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Saturday, December 15, 2007

Cleveland Browns Great Jim Brown: Tackled In New York Tab Flap

CLEVELAND (TDB) -- Jim Brown is in the middle of a scrum in New York, where a city councilman says the retired Cleveland Browns great's new snack food company OG Nation stands for "original gangster." The company markets beer and says in ad copy "Lagers have been around for 2,000 years dating back to the days of the original gangster Egyptians." The gist: Brown is trying to make cash off the thug culture.

Gothamist has the latest from New York. It notes the Arizona-based company headed by the Cleveland Browns legendary No. 32 is reportedly getting ready to market a "Thug Chips" line of pretzels, pork rinds, dips and potato chips.

Brown's company called the attacks worse than a cheap shot.

"This is the most insidious kind of racism, because it masquerades as piety, when it's really just political grandstanding. Jim Brown has worked tirelessly for decades to give a voice to the disenfranchised, dispossessed and marginalized members of our society. This is Amer-I-Can Foundation, Jim Brown has crusaded tirelessly against gang involvement, preaching self-empowerment through education. These people who are accusing him of 'marketing the gang lifestyle' demonstrate their complete ignorance of the cause he has been championing for so long. What have they been doing to foster greater equality of opportunity in our society?"

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