This doesn’t have anything to do with the current Browns trying to find their franchise quarterback. But it does have something to do – a lot, in fact – with the original Browns franchise trying to find its franchise passer and all the crazy stuff that effort spawned.
It’s an eight-year story that has several interesting turns that are both sad and glad.
Here’s a glad one right off the top. Wednesday marks the 41st anniversary of Pro Football Hall of Famer wide receiver Paul Warfield’s return home. It was on April 5, 1976 that the Browns re-signed the Warren Harding High School and Ohio State product after a six-year absence.
To get Warfield, the Browns gave the Miami Dolphins, who held his rights, fourth- and seventh-round choices in the 1978 NFL Draft.
But almost anything would have been worth it to get the popular Warfield back in Cleveland, for when it happened, it was a big boost to the Browns in more ways than one, the biggest of which was public relations-wise, for the fans never wanted him to go in the first place.
A two-way back for the Buckeyes, Warfield was drafted in the first round, at No. 11 overall, in 1964. Several days into his first practices with the Browns, head coach Blanton Collier, who doesn’t get enough credit for being the genius that he was, moved Warfield to wide receiver on a hunch and the rest is history.
Warfield was the final piece in the puzzle in driving the Browns to the 1964 NFL title. His presence, along with that of wideout Gary Collins, the No. 4 overall draft choice in 1962 who set a club record with 13 touchdown receptions a year later, gave the Cleveland offense a two-headed monster in its passing game to go along with the two-headed monster it already had in its running attack with Hall of Fame back Jim Brown and Ernie Green.
Warfield led the Browns in every receiving category in his rookie season with 52 catches for 920 yards and nine touchdowns, averaging 17.7 yards per reception. Collins added eight scoring grabs.
The result was that in just a 14-game schedule, the Browns scored what is still a franchise-record 415 points, 72 more than in 1963, and won the NFL title with a 27-0 wipeout of the Baltimore Colts.
Except for 1965, when he missed virtually the entire year with a broken collarbone, Warfield became one of best – and most dangerous – receivers in the game through 1969 as the Browns made the playoffs four times, including three more trips to the NFL Championship Game.
Then in 1970, Browns owner Art Modell, needing an heir apparent for ailing quarterback Bill Nelsen, dealt Warfield to Miami for the No. 3 overall pick in the draft, which the club used to select Purdue quarterback Mike Phipps.
The worst trade in Browns history? That one — and the deal to send Bobby Mitchell to the Washington Redskins for the rights to Ernie Davis n 1962 – are the frontrunners.
While Phipps never panned out and the Browns got old around him, dooming the team to its first extended down period, Warfield’s presence immediately energized the Dolphins, just like it had done for Cleveland. The Dolphins went to three straight Super Bowls from 1971-73, winning the last two, including in 1972 when they went a perfect 14-0 in the regular season. They defeated the Browns 20-14 in the AFC playoffs that year, getting a key 35-yard catch from Warfield on the winning touchdown drive.
Warfield was one of three Dolphins who bolted to the big-money – or so they thought – World Football League following the 1974 season. The league went belly-up in 1975 and Warfield never got paid, freeing him to return to the NFL – and ultimately the Browns – in 1976.
And wouldn’t you know it, in Warfield’s first game back with the Browns, the 1976 opener against the New York Jets at Cleveland, Warfield caught a 23-yard touchdown pass from none other than Phipps. That was one of three scoring passes that Phipps threw that day, all in the second quarter, as the Browns rallied from a 10-0 deficit to win 38-17.
In one of his best games overall with the Browns, Phipps, in just one half, completed 11 of 15 passes for 100 yards and those three scores, with no interceptions, for a 130.6 quarterback rating. He also had 26 yards rushing in three attempts, the last which was his last with the Browns as he separated his shoulder while being tackled and was lost for essentially the rest of the year.
Again, wouldn’t you know it, Phipps gets hurt just as it appeared it might finally be coming together for him.
After the season, the Browns traded Phipps to Chicago for the Bears’ first-round draft choice in 1978. With that selection, at No. 23 overall, the Browns took a skinny Alabama wide receiver by the name of Ozzie Newsome.
So Phipps is the only player in Browns history who, in the two times he was traded, first cost the team a Hall of Famer and then netted it a Hall of Famer.
Warfield finished the 1976 season third on the team with 38 receptions, good for 613 yards (second) and six touchdowns (second).
In his final season in 1977, Warfield caught 18 passes for 251 yards and two scores.
He then retired as a player, but would later return to the Browns yet again, this time in various front-office and personnel roles.
