Jim Brown rushes to the end.

• Position: Edge of Sports - Interview

There is only one former athlete I was truly nervous about interviewing. His name is Jim Brown.

I wasn't nervous because of who he was, but because of who he is.

There have been few great athletes more political and less afraid of the consequences than the great Jim Brown. He stands with Muhammad Ali, Billie Jean King, and Arthur Ashe as sports stars who dared to use their platform to speak truth to power, often at great risk.

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Brown retired from the NFL in 1965 as the all-time leading rusher in league history. His running style punished defensive players and is still a staple of NFL films. He has also been called the greatest lacrosse player of all time, earning multiple honors at Syracuse University. Brown retired from football in his prime, one of the few in history to walk, not limp, away from the sport. He appeared in movies like The Dirty Dozen, Any Given Sunday , and Mars Attacks! And he also took on some small TV roles. But Brown has long transcended the spotlight of sports and entertainment, primarily with his anti-gang organization Amer-I-Can, which runs courses on life-management skills.

"We believe in, and work effectively with, those whom society disregards, contending that it is never too late to attain a full, meaningful life," Brown says on the organization's website.

He also founded the Amer-I-Can Foundation for Social Change, which places special emphasis on "programs involving youth in high crime and low-income communities," its website says. These programs are "designed as an intervention and prevention tool to curb violence."

"Since 1988, I have lived my life in prisons, schools, juvenile camps, and poor communities," he writes on the foundation website. His purpose: "to learn, to teach, to build relationships, and to make an investment in those who wanted to make an investment in themselves."

W hen I get to talk to Jim Brown, ask him how we can possibly turn around the national unspoken shame that 2.3 million people live behind bars in this country.

The key, he says, is education and rehabilitation. But the problem is...