‘IF YOU DROP IT, YOU HAD BETTER KEEP RUNNING’
By STEVE KING
Former Browns star quarterback Brian Sipe, who visited training camp on Saturday, was a leader for the team 40 years ago. The current Browns quarterback, Baker Mayfield, is quickly developing into that same type of leader.
I promised in my last post to recall a great leadership moment for Sipe – one when he appeared to really grow up, especially in terms of assuming control of the club and challenging his teammates to give everything they had, just as he was laying it all out there – in that memorable 1980 Kardiac Kids season. Everyone who saw it, will remember it. It occurred during the regular-season finale against the Cincinnati Bengals at Riverfront Stadium.
The Browns were 10-5 and needed a win to capture the AFC Central championship for the first time in nine years, and earn a playoff berth for the first time in eight seasons. If they lost, then they would miss the postseason altogether. They could not get in as a wild card.
The Bengals (6-9) had long been out of the playoff hunt and had gotten crushed 31-7 by the Browns at Cleveland a month earlier. They desperately wanted to get revenge for that by knocking the Browns out of the playoffs.
The Bengals jumped to a quick 10-0 lead, but the Browns rallied to tie the score at 10-10, which is how it stood at halftime.
When Cincinnati went ahead 17-10 on an interception return for a touchdown in the third quarter, the Browns realized they were at a moment of truth not just in this game, but in their season. The Browns were without one of their key offensive weapons, wide receiver Dave Logan, who caught a 65-yard pass and then left the game with a knee injury. He was replaced by little-used speedster Ricky Feacher. The man they called “The Hollywood Dude” for his flashiness in all aspects of his life, had caught just eight passes coming into the game. But two of them went for scores, which meant there was some big-play capability there.
The Browns huddled on the ensuing drive. Just about everything they had tried with their big players had not worked. Perhaps it was time to turn to someone who seemingly had only a bit role.
From the moment he had entered the game, Feacher would return to the huddle and say to Sipe, “I’m open. Throw me the bomb.” Time and time again, he told the quarterback exactly that.
Finally, Sipe looked Feacher right in the eye – very sternly so — and said, “OK, Dude, I’m going to throw you the bomb, but if you drop it, you had better keep running because I’m going to go after you.”
“Don’t worry, Brian, you just throw it up there for me and I’ll run under it,” Feacher said.
Sipe did just that, lobbing a long pass down the right sideline to Feacher, who caught it in stride and raced into the end zone for a 35-yard TD to tie the game again, 17-17.
Cleveland quickly got the ball back and, from almost exactly the same spot on the field, Sipe and Feacher ran the same play, this time down the left sideline for a 34-yard score. Just like that, in a matter of only three minutes, the Browns had tallied twice and went from a 17-10 deficit to a 24-17 lead.
The Bengals managed to tie it once more, 24-24, but then the Browns won it – and the Central title – 27-24 on a Don Cockroft field goal with just over a minute left.
Feacher came out of nowhere to provide the two most important catches of the season. He had 10 receptions on the year, four of which went for TDs.
That’s the way the 1980 season was, with a different player stepping up every week to save the day. This time, to the surprise everyone, and after being challenged by Bran Sipe, it was Ricky Feacher, who knew his teammate wasn’t just blowing smoke, and would indeed run him down if he dropped either pass.
