From the Washington Post:
Away from the playing field, however, Mr. Brown could be a complex, contradictory and troubled man. His career began at the dawn of the civil rights movement, and he was acutely aware of the double standards that prevailed in sports and society.
Even when he was named NFL rookie of the year in 1957, he wasn’t always allowed to stay at the same hotels or dine in the same restaurants as his White teammates. Mr. Brown became something of a symbolic figure early in his career, particularly when his team played Washington’s NFL franchise, whose owner, George Preston Marshall, stubbornly refused to put a Black player on the roster until 1962.
Washington Post sportswriter Shirley Povich mocked Marshall by noting that Mr. Brown and other African Americans were born “ineligible” to play for the Redskins. In 1960, Povich equated Mr. Brown’s exploits on the gridiron with advances in the civil rights movement, writing that the player “integrated the Redskins’ goal linewith more than deliberate speed, perhaps exceeding the famous Supreme Court decree. Brown fled 25 yards like a man in an uncommon hurry and the Redskins’ goal line, at least, became interracial.”