he loved Latin music, but I couldn’t because he was too tall for me.”

Floyd kept his connection to Houston, regularly returning to Cuney.

When Houston hosted the Super Bowl in 2017, Floyd was back in town, hosting a party at the church with music and free AIDS testing. He came back again for his mother’s funeral the next year. And when Cains spoke with him last, a few weeks ago, Floyd was planning another trip for this summer.

By then, Floyd was out of work. Early this spring, Thunstrom cut Floyd’s job when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the club to close.

On the evening of Memorial Day, Floyd was with two others when convenience store employees accused him of paying for cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill, then called the police. Less than an hour later, Floyd breathed his last.

Those who knew him search for meaning in his death.

“I’ve come to the belief that he was chosen,” said Cofield, the teacher. “Only this could have happened to him because of who he was and the amount of love that he had for people, people had for him.”

It’s a small comfort, she admits. But, then, in Big Floyd’s neighborhood, people have long made do with less.

Years before a bystander’s video of George Floyd’s last moments turned his name into a global cry for justice, Floyd trained a camera on himself.

“I’ve got my shortcomings and my flaws,” Floyd says in one video, addressing young men in his neighborhood. His 6-foot-7 frame crowds the picture.

“But, man, the shootings that’s going on, I don’t care what ’hood you’re from … Put them guns down.”

At the time, Floyd was respected for speaking from hard, but hardly extraordinary, experience. He had nothing remotely like the stature he has gained in death. But the reality of his 46 years was both fuller and more complicated.

Once a star athlete offered a partial scholarship, Floyd returned home to bounce between jobs before serving nearly five years in prison. A mentor in a housing project beset by poverty, he decided the way forward was to leave it behind.

“He had made some mistakes that cost him some years of his life,” said Ronnie Lillard, a friend and rapper who performs as Reconcile. “And when he got out of that, I think the Lord greatly impacted his heart.”

Floyd’s mother, a single parent, moved the family from North Carolina to Houston when he was 2. They settled in the Cuney Homes, a warren of more than 500 apartments in Houston’s Third Ward.

Long a cornerstone of Houston’s black community, it has gentrified in recent years. But incomes remain half the city average, with unemployment nearly four times higher.

Larcenia Floyd invested hopes in her son, who as a second-grader wrote of aspiring to be a Supreme Court justice. Floyd was a star tight end at Jack Yates High School, but atypical for a football player.

“If you said something to him, his head would drop,” said Maurice McGowan, his coach. “He just wasn’t going to ball up and act like he wanted to fight you.”

On the basketball court, Floyd won attention from George Walker, coach at what is now South Florida State College. The school was 17 hours away, but school administrators and Floyd’s mother urged him to go.

“They wanted George to really get out of the neighborhood, to do something, be something,” Walker said.

Floyd and other players from Houston stood out for their size and city style.

“He was always telling me about the Third Ward,” said Robert Caldwell, a friend and fellow student. “He said people know how to grind, as hard as it is, people know how to love.”

After two years in Florida and one at Texas A&M University in Kingsville, Floyd returned to Houston to work in construction and security.

When a neighbor went to prison on drug charges, Larcenia Floyd took in the woman’s preteen son, Cal Wayne, deputizing George to play older brother for the next two and a half years.

“We would steal his jerseys and put his jerseys on and run around …, jerseys all the way down to our ankles because he was so big and we were little,” said Wayne, now a well-known rapper who credits Floyd with encouraging him to pursue music.

Floyd, he said, “was like a superhero.”

Floyd, too, dabbled in music, occasionally rapping with Robert Earl Davis Jr. — better known as DJ Screw, whose mixtapes helped chart Houston as a hotbed of hip-hop.

But the man known throughout Cuney as “Big Floyd,” started finding trouble.

Between 1997 and 2005, Floyd was arrested several times on drug and theft charges, spending months in jail.

In 2007, Floyd was charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. Investigators said Floyd and other men barged into an apartment, where he pushed a pistol into a woman’s abdomen. Floyd pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years. When he was paroled in 2013 he was nearing 40.

“He came home with his head on right,” friend Travis Cains said.

At a Christian rap concert, Floyd met Lillard and pastor Patrick “PT” Ngwolo, whose ministry was looking to reach Cuney residents. Floyd volunteered to be their guide.

Soon Floyd was setting up a washtub on the basketball courts for baptisms by Ngwolo’s newly formed Resurrection Houston congregation. He knocked on doors, introducing Ngwolo to candidates for grocery deliveries or Bible study.

On the streets, Floyd was embraced as an O.G. — literally “original gangster,” but bestowed as a title of respect.

In Tiffany Cofield’s classroom at a neighborhood school, some of her male students — many of whom had already had brushes with the law — told her to talk to “Big Floyd” if she wanted to understand.

Floyd would listen patiently and try to explain life in the projects. After school, he often met up Cofield’s students outside a corner store.

“How’s school going?” he’d ask. “Are you being respectful? How’s your mom?”

In 2014, Floyd began exploring the possibility of leaving.

After fathering five children, he had bills to pay. And more than once, Floyd ended up in handcuffs when police came through the projects, Cofield said.

“He would show by example: ‘Yes, officer. No, officer.’ Very respectful,” she said.

Floyd followed a friend who had moved to Minneapolis through a church program offering to help men change their environment and find jobs.

In Minnesota, Floyd got a security job at a Salvation Army shelter, then trained to drive trucks while working as a club bouncer, until the pandemic forced its closure.

On Memorial Day, convenience store workers accused Floyd of paying for cigarettes with a counterfeit bill, then called the police. Less than an hour later, Floyd breathed his last.

Those who knew him search for meaning in his death.

“I’ve come to the belief that he was chosen,” said Cofield, the teacher. “Only this could have happened to him because of who he was and the amount of love that he had for people, people had for him.”

It’s small comfort, she admits. But in Big Floyd’s neighborhood, people have made do with less.

David J. Phillip | AP

In this Sunday, photo, the sun shines above a mural honoring George Floyd in Houston’s Third Ward. Floyd, who grew up in the Third Ward, died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers on Memorial Day.

Luis Andres Henao, Nomann Merchant, Juan Lozano and Adam Geller, The Associated Press •
June 10, 2020 8:27 am

HOUSTON — Years before a bystander’s video of George Floyd’s last moments turned his name into a global cry for justice, Floyd trained a camera on himself.

“I just want to speak to you all real quick,” Floyd says in one video, addressing the young men in his neighborhood who looked up to him. His 6-foot-7 frame crowds the picture.

“I’ve got my shortcomings and my flaws and I ain’t better than nobody else,” he says. “But, man, the shootings that’s going on, I don’t care what ‘hood you’re from, where you’re at, man. I love you and God loves you. Put them guns down.”

At the time, Floyd was respected as a man who spoke from hard, but hardly extraordinary, experience. He had nothing remotely like the stature he has gained in death, embraced as a universal symbol of the need to overhaul policing and held up as a heroic everyman.

But the reality of his 46 years on Earth, including sharp edges and setbacks Floyd himself acknowledged, was both much fuller and more complicated.

Once a star athlete with dreams of turning pro and enough talent to win a partial scholarship, Floyd returned home only to bounce between jobs before serving nearly five years in prison. Intensely proud of his roots in Houston’s Third Ward and admired as a mentor in a public housing project beset by poverty, he decided the only way forward was to leave it behind.

“He had made some mistakes that cost him some years of his life,” said Ronnie Lillard, a friend and rapper who performs under the name Reconcile. “And when he got out of that, I think the Lord greatly impacted his heart.”

‘Big Friendly’

Floyd was born in North Carolina. But his mother, a single parent, moved the family to Houston when he was 2, so she could search for work. They settled in the Cuney Homes, a low-slung warren of more than 500 apartments south of downtown nicknamed “The Bricks.”

The neighborhood, for decades a cornerstone of Houston’s black community, has gentrified in recent years. Texas Southern University, a historically black campus directly across the street from the projects, has long held itself out as a launchpad for those willing to strive. But many residents struggle, with incomes about half the city average and unemployment nearly four times higher, even before the recent economic collapse.

Watch: Hundreds march through downtown to protest racial inequality

Yeura Hall, who grew up next door to Floyd, said even in the Third Ward other kids looked down on those who lived in public housing. To deflect the teasing, he, Floyd and other boys made up a song about themselves: “I don’t want to grow up, I’m a Cuney Homes kid. They got so many rats and roaches I can play with.”

Larcenia Floyd invested her hopes in her son, who as a second-grader wrote that he dreamed of being a U.S. Supreme Court justice.

“She thought that he would be the one that would bring them out of poverty and struggle,” said Travis Cains, a longtime friend.

Floyd was a star tight end for the football team at Jack Yates High School, playing for the losing side in the 1992 state championship game at the Houston Astrodome.

He was an atypical football player. “We used to call him ‘Big Friendly,’” said Cervaanz Williams, a former teammate.

“If you said something to him, his head would drop,” said Maurice McGowan, his football coach. “He just wasn’t going to ball up and act like he wanted to fight you.”

Watch: Protesters chant “Black Lives Matter” in front of the capitol

On the basketball court, Floyd’s height and strength won attention from George Walker, a former assistant coach at the University of Houston hired for the head job at what is now South Florida State College. The school was a 17-hour drive away, in a small town, but high school administrators and Floyd’s mother urged him to go, Walker said.

“They wanted George to really get out of the neighborhood, to do something, be something,” Walker said.

In Avon Park, Florida, Floyd and a few other players from Houston stood out for their size, accents and city cool. They lived in the Jacaranda Hotel, a historic lodge used as a dormitory, and were known as the “Jac Boys.”

“He was always telling me about the Third Ward of Houston, how rough it was, but how much he loved it,” said Robert Caldwell, a friend and fellow student who frequently traveled with the basketball team. “He said people know how to grind, as hard as it is, people know how to love.”

After two years in Avon Park, Floyd spent a year at Texas A&M University in Kingsville before returning to Houston and his mother’s apartment to find jobs in construction and security.

Larcenia Floyd, known throughout the neighborhood as Ms. Cissy, welcomed her son’s friends from childhood, offering their apartment as refuge when their lives grew stressful. When a neighbor went to prison on drug charges, Ms. Cissy took in the woman’s pre-teen son, Cal Wayne, deputizing George to play older brother for the next 2½ years.

“We would steal his jerseys and put his jerseys on and run around the house, go outside, jerseys all the way down to our ankles because he was so big and we were little,” said Wayne, now a well-known rapper who credits Floyd with encouraging him to pursue music.

George Floyd, he said, “was like a superhero.”

Brushes with the law

Floyd, too, dabbled in music, occasionally invited to rap with Robert Earl Davis Jr. — better known as DJ Screw, whose mixtapes have since been recognized as influential in charting Houston’s place as a hotbed of hip-hop.

But then, the man known throughout Cuney as “Big Floyd,” started finding trouble.

Between 1997 and 2005, Floyd was arrested several times on drug and theft charges, spending months in jail. Around that time, Wayne’s mother, Sheila Masters, recalled running into Floyd in the street and learning he was homeless.

“He’s so tall he’d pat me on my head … and say, ‘Mama you know it’s going to be all right,’” Masters said.

Watch: Protesters gather outside Bangor Police Department

In August 2007, Floyd was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. Investigators said he and five other men barged into a woman’s apartment, and Floyd pushed a pistol into her abdomen before searching for items to steal. Floyd pleaded guilty in 2009 and was sentenced to five years in prison. By the time he was paroled, in January 2013, he was nearing 40.

“He came home with his head on right,” his friend Travis Cains said.

At a Christian rap concert in the Third Ward, Floyd met Lillard and pastor Patrick “PT” Ngwolo, whose ministry was looking for ways to reach residents in Cuney Homes. Floyd, who seemed to know everyone in the project, volunteered to be their guide.

Soon Floyd was setting up a washtub on the Cuney basketball courts for baptisms by Ngwolo’s newly formed Resurrection Houston congregation. He joined three-on-three basketball tournaments and barbecues, organized by the ministry. He knocked on doors with Ngwolo, introducing residents as candidates for grocery deliveries or Bible study.

Another pastor, Christopher Johnson, recalled Floyd stopping by his office while Johnson’s mother was visiting. Decades had passed since Johnson’s mother had been a teacher at Floyd’s high school. It didn’t matter. He wrapped her in a bear hug.

“I don’t think he ever thought of himself as being big,” Johnson said. “There’s a lot of big dudes here, but he was a gentleman and a diplomat and I’m not putting any sauce on it.”

On the streets of Cuney, Floyd was increasingly embraced as an O.G. — literally “original gangster,” but bestowed as a title of respect for a mentor who’d learned from life experience.

In Tiffany Cofield’s classroom at a neighborhood charter school, some of her male students — many of whom had already had brushes with the law — told her to talk to “Big Floyd” if she wanted to understand.

Floyd would listen patiently as she voiced her frustrations with students’ bad behavior, she said. And he would try to explain the life of a young man in the projects.

After school, Floyd often met up with her students outside a corner store.

“How’s school going?” he’d ask. “Are you being respectful? How’s your mom? How’s your grandma?”

Strong but tender

In 2014, Floyd began exploring the possibility of leaving the neighborhood.

As the father of five children from several relationships, he had bills to pay. And despite his stature in Cuney, everyday life could be trying. More than once, Floyd ended up in handcuffs when police came through the projects and detained a large number of men, Cofield said.

“He would show by example: ‘Yes, officer. No, officer.’ Very respectful. Very calm tone,” she said.

Watch: Portland sees Maine’s largest rally over George Floyd

A friend of Floyd’s had already moved to the Twin Cities as part of a church discipleship program that offered men a route to self-sufficiency by changing their environment and helping them find jobs.

“He was looking to start over fresh, a new beginning,” said Christopher Harris, who preceded Floyd to Minneapolis. Friends provided Floyd with money and clothing to ease the transition.

In Minneapolis, Floyd found a job as a security guard at the Salvation Army’s Harbor Light Center — the city’s largest homeless shelter.

“He would regularly walk a couple of female co-workers out … at night and make sure they got to their cars safely and securely,” said Brian Molohon, director of development for the Army’s Minnesota office. “Just a big strong guy, but with a very tender side.”

Floyd left after a little over a year, training to drive trucks while working as a bouncer at a club called Conga Latin Bistro.

“He would dance badly to make people laugh,” said the owner, Jovanni Thunstrom. “I tried to teach him how to dance because he loved Latin music, but I couldn’t because he was too tall for me.”

Floyd kept his connection to Houston, regularly returning to Cuney.

When Houston hosted the Super Bowl in 2017, Floyd was back in town, hosting a party at the church with music and free AIDS testing. He came back again for his mother’s funeral the next year. And when Cains spoke with him last, a few weeks ago, Floyd was planning another trip for this summer.

By then, Floyd was out of work. Early this spring, Thunstrom cut Floyd’s job when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the club to close.

On the evening of Memorial Day, Floyd was with two others when convenience store employees accused him of paying for cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill, then called the police. Less than an hour later, Floyd breathed his last.

Those who knew him search for meaning in his death.

“I’ve come to the belief that he was chosen,” said Cofield, the teacher. “Only this could have happened to him because of who he was and the amount of love that he had for people, people had for him.”

It’s a small comfort, she admits. But, then, in Big Floyd’s neighborhood, people have long made do with less.

Associated Press writer Aaron Morrison and videographer John Mone contributed to this report.

Watch: Police departments speak on recent Portland protests

 

…

---

 

By all accounts, Jim Brown is arguably the greatest running back in Cleveland Browns history. 

He’s also been ranked as the top running back (and number four overall player) on the NFL’s top ‘100 players of all time’ list. 

Brown was an imposing force on the field and he could also impose his will off the field (sometimes to his detriment). 

Since retiring from the game in 1966, he has been an actor, color analyst for NFL games and, perhaps most significantly, a civil rights activist. 

Brown continues to be a role model for athletes and activists alike. 

Here is a look back at the mercurial life of Jim Brown.

 

Brown’s Life Growing Up

 

Jim Brown was born on February 17, 1936 on an island, St. Simons Island to be exact. 

February 17, 1936 James Nathaniel “Jim” Brown, hall of fame football player and actor, was born. Brown was selected in the 1957 NFL draft by the Cleveland Browns and over his nine-season professional career was a nine-time Pro Bowl selection and three-time NFL MVP. pic.twitter.com/hZucgfpCG7

— Merrell R. Bennekin (@MerrellBennekin) February 17, 2020

The island, located off the Georgia coast, would not be his home for long. 

Brown experienced life’s trials and tribulations from the beginning. 

When he was just two months old, Brown’s father, a boxer, took off and never returned. 

His mother did not stay long either after taking a job as a maid in Manhasset, New York. 

Brown then spent his formative years in the care of his great grandmother.  

When he was eight, Brown’s mother sent for him so he could live with her in New York. 

Brown arrived in New York and blossomed in Manhasset, although it didn’t start out well at first. 

Years ago, Brown shared a recollection with Newsweek magazine about this first day of school in Manhasset.  

“My mother had dressed me in new clothes,” he remembered. “That morning when they gave us recess, a black boy made a wisecrack, said I looked ‘pretty,’ and he shoved me. I reacted Georgia-style. I tackled him, pinned him with my knees, punched him. The closed circle of kids watching then started chanting, ‘Dirty fighter, dirty fighter’ I stopped fighting. I was mystified. How did these boys fight up here?”  

Attending the mostly white Manhasset High School, Brown not only played football but also competed in baseball, basketball, track, and lacrosse. 

Displaying an amazing talent for all the sports he played, Brown averaged 38 points per game in basketball. 

He also averaged an astounding 14.9 yards per rushing attempt as a high school senior. 

Yes, that Jim Brown. #Manhasset pic.twitter.com/Wh9d1jRiyp

— Andrew Bogusch (@AndrewBogusch) February 21, 2019

Needless to say, the recognition he received from his prowess as an athlete brought college suitors.

 

Brown’s Time at Syracuse

 

Brown ended up staying in-state for college and attended Syracuse University. 

Just like his time in high school, Brown did not stick only to football in college.

Happy birthday to Jim Brown, February 17, 1936. ????

A four-sport letterman in football, lacrosse, track & field and basketball.

He was commissioned as a second lieutenant through the Army ROTC upon graduation at Syracuse. pic.twitter.com/nXco3Zqt2c

— AFL GODFATHER (@NFLMAVERICK) February 17, 2019

He also ran track and played lacrosse and basketball. 

As a basketball player during his sophomore and junior years, Brown averaged 13.1 points per game. 

In a game against Sampson Air Force Base during his sophomore year, Brown came off the bench and scored 33 points.  

He had planned to return to the team as a senior but he was not allowed to be a starter. 

Apparently, at that time, there was an unwritten rule at the university that the basketball team would not start three black players. 

Many believe that if Brown had played with the team that year, they would have won the national championship. 

Instead, the team lost in the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament. 

Although some people considered Brown’s best sport to be lacrosse, he made a name for himself on the football field. 

As Jim Brown is being named the No 1 CFB player, throwback to when Jim Brown dominated lacrosse at Syracuse.
One time Brown scored a hat trick vs Army after competing in a track meet that same day?
As Brown put it him self “Lacrosse is probably the best sport I ever played” pic.twitter.com/yJmII8EXPG

— Throwback Sports (@Throwback_Sport) January 14, 2020

When he was a sophomore, Brown was the second-leading rusher on the team. 

As a junior, he was the leading rusher with 666 yards and a 5.2 yards per carry average.  

As a college senior, Brown was considered to be one of the best, if not the best, running backs in the nation. 

That season he played in only eight games yet still rushed for 986 yards. 

His average yards per attempt was a school-record 6.2 and he even scored six touchdowns in one game. 

In the last game of the season, he rushed for 197 yards, scored six more touchdowns and added seven extra points as a kicker. 

 

Brown finished the year with 14 touchdowns total and was a consensus First-team All-American. 

Astoundingly, he finished fifth in the Heisman voting that year.  

In the Cotton Bowl against TCU after the season, Brown continued to run wild with 132 yards, three touchdowns, and kicking three extra points. 

Not only was he recognized as an All-American in football as a senior, Brown was also recognized as an All-American in lacrosse. 

This honor came on the heels of a lacrosse season where he scored 43 goals in 10 games. 

Although he did not play the sport professionally after leaving college, Brown was still voted into the Lacrosse Hall of Fame.  

 

Brown in the NFL 

 

Brown’s adroitness on the college football field drew a flock of interest from the NFL. 

In the 1957 draft, he was taken by the Cleveland Browns with the 6th overall pick. 

ABS honors #BlackHistoryMonth⁠ ⁠⁠ ⁠
Today’s showcase player: Jim Brown

Drafted 6th overall by the Cleveland Browns in 1957, Brown was a four sport athlete at Syracuse. He is the only man to average 100 rushing ypg over his entire career. He was inducted into 3 HOFs #SB53 pic.twitter.com/SD2DSmCOwD

— The Association for the Business of Sports (@OhioStateABS) February 3, 2019

Jim Brown rookie contract $12,000 pic.twitter.com/U2ayXABWKX

— ??? ???????? ???????? (@NFL_Journal) April 26, 2020

It didn’t take long for the league to see Brown’s talent first-hand. 

In his ninth game, he rushed for 237 yards against the Los Angeles Rams. 

That performance set an NFL single-game record that stood for 16 years before being broken by O.J. Simpson. 

His mark also set an NFL rookie record that remained in place for 40 years. 

Brown ended his rookie season with 942 rushing yards, nine rushing touchdowns, and a receiving touchdown.

In his second pro season, Brown set an NFL single-season rushing record with 1,527 yards (which he would break again in 1963). 

Oct 20,1963 – Jim Brown, #Cleveland Browns sets #NFL single-season rushing record, 1,863 yds #browns #history pic.twitter.com/nzi4RxWw12

— Richard Krivo (@RKrivoFX) October 20, 2015

At the time, the NFL season was only 12 games. 

Many modern historians wonder what his final tally would have been with a modern 16 game regular season. 

His rushing total in 1958 far surpassed the former record of 1,156 yards set by Steve Van Buren of the Eagles in 1949. 

In 1958, Brown also scored a whopping 17 rushing scores and one receiving touchdown.  

In 1964, Cleveland had a good year, finishing 10-3-1. 

Brown continued to rack up huge numbers and finished the season with 1,446 yards at a 5.2 yards-per-carry clip. 

Although the team had Brown pacing them with his legs, Cleveland was also dangerous through the air. 

Their first-round draft pick in 1964 was Ohio State’s Paul Warfield. 

Warfield and Browns quarterback Frank Ryan kept defenses honest as Ryan passed for over 2,400 yards and Warfield hauled in 52 receptions and nine scores. 

The trio led the team into the championship game against the Baltimore Colts.  

Just as it is typical in modern times, media pundits resoundingly picked the Colts to win the game after Baltimore finished the ‘64 season at 12-2. 

The Colts were confident in their own trio of Johnny Unitas, Lenny Moore, and John Mackey leading the team to victory. 

However, Brown was not fazed and, before the game, was quoted as saying, “We’re going to kick their [butt] today.” 

Sure enough, Brown backed up his bold statement with 114 yards rushing on the way to a 27-0 pasting of the favored Colts. 

Jim brown in the 64’ championship game on December 27th at municipal stadium the Cleveland Browns defeated the Baltimore Colts 27-0 on this day brown had 114 yards on 27 attempts @Browns pic.twitter.com/UuIuxIyXAv

— Aaron Wood (@Aaron_330) April 21, 2020

Ryan contributed 206 passing yards and three touchdown tosses to receiver Gary Collins.  

The win was the team’s first championship game victory since 1955. 

In Brown’s final season of 1965, Cleveland finished 11-3 and returned to the championship game against Green Bay. 

This time, however, the team was not victorious and lost to the Pack 23-12. 

Brown was bottled up by Green Bay and rushed for only 50 yards.   

Brown put up staggering numbers throughout his nine-year NFL career. 

The only other season he rushed for under 1,000 yards (besides his rookie season) was in 1962, his sixth year in the league. 

In that season, he finished four yards short of the 1,000 mark (996). 

When he retired after the 1965 season, he led the NFL in numerous categories. 

Among the categories were: single-season record holder (1,863 in 1963), career rushing yards (12,312 yards), all-time leader in rushing scores (106), and total touchdowns (126). 

He was also the all-time leader in all-purpose yards with 15,549.

Jim Brown #Browns
pic.twitter.com/JseMPocCO8

— CleWest (@erjmanlasvegas) March 22, 2020

In his somewhat short pro career, Brown led the NFL in rushing eight times. 

His final game was the 1966 Pro Bowl where he scored three touchdowns. 

As he was walking away from the game, fans and fellow pros alike were upset as to why Brown was calling it a career. 

After all, in his final season of 1965, he rushed for 1,544 yards (the second-most of his career) and had 21 total scores. 

Brown was also the NFL MVP that season and the team went to the championship game. 

Even more baffling, Brown was not yet 30 years old. 

As it turns out, history has shown us that Brown’s retirement had nothing to do with injuries or a decline in athletic ability.

 

Early Film Roles and “The Dirty Dozen”

 

Just before the 1964 season, Brown filmed the role of a Buffalo Soldier in the movie “Rio Conchos.” 

When the movie premiered in Cleveland, Brown viewed it with many of his teammates. 

Critics panned the movie but said Brown’s acting in the film was “serviceable.” 

RIP #StuartWhitman (February 1, 1928 – March 16, 2020)
Rio Conchos, 1964, directed by Gordon Douglas.
Richard Boone, Stuart Whitman and Jim Brown.
Opening scene. pic.twitter.com/NH8yW2PVWB

— Sergio Rodríguez (@Sergiofordy) March 19, 2020

In the early months of 1966, Brown was working on his next movie, “The Dirty Dozen.” 

The film is a WWII story about 12 convicts selected for a special mission to assassinate German officers before the D-Day invasion.  

@Pinceladasdcine Clint Walker and Jim Brown.”The Dirty Dozen”.#cinema pic.twitter.com/uKAQkNttpi

— Tom’s Old Days (@sigg20) January 30, 2016

There were numerous production delays during the filming because of weather. 

Those delays threatened to cause Brown to miss part of training camp and that caught the attention of former team owner Art Modell. 

Modell threatened Brown with a $1,500 fine for every week of training camp he missed. 

To show the world, and Brown himself, that he meant business, Modell sent out a message:

“’No veteran Browns player has been granted or will be given permission to report late to our training camp at Hiram College — and this includes Jim Brown. Should Jim fail to report to Hiram at check-in time deadline, which is Sunday, July 17, then I will have no alternative to suspend him without pay. I recognize the complex problems of the motion picture business, having spent several years in the industry. However, in all fairness to everyone connected with the Browns — the coaching staff, the players and most important of all, our many faithful fans — I feel compelled to say that I will have to take such action should Jim be absent on July 17.”  

Brown had already said that the ‘66 season would be his last and, instead of haggling with Modell, declared his retirement while still on the set of the movie. 

Hold my beer.https://t.co/94SVdKJhGe

— Mark Standriff (@MarkStandriff) April 16, 2020

Modell later admitted in the book When All the World was Browns Town that he had overplayed his hand with Brown.

“I may have acted hastily (with Brown) in 1966. If I had told him to just forget training camp and show up when he could, I think he would have returned. But it wasn’t fair to the coaches and players (for Brown to miss camp).”

 

Brown Continues His Acting Career

 

At 30 years old, Brown was finished playing sports for the first time in his life.  However, he kept plenty occupied with his work in the film industry. 

The same year he filmed “The Dirty Dozen,” Brown was also seen in an episode of the television series “I Spy.” 

The following year he took larger roles in the movies “Ice Station Zebra,” “Dark of the Sun,” and “The Split.”  

When the 1970s dawned, Brown got involved with several ‘Blaxploitation’ films that were a popular genre at the time. 

Entertaining and well-directed, “Black Gunn” (1972) is a perfect #blaxploitation flick with badass Jim Brown in the lead. #movies #cinema pic.twitter.com/EuZS7I51qF

— matte (Matt Cote) (@m77oz) September 16, 2017

Blaxploitation was termed as a way to describe how the roles in these films were made up largely of black actors who played controversial characters. 

While the films received some acclaim, they also received a fair share of backlash. 

Many critics said Blaxploitation was a means to show stereotyped black actors playing roles that entailed poor and questionable motives. 

Brown paid no attention to the critics and appeared in at least a half dozen such movies. 

As the genre ebbed in the mid-70s, Brown found work in other projects.

For the next few decades, Brown would appear in numerous television and movie roles. 

Most notably, he played ‘Fireball’ in the Arnold Schwarzenegger film

“The Running Man” and ‘Slammer’ in the movie “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka”, both in the late 1980s. 

Jim Brown was born on this day in 1936 – appeared in two great 80s roles, Fireball in The Running Man (https://t.co/G6zfaGQY60) and Slammer in I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (https://t.co/MS3fMx2yL1) pic.twitter.com/SBByiCy2n1

— Betamax Video Club (@BetamaxPod) February 17, 2020

Before the century came to a close, Brown could be seen playing football coach ‘Montezuma Monroe’ alongside actor Al Pacino in “Any Given Sunday.” 

As the years continue to roll along, Brown has appeared less and less in the film and television industry.

 

Don’t Call it a Comeback…

 

Although Brown was highly involved in his television and movie roles, he still kept his toe in the sports world. 

In 1978, he joined CBS as a color analyst as part of a trio that included Vin Scully and George Allen. 

Brown also occasionally announced boxing matches on television and, later, pay-per-view Ultimate Fighting Championships.  

In 1983, Brown was at the forefront of NFL news when he announced he was coming back to play in the league. 

Despite the fact that he had been retired for 17 years did not matter. 

Brown was determined not to let then Steelers running back Franco Harris take his all-time rushing title. 

He made it widely known that he did not care for Harris’ running style as Harris had a tendency to step out of bounds to avoid big hits and potential injuries. 

In contrast, Brown had played with a style of straight ahead, brute force. 

“I never ran out of bounds. I would drop my shoulder and tried to run through the tackle. …. You never know when you may break one all the way.”
-Jim Brown pic.twitter.com/4Zk2UqK9xS

— John Hines (@JohnHines66) November 19, 2019

So, Brown signed with the Los Angeles Raiders and was ready to step in to play and add yards to his career totals. 

Although he never did play in a game for the Raiders, he still had a deep disdain for Harris. 

After Harris retired as a member of the Seattle Seahawks in 1984, Brown wasn’t through with him. 

Harris had not surpassed Brown’s rushing total (Walter Payton would eclipse the total in 1984) but Brown still wanted to show Harris that he was a better athlete. 

In a nationally televised event, Harris and Brown ran against each other to see who had the faster 40 yard dash time. 

It should be noted that, on the day of the event, Brown was 47 years old and Harris was 34. 

In the end, it wasn’t even close as Harris finished with a 5.16 time and Brown trailing at 5.72.

After being released by the Steelers in 1984, Franco Harris signed with the Seahawks. He played eight games, gaining 170 yards before retiring. He was 192 yards short of Jim Brown’s record. Although, he did beat Brown in the ‘I Challenge You’ 40 yard dash. pic.twitter.com/Pypspy88bj

— One Team Too Many (@OneTeamTooMany) February 1, 2020

“I wore 32 on my back to be like Jim Brown.”

– HOFer Franco Harris on @JimBrownNFL32 #JimBrownAt80 pic.twitter.com/nhydygObVj

— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) February 18, 2016

Brown remained active in sports for decades. 

In 2008, he was named as an executive advisor for the Browns, helping to build relationships with Browns players and assisting with Cleveland’s player programs department. 

Going back to his roots, Brown bought a stake as a part-owner for the New York Lizards of Major League Lacrosse in 2012. 

Then, in 2013, Brown was named as a special advisor for the Browns.    

 

Legal Issues

 

Unfortunately, not all news regarding Brown has been good news. 

His first wife, Sue, filed for divorce in 1968, nine years after they were married. 

In her reason for wanting a divorce, she charged Brown with “gross neglect.” 

The couple had three children together, Kim, Kevin, and James Jr. 

Terms for the divorce stipulated Brown pay alimony and weekly child support.

In 1965, while still married to his first wife, Brown was arrested in a hotel room for assault and battery against an 18-year-old named Brenda Ayres, although he was acquitted of the charges. 

Only a year later, Brown had to fight an allegation by Ayres that he fathered her child.  

In 1968, model Eva Bohn-Chin was found beneath the balcony of Brown’s second-floor apartment. 

Apparently, Brown had been dating Bohn-Chin and she had become jealous over an affair he was having with social activist Gloria Steinem. 

The two argued about the affair and Brown became physical. 

He was charged with assault to commit murder in the case. 

However, Bohn-Chin refused to cooperate with the prosecutor’s office involved in the case, so Brown’s charges were dismissed. 

Brown did have to pay a $300 fine due to an altercation with a deputy sheriff who was investigating the case.

And if you watch “Jim Brown: All-American,” it’s pretty much impossible to accept his version of events regarding Eva Bohn-Chin. pic.twitter.com/bW8hl9Cxqp

— Joel D. Anderson (@byjoelanderson) October 9, 2018

Although he was not charged, Brown knew that he had done wrong, not by trying to hurt Bohn-Chin, but by, “Slapping her.” 

He later admitted in his memoir that he knew this behavior was wrong.  

“I have also slapped other women,” he wrote. “And I never should have, and I never should have slapped Eva, no matter how crazy we were at the time. I don’t think any man should slap a woman. In a perfect world, I don’t think any man should slap anyone. . . . I don’t start fights, but sometimes I don’t walk away from them. It hasn’t happened in a long time, but it’s happened, and I regret those times. I should have been more in control of myself, stronger, more adult.”

In 1969, Brown was embroiled in a road rage incident and charged with assault and battery. 

He was found not guilty of the charge a year later. 

Brown then met an 18-year-old college student named Diane Stanley in 1973 and, months later, proposed to her. 

They broke off their engagement the following year. 

Roughly a year after that, Brown was sentenced to a day in jail, two years probation, and a $500 fine for beating and choking Frank Snow, his golfing partner.

A decade later, in 1985, Brown made headlines again when he was charged with raping a 33-year-old woman. 

The charges in that case were dismissed as well. 

The following year, Brown assaulted his then fiancee Debra Clark and was arrested. 

When Clark refused to press charges, Brown was released from jail.  

Brown’s internal opinions (and not-so-subtle view) about women was made known four years later. 

In 1989, The LA Times newspaper interviewed Brown after the release of his memoir, “Out of Bounds.” 

In the article, Brown is quoted comparing women to fruit and meat.

“I prefer girls who are young,” he says in “Out of Bounds,” his hot-off-the-press memoir. “When I eat a peach, I don’t want it overripe. I want that peach when it’s peaking.”  Or to put it another way, “If I wake up in the morning, I hunger for crab, then I don’t want steak.” Steak being a woman who is older, say over 25.

In 1997, Brown married for the second time to Monique Brown. 

Two years later Brown was arrested yet again and charged with making terrorist threats against his wife. 

That same year, Brown smashed a window of his wife’s car and was charged with vandalism. 

After this latest incident, Brown was given three years probation, one year of domestic violence counseling, 400 hours of community service (or 40 hours on a work crew), and charged with an $1,800 fine.  

Brown proceeded to ignore the terms of his judgment and was sentenced to six months in jail in 2000. 

He didn’t start serving time until 2002 when he refused to undergo counseling and partake in community service. 

In the end, he only served three of the six months in jail. 

Brown later admitted his issues with women in an Esquire Magazine article.

“I’ve done things I’m not particularly proud of,” he said, “but at least I’m honest enough to talk about them.”

 

Brown as a Civil Activist

 

Although he may have had serious issues with women, Brown did make time to mentor minorities during and after his playing career. 

While playing in Cleveland, Brown founded the Negro Industrial Economic Union (later changed to Black Economic Union, or BEU). 

The BEU used professional athletes as facilitators in establishing black-run enterprises, urban athletic clubs, and youth motivation programs.  

In addition to marching alongside Bill Russell in many civil rights protests in the 1960s, Jim Brown also started the Black Economic Union, which helped black professional athletes establish their own businesses after their playing careers ended. pic.twitter.com/e6omsp4mVA

— Black Athlete Protests (@3030Auburn) November 14, 2018

A few years after retiring, Brown, Lew Alcindor (eventually known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), Bill Russell and numerous other black athletes came together to pledge their support for Muhammad Ali. 

The assembled group met at Brown’s BEU headquarters in Cleveland. 

The meeting, dubbed the “Ali Summit” was initially convened to try and persuade Ali to enter the military and accept a deal with the government whipped up by boxing promoter Bob Arum.

The Ali Summit in Cleveland, 1967
Front row: Bill Russell, Boston Celtics; Ali; Jim Brown and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Back row to follow pic.twitter.com/Pb1UsgwOSw

— Rabih Alameddine (@rabihalameddine) September 26, 2017

Arum, along with others, had convinced the government to drop Ali’s “draft dodger” charges if Ali joined the military and performed boxing exhibitions for U.S. troops. 

Years later, it came to light that some of the men in the room actually had financial reasons to want Ali to accept the deal. 

However, he stuck to his proverbial guns and refused to enter the military.  

Brown and the other black athletes assembled did not gain any possible monetary kickback because of Ali’s stance. 

However, they discovered a new found respect for what Ali stood for. 

The summit ended up being a show of solidarity for Ali and for religious freedom. 

At that point moving forward, the group became one voice in standing up to the government and their view that the government was targeting Ali simply because he was black.      

Some time later, well after the Ali Summit, the BEU closed shop. 

Brown then brought the BEU idea to the Coors Golden Door program as well as Jobs Plus. 

In 1986 Brown started Vital Issues, a new program that taught life management skills and personal growth techniques. 

Specifically, this program was implemented to reach inner-city gang members and prison inmates. 

Two years later, Vital Issues was rebranded Amer-I-Can. 

In 1988 Jim Brown founded Amer-I-Can, an org that helps gang members & at-risk youths. https://t.co/0wZFth9oPd pic.twitter.com/B3A4YoE0eY

— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) February 16, 2016

Found on the Amer-I-Can web page, the program goal specifically is to, “…help enable individuals to meet their academic potential, to conform their behavior to acceptable society standards, and to improve the quality of their lives by equipping them with the critical life management skills to confidently and successfully contribute to society.”  

When meeting with members of his program, Brown can be found teaching lessons from his home near Los Angeles. 

He believes that failure in personal development and lack of self-esteem are at the root of the problems many young, black people face. 

To rehabilitate their own image and improve their lives, Brown believes Amer-I-Can (in theory) will work, “…by enlarging the scope of individual lives, by introducing them to self-determination techniques, by motivating them with goals, by showing them how to improve and achieve success and financial stability, we will save lives that now seem to be lost.”

Jim Brown’s Amer-I-Can makes a difference https://t.co/rJvtSdwz9L pic.twitter.com/R1a9WqYwQq

— ASCS Awakening the compassionate heart in athletes (@ascs98) June 20, 2016

In 1992, the program received a $1 million grant to expand to San Francisco and Cleveland. 

In addition to his work with Amer-I-Can, Brown’s civic programs expanded in the 1980’s. 

No stranger to the television and movie industry, he founded Ocean Productions to facilitate minorities working in movie making.  

Brown has been hands-on with each of his programs and encourages all athletes to get involved in their communities. 

Specifically, he urges his fellow athletes to do more than “make gestures” when confronting societal issues. 

Brown has publicly made known what he’s hoped his programs will accomplish.

“For too long black Americans have been chasing the shadow of the rabbit. It’s time for us to start chasing the rabbit, not his shadow.”

Brown ultimately wants to give minorities the opportunity and chance to succeed.

“The young black male is the most powerful source of energy and change we have.  My hope is to start a direction where these young men will be given respect and taught how to utilize it.”

 

In Conclusion…

 

Brown turned 84 years young in February yet he remains as active as possible. 

His appearances have been minimal and have not garnered the same notoriety as in his younger days. 

However, in 2018 Brown and rap star Kanye West visited the White House to meet with President Donald Trump. 

WATCH: Trump meets with Kanye West and former NFL player Jim Brown in the Oval Office #tictocnews pic.twitter.com/jVcwIG0FZ2

— QuickTake by Bloomberg (@QuickTake) October 11, 2018

The meeting served as an opportunity for Brown and West to share their views about what problems need to be addressed in America. 

Both men received backlash for seeking an audience with the polarizing president. 

However, Brown defended why he and West met with Trump.

“This is the President of the United States. He allowed me to be invited to his territory, he treated us beautifully, and he shared some thoughts, and he will be open to talking when I get back to him. That’s the best he could do for me.”     

Although Brown’s actions and words have also made him a polarizing figure through the decades, he views his life as one well-lived.

“When I lay down, I think of all the experiences I’ve had and the respect that I’ve gotten. That’s my glory.”

Brazilian tennis player Joao Souza has been slapped with a lifetime ban by the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU).  He has been charged with multiple match-fixing and corruption offences.

In addition to the ban, a ban of $200,000 has also been imposed upon the Brazilian player.

What Has Joao Souza Been Charged For?

TIU conducted an investigation on the match-fixing allegations against Souza from the time period between 2015 and 2019. The said investigation established conclusively that Souza indulged in numerous breaches of the Tennis anti-corruption programme (TACP).

Know More- Longest Tennis Matches In The History Of The Sport

These included repeated incidents of match-fixing at ATP challenger and ITF Futures tournaments which were held in Brazil, Mexico, The United States and the Czech Republic.

What Were The Other Charges On Souza?

However, this wasn’t all that Souza has been charged for. There are other serious allegations on the player.

TIU investigation has convicted him for three more offences. Firstly, he’s accused of failing to report his corrupt approaches.

Secondarily, he has failed to cooperate in the investigation conducted by TIU. This includes the extremely serious charge of destroying evidence. Thirdly, he has also been charged with motivating other players to underperform.

The case against Souza was heard by an anti-corruption hearing officer of the TIU named Prof Richard H. Mclaren. The disciplinary hearing against him was heard in London on 14 January 2020.

For those interested in understanding the implications of the ban, Joao Souza will be prevented from any sanctioned organized by any governing body in tennis.

Joao Souza hasn’t had much success as a tennis player. The Brazilian has reached as high as No 69 in the ATP men’s singles rankings. While in the doubles category, he has reached as high as no 70.

Currently, the player was ranked No 742 in ATP singles rankings.

What Is The Tennis Integrity Unit?

The Tennis Integrity Unit is the anti-corruption body responsible for enforcing zero tolerance to betting-related corruption. It is operationally independent and based in London.

However, it is jointly funded by the seven biggest stakeholders in tennis- International Tennis Federation, ATP, WTA, Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.

The action by the TIU is commendable for the purpose of a sanitized sport in the future.

Lee Peacock (25) had consumed four glasses of wine over a number of hours before the collision and was travelling at 80kmph in a 60 kmph speed zone. He told gardaí initially he had swerved prior to the accident to avoid an oncoming car but later said it was to avoid a pedestrian on the road.

He later accepted the deceased woman, Jane Dardis, had put her hand on the steering wheel prior to the collision but said she had not been messing and had jerked it a bit in fright when they saw a pedestrian on the road. Peacock said he then swerved to avoid the pedestrian. Peacock said he had not wanted to attribute any blame to Ms Dardis.

Peacock of Seafield Court, Lower Main Street, Rush, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to careless driving causing the death of Ms Dardis at Rush Road, Skerries on October 25, 2016. He has no previous convictions.

Judge Martin Nolan expressed his condolences to Ms Dardis’s family on the terrible tragedy.

He noted the conflicting statements given by Peacock and said he must come to some conclusion about what happened on the night. He said the facts were not clear and he wished to think about it over night.

Judge Nolan remanded Peacock on continuing bail until tomorrow morning when he will finalise the case.

A victim impact statement from Ms Dardis’s family described themselves as now being a “heartbroken, devastated family of three” without her. They described the popular young woman’s “infectious smile” and love of sports including camogie and sailing.

“Jane loved life and life loved her. She was truly a special person,” said her family of the beloved daughter, sister and friend.

Roisin Lacey SC, defending, said Peacock had made admissions from the start about his drinking and excessive speed. She said Peacock had initially not recalled Ms Dardis’s hand being on the steering wheel and when he did, he did not want to seem to be attributing blame to her.

She said Peacock had a close relationship with Ms Dardis and has been significantly traumatised by her death. She said her family’s tragedy is deeply acknowledged and deeply regretted by him.

Ms Lacey said Peacock had grown up in foster care and had supported himself from the age of 18. She said the father-of-one hopes to have a continued career in the hospitality industry. She handed in a number of testimonials on her client’s behalf.

She said Peacock had also written a letter in which she said he accepts his responsibility. She said the court may wish to seek a psychiatric report based on the contents of medial reports indicating concern about his psychiatric vulnerability.

Counsel asked the court to take into account the way he has met the case, his lack of convictions and that gardaí accept he is unlikely to come before the courts again. She asked Judge Nolan to consider a non custodial sentence.

Ms Lacey said Peacock had made a very grave error which weighs heavily on him and will do for the rest of his life.