Hue Jackson: I will listen to Jim Brown if he offers advice

Nov 15, 2015; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Cleveland Browns former running back Jim Brown (L) talks with Browns owner Jimmy Haslam (R) before the Browns play the Pittsburgh Steelers at Heinz Field. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports /

Cleveland Browns head coach Hue Jackson will talk with Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown to learn what he knows about the team.

Cleveland Browns head coach Hue Jackson plans to spend time with Jim Brown to see what the Hall of Fame running back has to say about the team.

“I’m looking forward to finding out as many things as Jim Brown knows that can help our football team be the best that it can be,” Jackson said, according to cleveland.com. “We’re talking about a guy that did it as well as anybody ever, so it would be really smart on my part to sit and talk to him and have him tell me the things that he sees and that he’s felt.’

“I think I’ll get to know him even better as I go through this process of being the head coach in Cleveland. This guy loves the Cleveland Browns, loves the organization, loves the fans and wants a winner in Cleveland like we all do, so it’s been very great to have an opportunity to talk to him a little bit. I’m looking forward to talking to him a lot more.”

It’s a smart move by Jackson to be open to talking with Brown, who is still carries influence with Browns fans even though he last wore the Orange and Brown in 1966. Brown, who has been special advisor with the team since 2013, has intimate knowledge of what the team means to the city of Cleveland and should be a good resource to let Jackson learn more about what he is getting into as the coach of the city’s undisputed No. 1 team.

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Jackson has to be careful, however, to remember that listening to someone’s advice is not the same as acting on their advice. While many like to point out that Brown said that former Cleveland running back Trent Richardson was just an average back, Brown also was a close advisor to former owner Randy Lerner for a number of years.

And unless we slept through it like Justin Gilbert sleeping through a team meeting, we don’t remember a championship parade down Euclid Avenue celebrating a Super Bowl victory during Lerner’s ownership.

It is a smart move by Jackson and the Browns to bring former players back into the fold, though. The former players are the one link that fans have to the team through the never-ending rebuilds, so having people like Brown, Kevin Mack, who works on alumni relations, or Bernie Kosar involved with the team is a positive experience.

The team just needs to be strategic about how they go about it and ensure that while they are trying to help the former players don’t actually wind up making things worse.

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