NFL icon Jim Brown has passed away at age 87, his family confirmed Friday.
Brown’s wife, Monique, posted on his Instagram that the former NFL running back died peacefully at home on Thursday night.
Arguably the greatest football player of all time, Brown was a multi-sport star at Syracuse, where he played football, basketball, track and field and lacrosse. He went on to star in the NFL for the Cleveland Browns, where he led the NFL in rushing eight times in nine seasons.
Brown led the team to an NFL championship in 1964 and retired as the NFL’s all-time leading rusher, a mark he held for 18 years before it was broken by Walter Payton. Most remarkably, Brown’s many statistical accomplishments came about in just nine seasons. He retired in 1966 at just 29 years old.
After his gridiron retirement, Brown had a successful film career and served as a prominent social activist, beginning with the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Some of his stances on that front sparked controversy in recent years.
Despite his relatively short career and the fact that it ended in 1965, Brown remains No. 11 on the NFL’s career rushing yards list with 12,312 rushing yards,
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