"It's hard to look past former Lions lineman Alex Karras, who, in Blazing Saddles, gave us the immortal line ‘Mongo merely pawn in game of life,'” said Rick Chandler, who writes about sports and pop culture for the Web site 6 comedy of all-time by the American Film Institute. Karras, for example, starred as Mongo in the classic "Blazing Saddles,” ranked as the No. And then there was the former Southern Cal football player named Marion Morrison - who became John Wayne.īut after Brown, a lot of folks who could run or hit a ball wanted into the act.īrown anchored the NFL's All-Decade team for the 1960s, which featured such noted thespians as Merlin Olsen, Dick Butkus and Alex Karras.Īnd those guys are some of the better ones. Former college All-American Paul Robeson was a breakthrough African-American actor on stage and screen in the 1920s and 30s.
Olympic swimming champ Johnny Weissmuller starred as Tarzan in the 1930s and 1940s. It's not that Tinseltown hadn't tapped athletes before. If Jim Brown can be an actor, his fellow jocks must have thought, "Why not me?” He announced his retirement while he was filming "The Dirty Dozen.” It's been a long, strange trip since Brown, considered by many the best running back in NFL history, walked away from the game in 1965. And that shows how far the sports star genre has come. This summer, "Stone Cold,” the debut film of former Oklahoma star Brian Bosworth was released on DVD. For all his greatness, the Cleveland Browns running back needs to take the hit for one of American culture's most insidious trends.
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