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Graham's greatness is easy to see (R.I.P. Otto Graham)
Cleveland Plain Dealer via cleveland.com ^
| 12/19/03
| Bob Dolgan Plain Dealer Reporter
Posted on 12/20/2003 9:33:24 AM PST by Chi-townChief
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"He led the team to 114 wins and 20 losses in 10 years while winning seven league championships. Nobody else ever did that. Maybe he was the greatest, period."
Hard to argue with that.
To: Chi-townChief
Very nice reading thankyou
2
posted on
12/20/2003 9:36:25 AM PST
by
al baby
(Ice cream does not have bones)
To: E Rocc; Bikers4Bush; rdb3
CLEVELAND PING
To: Chi-townChief
Back in the days when Cleveland wasn't a joke.
To: conspiratoristo; Las Vegas Dave
Ohio bump lists.
To: Commiewatcher
Yep - long before Ralph Perk and Dennis the Menace.
To: Chi-townChief
That was the last conversation I had with Cleveland's greatest football player. He led the team to 114 wins and 20 losses in 10 years while winning seven league championships. Nobody else ever did that. Maybe he was the greatest, period. Maybe, but there are a few catches. Four of the seven league championships were in the All America Football Conference, an independent league which competed with the NFL. The reason that league failed was that Paul Brown easily out-recruited all the other AAFC teams and grabbed all the available talent. The Browns hardly ever lost in AAFC competition, even in the regular season. They won the title in all four years of its existence. (But, when the league went under, the Forty-Niners and Colts joined the Browns in making the transition into the NFL.)
Another point is that Brown minutely scripted the Browns team, even to calling the offensive plays in that pre-tech era by shuttling the offensive guards on every play. Although no NFL quarterback calls his own plays now, it was almost unheard of in the 50s for there to be any other arrangement. Part of the legendary aspect of the careers of Unitas and Starr, for instance, is that they were good playcallers. Although Graham actually had to read defenses and occasionally audible, he never got much credit for the brainy side of the Browns offense because of Brown's overshadowing figure.
7
posted on
12/20/2003 9:50:16 AM PST
by
VadeRetro
To: Chi-townChief
There were only 29,751 of us at Cleveland Municipal Stadium on the bitterly cold afternoon of Christmas Eve 1950 to watch the Browns play the Los Angeles Rams for the NFL championship in their first season in the league. It became Graham's most remembered game.I was there.
8
posted on
12/20/2003 9:57:58 AM PST
by
monocle
To: Chi-townChief
Damn that Otto Graham
As I kid I hated him and the Browns cause the always beat the EAGLES especially in 1950 just after the EAGLES came off two straight NFL championships
He surely was one of the GREATS
9
posted on
12/20/2003 10:09:58 AM PST
by
uncbob
To: monocle; VadeRetro; conspiratoristo; Las Vegas Dave; Commiewatcher; E Rocc; Bikers4Bush; rdb3; ...
To: VadeRetro
Another point is that Brown minutely scripted the Browns team, even to calling the offensive plays in that pre-tech era by shuttling the offensive guards on every play.Thanks for the walk down memory lane.I forgot how Brown and I think Tom Landry may used the shuffle, to get plays in.
A class act, Graham, may he rest in piece.
11
posted on
12/20/2003 10:17:56 AM PST
by
BobbyK
(The Truth Is Out There.)
To: Chi-townChief
On my dialup modem that video is maddenly jerky, but a splendid tribute to a sports legend.
To: BobbyK
Thanks for the walk down memory lane.I forgot how Brown and I think Tom Landry may used the shuffle, to get plays in. Every coach knew the trick of sending the play in with a player. Lombardi did it repeatedly in the Western Conference playoff game with Detroit which occupies the spotlight in his book Run to Daylight. "Let's hit them with our quick screen, Paul!" (To Paul Hornung.)
Brown, however, was control-freak enough to try to do it every play of every game. Well, it was his system and he made it work. He also invented the "Taxi Squad," which really was a Taxicab company. Can you imagine getting into a cab and finding one of today's NFL players at the wheel?
To: AbsoluteJustice; Barnacle; BeAllYouCanBe; BillyBoy; cfrels; cherry_bomb88; chicagolady; ...
I guess since Otto Graham was born in Waukegan and starred in football and basketball at Northwestern, this should get a Chicago Ping as well.
To: Chi-townChief
Nice clips. I was only 4 yrs old in 1950 so I don't remember much. Most memories are vague but they are there.
To: Chi-townChief
Thanx. I lived in WVA and the Browns were our "local" team. Their games were broadcast evey Sunday in WVA. I watched the first half of every game. Then we had to leave to catch the bus to boarding school.
In WVA the Jim Brown/Sam Huff matchups drew the most interest, but Otto Graham and Lou Groza were my favs until Brown came along.
My dad told me to become a place kicker like Groza since you could make a living and not get hit a lot. I didn't follow his advice and joined the offensive line in the pits.
16
posted on
12/20/2003 10:35:54 AM PST
by
breakem
To: VadeRetro
What always strikes me is how the AFC Central has three versions of the Cleveland Browns: the new Browns, the Cincinnati Bengals (Paul Brown's team after the swine Art Modell kicked him out of Cleveland), and the hated Baltimore Ravens. Of course, none of them are very good.
To: Chi-townChief
Which reminds me that the Washington Senators gave baseball the Texas Rangers
and the Minnesota Twins and there's
still no Washington Senators baseball team.
Calvin Griffith, owner of the Senators, assured a sportswriter that the Senators were staying in Washington "so long as I'm alive." Within the year, that reporter was typing, "Acting posthumously, Calvin Griffith moved the Senators to Minnesota yesterday."
To: Chi-townChief
I've listened with interest as the old-timers talk about the era before free substitution when players went both ways, and I'm struck with the fact that teams often went with a single 'signature play' or two until the defense stopped it. Green Bay had it's Power Sweep, the Colts had Unitas-to-Berry, etc. Much more of an 'in your face' style -- find a weakness (usually an outmanned player) and exploit it until the defense shifts to cover it. Only then did the offense adjust.
Today you have 'situational substitutions' and 'scripted plays' -- a tacit admission that the defense controls today's game. Every good offense relies on a high degree of deception. If a play works, many times you won't see it again until much later in the game. Even the best teams aren't able to man-handle a weaker team. Divisional opponents often split the season series unless one of the teams is the basement dweller and the other is among the League's elite.
Bottom line: it's a vastly different game since the early '60s.
19
posted on
12/20/2003 10:45:41 AM PST
by
Tallguy
(I can't think of anything to say -- John Entwistle in "The Kids are Alright")
Comment #20 Removed by Moderator
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