Fifty Years And Counting

I just watched the Cleveland Browns wrap up another inauspicious season with yet another uninspiring loss.  Connor Shaw played better than Johnny Manziel, but that's faint praise.  It was still . . . meh.

It wasn't always this way.  In their first 13 years of existence, from 1946 through 1958, the Browns were a postseason team 12 times, a streak which included 7 AAFC or NFL championships.  Those were the golden-age teams of Otto Graham, Marion Motley, Dante Lavelli and Lou Groza.  Paul Brown coached the best teams in professional football.  I wish I could say I remember those glory days, but it was a bit before my time.

The great Jim Brown and Frank Ryan celebrate
after defeating the Baltimore Colts 27-0
in the NFL Championship, Dec. 27, 1964.
Ryan threw for 3 touchdowns.

I started paying attention in the early 1960's.  In the pre-Super Bowl year of 1964, the Browns beat the Colts and won their last NFL Championship, with a great team featuring Jim Brown, Frank Ryan, Gary Collins and Paul Warfield.  I watched the game on TV.  I was ten years old.  In the 50 seasons since then, the Browns have never returned to the mountaintop.

Brown rushed for 114 yards.

Gary Collins caught all 3 TD passes.

They came closest the very next year, losing to the Packers in another championship game.  The Browns were consistently good into the early 1970's.  In the nine seasons from 1964-1972, Cleveland was in the postseason seven times, appearing in two pre-Super Bowl championship games (1964, 1965) and two league championships (1968, 1969).  Brown and Ryan, Leroy Kelly and Bill Nelsen.  I loved those guys.

There followed a seven-year dry spell from 1973-1979.  Have you forgotten the Paul McDonald era?  I hope you have.

But the Brownies bounced back in the 1980's, fielding playoff teams seven times during the decade.  First came the Kardiac Kids of Brian Sipe, Mike Pruitt, Ozzie Newsome and Dave Logan.  Then from 1985-1989, Bernie Kosar led the Browns to five consecutive postseason appearances, including AFC championship games in the 1986, 1987 and 1989 seasons.  Bernie's main helpers were Earnest Byner, Kevin Mack, Ozzie Newsome and Webster Slaughter.  I loved those guys too.

But that was just about all she wrote for the Browns -- the last hurrah.  After so much success, how were we to know?

There was one playoff team in the abbreviated 1990's, the 1994 squad led by Vinnie Testaverde and Leroy Hoard.  After the 1995 season, Art Modell moved the franchise to Baltimore.  In 1999, after a three-year absence, the Cleveland Browns were reincarnated as an expansion team.

In the 16 seasons from 1999 until now (a.k.a. The Trail of Tears), the Browns have employed 22 starting QB's, 8 head coaches, 7 general managers, and 3 team owners while compiling a lop-sided losing record -- a revolving door of embarassment.   In that time span, their single playoff game was in 2002 with career-backup Kelly Holcomb (who?) under center. Futility, thy name is Browns.

We Browns fans are necessarily made of sturdy stuff, but will fate ever smile upon us again?  I'm not greedy.  I don't need to win all the time, and I know that every team -- except one -- ends it season with a loss.  I'm just saying it's been 50 years between drinks, and I could use a little sip.