Unfortunately so, Len Ford is the picture postcard of the Browns defenses of the 1950s.
Last Thursday marked the 59th anniversary of Ford’s departure from Cleveland. It was on May 19, 1958 that Ford, a right defensive end who had been with the Browns for eight seasons, was traded to the Green Bay Packers for a draft choice.
It was a sad end to a tremendous player’s career. Ford was 32 years old and did not fit the rebuilding plans of head coach Paul Brown. But the Packers, who were really struggling at the time both on the field and at the gate, were more than happy to land a name player from a name team, if only for the publicity it would bring.
The Browns were an iconic offensive team in the 1950s with players like quarterback Otto Graham, wide receivers Dante Lavelli and Mac Speedie, left tackle Lou Groza, fullback Marion Motley and center Frank Gatski. All but Speedie are in the HOF, and he would be there, too, had he not jumped to the Canadian Football League following the 1952 season.
The Cleveland defenses were outstanding, too, giving up an average of 12 points a game in 1950, 12.7 in ’51, 17.8 in ’52, 13.5 in both ’53 and ’54, 18.3 in ’55, 14.8 in ’56 and 14.3 in Ford’s final season of 1957. The Browns made the NFL Championship Game in every season during that stretch but 1956, winning three titles.
But because the offenses were so off-the-charts good, anything those defenses accomplished was nothing more than an after-thought.
Ford, one of just two Browns defensive players in the HOF, was almost impossible to block. The four-time Pro Bowler had size — he was 6-foot-4 and 245 pounds, which was considered big for that time – and strength, but he was also quick and agile dating back to his days of two-platoon football with the All-America Football Conference’s Los Angeles Dons when he doubled as a pass-catching tight end.
Upon the league breaking up after the 1949 season, the Browns were quick to grab Ford as they moved into the NFL.
Ford died way too early, a month past his 46th birthday in 1972. As such, he didn’t live long enough to see the contributions of pro football’s early African-American players begin to get noticed.
All of the attention in that regard went to his teammate from 1950-53, Hall of Fame middle guard Bill Willis, who, along with Motley, were the first two African-American players to break the game’s color line when they starred on that first Browns team in 1946. Willis lived 40 years longer than Ford, dying in 2007 at the age of 86, and with that got plenty of opportunity to tell his incredible story.
Meanwhile, Ford gets lost in history, just like those defenses on which he played.
And that’s a real shame.
