On this date in Browns history, May 14

On this date in Browns history, May 14

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The Browns did exactly what they had to do 52 years ago Thursday to make back-to-back appearances in the NFL Championship Game, then the door step to the Super Bowl in the days before the competition of the merger with the AFL.

It was on this date in Browns history, May 14, 1968 that the Browns acquired quarterback Bill Nelsen and defensive back Jim Bradshaw from the Pittsburgh Steelers in exchange for defensive tackle Frank Parker and backup quarterback Richard Shiner.

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Shiner spent a decade in the NFL and in heading to Pittsburgh, he was going back home since he was from nearby Lebanon, Pa. He had thrown just nine passes in 1967, his only season with the Browns, backing up Frank Ryan. He started for the Steelers in 1968 and ’69, the latter being head coach Chuck Noll’s first year with the team, and threw for 25 touchdowns with 27 interceptions.

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Parker was mostly a backup in his five seasons on the field with the Browns (he missed 1965 with an injury). He played in 1968 with Pittsburgh and in ’69 with the New York Giants.

Bradshaw never played for the Browns.

Indeed, then, this trade, from a Cleveland perspective, was all about getting Nelsen. Ryan, who threw three touchdown passes in the 27-0 win over the Baltimore Colts in the 1964 NFL Championship Game, was beaten up physically and was nearing the end of his career. Realizing that they had a good team with a chance to not just get to the Super Bowl, but to win it, the Browns went after Nelsen knowing that at some time he might well have to take over for Ryan.

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Nelsen had not done much – he was mostly a backup — since coming to the Steelers in 1963 from USC, but the Browns saw something there and thought that if they surrounded him with good players – Pittsburgh was awful back then – he could really help them.

The Browns were right. Nelsen sure did help. In fact, he led the team to special places.

The Browns won their 1968 season opener 24-10 over the second-year New Orleans Saints but really struggled, especially offensively, in scoring a combined total of just 13 points in lopsided losses to two good teams, the Dallas Cowboys (28-7) and Los Angeles Rams (24-6). That necessitated a very difficult change, professionally and personally, for head coach Blanton Collier to make in benching Ryan, whom he had made a starter in 1963 when he got the job, paving the way for that title game performance a year later, and inserting Nelsen.

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Nelsen performed well in his first start, beating his former team, the Steelers, 31-24, and the Browns lost just two more games the rest of the year, including in a meaningless finale against the St. Louis Cardinals, to finish 10-4 and win the Century Division crown. Then in the Eastern Conference Championship Game against the Capitol Division winners, the Cowboys, who had beaten Cleveland four straight times, including by a whopping 52-14 in last year’s conference title contest, the Browns pulled off a huge 31-20 upset. That took them to the NFL Championship Game, where they lost to the Colts.

Nelsen finished the year with 19 touchdowns and an 86.4 quarterback rating, with just 10 interceptions.

It was more of the same in 1969, with Nelsen throwing for 23 TDs as the Browns did a bit better record-wise, finishing 10-3-1, to win the Century again. This time in the conference title game against the Cowboys at the Cotton Bowl, the Browns rolled to a resounding 38=14 victory to make it back to the NFL Championship Game, where they lost to the Minnesota Vikings.

But Nelsen had bad knees, and they were getting worse. That’s why the Browns made the big trade in 1970, sending Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver Paul Warfield to the Miami Dolphins to be able to draft quarterback Mike Phipps. By early 1972, the switch was made from Nelsen to Phipps.

But not before Nelsen almost led the Browns to their first Super Bowl appearance.

On this date in Browns history, May 14, was written by Steve King

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