If you told the teams that played in Thursday’s Thanksgiving Day NFL games that they were going to have to play another contest on Sunday, they’d look at you as if you were crazy.
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Then they’d laugh and tell you to leave them alone.
Three games in eight days, because, of course, they had played the previous Sunday?
Yeah, right!
But that’s exactly what the 1948 Browns did to earn the final spot on the club’s Mount Rushmore of franchise accomplishments.
The Browns did indeed play three games in eight days.
All on the road.
On opposite coasts.
Against their three toughest opponents, and their biggest rivals.
And they won all three games.
It happened exactly 77 years ago during Thanksgiving week.
It was, without a doubt, the most incredible part of that most incredible season, when the Browns finished a perfect 15-0 and captured their third consecutive AAFC championship.
And it’s something that had never happened before in pro football history, hasn’t happened since and will never, ever happen again.
Period.
End of statement.
You can bet on it.
Guaranteed.
Records are made to be broken, but this one never will be broken.
It can’t be. It’s just too tough, too challenging.
But not for those long-ago Browns. The team was full of World War II veterans. Nothing on a football field was too tough for them.
This odyssey began on Sunday, Nov. 21 when the Browns beat the New York Yankees 34-21 at Yankee Stadium.
They then traveled to the West Coast and routed the Los Angeles Dons 31-14 four days later, on Thanksgiving, Nov. 25, at Memorial Stadium.
They followed that by going north up the coast to San Francisco and edging the 49ers 31-28 on Sunday, Nov. 28 at Kezar Stadium.
Wow!!!
The Browns and 49ers, of course, play on Sunday at Huntington Bank Field. It’s almost certain that no one in either organization is aware of any of this. If you tried to tell them, they’d look at you as if you were crazy, then they would laugh and tell you to leave them alone.
Steve King
READ NEXT: Climbing a New Browns Mount Rushmore: Defining the Franchise’s Greatest Achievements
With the NFL now counting stats and championships from the 1946–49 All-America Football Conference:
— I'm From Cleveland (@ImFromCle) April 2, 2025
🏆 The Browns gain 4 more championships — now tied for 3rd-most in NFL history (8 total)
(THREAD) pic.twitter.com/QIgBeGWhiu
