Longtime NFL Today host James Brown has been voted into National Sports Media Association’s Hall of Fame, the organization announced this week.
The D.C. native is in his 20th year of hosting CBS’ “The NFL Today” pregame show after hosting “FOX NFL Sunday” for 12 years.
An ordained minister known by his peers and friends as being very humble and self-effacing, Brown quoted scripture to WTOP: “Humility precedes honor and that is what guides me in everything that I do.”
Brown was a basketball legend as a youngster growing up in D.C. After starring at DeMatha Catholic High School and Harvard University, he was drafted in the fourth round by the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks in 1973, but was cut in training camp before he ever played a game. The disappointment shook him to his core.
“I did not realize my dream of playing professional basketball,” Brown said. “I was crushed and I cried and hid in the house for two weeks. … I vowed that I would never, ever allow an opportunity that I wanted badly to pass me by because I was ill prepared.”
After a short stint in the business world with the Xerox and Kodak, Brown began his sportscasting career in 1974. He started locally with the Washington Bullets and WUSA9, and later embarked on a network career at CBS, FOX and back to CBS.
Brown has won three Emmy Awards and has hosted more Super Bowls (11) than any broadcaster in history — yet he says his work ethic has never waned.
“I still have a free agent’s mentality about it to go out and perform with excellence every time out and never take anything for granted, even at this age and stage,” Brown said.
National Sports Media Association Executive Director Dave Goren told WTOP over email, “James Brown is a pro’s pro. Great at what he does, well-respected throughout the industry and as nice as they come.”
Also getting inducted is former ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski, and, posthumously, Sid Hartman of the Minnesota Star Tribune and former CBS broadcaster Greg Gumbel, whose kindness left a lasting impression on Brown.
“You don’t find that kind of unselfishness in this business where egos are pretty big,” Brown said. “So to be included with him is very special.”
Brown and the other honorees will be officially inducted during the organization’s 66th awards weekend and national convention June 28-29 in Greensboro, North Carolina.
