In almost every case, Browns fans are also Guardians and Cavaliers fans.
Cavs fans are also Browns fans and Guardians fans.
And Guardians fans are also Cavs and Browns fans.
That’s just the way it works in most cities with multiple pro teams, including Cleveland.
As such, then, Cleveland sports fans as a whole are still in shock oved what happened Tuesday night at Rocket Arena, when the heavily-favored Cavs, after leading throughout, including by 17 points after one quarter and by seven with just under a minute to play, totally collapsed down the stretch and lost 120-119 to the Indiana Pacers in Game 2 of the NBA Eastern Conference playoff semifinals. That puts the Cavs into a huge hole, down 2-0 in the series and facing a virtual must-win situation, as the scene shifts to Indianapolis for Game 3 on Thursday night.
Whoa!! How did that happen?!!
Just as is the case in all cities with their teams, the three Cleveland franchises have had their fair share of shocking and disappointing games like that, including those in the playoffs or with strong postseason implications, down through the years.
Here is a look back at those moments in Browns history, 10 of them in all, in chronological order:
1- Los Angeles Rams 24, Browns 17 — 1951 NFL Championship Game — Dec. 23, 1951 — at Los Angeles — The Browns lost a league title game for the first time in six tries dating back their inception in 1946 when Norm Van Brocklin threw a 73-yard touchdown pass to speedy wide receiver Tom Fears late in the fourth quarter to break a 17-17 tie.
2 – Detroit Lions 17, Browns 16 — 1953 NFL Championship Game — Dec. 27, 1953 — at Detroit — The Browns seemed to be on their way to winning the league title for the first time since 1950, leading 16-10 late in the fourth quarter, before Bobby Layne tossed a 33-yard scoring pass to wideout Jim Doran.
3 – New York Giants 13, Browns 10 — 1958 regular-season finale — Dec. 14, 1958 — at New York — At 9-2 and in first place, the Browns needed only to beat the second-place New York Giants (8-3) to win the Eastern Conference title for the second straight year, and the ninth time in eight seasons since entering the NFL in 1950. Things looked promising as the Browns led 10-3 heading into the fourth quarter, but the Giants rallied to tie the score with an eight-yard TD pass from Frank Gifford to wideout Bob Schnelker, a product of Upper Sandusky High School and Bowling Green who was selected by the Browns in the 29th round of the 1950 NFL Draft. The Giants then won it in the closing moments when Pat Summerall boomed a 49-yard goal, a long kick at that time, in a snowstorm. Vince Lombardi, in his last year as an assistant coach with the Giants before leaving to become head coach of the Green Bay Packers, yelled at Summerall as he went out for the attempt, “You know you can’t kick a ball that far!” That set up a special playoff game between the two clubs a week later again at Yankee Stadium, and New York won that one, too, 10-0 for its third victory over Cleveland that season. The Giants then lost 23-17 in overtime to the Baltimore Colts for the league crown in what has labeled as the greatest game in pro football history for its drama and the way it propelled the sport into the national spotlight for the first time.
4 – Miami Dolphins 20, Browns 14 — 1972 AFC Divisional Playoffs — Dec. 24, 1972 — at Miami — Decided underdogs, the Browns looked as if they were going to derail the Dolphins and ruin their quest for a perfect season when they went ahead 14-13 with 8:11 remaining on Mike Phipps’ 27-yard TD pass to wide receiver Fair Hooker, but Miami saved itself and its season when it took the ensuing kickoff and drove for the winning score on Jim Kiick’s eight-yard run. The big play on the drive was a 35-yard pass down the middle of the field from Bob Griese to wide receiver Paul Warfield, who was traded by the Browns two years earlier for the Dolphins’ No. 3 overall draft pick, which they used to take Phipps. The win over the Browns, and a 21-17 triumph the following week in Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship Game when they needed a fake punt to survive, were the Dolphins’ two closest calls on their way to winning the Super Bowl and finishing a perfect 17-0.
5 – Minnesota Vikings 28, Browns 23 — next-to-last 1980 regular-season game — Dec. 14, 1980 — at Minnesota — The Browns needed to beat the Vikings in order to clinch a playoff spot, and they were cruising along with a 23-9 fourth-quarter lead before things unraveled. The Vikings scored 19 unanswered points on three straight Tommy Kramer TD passes, the last of them being a 46-yard Hail Mary heave to
Ahmad Rashad on the game’s final play for the win. The Browns would have to wait until the following week to edge the Cincinnati Bengals 27-24 in the finale to get into the postseason by winning the AFC Central title.
6 – pOakland Raiders 14, Browns 12 — 1980 AFC Divisional Playoffs —Jan. 4, 1981 — at Cleveland — The Kardiac Kids had pulled out games in the final seconds all year, so there was every reason to believe they were going to do so again after making a fourth-down defensive stop of the Raiders deep in Cleveland territory and then marching right down the field in the final minutes. Trailing 14-12 and with the ball at the Oakland 12, the Browns needed only a field goal to win and were in position to try it. But veteran kicker Don Cockroft had struggled all day in the brutally-cold conditions — it was zero degrees at kickoff, with a minus-37 wind-chill, and it was even colder now — so head coach Sam Rutigliano called for quarterback Brian Sipe to tempt fate and make one more pass into the end zone on a play called Red Right 88 before calling on Cockroft. But Sipe did not see wide receiver Dave Logan standing all alone in the right corner of the end zone and instead tried to hit tight end Ozzie Newsome on a crossing route just past the goal line. But little-used nickel corner Mike Davis read it, stepped in and made the interception. Game over. Season over. Era over.
7 – Miami Dolphins 24, Browns 21 — 1985 AFC Divisional Playoffs — Jan. 4, 1986 — at Miami — The young, talented but inexperienced Browns were just 8-8 in having won the AFC Central title while the Dolphins had been to the Super Bowl the year before and were expected to get there again, so no one gave Cleveland much of a chance to pull an upset. But the Browns didn’t listen to any of the outside noise and roared out to a 21-3 third-quarter lead on the strength of a dominant defense and a powerful rushing attack with their two 1,000-yard runners in Kevin Mack and Earnest Byner. The Browns couldn’t hold on, though, melting away in the South Florida heat as Dan Marino and the offense got untracked and scored three unanswered touchdowns.
8 – Denver Broncos 23, Browns 20 (overtime) — 1986 AFC Champiobship Game — Jan. 11, 1987 — at Cleveland — Everybody in Northeast Ohio, Browns Nation and beyond were convinced the Browns were finally going to their first Super Bowl when Bernie Kosar threw a 48-yard touchdown pass to twisting, turning, elusive wide receiver Brian Brennan to provide a 20-13 lead with just under five minutes left, and yhem the Broncos played hot potato on the return before just falling on the ball at the Denver 2. But then young quarterback John Elway spoiled the Cleveland party by having his own coming-out party as a pro in driving the Broncos 98 yards in 15 plays for the tying touchdown and then getting them into position on their first possession in overtime for the game-winning 33-yard field goal by Rich Karlis. Afterward, Karlis, a native of Salem, south of Youngstown, explained, “When I made the kick, I immediately felt euphoric, and then in the next instant, I was very sad because I realized I had just broken the heart of everybody back home.” They weren’t the only ones.
9 – Denver Broncos 38, Browns 33 — 1987 AFC Championship Game — Jan. 17, 1988 — at Denver — When the Browns fell behind 21-3 at halftime and then 28-10 early in the third quarter, another instant classic game with Denver seemed nothing more than a pipe dream. But these Browns were a resilient bunch, and by the early stages of the fourth quarter, they had tied the game at 31-31 on Bernie Kosar’s four-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Webster Slaughter. The Broncos answered that score with one of their own to grab the lead back at 38-31, and the Browns were driving to deadlock things again when Earnest Byner fumbled the ball away at the Denver 3 with a minute left. It was another gut punch. Three decades later, when the Cavs won the 2016 NBA title to break Cleveland’s 52-year major pro sports championship drought, Byner said he could finally breathe again and move on, at least a little bit.
10 – Pittsburgh Steelers 36, Browns 33 — 2002 AFC Wild-Card Playoffs — Jan. 5, 2002 — at Pittsburgh — The Ohio State Buckeyes had captured the national championship about 18 hours before, and it appeared the Browns were going to do something special, too, by beating the Steelers in Pittsburgh — in the postseason, no less — as they pushed their lead to 24-7 with 12:11 left in the third quarter on Kelly Holcomb’s 15-yard TD pass to wideout Dennis Northcutt. But then Steelers quarterback Tommy Maddox got hot and, with the help of a wide-open Northcutt dropping a third-down pass that would have easily gotten a first round and sealed the deal, Pittsburgh was able to come back and get the improbable win. Afterward, disconsolate linebackers Darren Hambrick and Earl Holmes, a former Steeler, sat a few feet apart in the Cleveland locker room and tried to process what had just happened. Sighed Holmes, “Man, did we ever blow that.”
That’s the common thread to all of this, even now.
Steve King
