Unlike now, what fans have to watch, especially with the quarterback-less Browns, probably passes as an act of penance in the Catholic Church, offensive football used to be fun in these parts way back in the day nearly 50 years ago.
It was so much so, in fact, that people were heads over heels about it — literally and figuratively.
Back in 1978, the Kardiac Kids were being incubated by first-year Browns head coach Sam Rutigliano. Talk about exciting, and entertaining, those teams had it. Their guys were required viewing.
The first play Coach Sam ever called, in the regular-season opener against the San Francisco 49ers at Cleveland Stadium, was an end-around run by rookie tight end and first-round draft choice Ozzie Newsome.
Browns radio play-by-play announcer Gib Shanley nearly jumped out of the booth for joy as he called it.
Can you see current head coach Kevin Stefanski calling a play like that to start the season, or ever?
No, I can’t, either.
Anyway, the Browns defeated the 49ers 24-7, then the Cincinnati Bengals 13-10 in overtime the next week and finally the Atlanta Falcons 24-16 to set up a battle of 3-0 teams on Sept. 24 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh against the defending Super Bowl champion Steelers.
The Browns battled the Steelers tooth and nail and led 9-3 entering the fourth quarter before they surrendered two field goals to tie the score at 9-9 and force overtime.
The Steelers won the coin toss and, of course, elected to receive. Don Cockroft boomed the ball to Larry Anderson, who returned it to the Pittsburgh 17 before he was upended and sent flying into the air upside down. Before he hit the ground, he fumbled the ball. The Browns saw it, the Steelers saw it and the fans back home in Northeast Ohio watching on TV saw it.
There was even a photo on the front page of the Cleveland Plain Dealer showing that showed that the ball came out while Anderson was still airborne.
Indeed, everybody saw it except the guys in the striped shirts.
The Browns recovered at the 17, but that was nullified when the officials ruled that that the ball came out when Anderson hit the ground. The ground can’t cause a fumble.
So, instead of the Browns having the ball in easy range for the venerable Cockroft to kick a chip-shot field goal for a 12-9 victory and an end — finally — to “The Three Rivers Jinx, which had reached eight, as in eight straight Cleveland losses there since the place opened in 1970, the Steelers retained possession. They ended up driving into Cleveland territory and quarterback Terry Bradshaw hit wide-open tight end Bennie Cunningham for a 37-yard touchdown pass on a flea-flicker play to provide a 15-9 victory.
Browns owner Art Modell flipped out after the game. He stormed down to the bowels of the stadium, found the officials dressing room and pounded on it like a man possessed. He wanted answers.
“Open up!! Open up!! This is Art Modell!,” he hollered.
“Art, you know you can’t come in here. It would be a $10,000 fine,” referee Art McNally yelled back.
Modell stopped and thought about it for a minute. That was a lot of money back then.
“What can I get for $5?,” he asked.
If Jim Tressel listened to the game as he carried out his graduate assistant coach duties for the University of Akron football team, he no doubt winced. He is a lifelong Browns fan.
Five months earlier, he did his own flipping out — but in a good way — during the Zips’ annual Blue-Gold scrimmage at the Rubber Bowl to conclude spring football.
According to then Akron head coach Jim Dennison, Tressel was calling the offensive plays for the Blue team. On one occasion, Tressel had a wide receiver go in motion and then, when he passed behind the quarterback, he had him do back flips. The stunned linebackers on defense got caught up watching the antics and lost their focus. They didn’t see until it was too late the running back bursting through a gaping hole and going untouched for a touchdown.
“I never saw anything like that, before or since,” Dennison said. “But if there was someone who would be daring, creative and innovative enough to pull it off, it would be Jim Tressel.”
But is that same Jim Tressel, now 72 and newly sworn in as Ohio’s Lieutenant Governor, be daring enough all these years later to call another run — for himself for governor down the road — that would cause everyone to notice, and some to joyfully do backflips while others flipped out?
Who knows? But we shall see.
Steve King
