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25.07.2019 04:34
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CLEVELAND -- For one more Sunday, Jim Brown felt the kind of emotional surge that made him an NFL legend.The greatest player to wear a Cleveland Browns jersey, and in the conversation as the best in league history, Brown was immortalized as the team unveiled a bronze statue of the running backs likeness outside FirstEnergy Stadium.The 8-foot-tall sculpture, which weighs more than 2,000 pounds, depicts No. 32 at the top of his game. Hes in motion, the football tucked tightly under his left arm, his right arm cocked to ward off an oncoming tackler.Although the tribute came 51 years after Brown walked away from the game at the peak of his career to pursue an acting career in Hollywood, the 80-year-old was moved by the tribute.Its a fantastic moment, he said, standing at the podium steadied by a walking cane. Its a great moment because I feel it throughout my body.Brown retired at the age of 29, ending a nine-year run in which he led the league in rushing eight times and was the MVP three times.He was a devastating runner, able to not only outrun defenders but blast through them. He finished with 12,312 yards rushing, 126 touchdowns and established a legacy few have approached.When you mention the Cleveland Browns, I think the first thing everybody thinks about is Jim Brown, owner Jimmy Haslam said.I think one of the reasons we have such a tremendous fan base today is that so many of us grew up watching Jim Brown play and remember 32 and how he dominated for nine years.The unveiling took place about three hours before the Browns played their home opener against the Baltimore Ravens.The ceremony was attended by some of Browns teammates, Browns coach Hue Jackson, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic, who sported a white No. 32 jersey.In his opening remarks, Brown, who has been a community activist for much of his life, was moved by seeing so many people he has known for years.There is a natural feeling that I have today of joy and celebration, said Brown, who was joined on the dais by his wife, Monique, and son, Aris.This represents one of the highest moments of my life because when I look at the audience, about 95 percent of the people I know personally and most of them I know through the work that they do, the work that I do and the work we do together in the community to make it a better community.Jimmy Haslam said Browns value to the team cant be underestimated.It means a tremendous amount, he said. Jim turned 80 last year and I watch him relate to our players who are almost 60 years younger than him and he still has the ability to relate, Haslam said.Jim is a very wise man, hes been great counsel to Dee and I as we learn the NFL business. Hes a very smart, savvy guy who I think relates to people of all ages and people of all color.Brown was once distanced from the only team he ever played for, but Haslam and his wife, Dee, welcomed him back to the organization four years ago as a special adviser.The Haslams were instrumental in the commission of the statue, which the team noted was to honor the many on-field accomplishments of Brown.The statue -- the first erected outside the lakefront stadium -- also brought some criticism to the team because of Browns long history of violence against women. He served four months in jail in 2000 for failing to attend counseling.---Online: AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and AP NFL Twitter feed: www.twitter.com/AP-NFL Discount Nike Shoes . 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The sport moved a step closer to returning to South Florida on Wednesday, when Beckham confirmed he has exercised his option to purchase a Major League Soccer expansion franchise in Miami. STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- The field rumbles as if a locomotive is approaching from the south tunnel. The stadium shakes once the first note of Zombie Nation hits. Players ears ring, their helmets sometimes vibrating, from a wall of noise.Welcome to Beaver Stadium during a White Out, an annual Penn State tradition where more than 100,000 fans dress in white and scream until they go hoarse.You couldnt hear the guy six inches next to you, remembered former Michigan center Jack Miller, who was on the sideline for the 2013 White Out. It was piercing loud, I think thats the best way to describe it.Added former Penn State linebacker Dan Connor, who spent six seasons in the NFL: Its really nothing Ive ever experienced before. You dont get that anywhere else. You cant emulate that environment, that type of noise and that type of energy. Its the loudest thing Ive ever heard.The Nittany Lions White Out has fast become one of the great spectacles in college football, an event that has inspired as many Penn State fans as it has copycats. Even Ohio State coach Urban Meyer named it one of the games top-five atmospheres -- and he should know. He twice has witnessed the White Out, in 2012 and 2014, and hell see it again Saturday night when the second-ranked Buckeyes visit Penn State (8 p.m. ET, ABC).Its a different kind of atmosphere. The White Out, it changes for the players -- the players can really see what kind of support they have behind them, Connor said. And I can only imagine a visiting teams player seeing 100,000 in all white filling up the stadium. Especially at night.This isnt a tradition steeped in years of planning and focus groups. Penn States White Out boasts humble beginnings, the spontaneous idea of an official who -- 12 years ago -- had no inkling this would grow into a Penn State phenomenon.Heres how it all happened:The BeginningGuido DElia can still remember staring up at a quiet student section in early September 2004, turning toward a marketing employee and asking aloud, You think we could get them to wear one color?His colleague, Loren Crispell, nodded.I just thought, how do you get people to act as one? said DElia, Penn State footballs former director of communications and branding. You put them in a uniform. We figured everyones got a white T-shirt -- so lets make it white.Those were the simple roots of the White Out, born away from offices and meeting rooms. But there was no time to waste. Penn State had only one remaining home game before late October -- on Oct. 9 against Purdue -- and the color-coded experiment might not work if students were forced to wear sweatshirts or winter jackets.This was a White Out involving only the students, but the marketing department had only two weeks to plan. Student email addresses were off-limits, and social media didnt really exist yet. Facebook remained in its infancy, and Twitter wouldnt even launch for another two years. Worse yet, DElia knew, if the White Out didnt succeed this time -- then it was probably dead forever. It was now or never.So the marketing department turned to essentially its only option -- guerilla marketing.I remember stuff on the White Out was all over the place, said Zack Mills, Penn States quarterback during the 2004 season. I remember there being a hype around it. Everything they promoted that game week was all about the White Out. We had a pep rally that was all about the White Out. It was just over and over and over again.Some students would stand on street corners and shout about the White Out through megaphones. Others would paint their faces white and parade through the HUB-Robeson Center, a popular student hangout. Signs went up, chants were started and campus cafeterias were flooded with ads.It worked. Penn State fell to Purdue, 20-13, but the first White Out was a success. Mills called it a special atmosphere ... that was a little crazier than usual. Now, at least, thered be a second one.The EvolutionConnor played in 62 career NFL games and 44 college games. He was the nations top linebacker as a high schooler, a Bednarik Award-winner in college -- and he coaches high school ball now.But Connor still cant forget the student-only White Out in 2005.Deep in Ohio State territory, near the student section, he could feel his head buzzing. It wasnt a sensation with which he was familiar. He tried to pinch his helmet near the ear for relief.The noise was actually vibrating through the facemask, Connor recalled earlier this week. My helmet was shaking. When you play at Penn Sttate, its always loud -- but any of those White Out games, especially the night ones, it was a different level.ddddddddddddTwo miles away, in the campus West dorms, students who eschewed football for naps were forced to close their windows because of the noise. Ohio State center Doug Datish recalled, in 2006, how his ears were ringing from the all-white student section. Another Buckeyes offensive lineman, T.J. Downing, later told Penn States student newspaper that he couldnt hear Nick Mangold from two feet away.Its not fair to say the White Out was the sole reason for that noise level in 2005. Penn State was surging after several down years, and the Buckeyes arrived late in Happy Valley with a No. 6 national ranking. But its no stretch to say the White Out contributed to that environment, one in which ESPN analyst and Ohio State alum Kirk Herbstreit referred to Penn State as the best student section in the country -- theyre crazy.Penn State won that game, 17-10, as fans rushed the field and celebrated in the streets downtown. The White Out was a huge success -- and the athletic department clamored for a stadium-wide White Out the next season. DElia talked them out of it.We didnt have a game with the right weather and the right opponent, DElia said. I thought we had to wait -- and I fought a heck of a battle to hold off on it in 06. I thought it needed to be a big game, nationally televised, with a full stadium to lock that in.In 2007, the perfect game emerged: Sept. 8 against Notre Dame. The marketing department tapped into extra resources by printing out reminders on tickets, running commercials featuring an all-white bus driven by a man wearing an all-white uniform, and stationing white-clad employees -- armed with cowbells and bullhorns -- at each stadium exit the week before.Hours before kickoff against Notre Dame, DElia stood atop the press box with field glasses on that 70-degree day, wondering and hoping if his plan would pay off. But as fans left their cars and streamed down Curtin Road, DElia could see only white.The White Out was here to stay.It was incredible, said Anthony Morelli, the quarterback in 2007. I tell young kids all the time that if they can ever get out to a Penn State football game, get to a White Out.Its so loud, you can almost feel it.The NowNot much has changed from those early days.Players still need to crane their necks to hear their teammates, the crowd still dresses from head-to-toe in white, sometimes waving white pom-poms, and the atmosphere remains electric. But, as the White Out has grown, the marketing department has no longer needed to rely on commercials or guerilla tactics. Last seasons White Out even took place in late November.In some ways, Penn States White Out has grown as synonymous with Penn State as the Nittany Lion. Its evident every season, and its a tradition thats inextricably linked with the university.The White Out is one of the reasons why you come to Penn State, said cornerback Grant Haley, whos from Georgia. You can feel the ground shaking. ... When you see it, its just something like, it just catches the eye. Its unexplainable. Its unreal.Added running back Saquon Barkley: I lost my mind. It was amazing; I never had seen anything like that.The White Out has become one of Penn States biggest recruiting draws of the year. For fans, it routinely highlights the most exciting home game of the season. And, with the crowds, at least 107,418 have shown up for the last five such contests.Thats what makes Saturday nights White Out a little bit more different than the road venues Ohio State has faced before. A record-breaking 87,037 fans showed up in Oklahoma, and 81,541 packed Camp Randall. But Penn State will have at least 20,000 more on hand.I think Penn State has more people, Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett acknowledged earlier this week, and that can make it louder.In 2014, PennLive photographer Joe Hermitt measured the crowd volume at 111 decibels on his iPhone app. Thats just 14 decibels away from when noise begins to cause literal pain.Whether its the loudest stadium or not, Penn State and its White Out have come a long way in the last 12 years -- from an on-field idea into an annual practice the school takes immense pride in.It was essentially an experiment in 2004 and, again, in 2007. Now?Its one of the most eye-catching traditions in all of college sports. ' ' ' |
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