Tag Archives: Browns

The Speech: Paul Brown’s opening remarks at training camp

Before each of his 17 seasons as coach of the Cleveland Browns, Paul Brown began training camp with The Speech — a brief review of the Browns Way and general Laying Down of the Law. I’ve come across two versions of it, one from 1956 (after the Browns had been to 10 straight league championship games) the other from ’59 (when the Giants had surpassed them in the Eastern Conference). It’s fascinating to note the differences between them.

The ’59 speech is already in print — in my first book, The Pro Football Chronicle. This being the preseason, I thought I’d post the ’56 speech for your perusal:

“It may seem funny, but I don’t want you fellows to act like a professional football team in the old sense of the word. You will dress and act like gentlemen at all times.”

— Paul Brown

I am glad to see you veterans back from last season. The last time we were together it was a happy occasion. You had just won the world’s championship, and you realized the hard work it took to win it.

To you new fellows, we mean for you to have a pleasant experience. You probably are worried, and it is only natural. You’re no different than the old timers.

We brought you here because we think you can make the team. But you will have to listen and digest everything that is said. When you’re too big to listen you’re done whether you’re a rookie or veteran.

We anticipate some major changes in playing personnel this season. For the first time in 10 years we will be without Otto Graham. But we have had major changes in the past in administration and playing personnel.

No matter what happens, the habit of winning and being the best has got to go on. With me it’s an obsession of living.

Last year, early in the season, things looked pretty bad. We had lost two of our first three games, but we won it going away. You have to have something special to do that. It is the sign of a thoroughbred.

I firmly believe we can win again this season. I’ve never entered a football season in which I didn’t think we couldn’t win. I think we have the makings here of another championship team, and we’re going to guard jealously the factors we have [going for us] in our organization.

First, I would like to eliminate those bad starts. The last few seasons we have started out by losing several of our early games. This can’t go on. One of these years it will catch up with us.

I think we’re considered about tops in our field, and I want you to act accordingly. It may seem funny, but I don’t want you fellows to act like a professional football team in the old sense of the word.

You will dress and act like gentlemen at all times. When you travel you will wear suits or sport coats and a tie. We will eat together and say grace before meals. There will be no foul language at any time, on or off the field. You must remember that youngsters look up to you fellows.

Your conduct around camp also should be watched. There will be no T-shirts allowed in the dining room, and we have no use for ill manners at the table. Keep your elbows off the table and your face out of the soup bowl. Make meals enjoyable and take your time.

You should be in your rooms by 10 p.m., and lights out will be at 10:30. We’ve never had trouble with card playing, and we don’t anticipate any. We don’t mind a game for pennies, but no big money.

We will have a bed check, and if you sneak out after the check and we find out about it, don’t bother to come back for your belongings — we’ll send them to you.

If you’re a drinker you may as well leave now. The smoking should be stopped for your own good, but if you must have one don’t do it around here or in public. Again, you will be looked up to by youngsters, and nothing is worse for a youngster than to see his football hero smoking.

Building a football team is like building a house: the weaker the foundation, the poorer the house. With a strong foundation, there is no limit as to . . . how high you can go.

On the field, we want the right to improve not only the rookies but the veterans. You have to be an eager learner. You can’t win this thing without paying the price. It just can’t be done. Sometimes it will get rough, but don’t ask any quarter and don’t give any.

From time to time you will be interviewed by members of the press here at Hiram [College]. Treat them as you would me and answer their questions. We’ve always had good relations with the press, and the writers at the camp won’t ask you any embarrassing questions. They have been here for several years, all of them, and if you start talking out of turn I am sure they will clean it up. They aren’t interested in making a fool of any of you players.

When we are on the road there will be no radio or television appearances. We like to sneak into a city, win the football game and get out. Once in a while when we go into a city, I might talk us down [to the media]. That isn’t for your consumption. It would be better if you couldn’t read.

Remember, we’ve been in 10 straight championship games, and we’re not going to blow it now. When it comes time to pick the squad, everything and everybody is impersonal, and it won’t make any difference whether you’re from Ohio State, Great Lakes or Massillon [places Brown had previously coached]. The team comes first!

Postscript: Without their Hall of Fame quarterback, the Browns finished 5-7 that season, the only time under Brown they didn’t post a winning record. But the next year, after drafting Jim Brown in the first round, they were back in the title game again. For their coach, “the habit of winning and being the best” was still “an obsession of living.”

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Jamaal Charles: Mr. 5.58

Through six NFL seasons, one of which he essentially missed because of a knee injury, Jamaal Charles’ per-carry average stands at 5.58. This just happens to be the all-time record for a running back with 1,000 or more attempts. Whether the Chiefs Pro Bowler can stay at this level, or even close to it, remains to be seen, but it’s a significant accomplishment regardless. After all, it’s hard enough to average 5 yards for a single year, never mind over a six-year stretch. Tony Dorsett, a breakaway back like Charles, never did it (high: 4.84 as a rookie in 1977). Eric Dickerson, another speed guy, did it just once.

Granted, there are many ways to measure a running back, and yards per carry probably isn’t as telling as some others. But as Hall of Famer Joe Perry once told me, “I always thought what mattered most was what you did with the ball when you got it” — and Joe took great pride in his 4.82 career mark (5.04 if you count his two years in the rival All-America Conference). So a little respect, please, for rushing average, one of the redheaded stepchildren of football stats.

At the moment, only one back in NFL history has finished his career with 1,000 carries and a 5-yard average: Jim Brown. If you include guys who only cleared the 750- or 500-carry threshold, a few more make the list — but just a few.

1,000 CARRIES, 5-YARD AVERAGE, CAREER

[table]

Running back\, Team(s),Years,Att,Yds,Avg

Jamaal Charles*\, Chiefs,2008-13,1\,043,5\,823,5.58

Jim Brown\, Browns,1957-65,2\,359,12\,312,5.22

[/table]

750 CARRIES, 5-YARD AVERAGE, CAREER

[table]

Running back\, Team(s),Years,Att,Yds,Avg

Mercury Morris\, Dolphins/Chargers,1969-76,804,4\,133,5.14

Gale Sayers\, Bears,1965-71,991,4\,956,5.00

[/table]

500 CARRIES, 5-YARD AVERAGE, CAREER

[table]

Running back\, Team(s),Years,Att,Yds,Avg

Bo jackson\, Raiders,1987-90,515,2\,782,5.40

Bobby Mitchell\, Browns/Redskins,1958-68,513,2\,735,5.33

Dan Towler\, Rams,1950-55,672,3\,493,5.20

C.J. Spiller*\, Bills,2010-13,590,3\,021,5.12

Tommy Wilson\, Rams/Browns/Vikings,1956-63,508,2\,553,5.03

[/table]

*active

An awfully small club, isn’t it? And I’m fudging a bit on Mitchell, who switched to receiver with the Redskins and might not have had 500 carries as an Actual Running Back. So if you want to throw him out, go ahead. That would get us down to eight backs, two of them active.

Most of the eight are readily identifiable. Brown and Sayers (as well as Mitchell) are Hall of Famers. Bo Jackson was one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century. And Morris played on two title teams with the Dolphins, including the 17-0 bunch. As for the others, Towler was a terrific fullback who led the league in rushing in 1952, and Wilson at one time held the NFL record for rushing yards in a game (223 vs. the Packers in ’56, his rookie season). Charles and Spiller, I suspect, you’re well acquainted with.

Per-carry averages tend to decline as a player ages (along with everything else, I might add). The longer your career, the less likely you are to average 5 yards. Lenny Moore, for instance, was averaging 5.01 after 10 seasons (964 attempts) but tailed off to 4.84. Hugh McElhenny was at 4.99 through 1,002 carries but finished at 4.70. More recently, the Panthers’ DeAngelo Williams was at 5.04 when he hit 1,000 . . . but has since dropped to 4.84. It makes you appreciate Tiki Barber, who averaged 5.15 in his final two seasons with the Giants at the ages of 30 and 31.

The record book says Barry Sanders averaged 5.0 for his illustrious Lions career, but that’s rounded up. His real average was 4.9866. Sorry, but we don’t round up here at Pro Football Daly, not for something as important as this. Five-Point-O is Five-Point-O, not Four-Point-Nine-Eight-Six-Six.

And how’s this for heartbreak? Sanders was averaging 5 going into his last NFL game in 1998 — 5.0043 to be precise. Alas, he was held to 41 yards in 19 attempts by Ray Lewis and Co., and his average fell to the aforementioned 4.9866. In fact, you can pinpoint the play he went under 5 to stay: his fourth carry of the day, a third-and-6 from the Detroit 41, when Ravens defensive end Keith Washington nailed him for a 3-yard loss. (Though he did rally with back-to-back gains of 31 and 6 in the third quarter to get to 4.9951.)

In case you’re curious, .9866 = 35.5 inches. In other words, Sanders came up half an inch short, per carry, of the Five-Point-O Club. (And if football is a “game of inches,” it’s even more a game of half-inches.) Half an inch, by the way, translates into 41 yards (spread over 3,062 attempts).

Going into this season, the Vikings’ Adrian Peterson is sitting at 4.98, so he also has a chance to join the group. The question is whether, at 29, his rushing average will head north or south. His 4.54 per carry a year ago was the second-lowest of his career.

Whatever your opinion of Charles, there’s no denying he’s putting together a nice resumé. Last season he became just the sixth back — NFL or AFL — to score 12 rushing and 6 receiving touchdowns in a season. The company he keeps:

12 RUSHING AND 6 RECEIVING TOUCHDOWNS IN A SEASON

[table]

Year,Running Back\, Team,Rush TD,Rec TD

2013,Jamaal Charles\, Chiefs,12,7

2001,Marshall Faulk\, Rams,12,9

2000,Marshall Faulk\, Rams,18,8

1975,Chuck Foreman\, Vikings,13,9

1975,O.J. Simpson\, Bills,16,7

1965,Gale Sayers\, Bears,14,6

1962,Abner Haynes\, Texans (AFL),13,6

[/table]

That’s twice now I’ve mentioned Charles in the same breath with Sayers. What do you suppose it means?

Sources: pro-football-reference.com, The Pro Football Chronicle

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The “Savagery on Sunday” trial

In October 1955 Life magazine tackled the issue of NFL violence head-on with an exposé titled:

Screen Shot 2014-07-15 at 4.08.34 PM

 

Not surprisingly, two of the players the magazine identified as “bad boys,” middle guard Bucko Kilroy and linebacker Wayne Robinson of the Eagles, brought $250,000 libel suits against the publisher, Time, Inc. This led to one of the more entertaining — and educational — trials in league history.

The case wasn’t tried until 1958, by which time Kilroy and Robinson were retired. Here’s an excerpt from Kilroy’s testimony that deals with an episode during the ’48 preseason, when he kicked Bears guard Ray Bray in the groin. Keep in mind this is the future general manager of the Patriots talking:

https://profootballdaly.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Kilroy-Testimony-Excerpt.pdf

In the end, Life‘s “evidence” was too shaky to hold up. Kilroy and Robinson didn’t walk away with $250,000 for having their characters impugned, but they were awarded $11,600 each, which is more than either ever made in a season. More important, as far as the NFL is concerned: no publication since has gone after it so aggressively on the problem of dirty play. It’s just a hard accusation to prove, given the nature of the sport.

Down the road, I’ll post more testimony from the trial, which lasted eight days and saw Commissioner Bert Bell and fellow Hall of Famers Otto Graham, Doak Walker and Em Tunnell called to the stand. You haven’t lived until you’ve read the following words, straight from the commish’s lips:

I don’t read the rules too thoroughly. . . . I couldn’t study those rules in a hundred years. They are technical in every way else.

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The rich getting richer (usually, at least)

One of the neater tricks in pro football is to win the championship (hard enough), then double your pleasure by selecting a Hall of Famer in the next draft (harder still, especially if you’re picking last).

It’s happened just 10 times in NFL history, most recently in 1993-94. (The player involved was admitted to Canton last year. I’ll let you guess who.)

As you’ll see, seven of the 10 teams won another title within five years. The other three messed up — royally. One cut its future Hall of Famer (who went on to win a Super Bowl with the Jets), another traded him (after which he won five championships with the Packers) and the third failed to sign him (whereupon he won an AFL crown with the Chargers).

Don’t hold your breath waiting for a club to pull this off again. It could be another decade or two, considering the paucity of candidates.

Note: I’m not including the ’49 Eagles or the ’50 Browns. Yes, they both came away from the next draft with a Hall of Famer, but it was a coach (Bud Grant for Philadelphia and Don Shula for Cleveland).

NFL CHAMPIONS WHO SELECTED A HALL OF FAMER IN THE NEXT DRAFT

[table]

Year,Champs,Hall of Fame Pick (Round),Result

1948,Eagles,LB Chuck Bednarik (1),Won titles in ’49 and ’60

1952,Lions,LB Joe Schmidt (7),Won title games in ’53 and ’57\, lost in ’54

1955,Browns,DE Willie Davis (15),DNP until ’58\, traded to Packers in ’60

1956,Giants,WR Don Maynard (9),Lost title game in ’58\, went to AFL’s Jets

1959,Colts,OT Ron Mix (1),Signed with AFL’s Chargers

1962,Packers,LB Dave Robinson (1),Won titles in ’65\, ’66 and ’67

1980,Raiders,DE Howie Long (2),Won Super Bowl in ’83

1982,Redskins,CB Darrell Green (1),Won Super Bowls in ’87 and ’91\, lost in ’83

1984,49ers,WR Jerry Rice (1),Won Super Bowls in ’88\, ’89 and ’94

1993,Cowboys,OG Larry Allen (2),Won Super Bowl in ’95

[/table]

There were also three league champions — two from the AFL, one from the NFL — who lost the Super Bowl and added a Hall of Famer in the next draft (kind of as a consolation prize). These were:

[table]

Year,Champs,Hall of Fame Pick (Round),Result

1966,Chiefs,LB Willie Lanier (2),Won Super Bowl in ’69

1967,Raiders,OT Art Shell (3),Won Super Bowls in ’76 and ’80

1968,Colts,LB Ted Hendricks (2),Won Super Bowl in ’70

[/table]

Finally, here are some Super Bowl champions of more recent vintage who may eventually join this list. (Note the word “may.”)

[table]

Year,Champs,Possible HOF-er in next draft (Round),Result

1996,Packers,FS Darren Sharper (2),Lost Super Bowl in ’97

2003,Patriots,NT Vince Wilfork (1),Won Super Bowl in ’04\, lost in ’07 and ’11

2004,Patriots,OG Logan Mankins (1),Lost Super Bowls in ’07 and ’11

2009,Saints,TE Jimmy Graham (3),?????

[/table]

Source: pro-football-reference.com

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Jim Brown smooches Raquel Welch in “100 Rifles”

I would have preferred to post a clip here from The Dirty Dozen (1967), at the end of which — spoiler alert — NFL legend Jim Brown gallantly gives his life to wipe out a bunch of Nazi officers during World War II. Alas, I couldn’t find one. Must be the ol’ Copyright Thing.

Still, I loved Nora Ephron’s tribute to the scene in Sleepless in Seattle (1993):

The following “Best of Jim Brown” will have to do. Somewhere, sometime I read that this was the first interracial kiss in Hollywood history. (Who can say for sure?) As if that weren’t enough, the recipient was one of the hottest females on the planet, Raquel Welch. Nice goin’, Jim. From 100 Rifles (1969):

I stopped it there because my screen was starting to fog up.

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36 points and 37 penalties

Rarely do two things of historical significance happen in the same game. But It’s great when they do — such as in the Browns’ 42-21 win over the Bears on Nov. 25, 1951. For starters, Cleveland back Dub Jones scored six touchdowns, tying the record he now shares with Ernie Nevers (1929) and Gale Sayers (1965).

While Jones was running amok, though, the teams were racking up a combined 37 penalties for 374 yards, two more records. The normally disciplined Browns were hit with 209 yards (yet another mark that has since been broken), the typically rowdy Bears 165. Sounds like the guys might have gotten a little, uh, vindictive.

In his story for The Plain Dealer, Harold Sauerbrei wrote:

It is merely in strict adherence to good reporting, not the intention to question the officiating, to record that the Browns were assessed 299 [sic] yards for 21 “infractions.”

In one series of downs with the Bears on the offensive, the Browns three times were charged with 15 yards for a personal foul. Two of them nullified intercepted passes, the second of which was returned 94 yards to an apparent touchdown by Don Shula.

Wait, that’s a third thing of historical significance that happened in the game. Shula had a 94-yard TD wiped out that, had it stood, would have been the only score of his NFL career.

No wonder his Colts and Dolphins clubs were so penalty-averse.

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