Friday, Aug. 28 – The 1988 Browns were predicted to go the Super Bowl.
But in the season opener at Kansas City, running back Earnest Byner missed a blitz pickup and quarterback Bernie Kosar was hit and blew out his elbow, causing him to miss most of the season.
The Browns finished just 10-6 and, for the only time in Kosar’s first five years with the team, did not win the AFC Central championship.
The 1980 Kardiac Kids Browns team blossomed when quarterback Brian Sipe came of age, winning the NFL’s Most Valuable Player Award.
In 1968, Bill Nelsen took over at quarterback for a battered and bruised Frank Ryan and led a struggling Browns team to two consecutive NFL Championship Game appearances.
In 1963, first-year Browns head coach Blanton Collier selected Ryan as his quarterback over Jim Ninowski and the team won the NFL title the following year.
Quarterback Otto Graham retired for good following the 1955 season. The Browns had won two straight league titles and seven overall in the 10 years that he played. In the three other seasons, the team went to the championship game but lost.
Without Graham in 1956, the Browns finished 5-7 and saddled head coach Paul Brown with his first – and only – losing season in Cleveland.
Why the trip down memory lane? To prove the point of how important quarterbacks are in pro football. We’ve told you the Browns’ story, but that’s the story with every team in the NFL.
Quarterback is the most important position in team sports. If a club has a quarterback, then it has a chance. And if it doesn’t, then it doesn’t.
That’s why the current situation with Johnny Manziel is so important. The Browns selected Manziel in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft because they believed he was their franchise quarterback. The fact he has been shut down – at least for two weeks, and possibly even longer – with soreness in his throwing elbow is a huge problem.
The Browns are not going anywhere until they find their guy – the guy – at quarterback. The fact they’ve been looking for their guy – the guy – ever since they returned to the field in 1999 is why they’ve had only two winning records in 16 seasons.
At 21 of the 22 positions on the field, the Browns can compete favorably with the other teams in the AFC North. But at quarterback, they’re so far behind that they need binoculars to see the Cincinnati Bengals, Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers.
If head coach Mike Pettine and General Manager Ray Farmer can navigate their way through this mess and find a quarterback – whether it’s Johnny Football, Johnny Cash, Johnny Be Good or somebody else named Johnny or Billy or Tommy or whomever – they will not only keep their jobs, but they and the club will thrive.
But if they are unable to locate Mr. Right at quarterback, then the team is going to lose and they’re both going to get fired.
It’s no more complicated than that.
The Browns want to take a look at Manziel this season to see if he’s the man. Here’s hoping, for the sake of everyone involved, especially the best fans in the NFL who so deserve a winner, that the club gets that chance and finds out, once and for all, what they have in Manziel so they can either bring him along, or go out and find someone else.
