A MUCH DIFFERENT AND MUCH HAPPIER TIME
By STEVE KING
It was 70 years ago today, on Dec. 24, 1950, that the Browns, in their first season in the NFL, captured the league championship with a 30-28 comeback victory over the Los Angeles Rams at Cleveland Stadium.
It – the Browns’ fifth straight league title in as many years of existence after spending their first four seasons in the All-America Football Conference – came on Lou Groza’s 16-yard field goal with 28 seconds left, capping a rally that, in the days before the two-point conversion, saw the hosts erase an eight-point deficit in the final four minutes.
Now, exactly seven decades later, the Browns continue to lick their wounds after a 31-15 beatdown of a loss to that transplanted franchise, now known as the Baltimore Ravens, on Sunday at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland’s home finale. The Browns, who fell to 6-9, officially eliminated themselves from playoff consideration and secured their 12th consecutive non-winning record. The loss came as the club withered down the stretch. The defeat also included their kicker, rookie Austin Seibert, missing an extra point after their first touchdown.
The current Browns are so far removed from that glorious time in 1950 as they can be. It is, then, a miserable feeling, especially considering that it is occurring in a season that held so much promise but crashed and burned almost before it really got started.
The head coach of the old Browns, Paul Brown, was continuing to add pieces to what was fast becoming an iconic career. The guy now, Freddie Kitchens, will most certainly be fired shortly after the season ends on Sunday against Brown’s second team, the Cincinnati Bengals, in a place named for him, Paul Brown Stadium. Kitchens, by the way, was in his first season.
Just as Browns fans way back when went laughing, smiling and celebrating off into the cold, snowy early-winter night after the win over the Rams, today’s Browns fans, as they finish their Christmas shopping, are gnashing their teeth over yet another lost season.
Yikes!
