Sportscaster James Brown Lost 74 Pounds And Is Barely Recognizable After Being Fat Shamed By Howie Long

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CBS sportscaster James Brown is a welcomed sight in my household, as his robust build and distinct voice typically preludes some good American football. And unlike some of his blowhard colleagues–cough cough Boomer–Brown values solid reporting over headline chasing.

But the man I’ve grown to equate with a solid day of beer drinking and wing eating is no more. He is merely a shell of his former self. In the best way possible. At 66-years-old, The NFL Today host lost 74 pounds, formerly standing 6-foot-5 and weighing 292 pounds late last year to around 218 today.

Long Jason Romano on the Sports Spectrum podcast that is took some body shaming from ex-Fox colleague Howie Long for him to whip himself into shape, as transcribed by the Washington Post.

“You know, I had been battling this for quite some time,” he told Romano. “I would always tease and say when I started doing football . . . [that] I really threw myself into the job. And Howie Long, my colleague at Fox, used to tease with a bunch of his buddies, asking, ‘Man, what line did he play on? I mean, he obviously played for somebody.’ So I was trying to look the part, until Howie told me I looked like a swollen tick. That was not a good compliment.

“Athletes, don’t they engage in — as much of an oxymoron as it is — they engage in negative incentive,” Brown said. “And I remember when I was working out — and I had been doing it religiously for a few years, trying to get down — and I came into the studio one Sunday and I was all excited because that week I had lost five pounds. Howie looked at me, he didn’t crack a smile, didn’t give me a vote of encouragement at all, he said ‘That’s like taking a cup of water out of the Atlantic Ocean. Talk to me when you’ve really lost some weight.’”

Congrats to James Brown, but his new-and-improved frame is going to be a total mind fuck when the NFL season kicks off.

[h/t For The Win]