Paul Brown was a visionary when he was coaching the Browns for their first 17 seasons, including in 1950 in those two games against the Philadelphia Eagles that we’ve been writing about here for the last several days.
He saw things that other people simply did not see, or, really, even think about. He was so far ahead of everybody else that he was amlapping them.
But, back in 1950, when he was walking off the sidelines at Cleveland Stadium after his club defeated the Eagles 13–7 in the next-to-last game of that first NFL season for the Browns, even he could not have foreseen what is going on in pro football today.
The NFL at that time had just 13 teams, 19 less than there are today, and all but two of the teams were east of the Mississippi River. Teams like the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos, well-tenured in the league now, were still a full decade away from being born.
Games are being played everywhere now. The Eagles will serves as hosts of a season-opening game in Brazil on a Friday night, possibly against the Browns. Contests in England, Mexico and Germany are nothing new.
The money in the game now is staggering, as we all know. The salary cap per team was bumped up just recently to a staggering, 255.4 million. But 74 years ago, the money was not plentiful but pitiful. Even in 1961, it was still small-time. Art Modell bought the Browns that year for $4 million. That’s pocket change to Deshaun Watson. Players had to work off-season jobs to make ends meet. Indeed, football was still a stepcousin to baseball, the nation’s most popular sport then.
Perhaps, though, what would’ve blown the socks off Paul Brown more than anything is what’s happening this week in Indianapolis with the NFL Combine.
Draft prospects in shorts and T-shirts will be getting weighed and measured, then they will run sprints, do agility drills and see how well they can jump. It’s almost as if it were a track meet. There will be tons of media people covering it and, believe it or not — and Paul Brown certainly would not have believed it — it will be televised and the ratings will be through the roof. Fans will also attend the event live.
Yes, fans will watch all this with great interest. The prospects are not playing a game. In fact, they’re not even practicing. It will look like a gym class at your local high school.
Somewhere, Paul Brown is just shaking his head.
Steve King
