Gilbert Brown stresses respect, goal-setting with MAMS students

Being respectful, setting goals and putting a stop to bullying were key themes of a presentation by Green Bay Packer Hall of Famer Gilbert Brown Thursday at Medford Area Middle School.

The speech led into the Family Literacy Game Night event featuring Brown at the school.

Brown was a fan favorite as a defensive nose tackle for the Packers from 1993 through 1999 and again in the 2001-03 seasons, starting 103 games and recording 292 tackles, including 186 solo tackles, and seven sacks. He is among Green Bay’s all-time leaders by playing in 15 NFL playoff games, including Super Bowls following the 1996 and 1997 season.

Brown began his 45-minute talk with the student body discussing the theme of respect, stressing respect is something that is earned through your actions and is also something one must learn to give.

“Do you go home and disrespect your parents?,” Brown said, earning a strong “no” response. “So do you get an excuse to come to school and disrespect people? That’s the thing guys, you gotta understand the word respect. You earn respect. If I go out on the football field and this guy doesn’t respect me, he’s going to respect me at the end of the game. You understand what I’m saying? I’m going to get respect from him, just like he got respect from me. It’s just vice-versa. You can’t go around thinking you’re better than everybody else because there’s always some dude that’s going to come up and check your bags.”

He told the students to remember their number-one goal when they come to school is to learn and that now is the time they should start setting goals. Brown was as All-Academic Big Eight selection while playing for Kansas University in 1991. Brown noted he didn’t start playing football until he was 14 when his brother got him into the sport. Not long after that, he set his goal of playing in the NFL.

“At age 14, I started playing and I started liking the game,” Brown said. “I was like, ‘you know what mama? I’m going to play professional football and I’m going to buy you a big old house and you aren’t ever going to have to work a day in your life after that.’ At age 14! So what did that mean to me? It was a goal for me. I wasn’t the smartest kid in school, but I worked on it. I had to put my blinders on. Leave them girls alone. That was hard. Do everything that you’re supposed to do because at the end goal, my mama was going to get that house. My mama was going to stop busting her knuckles to feed me and my sister.

“It’s about goals that you set for yourself now,” he continued. “Don’t wait. Do it now because you’re going to have some stumbling blocks in those goals. But you have time to fix it now because you’re young. At 14 I started. I’d stumble and I’d get back up. I’d fall off the horse I’d get back on. I’d fall off the horse, I’d get back on. But at the end of the day, I met my goal. It was to take care of mama, play professional football and be one of the baddest Green Bay Packers of all time.”

Brown was easy to spot on the football field with a playing weight near 350 pounds. He said his size led to him being bullied while growing up. He stressed to the students that being a bully is simply not worth it.

“Can you imagine your little brother or your little sister going home and crying themselves to sleep and you knew nothing about it because they didn’t have the coolest shoes or a Packers jersey or didn’t get a haircut or people just being cruel,” Brown said. “You see what I’m saying? How would that feel? Wouldn’t that hurt? It would hurt.

“Let’s respect each other,” he added. “If you see a kid being bullied, I’m not saying go fight. But I’m going to say, hey don’t do that. Don’t do that. Or go get teachers or counselors. It ain’t about snitching, it’s about saving that kid from going home crying himself to sleep or doing something worse. Hurting himself or coming back to school to do something stupid. That’s what I’m talking about. Is that worth it?”

During a question and answer session with students and staff, Brown said he felt his biggest accomplishment was being part of the Super Bowl XXXI championship team at the end of the 1996 season.

“Because we all wanted to get to the Super Bowl for Reggie (White),” he said. “Reggie was close so many times but couldn’t get there. All the games were great. Just to step onto Lambeau Field and to hear the roar of that crowd and to know that tradition. Let me tell you this. There’s a hallway in 1265 Lombardi Avenue that you have to walk down to go to work every day. That hallway with all the championships and all the greats on the wall, I was going down that hallway for 10 or 11 years. Each day I walked down that hallway, the hair on the back of my neck stood up because of the tradition that we have.”