Pro Football: Look at Me, Man!

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Limber Leg & High Step. "With Jim," says the Browns' offensive coach, William ("Dub") Jones, "a play diagram is really only a hopeful approach to the way a play will develop." Best example in the Cleveland repertory is the Option Seven, a Jimmy Brown special in which the opposing players are perversely permitted to pick Jimmy's route by the direction of their own defensive charge. It is all the same to Brown: if they charge in, he sweeps wide; if they charge out to stop the end run, he cuts back off tackle. Each of the Browns' blockers is responsible for somehow disposing of one enemy defender (there is no prize for neatness), and Flanker Back Gary Collins fakes a "flash" pass pattern straight up the opposite sideline to draw off two deep men. Ideally, that should leave Jimmy just one safety-man to race to the goal line—and if worst comes to worst, safeties do not weigh 260 Ibs.

Brown gets his power, speed and balance from his tremendously muscular thighs, which absorb so much punishment during a game that it usually takes three days for the soreness to disappear. (To help the healing process, he plays golf every Tuesday; he shot a 115 the first time he tried the game, but he now scores regularly in the low 70s.) To lighten his load, Jimmy wears no hip pads, has his thigh protectors stripped to the bare plastic. He accelerates so fast that he has been timed in 4.5 sec. for the 40-yd. dash, but he rarely gets a chance to stoke up full steam; instead he employs one or more of his patented evasive maneuvers, labeled and designed to discombobulate the defense.

The "Cut, Change Pace and Run By" is self-explanatory. The "Limber Leg" is a lesson in Indian giving; Jimmy teasingly offers a defensive back his leg, then when the man grabs for it, he pulls it back and zooms on. A third maneuver called the "High Step" is a lengthened, knee-lifted stride designed to prevent a pair of converging tacklers from grabbing both legs at once. The worst moment for a defender comes when he finds himself face to face in the open field with on-charging Fullback Brown. Says Jimmy: "In one-on-one situations, you break guys into categories. If he's a lineman and he's four yards away, you figure to put a good move on him and go around. A line backer is quicker and therefore harder to fake. If he is three yards or less away, you drop your shoulder and struggle. If he's a small defensive back, you just run right over him."

Lord help the defensive back. At the instant of impact, Jimmy dips a shoulder, slams it into his opponent's pads, and crosses either with a straight arm to the helmet or a clubbing forearm directed at a lower and presumably more tender portion of the anatomy. Shudders San Francisco's veteran Matt Hazeltine: "He really shivers you. I wonder how many kayos he would have scored when there were no face masks?" In nine seasons, Jimmy has thrown so many punches that he has had water on the elbow, and his hands are gnarled and crosshatched with scars. "I can't shake hands tightly any more," he says, "or even grip properly on a doorknob."