There is nothing like the 1980 Kardiac Kids
By STEVE KING
The 1980 Browns Kardiac Kids season has stood the test of time.
Despite the passing of 40 years — 40 years?!; has it really been that long? — since it happened, it is, without question, the most exciting, enjoyable and memorable sports season I’ve ever experienced.
And I think that a lot of the people who were also there to watch it and remember it, would agree with me.
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It was a successful season, but certainly the most successful in team history, with the Browns going 11-5 to win their first AFC Central championship in nine years and make the playoffs for the first time in nine seasons. Those Browns didn’t even win a playoff game, though, losing 14-12 to the then Oakland Raiders on a brutally cold day at Cleveland Stadium. Yes, this is the infamous “Red Right 88” game. But as horrific as the end to that game was — and it was incredibly so — it still doesn’t take away from the absolute joy ride that 1980 was, I could tell you about it — I could tell you that 14 of the 17 games, including the playoff, were not decided until the final two minutes, or that it was pure theater on a football field, or that it seemed like a different hero popped up every week, or any of a number of other things — but to really appreciate it for what it was. you had to have been around then. Indeed, you had to see it to believe it, for if I told you how those games ended, week after week after week, you would shake your head and walk away, thinking that I was just making it all up.
Ladies and gentlemen, you can’t make up stuff like that which happened in 1980. It’s too improbable.
There was no deficit too big for the Kardiac Kids to overcome, and likewise, no lead so big that they couldn’t squander, hence the nickname. It almost seemed as if their task each week was to take it right down to the wire. Anything else would have been too mundane. And the Kardiac Kids were anything but mundane.
If you think I’m joking, or exaggerating, go onto YouTube or wherever and watch the 1980 season highlight film. It’s 23 minutes long and well worth every second of it.
When I worked for the Browns and conducted tours of FirstEnergy Stadium, I would tell my younger guests that if they wanted to know why their parents were such big Brows fans, then they needed to watch another video on the Kardiac Kids. It’s just under eight minutes — 7:53, to be exact — and recounts the last minutes of the playoff game against the Raiders. It cuts off at the end — you don’t see quarterback Brian Sipe throwing the interception in the end zone on a play called Red Right 88 to seal the Browns’ fate — but the rest of it is pure magic.
As mentioned, it was oh, so cold — historically so — that day, yet, on that last drive, grown men and women — bank executives, attorneys, physicians, business owners, yiou name it — were jumping up and down for joy in the stands, like little children, as the Kardiac KIds did what they always did and marched down the field at the end.
Check it out, or better yet, watch both videos. By doing so, I think you’ll see why I — and so many others — have such regard for the 1980 Kardiac Kids and that special season.
