As the song goes:

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape.
You don’t spit into the wind.
You don’t pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger
And you don’t mess around with Jim.

Not that you need a song to tell you that pro football legend Jim Brown is a tough dude and not one to trifle with, on the gridiron or off. As a Cleveland Browns running back, he pounded defenses into piles of meat from 1957 to 1965, and was named by Sporting News as the greatest at his sport.

Lately, Brown, 72, has been working hard to turn around kids and adults lost in gang culture through his Amer-I-Can Program, a 20-year-old effort designed to “empower us to … take responsibility for our own self-determination.”

Now, Brown’s tackling two more big players: Sony USA and Electronic Arts. The companies are named in a lawsuit filed in New York charging that they used his image in the “Madden NFL” series without his permission. At issue is whether a character in the game sporting a Cleveland uniform and wearing the number 32, but not Jim Brown’s name, is a likeness of the legend.

That the character appears in conjunction with an “All-Brown’s Team” in the game suggests that it is. The amount of damages sought in the suit was not divulged. Brown also seeks a court order to halt further use of anything in the game remotely resembling him.

In past editions of “Madden,” players on historic teams have been represented by jersey number only.

Usually, pro players sign deals approving use of their names and likenesses almost from the moment they join a league, but according to Bloomberg.com Brown insists that option wasn’t available to him even in his last season.

“The NFL had league-wide policy that players shall have no lawyer or agents when negotiating compensation,” Brown’s complaint said. “Video games were not invented yet and no union to obtain rights from existed.”

But that may not matter. Brown’s up against two huge companies making many millions off of “Madden,” and the NFL hasn’t immediately rushed to his defense. Plus, there’s an argument floating around that the NFL owns its past and can distribute it to the league’s advantage, regardless which legends are involved.

Time was, Big Jim could run over just about anybody. Against the behemoth that is “Madden” though, he may be the one who gets slammed.