On this date in Browns history, May 15

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By STEVE KING

What could well be the biggest event in the history of the NFL, especially the modern part of such, occurred 51 years ago Friday.

It was on this date in Browns history May 15, 1969 that, following a marathon 36-hour meeting of National Football League and American Football League owners, the move of the Browns, Baltimore Colts and Pittsburgh Steelers to the newly-formed American Football Conference for the 1970 season was announced. The move balanced the AFC and the National Football Conference at 13 teams each, and allowed for the completion of the merger between the NFL and AFL that began to be enacted in 1966. The new league will carry the NFL moniker beginning in 1970.

The NFC was set to be comprised of the 13 remaining teams from the old NFL following the departure of Cleveland, Baltimore and Pittsburgh. The 10 teams from the AFL, plus the Browns, Colts and Steelers, would make up the AFC.

The finalization of the merger had reached a stalemate when there was a reluctance of NFL owners to move their clubs to the AFC, made up almost exclusively of teams in smaller markets than those in the NFL.

Say what you want about then Browns owner Art Modell – and all of us certainly have – but he was not afraid of change and taking a leap of faith if he believed strongly enough in something. He saw what was happening with the merger, with no one willing to budge, and so he volunteered his Browns to go, as long as Pittsburgh agreed to switch, too, to preserve the teams’ long rivalry. The Colts agreed to go independently from the Browns and Steelers.

It was the same kind of thinking that Modell used when, about a year later, the NFL was looking for volunteers to play in the first of a new series called Monday Night Football in 1970. He volunteered the Browns to not just play in the opening game, but also to host it, as long as the opponent was the Jets to so as to draw in the huge New York TV market. Modell understood the importance of TV in everything.

In any case, the merger, made possible because of what the Browns and Steelers did in unison, allowed the NFL to move into what is now called the modern era.

But here’s a question that has never really been asked, or questions, as it were:

What if the Browns had not moved to the re-made AFL, the AFC, for the 1970 season? What if the Steelers, Colts and another old-line NFL team, say, perhaps, the Detroit Lions, just to pick one out of a hat, had gone to the AFC and the Browns had stayed in the NFC?

Yes, what if? How, if at all, would it have changed the history of the Browns in the over half-century since?

The Browns have maintained the strong rivalry with Pittsburgh and have, because of geography and the Paul Brown connection, also developed a robust rivalry with the Cincinnati Bengals. The intense rivalry with the former Browns franchise, the Baltimore Ravens, is obvious. It’s deep-seeded.

And for that matter, the Browns had a great rivalry with the other original AFC Central team, the Houston Oilers. That was especially true in 1980 when the Kardiac Kids Browns and Oilers both finished 11-5, with Cleveland winning the division championship on tie-breakers.

But at the same time, in 1969, the Browns’ best rivalries were really with the Dallas Cowboys and St. Louis Cardinals. Those could have continued, along with the longstanding rivalry with the New York Giants that had been the best in the NFL for a decade and a half once the Browns entered the NFL in 1950 from the All-America Football Conference.

The Browns knew all the teams in the NFC from those many years playing them. Other than the Colts and Steelers, they knew nothing about the rest of the AFC teams. The Sam Diego Chargers? The Kansas City Chiefs? The Miami Dolphins? Those were all strangers to the Browns.

And through the 1970s, with teams like Pittsburgh and Miami rising to power and the Oakland Raiders continuing to be contenders, the Browns would have been in the weaker NFC through that first decade.

But at the same time, if you want to be the best, then you have to beat the best, and the best teams were in the AFC. So, in that regard, then, perhaps the Browns were right where they needed to be.

Whatever the case, it’s interesting to consider, especially with the fact that, for better or for worse, the whole process started exactly 51 years ago.

On this date in Browns history, May 15 was written by Steve King

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