Bad Browns memories from 41 years ago recalled on final play

By STEVE KING

OK, so did you think about it?

Come on, you thought about it, right?

How could you not have thought about it?

We’re only human, right?

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That is, when the host Minnesota Vikings moved to the Cleveland 32 with three seconds left and had one chance to throw into the end zone for a game-tying touchdown (plus the extra-point kick) against the Browns, who led 14-7, did you think about the game between the teams 41 years ago at old Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minn.?

I sure did.

And I think everybody with gray hair did, too, and anybody who knows someone with gray hair and had heard all about that game.

The ball fell incomplete — thankfully — and the Browns escaped with a seven-point win that, once they started breathing again, they could begin to enjoy.

But the finish was not so happy — or happy at all, really; rather, it was a complete nightmare, one of the worst in Browns history — on Dec. 14, 1980. The Browns came to Minnesota with a 10-4 record. All they had to was beat the Vikings to clinch their first playoff berth in eight years.

And it certainly looked like they were going to get it. They led 23-9 in the fourth quarter and were driving near midfield. The Vikings had no answer to stop the Browns. They hadn’t all day, actually.

Then quarterback Brian Sipe, who otherwise was brilliant in 1980 on his way to winning the NFL MVP award, threw his second-biggest interception of the year. We’ll not mention the first biggest (ahem … Red Right 88, but shhh!).

The Vikings got one touchdown, then another and finally a third one, the last one coming on quarterback Tommy Kramer’s 46-yard Hail Mary pass as time expired to a stunning 28-23 triumph. A gaggle of Browns, led by Cleveland Browns Legend outside linebacker Clay Matthews, tipped the ball straight up into the air instead of out of bounds where it could do no harm, and wide receiver Ahmad Rashad caught the carom for a TD.

The Browns had to win the following week in Cincinnati — and they did, by the skin of their teeth — to capture the AFC Central championship.

Thank goodness it didn’t happen again.

But I, and thousands of others, were sweating it.

Browns sign WR Lawrence Cager to practice squad

Berea, Ohio – The Cleveland Browns have signed WR Lawrence Cager to the practice squad.

Cager is a 6-5, 220-pound second year player out of Georgia. He signed to the New York Jets as an undrafted free agent in 2020 and spent the first 10 weeks on the Jets’ practice squad before signing to the active roster during Week 13. He has totaled 35 receiving yards on two catches, all in his NFL debut and first start Week Three against Indianapolis after getting elevated from the practice squad for Weeks Three and Four. Cager spent his first four years of college at Miami (Fla.) before transferring as a grad student to Georgia in 2019, finishing his career with 78 receptions for 1,157 yards and 14 touchdowns. Cager hails from Baltimore, Md.             

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