Join the Havoc with your own Havokk Subscription

If “Red Right 88” had not happened and the Browns woujd have defeated the Oakland Raiders in the 1980 AFC Divisional Playoffs, then they would have gone on the road to face the San Diego Chargers in the conference title game with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.

Years later, I asked Sam Rutigliano, the head coach of those Browns, had that game would have gone.

“Not good,” he said quickly and in matter-of-fact fashion. “We didn’t match up well with them.”

We’ll never know the answer to that question obviously, but he just might have been right on point with his opinion.

At least that’s what could be inferred by what happened when the two teams played eight months after the fact. It occurred exactly 45 years ago, on Sept. 7 — Labor Day — in the 1981 regular-season opener on Monday Night Football at Cleveland Stadium.

The Chargers blew out to a 20–7 halftime lead and never looked back in dominating the Browns from start to finish to the tune of 44–14.

Browns quarterback Brian Sipe passed for 366 yards as the team rolled up 419 total yards, but the Chargers gained a whopping 535 yards, including 205 rushing.

The Browns showed no real signs of the magic that was so much a part of that Kardiac Kids season  of 1980. All those veterans came back looking so much older and slower. They weren’t Kids anymore. Meanwhile, the Chargers looked even better than they had been the previous season. They were running on all cylinders.

It was a sad realization for the Browns and their fans that things had changed —  a lot — and not in a good way.

So, yeah, Sam Rutigliano was almost certainly right.

Steve King