Bill Glass set a standard of excellence, on and off the field

By STEVE KING

This is one of those back-to-the-future stories.
It involves Bill Glass, the Cleveland Browns Legends defensive end who died the other day.
Glass, who played with the Browns for six seasons (1962-67) after arriving in a trade with the Detroit Lions, teamed throughout that time with Paul Wiggin, another Legends member, to give the team its best set of defensive ends ever. Glass was a great pass rusher, while Wiggin was stout against the run. But make no mistake about it in that both players also excelled in the other areas of the game, as they so incredibly displayed in the 1964 NFL Championship Game when they helped spearhead the defensive effort that stymied the great Baltimore Colts offense in a shocking 27-0 win.
They will be a hard pair of ends to beat. Len Ford, who played with the Browns from 1950-57, is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and current star Myles Garrett could end up there sometime down the road. He is certainly on the fast track thus far in the early part of his career to do so. Jadeveon Clowney is in his first season of playing with Garrett, and if they stick together a while, they could rival Glass and Wiggin.
Glass was a kind and gentle man who had a long and impactful career in prison ministry after his NFL days.
Here’s the other part of the passing of Glass, and the part to which I hope the current Browns are listening. He was 86. All the players still alive from the 1964 team, the last one in franchise history to win the NFL title, are in their 80s.
It’s long past time — 57 years, for crying out loud — for the Browns to win another championship and create a new set of heroes to be celebrated.