THE KARDIAC KIDS RIDE AGAIN

By STEVE KING

Somewhere, Brian Sipe is smiling.

And so is Dave Logan.

And Greg Pruitt.

And Mike Pruitt.

And Ozzie Newsome.

And Calvin Hill.

And Tom DeLeone.

And Bob Jackson.

And Cody Risien.

And Clay Matthews.

And Don Cockcroft.

And Dick Ambrose.

And Thom Darden.

And Clarence Scott.

And Lyle Alzado.

And Sam Rutigliano.

And — shhh, don’t say a word, for he will just deny it anyway — but also that studio analyst, some guy named Bill Cowher, the former head coach of some team east of Cleveland.

Heck yes, they are all smiling (even Coach Bill), because they saw the reincarnation of themselves, the 1980 Kardiac Kids, in this season’s Browns in their wildly exciting 24-22 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday at FirstEnergy Stadium in the regular-season finale that earned them an AFC playoff berth — as a wild card — for the first time in 18 years.

The Browns all but secured the win when a pass for the two-point conversion was incomplete after the Steelers scored a touchdown in the final seconds. Then Cleveland nailed it down for good by recovering the ensuing onside kick.

I have likened this year‘s Browns to the Kardiac Kids all along because of the way they played. Just as in 1980, no lead was too big to squander — the Browns were ahead 24-9 in the fourth quarter on Sunday and let it get away — and no deficit was too big to overcome. Regardless, nearly every game went right down to the very end.

I know, I know, you sought it was just some old guy waxing poetic when I kept referring to this year‘s team as the clones of the
Kardiac Kids. But now you see that I wasn’t kidding. It’s really true, right down to the circa Kardiac Kids era orange pants.

The 1980 regular season ended with a 27-24 win at Cincinnati, Darden laying on top of Steve Kreider at the Cleveland 14 after the Bengals wide receiver hauled in a 34-yard pass as the final seconds ticked off,  to keep the hosts from lining up to try the game-tying field goal. With the win, the Browns captured the AFC Central title and made the playoffs for the first time in nine seasons.

Sunday’s win had the same liberating, demon-erasing effect for the new Kids.

“And they are kids,”Doug Dieken, the left tackle on the 1980 team and now the longtime color analyst on Browns radio broadcasts, pointed out in reference to all the youth on this year’s team as opposed to the original Kardiac Kids, who had a lot of veteran players.

No one from the 1980 Kids had a bigger smile than Dieken, the only man to have a tie to both eras.