From Namath to Now: Browns Relive MNF Glory Half a Century Later

Posted By: County Sports Network September 22, 2025

It was on Sept. 21, 1970, at Cleveland Stadium that a little-known defensive player, linebacker Billy Andrews, came out of nowhere to make the biggest play of the game to secure a 31-21 Browns win over the New York Jets to launch Monday Night Football.

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And it was exactly 55 years later, on Sept. 21, 2025 at Huntington Bank Field, which sets on the footprint of the old place, that a little-known defensive player, tackle Shelby Harris, came out of nowhere to make the biggest play of the game to help set up a 13-10 Browns win over the Green Bay Packers to launch a team that needed a jump-start in the worst way.

Andrews intercepted a Joe Namath pass and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown with just over a minute left to seal the deal.

Harris blocked a potentially game-winning 43-yard field-goal attempt by Brandon McManus in the waning seconds and Greg Newsome finally tracked down the ball and recovered it just short of midfield. That set up another unlikely hero, rookie Andre Szmyt, still smarting from missing a pair of kicks two weeks before on that same field to cost the Browns dearly in a one-point loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in the opener, to try to win the game with a 55-yarder. This time, he drilled it through the uprights with plenty of length to spare as time expired and the Browns, coming off getting drilled — there’s that word again — 41-17 by the Baltimore Ravens a week earlier, had their first win of the year and put an end to an eight-game winning streak that extended back to the end of 2024.

And with it, the Browns and their fans celebrated with unbridled joy and then heaved a collective sigh of relief for the first time since the days leading into last Thanksgiving.

Yes, after all those years, there was still magic in that turf. The Browns just had to did down a little to find it. They were only too willing — and desperate — to do so.

And on his big cattle ranch in Texas, Billy Andrews, now 80 years young, had to be smiling.

Steve King

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