WHAT HAPPENED WHEN BROWNS LOST LEGENDS?

By STEVE KING

So what are the Cavaliers going to do now that LeBron James has bolted town again – this time to the Los Angeles Lakers, and this time for good?

That’s the question everybody – locally, nationally and even, in some regards, internationally – is asking.

After all, this isn’t like the fourth man off the bench, or a journeyman guard who is the fifth starter, has decided to sign elsewhere. This is arguably the greatest player of all-time. His departure is going to leave a cavernous hole, no doubt it. Some think – actually, most people think – that it will gut the Cavs. I am in that group.

Whatever the case, we’ll see.

The Browns have gone through this situation on three different occasions.

The first two times involved the same player, Pro Football Hall of Famer Otto Graham. There are some – Joe Montana among them – who believe Graham is the greatest quarterback ever. Montana, a tremendous winner in his own right, believes the quarterback’s main job is to win games, and, as he pointed out, no one has done a better job of that than Graham, who, in his 10 seasons, took the Browns to the league championship game 10 times, with seven titles.

When Graham retired the first time, following his leading the Browns to a crushing 56-10 victory over the Detroit Lions in the 1954 NFL Championship Game, he left the door open with head coach Paul Brown that if he couldn’t find a replacement who suited him, he could give Graham a call and he might back. That happened, and Graham returned to direct the Browns to another title in 1955 with another blowout win, 38-14 over the Los Angeles Rams.

But after the Browns dismantled the Rams, Graham retired again – this time for good. He made it clear he wasn’t coming back.

What were the Browns going to do without Graham?

Good question. Brown never found anyone even close to Graham.

And as such, the Browns, not surprisingly, didn’t capture another NFL crown until 1964, two years after Brown was unceremoniously fired. They did it with a quarterback Brown had traded for in 1962 but didn’t come of age until the following season. We’re talking about Frank Ryan, one of the greatest quarterbacks in Browns history, and one of the greatest in the NFL in the 1960s. He had a Graham-like performance in the 1964 title game, throwing three touchdown passes in a 27-0 rout of the Baltimore Colts.

Who was the other Browns legend who left, and left a big hole?

I’ll address that in my next post.