Former Browns middle linebacker Vince Costello had the M and the O in his playing career, just not the typical ones for that period of time in team history.

And he got a late start.

But that didn’t deter him, which is why Costello is the focus of Part 15 of this Roy Hobbs series of Browns players who came out of nowhere to do big things.

Costello grew up just south of Canton and played six-man football, as the quarterback, no less, at tiny Magnolia High School, which has since been consolidated into Sandy Valley High School. From there, he went on to Ohio University.

After not getting taken in the 1956 NFL Draft, he signed as a rookie free agent with the Browns, but injuries kept him from being able to play that season. Finally, head coach Paul Brown told Costello to shut it down, go home and get healthy and come back in 1957.

Brown had coached at Massillon High School and Ohio State and used players from both places to fill up the roster on those great early Browns teams. But talent is talent, wherever it comes from, and Brown had an eye for it. He could see that Costello had it.

Costello made an impression right away when he returned in 1957, becoming a starter on a defense that had a big say in the Browns beating out the defending league champion New York Giants to win the Eastern Conference.

Then in 1964, he was a key contributor on a defense that stymied the heavily-favored Baltimore Colts in a 27-0 victory that gave Cleveland its first NFL title in nine seasons.

In later years, Costello would bristle when people called the win over Baltimore an upset.

“It wasn’t that at all. We were the better team,” he contended.

Costello played 10 seasons with the Browns before finishing his career with the Giants for two years. He had 18 interceptions with Cleveland, including seven — an incredible numbers for a middle linebacker — in 1963.

NEXT: A Risien star.

Steve King