RIP
Hard to argue with that.
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.
I was there.
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.
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.
Trivia time: Which three teams from the AAFC merged with the NFL in 1950? (No fair looking this one up, that would be too easy.)
So true. I'm watching the Bucs-Falcons game right now, and a few minute ago Tampa QB Brad Johnson was blasted by an ATL defensive lineman a second after he released the ball (and threw an INT for a Falcon TD). I was a borderline late hit, but that didn't prevent the ultra-sensitive fella in the booth from claiming that the D-lineman should not only have been penalized for the hit, but he should've been tossed from the game.
That's because back then, professional football was comprised mostly of white players.
RIP
Akron Beacon Journal
Graham a champion in life
By Terry Pluto
He met me at the door, wearing a shirt that read: PAUL'S GUYS.
He had a huge smile, a warm handshake, and all day to tell stories.
That's what I remember about Otto Graham.
He was more than a Hall of Fame quarterback, the best in the history of the Browns.
He was a good man.
Graham died Wednesday at the age of 82 of heart problems. If Paul Brown was the man who invented the Cleveland Browns as most of us know them, it was Graham who made Brown perhaps the greatest coach in the history of pro football.
Graham and Brown were together for 10 years, four in the old All-American Football Conference and the next six in the NFL.
In all 10 of those years, they went to the title game.
Seven times, they won.
It's a record that might never be matched again.
But that's not what Graham talked about in Sarasota, Fla., that Sunday afternoon, when he invited me to his nice home in a modest neighborhood.
He talked about the fun he had as a football player.
He talked about the strong personality of Brown.
He talked about how autographs had become an industry.
``I never would believe you could charge for an autograph,'' he said.
``Do you?'' I asked.
``If you want me to sign it for yourself or your Uncle Harry, no problem,'' he said. ``I'll personalize it for you. But if you just want me to sign my name on 10 things and nothing else, then I know you'll sell it. So I expect a little something.''
That's classic Graham, sizing up a situation.
Always a good guy
He then talked about being the coach of the Washington Redskins from 1966-68, his record being 17-22-3.
``You've got to be part SOB to be a good NFL coach,'' he said. ``I was too nice of a guy. In one game, I had a rookie who dropped a punt. On the sidelines, I put my arm around him.''
What happened?
``People booed,'' said Graham. ``I couldn't help it. I felt bad for the kid.''
Vince Lombardi replaced him.
``He could be an SOB,'' Graham said. ``Like Don Shula, Paul Brown, all of them.''
Not Graham.
He was most comfortable coaching at the little Coast Guard Academy, where, for seven seasons, he could work with Cadets without having to worry about winning always being the bottom line.
The day I visited him, he had Graham, his pet black Labrador, at his side. He enjoyed taking walks and talking to strangers. He said that he never made more than $25,000 as a player and that he never was obsessed with money.
He was the kind of guy you'd have wanted as a neighbor, a person who believed you treated people just as you wanted to be treated.
I liked him very much.
All-around standout
Veteran Cleveland sportswriter Hal Lebovitz knew Graham well.
``He played the piano,'' Lebovitz said.
What else?
``I first saw him play pro basketball,'' he said.
It was in the old National Basketball League in the early 1940s, Lebovitz said. He said Graham was a gritty point guard for the Rochester Royals, where his teammates included Red Holzman and the forward-turned-actor Chuck Connors.
Lebovitz was an official in that league and, later, covered Graham with the Browns.
``He and Paul Brown would really butt heads,'' Lebovitz said. ``But after Otto became a coach himself, then he turned into Paul Brown's biggest fan.''
Graham told me that his teams won five consecutive titles with him calling the plays, then Brown decided he'd take over the offense.
``I didn't like it,'' Graham said. ``But he was Paul Brown, so I did it.''
Not always.
``They had a big game with Detroit,'' Lebovitz said. ``The night before, several key players met with Otto at the old Pick Carter Hotel in Cleveland. They told him that he had to call the plays. Otto did, and they won.''
Graham discovered something that day.
``If I changed the play and it worked, I didn't hear anything,'' he said. `'If it didn't, I never heard the end of it.''
So he picked his spots.
Graham was a running back at Northwestern. Brown converted him to quarterback. Lebovitz said Graham credited former Browns assistant Blanton Collier with teaching him the nuances of the position.
How were his passes?
``Perfect spirals,'' Lebovitz said.
Really?
``I never saw him throw a really bad ball,'' Lebovitz said.
Or say a really unkind word.
Messages for Terry Pluto can be left at 330-996-3816 or terrypluto2003@yahoo.com Sign up for Terry's free weekly e-mail newsletter at www.thebeaconjournal.com/newsletter/
To put that into perspective, can you imagine Tim Couch or Kelly Holcomb playing safety today?Tim actually might be able to, he's a very good athlete and is proven tough. He'd have to bulk up some though. Still, the point is made.
Graham or Montana was the best QB ever to play the game.
-Eric