EDITOR’S NOTE: The following, which is the last in a three-part series on the top Browns players from 1946 through ’64, covers the players ranked nos. 10 through 1. It is part of a bigger series on the 70 best Browns players from all-time.
It looks like a who’s who of pro football, so it is certainly a who’s who of the Browns.
The names below — all 10 of them, the top 10 Browns players in the era from 1946-64 — are on the scroll in Canton, Ohio. When you look real close the foundation of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, you can see their names scratched into the brick and mortar.
The hardest decision was who was going to be No. 1 – in essence No. 1 overall in the history of the Browns – and you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out the identities of the two men who were vying for that honor. But more on that in a bit.
What was almost as difficult as figuring out No. 1 was slotting the other players behind them. You try to find something – anything – that provides separation so as to develop a pecking order, and you really have to go down the checklist to finally come up with an edge one way or another. In a few cases, to be honest, that edge never really materialized and it ended up being just a gut decision. They were in a dead-heat in every tangible way.
On a personal note, I’m sure you’ve not agreed with some of my picks in this series over these many months. I completely understand that, and respect your differing opinions. Opinions are like elbows. We’ve all got them. And anyway, the different views, and the lively debates they produce, are what make it fun.
But as the unofficial historian of the team, as I’ve been called (and it’s a moniker I truly value), I can assure you that I carried out this assignment with the utmost respect of the subject matter, and the need to get it right – not just kind of right, or pretty right, or almost right – but dead-on right, at least as I saw it. I wanted my conclusions to be as sensible, believable and all-encompassing as they could possibly be. I didn’t want to overlook anything, to leave any stone unturned These players, many of whom are no longer with us and thus have to depend on someone to speak for them, deserve that, and then some.
What I have found with the history of this team – and really, history overall today, sports and otherwise – is that whereas many of you reading this know all the names on this list and probably even have special memories of each and every one of them, there is a growing number of young people who know of these men only by grainy, black-and-white photos in dusty history books, and by black-and-white film where it always looks like it’s snowing and it’s hard to see what going on.
They are just names to these young adults. And that’s understandable. Why would they think otherwise?
As such, if the legacies of these men are to live on, then it is up to us – you and me — to make sure it happens. So, then, we are charged with telling their stories – not just their statistics, really, but the stories of what those stats meant, and still mean, and why these players are worth remembering.
The young adults can either choose to hear the stories, or not. It is up to them. You can’t force someone to do something they don’t want to do. Any knowledge worth knowing, if that makes sense, has to be sought through a person’s own free will. Otherwise, it will be just useless stuff crammed into their brain as if done by someone with a pry bar.
If nothing else, then, I hope these lists and these names and these opinions amd these stories and these valuations inspire further examination, and debate, in the future. If that happens, then we will have succeeded. We will have readied the next generation to accept this Northeast Ohio sports heirloom from us.
Whatever the case, though, enjoy the list from nos. 10 through 1, and thank you for reading.
*No. 10 – Bobby Mitchell – running back/returner – played for the Browns from 1958-61 – Mitchell would be perfect for today’s top 10 plays of the day, for he was a personal highlight reel in and of himself. He did things – made moves, stopped on a dime and changed direction, changed speeds to set up blocks, eluded tacklers, causing them to whiff at air – in a such a way that you almost couldn’t believe what you were seeing. Mitchell was the perfect complement to Jim Brown in the backfield. Brown was big and fast and strong. Mitchell, at just 192 pounds, or about 40 less than Brown, was the smaller scatback who depended on his quickness. He knew Brown wanted to be the man, and wanted to score the touchdowns, and had no problem with that. He was content getting limited opportunities, but was determined to make the most of them, and did. He averaged 6.3 and 5.7 yards per rushing attempt in his first two seasons, and ran for five touchdowns in each of three straight years. For his time in Cleveland overall, his average gain per rush was 5.4. He was also excellent as a returner, scoring three times on punts and three times on kickoffs. Paul Brown didn’t realize how good he had it with Mitchell and Brown meshing together so well in the backfield, and made a big mistake in dealing Mitchell to Washington for the right to Ernie Davis. The Redskins moved Mitchell to wide receiver, where his elusiveness could play out more in the open field, and he continued building his Pro Football Hall of Fame resume.
*No. 9 – Frank “Gunner” Gatski – center – played for the Browns from 1946-56 – A great quarterback needs a great protector, and Otto Graham had that in the rough-and-tumble Gatski, a West Virginia native who, while being a fun-loving guy, still took his job very seriously. The Hall of Famer knew that keeping Graham upright and out of trouble was key to the offense excelling, which, in turn, was key to the Browns excelling as a team. From the days of Gatski and Graham playing together, teams learned the importance of the center/quarterback tandem. It was yet another trend-setting move for the trend-setting Browns under Paul Brown.
*No. 8 – Len Ford – defensive end – played for the Browns from 1950-57 — Pound for pound, he might be the strongest and most physically dominant player in team history. At a well-muscled 6-foot-4 and 245 pounds, and with quickness and athleticism to boot, he was nearly impossible to block. He could run over offensive tackles, or just run past them. Mostly, he ran over them. Not enough has been of the importance of Ford’s arrival to the Browns as they moved into the NFL in 1950, after playing against them in the All-America Football Conference with the Los Angeles Dons the previous two years. But it was a key move, for it gave Cleveland a young end – he was just 24 at the time – who could be as disruptive and game-changing from a defensive standpoint as all of the team’s many offensive stars were on the other side of the ball.
*No. 7 – Mike McCormack – right tackle – played for the Browns from 1954-62 – Think of this offensive line: A Hall of Famer at center in Gatski, a Hall of Famer at left tackle in Lou Groza and a Hall of Famer in right tackle in McCormack. No wonder those Cleveland offenses were so good. How could they not be with that crew blocking for them? It is one of the best offensive lines in pro football history. McCormack started out at middle guard in his rookie season following the retirement of Bill Willis, then went to right tackle in 1955 and stayed there throughout the rest of his career. Every position move should work out that well for both the team and the player. McCormack’s success on the right side gave the Browns as much confidence directing plays that way as they did in running left behind the stout Groza, who was already well-entrenched, having been a starter since 1948. It balanced out the offense, making it more diversified, and dangerous.
*No. 6 – Marion Motley – fullback – played for the Browns from 1946-53 – Paul Brown knew of Motley’s prowess after coaching against him in high school. Brown guided the Massillon Tigers, while Motley played for the arch rival McKinley Bulldogs. The coach didn’t forget that when he set about building his first team at Cleveland. Motley, who was 6-1 and 232 pounds, was like Jim Brown (6-2 and 232) in that he had some speed to go along with his considerable power. Paul Brown designed the trap play for Motley, letting him get up a head of steam and run over people in the middle of the defense. Inflicting that kind of physicality on another player almost seemed like cruel and unusual punishment. Motley’s running – whatever play it was, and wherever it went – kept defenses honest and prevented them from keying on Graham’s passing. He rushed for 3,024 yards and 26 touchdowns and averaged 6.2 yards a carry in All-American Football Conference play, and promptly led the NFL in rushing in 1950 with 810 yards and a 5.8 average.
*No. 5 – Bill Willis – middle guard – played for the Browns from 1946-53 – No Browns defensive player has been quicker and more athletic than Willis. He and Motley, were, of course, the players who broke the color barrier in pro football for good coming out of World War II. That’s incredibly significant, of course, for what that – and they – did for not just football or sports, but society in general. However, no matter what color Willis and Motley were, they were just great players. A lot of people point out that Willis played a position in a five-man line that is now a stand-up middle linebacker in a four-man front. That’s true. But it’s also true that Willis’ quickness was a textbook example of what a middle guard in a three-man line should look like. Don’t think that a lot of modern coaches, with so much more emphasis on quickness now than there used to be, haven’t looked back at that and studied it long and hard.
*No. 4 – Dante Lavelli – wide receiver – played for the Browns from 1946-56 – Lavelli and Otto Graham went together like peanut butter and jelly. They were so good and knew each so well that they could make changes in routes and reads on the fly. It allowed the passing game to hum right along, and to be way more sophisticated than the standard schemes of the day. Lavelli had great hands – his nickname was “Glue Fingers” – and Graham had a knack for putting the ball in a spot where only his receivers could catch it. That was a tough combination to beat. Lavelli caught 244 passes for 3,908 yards and 33 touchdowns in seven NFL seasons, and 142 passes for 2,580 yards and 29 scores in four years in the All-America Football Conference.
*No. 3 – Lou “The Toe” Groza – left tackle, kicker – played for the Browns from 1946-59, 1961-67 – Groza hated “The Toe” nickname. Even back in the day with all those crazy monikers and tags, nobody, not even Sgt. Hulka, wanted to be known as a toe. In part because of the nickname, Groza is remembered as a kicker who also played left tackle. He did not like that – at all — and in fact thought it was backward. To him, he was a left tackle who also kicked. To him, those nine Pro Bowl berths in the 1950s came because of his performance in protecting Graham’s blind side. There’s a lot to be said for that, but there’s also a lot to be said for what he did as a kicker. He made kicking relevant and important and essential and necessary and valuable and worthy of the time that needed to be put into it. There was a whole science to kicking a ball, too, and Groza also brought that to the game – for more than two decades. The kicking award in college football is named after Groza. That’s no accident. When it comes to kicking, he’s the father of everything we see today, even the sidewinders. They brought new things to the craft, just as Groza did coming out of World War II. Everything is always evolving. But Groza’s team-record 1,349 points may be something that remains set in stone for a long time.
*No. 1 (tie) Jim Brown – running back – played for the Browns from 1957-65; Otto Graham – quarterback – played for the Browns from 1946-55 – Why a tie, you say? Why not man up and just pick one or another? Good questions, people. I did not chicken out. It was impossible to do that in this instance because Brown and Graham stand out from the crowd – by a country mile, in fact – in the two most important categories for players, production and winning. Brown is the greatest player of all-time at any position. There can be no questioning that. His numbers were so far beyond what anyone had put up to that point that it’s staggering. He rushed for 12,312 yards and 106 touchdowns, averaged 5.2 yards per carry and won eight NFL rushing titles in his nine year career. He also caught 262 passes for 2,499 yards and 20 scores. He never missed a game and hardly ever missed a play. He really was, as HOF linebacker Chuck Bednarik of the Philadelphia Eagles once said, “the closest thing there’s ever been to Superman on a football field. He was bigger and stronger than everyone else. He was faster than everyone else. And he was darn near indestructible.” If you don’t believe Bednarik’s views, or any of the other evidence, just take the eye test. Look at those old films, when Brown appears to be a man among boys play after play after play, and tell me there has ever been anyone as good – that there has ever been anyone who dominated, and towered over, his competition like he did. That’s the only way to judge players from different eras, by how they did against their peers. It’s silly to say Jim Brown would be unable to compete today. You think? He’ll turn 79 on Feb. 17. But Brown won just one NFL title, in 1964. That bothers him to this day. He’ll admit that up front. Players love to win. It is like former NFL head coach Herman Edwards says, “You play to win the game.” Enter Graham, the ultimate winner. Just like Brown is far and away the best player, Graham is far and away the greatest winner in the game’s history. In his 10 seasons, he led the Browns to the league championship game 10 times, with seven titles. Those are off-the-charts numbers. It doesn’t get much better than that. Was Graham a great player? Yes. He threw for 13,499 yards and 88 touchdowns in his six NFL seasons, and for 10,085 yards and 86 scores in his four AAFC years. He also rushed for a combined total of 44 touchdowns. But it is not the job of the quarterback to pass for 400 yards and five touchdowns. That helps, but it’s merely a piece of the puzzle. Rather, the job of the quarterback is to win the game, whether it’s 3-2 or 50-49. Nothing else matters. Graham, then, did his job masterfully. His stats were compiled in key situations, with games on the line. When the Browns needed him to make a throw, he made it. He was called “Automatic Otto,” for it was automatic that Graham would come through. So do you pick the greatest player, or the greatest winner? You don’t. You pick both, which is what happened here. Brown and Graham missed playing together by two years. How interesting would it have been had they been teammates? Wow. It would be like football’s version of the heavens and earth coming together. And to think Paul Brown didn’t really want to draft Brown in 1957. He wanted to take quarterback Len Dawson instead as the heir apparent to Graham. Little did Paul Brown realize then that by not landing Dawson, he would get to coach the two best players of all-time. How cool is that? If you’re a Browns fan, pretty cool.
Next: Who got left off our list from 1946-64.
