60th Moments - Success and Challenges in The NFL (1950–1956)

Success and Challenges in The NFL (1950–1956)

The AAFC proposed match-ups with NFL teams numerous times during its four-year existence, but no inter-league game ever materialized. That made Cleveland's entry into the NFL in the 1950 season the first test of whether its early supremacy could carry over into a more established league. The proof came quickly: Cleveland's NFL regular-season opener was against the two-time defending champion Philadelphia Eagles on September 16 in Philadelphia. The Browns quashed any doubt about their prowess in that game as Graham and his receivers amassed 246 passing yards in a 35–10 win before a crowd of 71,237. Behind an offense that featured Graham, Groza, Motley, Lavelli and running back Dub Jones, Cleveland finished the 1950 season with a 10–2 record, tied for first place in the eastern conference. After winning a playoff game against the New York Giants, the Browns advanced to the NFL championship match against the Los Angeles Rams in Cleveland. The Browns won 30–28 on a last-minute Groza field goal. Fans stormed the field after the victory, carting off the goalposts, ripping off one player's jersey and setting a bonfire in the bleachers. "It was the greatest game I ever saw," Brown later said.

Show me another guy who toes a
Football as neatly as Lou Groza

After five straight championship wins in the AAFC and NFL, the Browns appeared poised to bring another trophy home in 1951. The team finished the regular season with 11 wins and a single loss in the first game of the season. Cleveland faced the Rams on December 23 in a rematch of the previous year's title game. The score was deadlocked 17–17 in the final period, but a 73-yard touchdown pass by Rams quarterback Norm van Brocklin to wide receiver Tom Fears broke the tie and gave Los Angeles the lead for good. The 24–17 loss was the Browns' first in a championship game.

The 1952 and 1953 seasons followed a similar pattern: Cleveland reached the championship game but lost both times to the Detroit Lions. In 1952's championship game, Detroit won 17–7 after a muffed punt by the Browns, several Lions defensive stands and a 67-yard touchdown run by Doak Walker scuttled Cleveland's chances. The team finished 11–1 in 1953, but lost the championship to the Lions 17–16 on a 33-yard Bobby Layne touchdown pass to Jim Doran with just over two minutes left. While the championship losses disappointed Cleveland fans who had grown accustomed to winning, the team continued to make progress. Len Ford, who the Browns picked up from the defunct AAFC's Los Angeles Dons team, emerged as a force on the defensive line, making the Pro Bowl each year between 1951 and 1953. Second-year wideout Ray Renfro became a star in 1953, also reaching the Pro Bowl.

During the summer before the 1953 season, the Browns' original owners sold the team for a then-unheard-of $600,000. The buyers were a group of prominent Cleveland men: Dave R. Jones, a businessman and former Cleveland Indians director, Ellis Ryan, a former Indians president, Homer Marshman, an attorney, and Saul Silberman, owner of the Randall Park race track. McBride had been called in 1950 to testify before the Kefauver Committee, a congressional body investigating organized crime, which partly exposed his ties to mafia figures but did not result in any charges. While McBride never said so, the Kefauver hearings and the growing public association between him and the mafia may have played a role in his decision to get out of football.

While the Browns came into 1954 as one of the top teams in the NFL, the future was far from certain. Graham, whose leadership and throwing skills were instrumental in the Browns' championship runs, said he planned to retire after the season. Motley, the team's best rusher and blocker, retired at the beginning of the season with a bad knee. Star defensive lineman Bill Willis also retired before the season. Still, Cleveland finished the regular season 9–3 and met Detroit the day after Christmas in the championship game for a third consecutive time. This time Cleveland dominated on both sides of the ball, intercepting Bobby Layne six times while Graham threw three touchdowns and ran for three more. The Browns, who lost the last game of the regular season to the Lions only a week before, won their second NFL championship 56–10. "I saw it, but still hardly can believe it," Lions coach Buddy Parker said after the game. "It has me dazed."

Cleveland's success continued in 1955 after Brown convinced Graham to come back, arguing that the team lacked a solid alternative. Cleveland finished the regular season 9–2–1 and went on to win its third NFL championship, beating the Los Angeles Rams 38–14. It was Graham's last game; the win capped a 10-year run in which he led his team to the league championship every year, winning four in the AAFC and three in the NFL. Rams fans gave Graham a standing ovation when Brown pulled him from the game in the final minutes.

Without Graham, the Browns floundered in 1956. Injuries to two Browns quarterbacks left relative unknown Tommy O'Connell as the starter, and Cleveland finished with a 5–7 record, its first losing season. Dante Lavelli and Frank Gatski retired at the end of the season, leaving Groza as the only original Browns player still on the team. While the Browns' on-field play in 1956 was uninspiring, off-the-field drama developed after a Cleveland-based inventor let Brown test a helmet with a radio transmitter inside. After trying it out in training camp, Brown used the helmet to call plays during the pre-season with long-time backup George Ratterman behind center. The device allowed the coach to direct his quarterback on the fly, giving him an advantage over franchises who had to use messenger players to relay instructions. The Browns used the device off and on into the regular season, and other teams began to experiment with their own radio helmets. Bert Bell, the NFL commissioner, banned the device in October 1956. Today, however, all NFL teams use in-helmet radios to communicate with players.