NFL Hall of Famer and former Raider Bob Brown dies at 81

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Silver and Black as well as football fans across the country are mourning the loss of NFL Hall of Famer and former Raider Bob Brown.

According to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the former offensive lineman died on Friday at 81 years old.

“Bob Brown demonstrated different personalities on and off the field. On the field, he was as fierce an opponent as any defensive linemen or linebacker ever faced. He used every tactic and technique – and sometimes brute force – to crush the will of the person across the line from him and took great pride in doing so," Hall of Fame President Jim Porter said in a statement Saturday. “Yet off the field, he demonstrated a quiet, soft-spoken and caring nature that his son, Robert Jr., captured eloquently when he presented his dad for enshrinement in 2004. The Hall extends its thoughts and prayers to CeCe and Robert Jr. for their loss.”

Brown was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles as the number two pick of the 1964 draft. That was before being traded to the Los Angeles Rams ahead of the 1969 season. Then, he was traded to the Oakland Raiders in 1971, which is where he spent the last three years of his 10-year career.

"We got Bob, and the first day no one knows Bob Brown. They don’t know him personally. They just know his reputation,” former Raiders head coach John Madden recalled for NFL Films. “He walks out of the locker room, and he walks all the way up to the other end where the goal posts are and he hits the goal post with his forearm. Phoom! Crack! And the whole goal post goes right down. … He turned around and walked off the field.”

Madden added Brown played offense with "a defense guy's personality."

"He believed that he could hit you with his forearm and take a quarter out of you. In other words, if he really hit you, you wouldn’t play hard until the next quarter."

Because of his fierceness on the grid iron, Raiders teammate Gene Upshaw said people didn't want to face Brown.

"Bob was the most intimidating player I’ve ever seen. I had opponents come up to me during games and say, ‘Gene, tell Bob to stop hitting me."

In 1971, Brown was selected to play in his sixth Pro Bowl despite missing four games due to injuries. While he was healthy in 1972, Brown's last season would be in 1973. That was due to recurring knee problems.

He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2004. He played in a total of 126 regular-season games and was also selected as a member of the NFL's All-Decade Team of the 1960s. Brown was also enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in 1993 in recognition of his time at the University of Nebraska where he was also an All-American.

The Raiders released a statement saying in part that Brown was "among the toughest and most intimidating linemen in football history" and offered their thoughts and prayers to the Brown family.