NFL
By: Bill Carroll
On the morning of the 17th of September, around 2:00 AM, this past Friday, a giant of the game, NFL great Roger Brown, died. Football players from his era are dying at a very regular basis. But little else was regular about Roger Brown.
He was on the track team at Maryland State and despite standing 6’5″ and weighing 298 he ran the 100-yard dash in 10 seconds flat! He played 10 years in the NFL and never missed a game. Brown sacked Hall of Fame quarterback Bart Starr seven times in the “Thanksgiving Day Massacre,” versus the Green Bay Packers. That day, the team set a franchise-record 11 sacks. He also was a first-team All-Pro selection in 1962 and 1963, he made one last Pro Bowl as a Ram in 1967. 
He was born in Surry County Virginia and grew up in Newport News, but while a teen moved to Nyack New York. He went on to play for coach Vernon “Skip” McCain at Maryland State College [now University of Maryland-Eastern Shore]. While at then-Maryland State from 1956-59 as a defensive lineman he was instrumental to the Hawks outscoring opponents 693 to 213, with Brown the linchpin of defense that held opponents to 7.3 points per game.
He led the Hawks to the CIAA title in 1957, becoming a two-time NAIA All-American and two-time Pittsburgh Courier Negro All-American selection. He was drafted in the fourth round, 42nd overall in the 1960 NFL Draft by the Detroit Lions, and played for the Lions from 1960 to 1966 before a trade sent him to the Los Angeles Rams.
During his first training camp, now at 305 pounds he covered a 50-yard dash at 5.4 seconds. Brown was six times a Pro Bowl selection, he was a vital cog in both of the defensive fronts to earn the appellation”The Fearsome Foursome”. The original version in Detroit with defensive ends Darris McCord and Sam Williams, and fellow tackle Alex Karras, [who finally made the Hall Of Fame in 2020]. Then he was traded to the Los Angeles Rams after the 1966 season to replace Rosey Grier who had torn his Achilles tendon.
Now a part of the West Coast version of the”The Fearsome Foursome” he joined hall of fame members, David “Deacon” Jones, and Merlin Olsen, as well as Lamar Lundy. Once there he helped this great defensive line to continue its dominance for coach George Allen. In that season’s finale on December 17, the Rams sacked Baltimore quarterback Johnny Unitas seven times and Brown was in the backfield consonantly.
Though he died still waiting for that call to Canton, he has received many honors to include being named to: The University of Maryland-Eastern Shore Hawks Hall of Fame in 1982, the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1997, the College Football Hall of Fame (2009) and the Black College Football Hall of Fame (2015). In 2018, he, Karras, and Herman Moore became members of the “Pride of the Lions” ring of honor at Ford Field.
After retirement, he was a successful restaurateur in Chicago initially and finally back in Tidewater. He owned Roger Brown’s Restaurant and Sports Bar https://www.rogerbrowns.com/ and was very involved in the community as a mentor and philanthropist. He always made it clear that he wanted to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and held out hope his entire life.
Many of his former teammates and even opponents have given support to his candidacy. Packers’ Hall of Fame quarterback Bart Starr wrote a letter in 1998 to the hall’s senior selection committee. Starr passed away in 2019 but gave Brown a “very strong recommendation” for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
In his career he started 124 of 138 games in his NFL, he totaled 79 sacks [unofficially, the sack became an official statistic in 1982], 2 interceptions, and 3 safeties. I hope that his family friends, former teammates, and football fans will finally get to see the NFL’s first great 300 pounder and one of the game’s most dominant interior linemen finally receive his final and ultimate honor.
Thanks to: The staff of Roger Brown’s Restaurant and Sports Bar https://www.rogerbrowns.com/
Pro Football Researchers Associaltion-https://www.profootballresearchers.org/hall-of-very-good-2007.html
Wikipedia-https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Roger_Brown_(defensive_tackle)
