A look at Sashi Brown’s journey to becoming one of only two Black NFL presidents

Meet Sashi Brown, the new president of Baltimore Ravens. Brown’s appointment makes him the second Black team president in the NFL. The first is Jason Wright. Prior to joining the Ravens, Hampton University alumnus Brown was a former executive of Cleveland Browns and Washington Wizards.

When he assumes his role in March this year, Brown would oversee the business areas of the organization, including finances, budgeting, non-football personnel, corporate sales, operations, communications and business ventures, according to the Baltimoresun. He will be Ravens’ new team president as Dick Cass will retire after 18 years with the organization.

Brown, 45, is a graduate of Harvard Law School. Right after school, he started his career as an attorney in 2002 at Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr in Washington, a firm run by Cass. While working at the law firm, he represented various clients in sports-related transactions, mergers and acquisitions.

Following his output at the firm, he was recommended for a senior VP and general counsel job with the Jacksonville Jaguars, where he served for eight years. He was subsequently hired by the Cleveland Browns in 2013 as executive vice president and general counsel, where he served in both football and business capacities.

In 2016, Cleveland promoted Brown to executive vice president of football operations. However, while he performed well in the business side of the team, his tenure produced few wins and he was fired in December 2017, according to Baltimoresun.

Nonetheless, he was instrumental in reshaping the team’s personnel.

“[Sashi] definitely did a good job of getting the picks, getting the cap to where he got it to, to where you can go out and get any player you want…,” Former Browns safety Jabrill Peppers spoke about Brown’s contributions to the team.

“It takes a lot of patience that I don’t think a lot of people have. But they are reaping the fruits of his labour now, even though they don’t want to attribute it to him. He definitely has a big part of what’s going on there.”

Brown later went to the NBA, taking a role at The Washington Wizards as president of Monumental Basketball and special advisor to Wizards owner Ted Leonsis, overseeing operations for the NBA’s Wizards, WNBA’s Mystics and NBA G League’s Capital City Go-Go.

Three months prior to his appointment at the Ravens, he was offered a multi-year extension from Monumental but he declined the offer.

Boston native Brown graduated from Hampton University in 1998 and he later attended Harvard University and obtained a Juris Doctorate in 2002. He is married with three children.