There are famous days in history.
There are also infamous ones.
And today’s date, Dec. 29, is in the latter category in Browns history.
The Browns have suffered two lopsided losses in NFL Championship Game appearances on this date over the years. In both cases, they were the victims of revenge.
The contests went like this:
*1957 – Detroit Lions 59, Browns 14 – at Briggs Stadium – In the 1954 league title game against the Lions at Cleveland, the Browns steamrolled to a 35-10 halftime lead en route to a resounding 46-point victory, 56-10. The host Lions returned the favor three years later, building a 31-7 halftime advantage and never looking back on the way to winning by 45 points.
The Browns had played well defensively all year, posting two shutouts and keeping five opponents overall to single-digits scoring. But all that went away on this day. Part of it was poor play, and part of it was the Detroit offense being set up by six Cleveland turnovers.
In whatever combination, it added up to disaster for the Browns.
Detroit’s Tobin Rote had the game of his life, passing for 280 yards and four touchdowns, including three in a row in the second half, with no interceptions. He also rushed a yard for a score.
Quarterbacks Tommy O’Connell and Milt Plum combined to hit on just 9 of 20 passing attempts for 112 yards and no touchdowns with four interceptions. The Browns rushed for 218 yards, with Lew Carpenter getting 82 of that in 14 tries and some rookie named Jim Brown adding 69 in 20 carries. Even Plum got into the action with 46 yards on three scrambles.
But it didn’t amount to many points. Cleveland’s two TDs came on Brown’s 29-yard run in the second quarter and Carpenter’s five-yarder in the third quarter.
The Browns, who had already won three league titles earlier in the decade, were left to lick their wounds. They would not return to the NFL Championship Game for seven years, and on that day, the results were much, much better.
*1968 – Baltimore Colts 34, Browns 0 – at Cleveland Stadium – In 1964, the Browns scored 17 points in the third quarter to break open a scoreless game and walloped the Colts 27-0 at Cleveland to win the NFL crown. Four years later, the Colts returned to town and, by scoring 17 points in the second quarter to break open a scoreless game, delivered their comeuppance to the Browns with a 34-point win.
All this after the Browns handed the Colts their only blemish in a 13-1 regular-season finish by winning 30-20 at Baltimore just over two months earlier.
Fullback Tom Matte, a product of Shaw High School in East Cleveland and Ohio State who had played in the 1964 game, was the hero by scoring three consecutive TDs on runs of one, 12 and two yards. He ran for 88 yards overall in 17 carries. Jerry Hill added 60 yards in 11 tries.
Quarterback Earl Morrall was not great, completing just 11 of 25 passes for 169 yards and no TDs with one interception. But with Matte’s running paving the way to 184 rushing yards and a stifling defense that forced three turnovers and held the Browns to just 56 yards on the ground, he didn’t need to be.
Morrall’s favorite target was wide receiver Jerry Richardson, the founder and owner of the 14-1 Carolina Panthers, who had three receptions for 78 yards.
Cleveland’s Bill Nelsen passed for just 132 yards and was intercepted twice. Tight end Milt Morin (three catches for 41 yards) and running back Charley Harraway (4-40) were the top receivers.
The Browns sure didn’t look like the team that had beaten the heavily-favored Dallas Cowboys 31-20 in the Eastern Conference Championship Game the week before. But then again, they also didn’t look like the team that had stunned the heavily-favored Colts four years before.
Indeed, things change, and not always for the good.
