SUPER MAN

James Brown on what matters most: faith, family, football, and following your heart

- Chris Raymond

CERTAIN THINGS LEAVE A LASTING MARK ON YOUR SOUL.

In the early 1960s, back when he was just a boy, all of 9 or 10 years old, James Brown discovered a book in the grade-school library about how to become a doctor when you grow up. As he flipped through the pages, his teacher walked by, saw him reading it, and stopped in her tracks.

“You may want to consider another profession,” she said. “Because kids like you don’t do well in math and the sciences.” He was crushed, so rattled by the insult he never could bring himself to discuss what had happened with his mother and his father.

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me? That’s a lie,” he says. “Words are powerful. Kids think they can do anything, and that needs to be fed, fueled, steered in the right direction.”

From his early days as a basketball star to his record-breaking run as 10-time host of the Super Bowl pregame show, Brown has found that kind of inspiration and direction from legendary sports giants such as Wes Unseld, Red Auerbach, and Tony Dungy.

But sports has not been the biggest influence on his life. It doesn’t even rank in the top three, says Brown, affectionately known to NFL fans as JB. He points instead to the teachings of his high school basketball coach, the man who echoed the lessons he’d learned from his parents: the importance of education, family, and faith.

Over the course of 46 years, Morgan Wootten would log 1,274 victories and five national titles at all-boys DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland, earning a plaque in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. For Brown, though, it was the principles Wootten championed off the court that helped guide him through the most challenging moments in his life.