Brown takes CenterStage and reminisces

Jim Brown was in the makeup chair Monday, awaiting taping for a "CenterStage" session with Michael Kay, when he made the observation that foretold why he would be an ideal guest. "I have an opinion about most things," the Hall of Fame football player and actor said. "More so than when I was younger."

A "born activist" (his words), Brown, 74, tackled topics from racism and celebrity to the NFL's recent attention to players' head trauma during the 90-minute interview - all typical for a man who never hesitated to speak his mind. (It will air on the YES Network on Dec. 22 at 11 p.m. after the Nets' postgame show.)

Brown spoke warmly of growing up in Manhasset, where his mother worked as a domestic but he experienced "no racism"; of his sometimes testy relationships at Syracuse University and with the Cleveland Browns; of his decision to quit football at the height of his career, only 29 years old, to become an actor.

"People ask me, 'Why would you want to quit?' " he said. "I said, 'I make more money [acting], have Raquel Welch as a leading lady, I don't get hit, they call me Mr. Brown . . . ' "

He offered humor, a few provocative thoughts - expressing "great respect" for Baltimore linebacker Ray Lewis - and a few surprising tidbits about his days as a multisport star at Manhasset High and Syracuse.

Tales that the Yankees once offered him $150,000 to play baseball are "an exaggeration," Brown said, "but I did get a letter from Casey Stengel." He had thrown "a couple of no-hitters in high school, but I wasn't a good baseball player."

He had wanted to be drafted by the New York Giants. Trash-talk stories involving Brown and Giants linebacker Sam Huff stem from the fact that he and Huff "are dear friends, and we made stuff up, then laughed about it." The idea that he caused a lacrosse rule to be changed because of the way he carried the ball is "one of those Paul Bunyan-like things about me."

Brown did admit that a rule was "adjusted, based on the length of the stick," because of the way he carried the ball close to his chest with a shorter stick.

And, because of his vast athletic ability, Brown admitted, he was able to be his often outspoken self. Cleveland Browns founder and coach Paul Brown, for instance, "didn't like my attitude of independence, but he loved the way I played."

Brown took a societal reality and ran with it. "Sports," he said, "always make people react a certain way. People are impressed by athletes - overly so. I get a lot of things coming my way because I am an athlete, and sometimes it isn't fair."

As for the NFL in 2010, Brown was asked by a member of the small studio audience during a break, "How 'bout them Jets?"

He chuckled. "You've got a coach, man . . . he's newsworthy."