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Gary Danielson has long been considered the best backup quarterback in Browns history after serving as a sometimes starter but so much importantly as Bernie Kosar’s mentor and confidant from 1985-88.

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Indeed, he is the standard-bearer in that regard. Nobody else is really close.

But what Danielson has never gotten any credit for, but definitely should, is that he is one of the more important figures in club history. Without him, the Browns’ rise to power during the last half of the 1980s would have happened differently, a little less dramatically and possibly later.

All of this came to mind the other day when Danielson, who will turn 74 just as next season is starting, will retire at the end of the year after spending two decades as the lead color analyst for CBS on its telecasts of college football games.

Danielson was acquired in a trade with the Detroit Lions in May 1985, two months before the club picked Kosar No. 1 overall in the NFL Supplemental Draft as their presumptive franchise quarterback.

The plan was for Danielson to be the starter all that season while Kosar stood on the sidelines and learned the pro game from the longtime veteran. But it didn’t turn out that way, as Danielson got hurt in an Oct. 6 game against the New England Patriots. Kosar came on and led the Browns to a 24-20 victory over the team that would go on and win the AFC championship.

The Browns hovered around the .500 mark all year, which put them right into the thick of things in the bunched-up Central Division.

The Browns played the New York Giants on Dec. 1 in a nationally-televised game at the Meadowlands. Cleveland raced to a 21-7 lead and then the Giants did the racing, scoring 26 unanswered points to go on top 33–21. Kosar was benched for ineffectiveness and replaced by Danielson, who, despite a separated shoulder, courageously, heroically and painfully rescued and rallied the Browns to a 35-33 victory that was sealed when the Giants missed a field goal on the final play.

The exhilarating come-from-behind road win over one of the emerging powers in the league, in front of the whole country, was a real confidence-builder for the young Browns and propelled them to the division title, which, in turn, served as the launching pad for that aforementioned great run through 1989, during which the Browns made the playoffs five straight times, winning four Central crowns and making three AFC Championship Game appearances.

But who knows what would have happened had Gary Danielson not stepped in at just the right time?

Thankfully, the Browns and their fans never had to find out.

Steve King