By signing running back George Atkinson III off waivers from the Oakland Raiders on Sunday, the Browns obtained “Son of Part of the Criminal Element in Football.”
Really.
Huh?
Atkinson III’s father, George Atkinson Jr., was a standout cornerback for the Raiders from 1968-77 and then for the arch rival Denver Broncos in 1979. He was twice named an AFL all-star and was a key member of Oakland’s Super Bowl championship team following the 1976 season.
It was in that 1976 season, after the Raiders’ 31-28 victory over Pittsburgh in the opener, that Steelers head coach Chuck Noll referred to Atkinson Jr. as part of “the criminal element in football.” Atkinson Jr. had laid out Lynn Swann with a crushing hit, giving the Pittsburgh wide receiver a concussion. Swann was also left with a concussion after Atkinson Jr. blasted him in the 1975 AFC Championship Game.
For Noll, the Cleveland Benedictine High School product who was a linebacker and one of Paul Brown’s messenger guards with the Browns from 1953-59, to call a player from another team part of “the criminal element in football” is … well, criminal. In the 1970s, the Steelers were every bit as dirty – as criminal – as the Raiders. In fact, the Steelers were probably even more so.
Doug Dieken, the former Browns left tackle from 1971-84 and now in his 29th season as the color analyst on the team’s radio broadcasts, still talks about the Steelers’ below-the-belt antics from that era.
But Dieken, who played the Raiders five times during Atkinson Jr.’s time with them, knows Oakland – and the cornerback – bent the rules, too.
“Atkinson was the Raiders’ Erich Barnes in that he really beat up receivers,” Dieken said on Monday in reference to the former Browns, New York Giants and Chicago Bears cornerback who was known to tackle mostly from the shoulders up in a career from 1958-71.
Atkinson Jr., now 69, lives in the Oakland area and does some broadcast work for the Raiders. But he is experiencing problems that may stem from some of the hits to the head that he received during his playing career.
In any event, with the Browns having so many new, young players who are virtual unknowns to the fans in Cleveland, having the son of a player longtime Browns fans will remember, at least gives the fans something – and someone — to identify with going into the season.
Actually, I’ll do better than that by saying that Atkinson III is, by far, with his lineage, the most interesting of the new Browns right now.
OK, so Atkinson III isn’t “the most interesting man in the world,” but he’s the most interesting that Browns have.
