The top 40 music charts have existed for decades. By merely saying “top 40,” everybody knows what you mean.
Then there’s the recently-released movie, “42,” about the life and times of baseball Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson. He wore jersey No. 42, which is universally retired throughout the major leagues.
However, for the purposes of this story – and the ones to follow in coming issues — we’re going to split the difference between those two numbers and focus on 41.
This is not a story about Ralph Smith, who wore that number as a Browns tight end from 1965-68 and always seemed to rise up and play his best game of the year against the Pittsburgh Steelers when the two bitter rivals used to meet in their annual footbrawl games on Saturday nights in old Cleveland Stadium.
No, this 41 is similar to the top 40 music charts in that it is a list of the best 41 teams in Browns history.
But why 41?
That seems like such an odd number. Why not 40? That’s a nice, round – and known – figure. Just ask those people in the music industry. It’s worked pretty well for them.
The reason we chose 41 teams is two-pronged. We wanted to include all Browns clubs over the years that have qualified for the postseason and/or had a non-losing record. Those are obviously the best teams the Browns have ever fielded.
We could have ranked all of the previous 64 teams to make it a complete list, but what’s the sense worrying about a 5-11 finisher?
Moreover, do you really want to go back and re-live the 1999 expansion team that went a franchise-worst 2-14?
No, we don’t, either. You’d have to be a glutton for punishment to do it.
So what’s the criteria we’re using to judge these teams? It is NOT trying to determine if the 1950 Browns could beat the 1986 version if they actually played each other. That would be silly. You can’t compare apples and oranges — teams of different eras directly against one another. There are too many variables that preclude it from being applicable. The NFL of 1950 is greatly different from the league as it was in 1986, and it has changed considerably again from 1986 to now.
Rather, we’re looking at each team to see how it did that season against the other clubs in the league, and how close it came to reaching its potential.
There’s no real science being used here, just a long, hard look at numbers and plenty of opinion – yes, opinion, for that is what we all have about everybody and everything in all aspects of life. The fact that one fan’s opinion may be the opposite of that of another fan is what makes it fun. It will get the readers thinking and stir debate.
And in many ways, good, healthy, well thought-out debate is what sports at every level are all about.
We’re going to break down our list into a four-part series, the first of which will immediately follow. Because of the odd numbers of teams, we’ve included 11 teams (Nos. 41 to 31) in Part 1, while the last three parts of the series will each contain 10 clubs until we finally count down to No. 1.
Because we couldn’t get the late, great Casey Kasem to do our countdown, we’ll have to wing it ourselves. So here we go with Part 1:
How does this strike you?
No. 41 – 1982 – finished 4-5 in the regular season and was the eighth and final qualifier for the AFC version of what was known that season as the NFL’s Super Bowl Tournament; lost 27-10 to the Los Angeles Raiders in the first round — Because of a 57-day players’ strike, the season was reduced from 16 games to nine, the fewest number in Browns history. On top of that, just to make the season more bizarre, the Browns qualified for the playoffs with a losing record for the first – and only – time in their history. But wait, there’s more bizarre stuff. Brian Sipe holds almost all of the Browns’ passing records while Paul McDonald did little in his career, but McDonald replaced a struggling Sipe late in the 1982 season and took a faltering Browns team and led it into the playoffs – alebit on tie-breakers. It wasn’t as if McDonald turned into a superstar. In his first start, against Pittsburgh at home and with the team having lost three in a row, the Browns exploded for a touchdown and a field goal in a 10-9 win, then the following week at the Astrodome, they doubled their production with two touchdowns and two field goals for a 20-14 triumph over the Houston Oilers. The Browns scored no more than 21 points in any game all year. Maybe the real hero of 1982 was second-year cornerback Hanford Dixon, who tied a team record by intercepting three passes off Pittsburgh’s Terry Bradshaw. The loss to the Raiders was ugly, as the Browns got shut out in the second half after trailing just 13-10 at halftime. That sealed the deal for making this Browns team the worst of the best in franchise history.
Forgettable season, unforgettable offseason
No. 40 – 1962 – finished 7-6-1 and in third place in the NFL’s Eastern Conference, 4½ games behind the champion New York Giants; did not make the playoffs – The season opened in encouraging fashion with a 17-7 win over the defending Eastern champion Giants, but then went downhill quickly. The following week, the Washington Redskins began a season series sweep of the Browns for just the second time with a 17-16 win fueled by a late punt return for a touchdown by Bobby Mitchell, whom Cleveland had traded in the offseason to get the rights to Ernie Davis. Davis came down with leukemia and died the next year before ever playing a down. That loss was followed by a four-touchdown setback to the Philadelphia Eagles and a 22-point defeat to the Baltimore Colts. Late in the season, after two straight wins raised their record to 6-4-1 and offered some hope, the Browns suffered one of the most disappointing losses in their history to that point, a 45-21 drubbing by the third-year Dallas Cowboys. The Browns avoided their second losing season only with a 13-10 win over the San Francisco 49ers in the finale. The team was in desperate need of some re-tooling, especially offensively. Jim Brown failed to rush for 1,000 yards for just the second time in his six seasons, and Paul Brown couldn’t settle on a quarterback, going back and forth between Frank Ryan and Jim Ninowski. Feeling that Paul Brown – the only coach the club had ever had and the man for whom the team was named — had lost the locker room, second-year Browns owner Art Modell stunningly fired him three weeks after the season. Modell smartly – and in sneaky fashion — made the move during a Cleveland newspaper strike, thus muzzling – at least for a while – the firestorm of controversy that ensued.
Yes, there is a doctor in the house
No. 39 – 1976 – finished 9-5 and in third place in the AFC Central Division, a game behind the champion Pittsburgh Steelers, and Cincinnati Bengals; did not make the playoffs – After suffering through their two worst seasons in history, 4-10 in 1974 and then 3-11 in ’75, the Browns went into the year looking to get off to a good start and build some momentum so as to have a chance to turn things around. Four games into the season, those hopes had been all but dashed. The Browns had suffered three losses in a row by the combined score of 120-51, the worst three-game stretch in their history, and their starting quarterback, Mike Phipps, had been lost for the year with a separated shoulder suffered in the opener – their only win, a 38-17 decision over the Lou Holtz-coached New York Jets. And oh, yes, their next game was at home against two-time defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh, which had started the Browns off on their losing streak with a 31-14 rout at Three Rivers Stadium. The situation got worse when second-year pro Brian Sipe, who had replaced Phipps, was knocked out of the game – literally and figuratively – with a concussion after a hit by linebacker Jack Lambert from Kent State and Mantua (Ohio) Crestwood High School. That forced third-stringer Dave “Doc” Mays, who was studying to be a dentist, into the game. Mays was up to the challenge, as his passing and running – along with four Don Cockroft field goals, including a season-long 50-yarder – led to an 18-16 win. It completely changed – energized — the Browns’ season, as they won eight of nine to get to 9-4 at one point, barely missing the playoffs. Forrest Gregg, in his second season, was named the AFC Coach of the Year and Sipe recovered from the concussion to throw more touchdown passes (17) than interceptions (14). What progress – a six-win swing — the Browns had made in just one year.
When the Kids were born
No. 38 – 1978 – finished 8-8 and in third place in the AFC Central Division, six games behind the champion Steelers; did not make the playoffs – No one knew it at the time because no one knew who he was when he was hired, but it was as if the cavalry had arrived when Sam Rutgliano took over as head coach of the Browns shortly after the end of the 1977 season. He inherited a disaster. The Browns had lost six of their final seven games to finish 6-8, causing head coach Forrest Gregg to get fired with a week left. A lack of offense, especially passing-wise, was the problem. Rutigliano, who had been offensive coordinator of the New Orleans Saints under Hank Stram, really knew that side of the ball, and he really knew quarterbacks. Plus he was a people person, with the ability to communication being maybe his best asset. On top of all that, he was smart. He knew football overall, and he knew how to coach and build a team. He began by giving young, up-and-down quarterback Brian Sipe his unwavering support. Then he instilled some confidence into running back Mike Pruitt, a first-round draft pick in 1976 who had gotten into Gregg’s dog house with fumbling problems. With two first-round picks In his first draft in 1978, he grabbed USC linebacker Clay Matthews at No. 12 and then Alabama’s Ozzie Newsome 11 slots later. He took Newsome, who had been a seldom-used wide receiver in the Crimson Tide’s wishbone offense, and moved him to tight end, and then took Dave Logan, who had been miscast as a tight end in his first two seasons with the Browns, and switched him to his more natural position of wide receiver, the position he had played in college. Those moves laid the groundwork for the birth of the Kardiac Kids, who, two seasons later, finished 11-5 and won their first AFC Central title in nine years. There were hints all throughout that up-and-down 1978 season that Rutigliano and the Browns were on to something special.
The beginning of a new era
No. 37 – 1970 – finished 7-7 and in second place in the AFC Central Division, a game behind the champion Bengals; did not make the playoffs – The Browns were one of three teams to move from the old NFL into the re-made AFL, the AFC, to balance the conferences at 13 teams each to finalize the two leagues’ merger. That was a seminal moment in pro football. Everything was changing. The Browns continued to be right in the middle of that change when, in their opener, they hosted the first Monday Night Football game, defeating the New York Jets 31-21 before 85,703, still the largest crowd ever to see the Browns play in Cleveland. But it didn’t continue to be so easy. For every step forward the Browns took, they took a step backward, winning three of four at one point and then following it up with their first three-game losing streak in 11 years. The Browns fell out of the playoff race with a 6-2 home loss to the Dallas Cowboys in the next-to-last game, during which wide receiver Gary Collins, the hero of the 1964 NFL Championship Game victory over the Baltimore Colts, was soundly booed. A 27-13 win at Denver in the finale allowed Blanton Collier to avoid a losing record in his swan song. The popular – and successful – head coach was having to retire after eight seasons because of hearing problems.
A sign of things to come
No. 36 – 1973 – finished 7-5-2 and in third place in the AFC Central Division, two games behind the champion Bengals; did not make the playoffs – The Browns had been down this road many times before, and almost always with great results. Following their come-from-behind 21-16 home win over the Steelers on Nov. 25, the Browns were 7-3-1 and in the thick of the division title race with three games left. So many times in the past, this is where they had kicked it into gear and earned a postseason berth. But not this time. It was right then and there that the team seemed to get old all at the same time, the last remaining players from the great 1960s clubs running out of gas down the stretch. As such, the Browns didn’t win another game all year, fighting back to tie the Kansas City Chiefs 20-20 and then losing decidedly to the Bengals (34-17) and Los Angeles Rams (30-17). When it was all said and done, their playoff chances were gone, and, as it turned out, so was their magic. The Browns were about to embark upon their first prolonged down period, having just one winning record over the next five years and not making the playoffs again until 1980. A big reason for that was the lack of a great quarterback. Mike Phipps had finished the year with but nine touchdown passes with 20 interceptions, and it would only get worse from there with him.
Just in the Nick of time
No. 35 – 1971 – finished 9-5 and in first place in the AFC Central Division, three games ahead of the runner-up Steelers; lost 20-3 to the Baltimore Colts in the divisional playoffs – Having taken over for the retired Blanton Collier, Nick Skorich, a Bellaire, Ohio native and a longtime Browns assistant coach, was hired as just the third head coach in team history. But things weren’t going well. The Browns had suffered through their first four-game losing streak in history, ruining an encouraging 4-1 start and putting them at 4-5 and in jeopardy of having the season get completely away from them. Then, when all seemed lost, the Browns got hot, winning their last five games to capture their first AFC Central crown. The key was a resurgent offense led by quarterback Bill Nelsen, who gutted his way through aching knees to get the Browns back into the playoffs after a one-year absence. Nelsen wasn’t great – his career was nearly over, as evidenced by the fact he threw 13 touchdown passes with 23 interceptions – but he was good enough, especially in the clutch. The Browns won by four points twice and by seven points in their last three games. But Nelsen and the Browns really struggled again in the lopsided loss to the Colts in the playoffs.
‘Sick, disappointed’
No. 34 – 1967 – finished 9-5 and in first place in the Century Division of the NFL’s Eastern Conference, two games ahead of the runner-up Giants; lost 52-14 to the Dallas Cowboys in the conference championship game – Yes, the Browns won the title in the Century Division’s first year of existence. Yes, they got back into the playoffs after missing them in 1966. Yes, they were impressive down the stretch, winning four straight games to clinch the division before a meaningless loss to the Eagles in the finale. But there were two nightmares – bad ones, at that. The first came with a 55-7 drubbing at Green Bay – one of the worst defeats in team history — immediately before the Browns got on that four-game winning streak. The second came in the conference title game against Dallas, when the Browns were bludgeoned again, this time by 38 points. Browns head coach Blanton Collier said he was ‘sick, disappointed’ with the way his team had performed against the Cowboys. Dallas and Green Bay ended up meeting in the NFL Championship Game for the second straight year, with the Packers winning again. Judging by the way the Browns failed to make a game of it against those two teams, Collier knew his club needed to make some changes – maybe even major ones – in order to be a contender again. It was going to be an interesting offseason.
The expansion era’s jewel
No. 33 – 2002 – finished 9-7 and in second place in the AFC North Division, 1½ games behind the champion Steelers; made the playoffs as a wild card and lost 36-33 to the Steelers in the wild-card round – The Browns have made the playoffs just one time in 14 seasons in the expansion era, and this was it. They won their finale against the Atlanta Falcons, 24-16, then found out three hours later that they had made it into the playoffs as a wild card. In just two seasons, head coach Butch Davis had completely transformed the Browns, who had been just 5-27 in their first two years back in the NFL. It wasn’t easy, though. The 2002 season had a lot of Kardiac Kids aspects to it, with almost all of the games going right down to the wire before they were decided. Just 2-4 at one point, the Browns rebounded to win seven of their last 10 games. Quarterback Tim Couch was coming along, as was wide receiver Kevin Johnson (67 receptions) and rookie running back William Green (887 yards rushing after a sluggish first half of the year). Couch, though, broke his leg against Atlanta and was replaced by Kelly Holcomb. Holcomb had a career game at Pittsburgh in the playoffs, passing for 429 yards and three touchdowns, but it wasn’t enough as the Browns blew a 17-point lead and lost. But that disappointment, though significant, paled in comparison to that of losing team owner Al Lerner to brain cancer on Oct. 23. Somewhere he was smiling when the Browns eked their way into the playoffs for the first time since 1994.
Fit to be tied
No. 32 – 2007 – finished 10-6, the same as the Steelers, in the AFC North Division, but lost division title to Pittsburgh on tie-breakers; did not make playoffs – Although the Browns made the playoffs in 2002, maybe their best team was the one in 2007. Other than two losses to Pittsburgh, the second of which by just three points, and a convincing 17-point defeat at New England, the Browns played very well, coming up with big play after big play to find a way to win. The catalyst move for all this was made midway through the second quarter of the opener against the Steelers. Trailing 17-0, the Browns benched quarterback Charlie Frye, traded him two days later and relied on unheralded Derek Anderson the rest of the way. Anderson went on to become the first Browns quarterback in 20 years to make the Pro Bowl. Free-agent signee Jamal Lewis, after years of terrorizing the Browns, rushed for 1,304 yards and nine touchdowns, and wide receiver Braylon Edwards had the best season ever by a Browns pass catcher, grabbing 80 passes and setting team records for receiving yards (1,289) and touchdown receptions (16). The Browns were 9-5 with two games left and needed only to defeat the struggling Bengals, whom they had outlasted 51-45 in the teams’ first meeting at Cleveland in Week 2, in order to clinch a playoff spot. But things went horribly wrong as Anderson threw four interceptions in a 19-14 loss. It proved to be the season’s death knell. Although the Browns beat the 49ers 20-7 the next week in the finale to finish 10-6, they lost the division title to the Steelers on tie-breakers, and then they also lost out to the Tennessee Titans, again on tie-breakers, for the AFC’s last wild-card berth. It was a bitter ending to a great season, and, with that loss at Cincinnati, the Browns had only themselves to blame.
A loss but a win
No. 31 – 1985 – finished 8-8 and in first place in the AFC Central Division, a game ahead of the runner-up Steelers and Bengals; lost 24-21 to the Miami Dolphins in the divisional playoffs – Such as was the case in 1982, the Browns made the playoffs with a mediocre record. Only this time, they won the division title instead of being the last of the playoff qualifiers in the strike-shortened season. But while the 1982 trip to the playoffs didn’t mean anything – didn’t lead to anything – the berth in 1985, and the way the Browns performed in the playoffs, was truly significant. The Browns were coming off a 1984 season in which they finished 5-11, had no quarterback (Paul McDonald) to go forward with, and their head coach, Sam Rutigliano, had gotten fired at the halfway point with the club at 1-7. The 1985 Browns acquired a franchise quarterback in Bernie Kosar, and they had two 1,000-yard rushers in Kevin Mack and Earnest Byner. But with just a .500 record, they were heavy underdogs against the Dolphins, who would go on to make it to the Super Bowl with Dan Marino. As it turned out, they gave Miami all it could handle – and then some — by leading 21-3 in the third quarter before faltering with their Neanderthal passing attack. But in losing, they proved they could play with the best, and if they could change a few things in the offseason, then maybe they could beat the best. And they did indeed make some changes in 1986, setting the stage for a great run through the remainder of that decade.
NEXT: Nos. 30 through 21.
