Jim Brown didn’t just want to run over would-be tacklers – he wanted to run through them.

The former Cleveland Browns star is often viewed as the toughest running back ever to play the game of football. At 6-foot-2 and 230 pounds, Jim Brown was an absolute beast to bring down. And if that wasn’t enough for defenders to deal with, he also had explosive speed, too.

Amazingly, Jim Brown only played nine seasons for the Cleveland Browns. But in those nine seasons, he led the NFL in rushing eight times. For his career, Jim Brown finished with 12,312 rushing yards and averaged an eye-popping 5.2 yards per carry. Jim Brown also had 126 touchdowns and was selected to nine Pro Bowls.

On two separate occasions, Jim Brown rushed for 237 yards in a single game. He also scored five touchdowns in one contest and four touchdowns in four other games. Jim Brown never missed a game in his nine-year career and went on to run for at least 100 yards in 58 of his 118 regular-season games.

The three-time NFL MVP rushed for more than 1,000 yards in seven seasons, and once finished with 1,527 yards in one 12-game season. Imagine how many yards Jim Brown could have accumulated if he played in a 16-game season like current NFL running backs do.

When he left the game at age 30 to pursue an acting career, Jim Brown had more yards (12,312), touchdowns (126) and rushing touchdowns (106) than any other player in the game. It’s hard to fathom what he could have done if he played a couple more seasons.

Unbelievably, football might not have been Jim Brown’s best sport, either. Jim Brown was also a basketball player and a second-team All-American lacrosse star at the University of Syracuse.

Jim Brown was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971. He was also inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, as well as the Lacrosse Hall of Fame, making Jim Brown one of the few athletes to ever make it into multiple Hall of Fames.

Jim Brown was simply an incredible athlete and is arguably the best running back the NFL has ever seen.