EDITOR’S NOTE: In honoring the fact that February was Black History Month, we continue with a short series on Browns Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Bobby Mitchell.

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In theory, at least the way Browns head coach Paul Brown viewed it, the trade with the Washington Redskins, in which he gave up running back Bobby Mitchell to get the rights to Ernie Davis, the first overall pick in the 1962 NFL Draft, made sense.

Brown finally had the bruising back he wanted for the bigger, more physical backfield that he so desired.

No  matter, though, because from the moment it was made, the deal went horribly wrong, so much so, in fact, that it was the beginning of the end of Brown’s time in Cleveland.

For starters, Briwns never advised new Brown owner Art Modell that he was making the trade. Modell heard about it on the radio, and was furious with the coach.

The two had never really hit it off to any great degree when Modell purchased the team in March 1961, and with that, then Brown, who had never had to advise previous team owners of his actions, just went ahead and made the deal. Also, deep down inside, Brown didn’t respect Modell’s knowledge of football, or, as it was in those early months, the lack thereof. As such, he felt no need to let him know of anything he planned to do. However, Modell wanted to be in on every single transaction that Brown made, so witn such a huge trade as this, he felt betrayed by his coach that he was caught as unaware of it as any fan.

Modell valued Mitchell’s worth to the team, and couldn’t understand why Brown would want to trade him for an untested rookie, regardless of what that player had done in college.

The fans didn’t like it, either, because they felt the same way about Mitchell as Modell did. How could Brown get rid ofa player like that?

Washington was delighted to acquire Mitchell, eventually moving him to wide receiver and using him as its main weapon in the passing game.

Meanwhile, Davis never played a down with the Browns. In fact, he practiced only a couple times before becoming ill with what was finally diagnosed as leukemia. Tragically, he died on May 17, 1963.

The Browns struggled mightily in 1962, finishing 7–6-1 for their second-worst record in Brown’s 17 seasons. Brown could not find a full-time quarterback he liked between Frank Ryan and Jim Ninowski, so they split the duties. It was pretty much of a disaster with the passing game. And without a running back in the backfield to help him, Jim Brown had the worst season of his career, falling just short of gaining 1,000 yards. Defenses were able to key on him because of the running back problems and the issues at quarterback.

Modell fired Brown three weeks after the 1962 season ended and replaced him with the coach’s good friend, assistant coach Blanton Collier. Paul remained out of football until being selected as the owner of the new Cincinnati Bengals franchise in the AFL in 1967. He named himself head coach of the team which began play the next season.

The lowest point of the 1962 season for Brown and the Browns came early on, during Mitchell‘s return to Cleveland for the first time with his new team.

We’ll talk about that next.

Steve King

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