It’s amazing how these kinds of things get messed up, twisted and turned in such a way that they don’t make sense.

 

In the purest sense, you can’t compare teams of different eras – no matter what the sport – to the extent that you try to determine whether a player from 1950 could compete with a player from 2016?

 

Though impossible, in some sports such as baseball, that comparison is at least easier than it is in football. In football, the players are so much bigger, faster and stronger now than they were back in the day, that lining up players from the two eras against each other would be a physical mismatch.

 

No matter how good a 210-pound defensive lineman such as Bill Willis was – no matter how quick he was – he would not be able to go up against a 330-pound offensive guard, at least on a consistent basis.

 

The linemen then were only as big as the running backs and linebackers are now.

 

So come on, stop it, will you?. Stop comparing teams and players and eras that way. You can still compare them, just not in that completely direct manner.

 

To really judge them, you need only look at how they stacked up against their contemporaries. That’s the only solid, statistical data – evidence – that you have. Everything else is subjective, made-up gobbledy-gook, rift with prejudiced opinions.

 

Certainly, there can be no elimination of prejudiced opinions in this undertaking, but at least by comparing an era only against itself can you eliminate most of the things you don’t want or need in your evaluations.

 

In that respect, then, we offer an opinion that the 1950 Browns were the best club in franchise history.

 

Remember, this is an opinion. This is not a fact, as is that 1950 is, without question, the most important season in Browns history (see story elsewhere on these pages). This one is open to conjecture and debate – much of it, in fact – and for every reason to vote for 1950, there will be no doubt be plenty of reasons put forth by knowledgeable Browns fans to vote against 1950 and for some other team. Go ahead and name them — 1946, ’47, ’48, ’49, ’54, ’55, ’64, ’51 ‘52,, ’53, ’80, ’65, ’86, ’87 and so on and so forth.

 

But when it’s all said and done, we like 1950 the best.

 

Here’s why:

 

*Championship. With a franchise such as the Browns, who have won eight league titles, it’s essential that for a team to be considered as the best ever, it has to have won a crown. And the 1950 Browns did indeed do that, capturing the championship in their first year in the NFL with a 30-28 over the Los Angeles Rams, an offensive juggernaut if there ever was one. It wasn’t easy, as the Browns had to first defeat the New York Giants 8-3 in a special playoff after finishing the regular season tied with them atop the American Division.

 

*Record. Any team that wins a championship – even a division championship, as the 1985 Browns did in the AFC Central – is noteworthy, but again, to be considered truly great on a franchise that has won so many games and championships, a club has to have a great record. With all due respect to the 1985 Browns, who were just 8-8, they simply don’t cut the mustard. The 1950 Browns, on the other hand, were 10-2, finishing the year – postseason included – winning their last eight games. While the 10-2 mark isn’t the best in Browns history, it’s right up there. They lost to just one team – to the Giants twice by 6-0 and then 17-13 – so the Browns came within 10 points of being completely unbeatable and having a perfect season.

 

*Degree of difficulty. This is an intangible, to be sure, and it is one category in which numbers can’t really be used. But there are some facts that can be – and have to be – applied. The Browns were everybody’s Super Bowl that year. After rolling through the All-America Football Conference, winning all four league championships from 1946-49 and, in essence, putting the AAFC out of business, the Browns were hated by the NFL hard-liners. Those men wanted to put the Browns in their place so badly that they could taste it. The Browns got so much attention for what they had done in the AAFC. The NFL people thought it was a Mickey Mouse League and were out to prove it – no matter what they had to do. There has never been a season in which the deck was stacked so heavily against the Browns, so for them to waltz though it in such relative effortless fashion is truly amazing. This is key, for the Browns had to be as strong – or stronger – of mind as they were of body. The pressure was enormous. They were carrying the prestige of the AAFC on their shoulders, and if they tripped up along the way, they would have let down all those teams whose respect they had earned – and kept – during that four-year period. The fact they stayed strong in that way right to the end is truly impressive.

 

*Degree of difficulty II. The NFL in 1950 was as strong as it’s ever been. The dissolving of the AAFC and the merging of three of its teams, the top-shelf Browns and San Francisco 49ers, along with the Baltimore Colts, incorporated a lot of new and very good talent into the NFL. The dirty little secret that the NFL at that time didn’t want to tell anyone is that from top to bottom, the AAFC was as good – or probably even better – than it was. Plus this was well before every major city had an NFL team. There were only 13 teams in the league, which meant that every club had good players. Maybe some teams were poorly-coached, but none of them were without a number of talented players. Thus, for the Browns to win the title – and to do it with a minimum of resistance – is something that certainly can’t be ignored.

 

*Poise and focus. Some teams – even the best ones – can lose their way and become disinterested. That makes a team much less than what it can be – much less than what it should be. For the reasons mentioned in Degree of Difficulty, the Browns were focused beyond belief. Just as their opponents were out to prove the Browns were phonies, coach Paul Brown and his players were out to prove that they were the real deal. And their desire was greater – much greater – than the desire of their foes. That counts for something. It really does. In every game, the Browns were out for blood. They were not into taking any prisoners.

 

*No contest, contests. Yes, the Browns, as mentioned, lost twice to the Giants in the regular season, came back to edge the Giants in the playoff game and then squeezed past the Rams in the league title contest, but for the most part, they raced past their opponents as if they were standing still. They crushed the two-time defending champion Philadelphia Eagles by 25 points in the opener, beat the Colts by 31, the Washington Redskins by 24, the 49ers by 20, and the Pittsburgh Steelers by 38 and 13. The Browns left a trail of destruction.

 

The best of the best. The Browns had a lot of great players during that era, and in 1950, almost all of them were with the club. The core group of Pro Football Hall of Famers from the very early years, such as Otto Graham, Bill Willis, Lou Groza, Marion Motley, Dante Lavelli and Frank Gatski, were in the prime, or close to it, and others such as Hall of Famer Len Ford, Dub Jones, Tommy James, Horace Gillom, Warren Lahr and others had been added in 1950 or just a couple years before. Then there was a player such as Mac Speedie, who had been with the team since 1946 and would have made it into the HOF had he not bolted to the CFL following the 1952 season. That’s quite an array of talent – an all-star team, to be sure.

 

The best team? We think so, and on the 66th anniversary of their glory, we thought it proper to honor the 1950 Browns, bestowing upon them the distinction of being champions of all the franchise’s champions.