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The Loop

Jim Brown vs. Tiger Woods, Part II

June 20, 2009

Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown has again taken Tiger Woods to task for his reluctance to take an activist role on social issues.

Brown, interviewed by Bryant Gumbel and Bill Russell for a segment of HBO's series, "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel," to air Tuesday night, said about Woods and Michael Jordan: "There are one or two individuals in this country that are black that have been put in front of us as an example. But they're basically under a system that says, 'Hey, they're not gonna do a certain thing.' Yes, that disappoints me because I know they both know better.

"You know what's so interesting about Tiger to me? If it was just a matter of me looking at an individual that's a monster competitor, this cat is a mamajama, he is a killer. He'll run over you, he'll kick your (bleep), but as an individual for social change, or any of that kind of (bleep)...terrible, terrible. Because he can get away with teaching kids to play golf, and that's his contribution. And in the real world, man, I can't teach no kids to play golf and that's my contribution, if I got that kind of power."

Brown criticized Woods before, in the aftermath of the controversy involving Kelly Tilghman, who suggested on a Golf Channel telecast that Woods' rivals should "lynch him in a back alley."

"Tiger does have a responsibility despite what he says," Brown said in an interview with ESPN. "He waited until it was politically correct to come out, and he should have come out right away. The word 'lynch' is a very particular word, and there is no redeeming quality to it. So when you say 'lynch' you're going to have to pay a price because that particular legacy is a very embarrassing and humiliating one."

-- John Strege