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Not all tough losses are created equal

Some just mean more, hurt more and are more remembered.

And such is the case with the recent story about a list of 10 Browns losses in the playoffs, or with postseason implications, in which they faltered badly right at the end. While they were all hard to swallow, and still are to a great degree, there were two that really stood out, at least from this vantage, or disadvantage, as it were, point.

Call them “The Terrible Twos.”

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They occurred just six years apart, both at Cleveland Stadium, with the 14-12 loss to the Oakland Raiders in the 1980 AFC Divisional Playoffs, or the “Red Right 88” game, and also the 23-20 setback in overtime to the Denver Broncos  in the 1986 AFC Championship Game, better known as “The Drive” game.

That 1980 Kardiac Kids season, when 14 of the 17 games were not decided until the final two minutes, was so special that you realized that once it was over, that was it. There would never be another one like it in team history. It was a party every week. It was so much fun, moreso than any season the Browns have ever had, or will ever have. It was a moment in time that won’t be repeated.

And in 1986, the Browns had — by far; it isn’t even close — the best chance to go to the Super Bowl. They were right there on the cusp, so close, in fact, that they could see it and almost touch it. They needed just one stop of some kind on a 15-play, 98-yard drive and a trip to Super Bowl would have been theirs. But they just didn’t get it.

Nearly 40 years later, the Browns are still on the outside looking in.

Steve King

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