Cleveland Browns most exciting season in history
Note: This post was originally published 9-6-15
That’s easy. It’s 1980, the year of the Kardiac Kids.
The Browns finished 11-5, won their first AFC Central championship in nine seasons and earned their first playoff appearance in eight years. As good as all that was – and it was very good – it’s only part of the story.
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) April 9, 2020
In the Cleveland Browns most exciting season 14 of the 17 games (including the playoff contest) were not decided until the final two minutes. It was something that had not been seen before, or since – spellbinding, a three-hour suspense thriller every week.
When Don Cockroft, the kicker on that team, was putting together his book on the 1980 season about five years ago, he became concerned at one point that the page count was getting out of hand (the book is 677 pages).
“Maybe we should cut out the game stories,” Cockroft said in a conference call with the two writers helping him do the book.
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I was one of those writers. Up until that time, I had not said a word. But I needed to be heard now. That was a bad, bad idea.
“With all due respect, Don, if we don’t put the stories in there to validate what happened in those games, young people reading the book are going to think we’re just a bunch of old men sitting around a pot-bellied stove on a cold winter night telling fish tales,” I said. “You have to include the game stories. As you know yourself, Don, if you hadn’t seen those games with your own two eyes, you wouldn’t believe a lot of the stuff that happened. You can’t make that stuff up.”
Fortunately, Cockroft listened and the game stories remained.
To commemorate the 35th anniversary of that unbelievable season, we’re going to take a look back at those games on the date when they were played. The first one, featuring the regular-season opener against the New England Patriots that was held Sept. 7, 1980, will appear tomorrow.
We hope you enjoy the series half as much as we enjoyed the season as it was happening. If so, you’ll have a blast.
More Cleveland Browns News
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- Former Cleveland Brown survives coronavirus pandemic
- Jimmy Haslam ranks 13th on list of richest NFL owners (Browns Wire)
- This is what Ben Hogan says
- NFL Draft is coming – no whining allowed! (Terry Pluto)
- Denzel Ward, Nick Chubb among spoils of past trades that could help Andrew Berry now (Beacon Journal)
Cleveland Browns most exciting season in history was written by Steve King
