Three Browns wins in eight days? Two games in six days should be a piece of cake
Much is to be made — if not already, then certainly as it comes more into focus — of the Browns playing two games in just six days in a sport where teams usually play just once a week.
They are hosting the Las Vegas Raiders at 5 p.m. Monday at FirstEnergy Stadium in a game moved from late Saturday afternoon because of COVID-19 issues with the Browns. Then late next Saturday afternoon, Christmas Day, they meet the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field.
The 75 Greatest Browns drafted by Ray Yannucci, Mike McLain, Steve Doerschuk and Steve King.
By today’s standards, that’s a quick turnaround.
Despite all that, however, there are some long-ago Browns players snickering somewhere.
“Wimps! Toughen up!” they are probably saying.
And who could argue with them?
No one, actually.
It was 73 years ago, in 1948, when the Browns, on the way to a perfect 15-0 record and their third straight All-America Football Conference championship, and in the midst of a 29-game unbeaten over three seasons, won three games in eight days during Thanksgiving Week.
That is not a typo. You read that correctly. Pro Football Hall of Fame head coach Paul Brown’s team, led by the likes of fellow enshrinees Otto Graham, Marion Motley, Lou Groza, Dante Lavelli, Bill Willis, Mac Speedie and Frank Gatski, did indeed win three games in only eight days, an incredible feat by today’s pro football standards. That the Browns did so on the road, on opposite coasts and against three of their biggest rivals, makes it just that much more impressive.
It began on Sunday, Nov. 21 at Yankee Stadium when the Browns raced to a 27-14 halftime lead and defeated the New York Yankees 34-21. The Yankees, who lost to the Browns by close margins in the previous two AAFC title games, were owned by Dan Topping, the owner of baseball’s New York Yankees. He bought a franchise and jumped into the league as a way to use his stadium in the offseason as a money-maker.
Because the Browns were the league’s best team, they played in the high-profile limelight of Thanksgiving Day in three of the AAFC’s four seasons of existence, and 1948 was one of them. The Los Angeles Dons, who had beaten the Browns in the previous two seasons, lost 31-14 to Cleveland four days later, on Nov. 25, at Memorial Coliseum, which they shared with the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, who led Cleveland for the West Coast after inning the league title in 1945 so as to not have to vie with the new Browns franchise for the city’s hearts. After falling behind 14-7 in the second quarter, the Browns scored the game’s last 17 points to roll to the victory to improve to 12-0. Graham threw for two touchdowns and ran for another.
After a short plane ride up the coast, in which, according to Lavelli years later, the beat-up Browns laid in the aisle of the plane to try to get comfortable amidst all their bumps and bruises, the Browns played the San Francisco 49ers at Kezar Stadium three days later, on Sunday, Nov. 28. Before this grueling week, the Browns had hosted the 49ers and won 14-7 at Cleveland Stadium in front of 82,769, the biggest crowd in pro football history to that point (the Browns would not top that attendance figure for 12 seasons, and only by 103 people). The rematch was nearly as close, as the 11-1 49ers led 14-10 at halftime before the Browns — and Graham — went to work. He threw three third-quarter touchdowns, giving him four for the game, as Cleveland held on to win 31-28 completing the eight-day odyssey.
So, then, the Browns were back at home for their regular-season finale, right?
Wrong.
They had to go back to the East Coast the following Sunday, Dec. 5 to play the Brooklyn Dodgers, who they beat 31-21 at Ebbets Field to go to 14-0.
They finished it up two weeks later by blowing out the Buffalo Bills at home in the title game, 49-7.
So, if the Browns of 73 years ago, with much smaller team rosters and rougher, slower plane travel than today, can play three games in eight days, then the current team ought to be able to play two games in six days, don’t ya think?
READ NEXT: Browns-Raiders preview
By Steve King
