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The mood changed.

Instantly.

Drastically.

For the better.

To the surprise of absolutely no one.

And to the enjoyment of everyone.

Yet again.

Indeed, there were smiles — and a lot of them — last Saturday when the subject of the Kardiac Kids came up as I spoke to the men’s group at Sawyerwood Methodist Church, located nearly in the shadow of the old Rubber Bowl in suburban Akron’s Springfield Township.

I have had the privilege of being the guest of this group once a year for the last 14 years. The mere mention of that era 45 years ago still resonates loudly with these men, made up mostly of longtime Browns fans, and everybody else who watched the Kids play. It was a great time in Browns history, and even more importantly an exciting one, in fact the most exciting year ever. I don’t think the Browns can ever top it. It was that good, with 13 of their 16 games — 14 of 17 if you count the loss to the Oakland Raiders in the playoffs — not being decided until the final two minutes. No lead was ever too big to blow, and no deficit was ever too big to overcome. It was as if the No. 2 goal behind winning was making the games go right down to the end. You had to see it to believe it. You couldn’t make this stuff up. No one would believe it.

The team was full of character —it enabled them to win most of the those close games, going 11-5 and winning the AFC Central

title for the first time in nine seasons — and some real characters, including the head coach, Sam Rutigliano, whose one-liners kept everybody loose and laughing.

The club was led by Brian Sipe, who had the best season of any quarterback in Browns history en route to being the the first Brown in 15 years — and still the last — to capture the NFL Most Valuable Player Award. Rutigliano was asked in an NFL Films presentation why the club passed the ball so much.

“Because anything else would be incredibly boring,” he quipped.

There ya go!

Nothing was boring about those Browns.

I told the church group that, sadly, the current Browns, coming off a 3-14 finish, are about as far away from the magic of that 1980 season as they can be — probably 180 degrees.

And then I added, “I’m not sure the Browns have the right people running the organization right now to change that.”

Ugh.

Nobody in that room, least of all me, was smiling then. 

Steve King