BEATING THE RAMS, SHUTTING UP THE DOUBTERS

By STEVE KING

One of the most important days – perhaps THE most important day – in Browns history occurred 70 years ago Thursday.

And had it not occurred the way it did, then the legacy of the early Browns would look much, much different than it does.

It was on Dec. 24, 1950 that the Browns, in their first year in the league, won the NFL championship by defeating Cleveland’s former pro football team, the Los Angeles Rams, 30-28 at Cleveland Stadium on Lou Groza’s 16-yard field goal with just 28 seconds left.

The Browns trailed by eight points, 28-20, entering the fourth quarter before rallying.

The Browns, in their first four years of existence, had won all four of the titles handed out in the All-America Football Conference, rolling through that league like a hot knife through butter as they put together a 52-4-3 record. They had a perfect 15-0 season in 1948 and went 27-0-2 through a 29-game stretch from the middle of 1947 through the middle of ’49.

Indeed, there was nothing they couldn’t do. They were a machine.

But the people in the much more established NFL doubted the Browns’ prowess, calling them the champions of a Mickey Mouse league and saying they couldn’t compete with the teams in their league.

The Browns seethed at this. They knew how good they were, and were chomping at the bit for a chance to prove it.

But, at the same time, from the moment they were absorbed into the NFL, along with the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Colts, after the AAFC was dissolved after the 1949 season, they knew that the only way they could prove their doubters wrong was to win the NFL championship in that first year. Nothing else – nothing else! – would be enough. It was an all-or-nothing proposition, but one they were only too happy to embrace.

They finished the job with the win over the Rams, and then went on through the next five years to keep adding exclamation points to their legacy with five more league title game appearances, and two more championships, giving them 10 title game appearances and seven league championships overall in their first 10 years of existence including their time in the AAFC. It is a streak of excellence that will never be broken.