Yesterday wasn't the first time the Philadelphia Eagles crashed and burned in an important game they were favored to win. Dick Heller, in today's Washington Times, recalls the opener of the 1950 season.
That's when the Cleveland Browns, champs of the defunct All-American Football Conference, were absorbed into the NFL along with the 49ers and the Colts, and their first game was against the defending NFL Champion Eagles. The NFL had long been putting down the AAFC, and the Browns were hungry:
During the AAFC's brief existence, NFL executives bad-mouthed it nonstop. "The worst team in our league could beat the best team in theirs," said George Preston Marshall, the Washington Redskins' hyperbolic owner. NFL commissioner Elmer Layden, asked at the new league's formation what he thought of its prospects, replied, "What league? Let them get a ball first."Fittingly enough, at their first opportunity to zip NFL lips, the Browns had a ball.
"For four years, Coach Brown never said a word — he just kept putting that stuff on the bulletin board," Graham said. "We were so fired up, we would have played them anywhere anytime, for a keg of beer or a chocolate milkshake. It didn't matter."
Paul Brown's passing offense was much more sophisticated than what most NFL defenses saw in their league, and the game was a rout, the Browns winning 35-10. In an amusing sidebar story that I had never heard before, Eagles coach "Greasy" Neale whined after the game about the passing attack, saying,
"Brown would have made a better basketball coach because all they do is put the ball in the air."The Browns' coach did not appreciate the criticism. When the teams met in Cleveland 11 weeks later, he beat Neale 13-7 without completing a pass. Graham did toss one to Lavelli, but it was nullified by a penalty. The Browns won that one with an interception return for a touchdown and two field goals by Groza following fumble recoveries.
Sweet. Read it all, Browns fans. (via Off Wing Opinion)
Posted by dan at January 19, 2004 02:35 PM