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Success in the Game of Life
Three-time Emmy Award-winning sportscaster James Brown enlivens audiences with powerful anecdotes from his career in sales with Xerox and Eastman Kodak, as well as his legendary career in sports broadcasting and beyond, sharing indelible insights about finding and living your passion. Brown leaves audiences feeling inspired to discover their life’s purpose and take steps to find real and lasting success.
Strength in Faith and Family
Three-time Emmy Award-winning sportscaster, producer, and author James Brown is a legend in the world of broadcast sports and beyond, as well as a sought-after ordained minister who galvanizes audiences with the story of his faith journey. Brown offers a compelling keynote synthesizing his beliefs about perseverance, faith, and focusing on your family – foundational elements of a true champion.
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James Brown: Success in the Game of Life
James Brown embodies Success. A three-time Emmy Award-winning sportscaster, special correspondent, producer, and author he is a legend. A businessman as well as a broadcaster, he is a founding partner of the Washington Nationals, as well as co-owner of Fair Play Productions Company, and executive produced the documentaries The Carnival: 125 Years of the Penn Relays and For Aaron, which won “Best Documentary” at several festivals. Brown has partnered with the Verizon Foundation to lead a national dialogue to address their work in domestic violence prevention. Brown is the recipient of the 2023 Distinguished Service Award, the National Association of Broadcasters' highest honor. He received the Jackie Robinson Award for Excellence in Broadcasting by One Hundred Black Men of New York, and was inducted into the Sportscasters Hall of Fame.
In his speeches, Brown enlivens audiences with powerful anecdotes from his career in sales with Xerox and Eastman Kodak, as well as his legendary career in sports broadcasting and beyond, sharing indelible insights about finding and living your passion. Brown leaves audiences feeling inspired to discover their life’s purpose and take steps to find real and lasting success.
James Brown models Servant Leadership by focusing on strength in his faith and family
James Brown’s life and career embody the ideal of Servant Leadership. An ordained Minister and three-time Emmy Award-winning sportscaster, special correspondent, producer, and author, Brown galvanizes audiences with the story of his faith journey. He offers a compelling keynote synthesizing his beliefs about perseverance, faith, and focusing on your family – foundational elements of a true champion. In his memoir, Role of a Lifetime: Reflections on Faith, Family and Significant Living, he shares powerful stories about finding his passion, how to discover life’s purpose, and his faith journey that leave audiences inspired.
In addition to his career as a Broadcaster, Brown has partnered with the Verizon Foundation to lead a national dialogue to address their work in domestic violence prevention. He is the recipient of the 2023 Distinguished Service Award, the National Association of Broadcasters' highest honor. He received the Jackie Robinson Award for Excellence in Broadcasting by One Hundred Black Men of New York, and was inducted into the Sportscasters Hall of Fame.
James Brown, three-time Emmy Award winner, serves as host for the CBS Television Network’s NFL pre-game show, The NFL Today. He also pre-game and half-time show for CBS and NFL Network’s coverage of Thursday Night Football. Brown has hosted the NFL Network’s Super Bowl pre-game show for its coverage of Super Bowl XLVII (2013), Super Bowl XLIV (2010) and Super Bowl XLI (2007), and his most recent Super Bowl hosting made it a record-setting 10 Super Bowls hosted. In 2012 he was named Special Correspondent for CBS News contributing to various News programs including 60 Minutes, CBS This Morning and CBS Evening News.
In 2010, JB was named “Best Studio Host of the Decade” by Sports Illustrated.com. Brown has hosted Inside the NFL since 2015, which now airs on Paramount+ with co-hosts Phil Simms, Brandon Marshall, Ray Lewis, Julian Edelman & Michael Irvin. JB also hosted the Pacquiao/Mosley fight for SHOWTIME Pay-per-view. In addition to three Emmy Awards, Brown was inducted into the Broadcast Wing of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and won the prestigious Pete Rozelle Radio-TV Award in 2016, and in 2020 was inducted in the Sports Video Group Sportscasters Hall of Fame. He is the recipient of the 2023 Distinguished Service Award, the National Association of Broadcasters' highest honor.
In his memoir, Role of a Lifetime: Reflections on Faith, Family and Significant Living, Brown relays how he found the role he was meant to play, highlighting both the good and bad decisions he made along the way, teaching readers how to discover life’s purpose for themselves.
Brown served as host of Fox NFL Sunday for 12 years prior to returning to CBS Sports in 2006 as host of The NFL Today and play-by-play announcer for the Network’s coverage of college basketball including the NCAA Tournament. He joined FOX Sports in June 1994 after a decade with CBS Sports. Brown hosted a two-hour radio show called “Hang Time with James Brown,” and also wrote daily commentaries for Sporting News Radio. He also served as a correspondent for HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel and a boxing host for HBO pay-per-view.
Brown first joined CBS Sports in 1984 where he was part of the network’s broadcast team for its NFL coverage and college basketball coverage as well as reporter for the NBA Finals. He also was host of an afternoon show for the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway and the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France. While at CBS he was also co-host of CBS Sports on Saturday and Sunday, a weekend anthology series.
His sportscasting career began in Washington, D.C. as an analyst for the NBA Washington Bullets (now known as the Wizards) for Home Team Sports and served as an analyst for black college basketball on BET. Early in his career, he hosted a mid-day program on WTEM, an all sports radio station, co-hosted two weekly Washington-area sports programs, was a sports anchor for WUSA-TV for six years, and hosted “James Brown’s Pro Football Preview” for SportsFan Radio.
Throughout his career he has earned numerous awards, including three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Studio Host for The NFL Today (2007) and FOX NFL Sunday (1998, 1999). Most recently JB received "The Uncommon Award" from Tony Dungy for his "uncommon leadership through character and faith." JB was honored with the 2009 Dick Schaap Memorial Award for Media Excellence. He received the 2007 Maxwell Football Club’s Excellence in Broadcasting Award and the Dallas All Sports Association Award for Excellence in Sports Journalism, and was the first recipient of the annual Pat Summerall Award in 2006, at Super Bowl XL in Detroit. In 2005, he was honored with the Director’s Award for Broadcasting from The 100 Black Men of America and the Greater Washington Urban League’s Sam Lacy Award. Brown was a 2010 honoree as one of the “Faces of Black History” celebrating Black Media Legends who have impacted the Black community through their achievements and positive examples, which have included Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks to the present day heroes. He was the 2002 recipient of the International Black Broadcasters Association’s Broadcasting Excellence Award and was chosen as 1999 Sportscaster of the Year (Studio Host) by the American Sportscaster Association. Brown was also awarded the Golden Mike Award (1998) by the Black Broadcasters Alliance, two NATAS Emmys (DC chapter) including the Glenn Brenner Award for excellence in sportscasting (1998), and the Quarterback Club of Washington’s Sportscaster of the Year Award (1996). Brown was inducted into the Broadcast Wing of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and won the prestigious Pete Rozelle Radio-TV Award in 2016, and in 2020 was inducted in the Sports Video Group Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
Brown graduated from Harvard with a degree in American Government. A standout on the basketball court, he received All-Ivy League honors in his last three seasons at Harvard University and captained the team in his senior year. He was selected as a fourth-round draft pick by the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and a seventh-round pick by the Denver Nuggets. In 1996, Brown was inducted into the Harvard Hall of Fame.
He is a founding partner of the Washington Nationals. He has partnered with the Verizon Foundation to lead a national dialogue to address their work in domestic violence prevention. Brown founded Fair Play Productions Company, and is Executive Producer of the documentary For Aaron from JTwoFilms, which won “Best Documentary” at the Puerto Rico International Film Festival and the Indie Gathering Film Festival.
No stranger to charitable efforts, the Michael Wilbon James Brown Celebrity Roast & Golf Classic benefits the DC College Access Program. He also has worked on behalf of Darrell Green’s Youth Life Foundation, Joe Gibbs' Youth Life Foundation, the Neimann Pick Disease Foundation, the Marrow Foundation, The HollyRod Foundation, Special Olympics DC, and The Salvation Army, among numerous other charities and foundations.
He resides with his wife Dorothy in Maryland.
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