This chapter appears in Part 2 of “Going 15 Rounds With Jerry Izenberg.”

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Jerry Izenberg and Joe Browne go way back.

They both attended the Ice Bowl on Dec. 31, 1967, in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Vince Lombardi’s Packers vs. Tom Landry’s Cowboys at Lambeau Field.

And more than 50 years later, even the run-up to that event remains an unforgettable experience for Browne.

“I had a rough intro to him,” Browne recalled. “We both were at the Ice Bowl in Green Bay. I was working part time while I was in college and happened to be at the airport when Jerry arrived. I recognized him from his photo in the paper and asked him if he and another writer wanted a ride to downtown Green Bay. He sat in the front passenger seat and thought I was driving too fast on the snowy roads. He asked me how long I had been driving.

“I told him I had just passed my driver’s test earlier that month on Dec. 7. He said, ‘That figures. Pearl Harbor Day. Try not to get us killed before you get us to the hotel.’ ”

Decades later, they can joke about that incident. Browne can also provide authoritative insights about Izenberg’s career.

“When you opened the paper in the morning, you never were sure what Jerry had in store,” observed longtime PR man Browne, who began working for the NFL as a teenage intern in 1965 and served in a number of high-level positions before retiring in March 2016. At the time, Browne was the league’s longest-serving office employee.

Browne added: “It could be a well-reasoned, heavy-duty criticism of some phase of our league operation or it might be an emotional column on some high school athlete — raised in a single-parent family in Newark — who was overcoming major obstacles to succeed.”

Did Browne and former NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, who passed away in 1996, have a cordial relationship with Izenberg?

“Pete really enjoyed Jerry and appreciated his journalism style,” said Browne. “Jerry talked decades ago to Pete about a book on his life.

“Pete was very hesitant but threw Jerry the consolation: ‘If I ever actually agree to a book, Jerry, I want you to be the one to write it.’ I am very pleased that Jerry was able to complete the book, which he began many many years ago.”

“Rozelle: A Biography” was published in November 2014. David Stern, the longtime NBA commissioner, wrote the foreword. In wrapping up the foreword, Stern penned these words:

“There is nobody better able to tell Pete’s story than the acclaimed journalist and columnist Jerry Izenberg. Jerry has reported on many of the key sports figures and events of the past sixty years. He is one of only a handful of reporters to have covered every Super Bowl, and few people, if any, are as knowledgeable about the sport of football and the NFL as he. As one of the most highly respected professionals in his field, Jerry’s body of work is extraordinary and his knowledge of the subject unparalleled…”

Based on his decades of service to the NFL, Browne is uniquely qualified to provide an intelligent assessment of Izenberg’s coverage of the league and his role as a pundit behind the camera.

“Steve Sabol, the creative genius behind NFL Films, loved Jerry because not only does he have a fantastic long-term memory but he is not shy about expressing himself in front of the camera, ” Browne said. “(George) Halas, Lombardi, Paul Brown, Tom Landry … he knew and dealt with them all and has a story about each one.”

For decades, there were big-time columnists at the big papers — Red Smith, Jim Murray, Shirley Povich to name a few — who covered all the big events. Nowadays, there are many more specialists working for online sites, NFL.com and the shrinking number of newspapers.

So what has made Izenberg particularly unique, not just for his football columns, but for his overall work at The Star-Ledger?

“When we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Super Bowl in February 2016, I hosted a panel of fans and media who had attended every game,” Browne recounted. “Jerry with his terrific stories was the second-most popular panelist. The only one better was Norma Hunt, who as Pro Football Hall of Famer Lamar Hunt’s widow is the only woman in the world to have attended every Super Bowl. Norma’s storytelling style is a little different than Jerry’s but they were both great.”

There were mixed perceptions of Izenberg at NFL headquarters, according to Browne.

“The league office personnel were split on Jerry,” he said. “Pete Rozelle and the PR department appreciated his tremendous clout not just with his readers but also his impact on other media covering the league. Others in the office who didn’t know him as we did thought he was a little odd. Wearing a cowboy hat in August in the middle of Manhattan as Jerry does can have that effect on some folks.

“I think next to Rozelle the closest friend Jerry had in our office was Buddy Young, who was a 5-foot-5 former college and pro scat back who Pete hired to help players get jobs in the offseason. Jerry and Buddy had many late-night conversations. However if you ever transcribed them the next day, I don’t think too many of them dealt with on-the-field football activities.”

Throughout his decades as a columnist, no institution was off limits for Izenberg. This was true even during times of celebration, such as in the days before Super Bowl 50, when he advocated for the league to honor Rozelle at that time.

The headline: “Two words that should have been spoken at the Super Bowl: Pete Rozelle. ”

“There is no mistaking when Jerry takes a stand or has an opinion,” Browne said, reacting to the column about Rozelle. “He makes it very clear what he believes.”

Browne also recognizes what many others who’ve followed Izenberg’s career have noted: He didn’t have the biggest national platform, which limited his exposure to some extent.

“I believe he would be much more appreciated nationally if he had decided to write for The New York Times than The Star-Ledger,” Browne concluded. “However, he loved his Jersey paper and wouldn’t move.”