Favorite Browns era

[BrownsfaninPa]

Iam a Browns fan of 35+ yrs. I'am always reflecting back to the past from a different time when football was so much different than today. I miss those days, and my favorite era was from the 70's to early 90's. Mike Phipps, Brian Sipe, Bernie Kosar are my favorite QB's. Favorite RB's were Mike Pruitt, and Kevin Mack.

[The Gipper]

Jim Brown, Paul Warfied, Gary Collins, Frank Ryan, Shafrath and Hickerson, ERnie Green etc. I was not old enough for the Otto Graham era.

[Canton Mike]

Jim Brown, Paul Warfied, Gary Collins, Frank Ryan, Shafrath and Hickerson, ERnie Green etc. I was not old enough for the Otto Graham era.

 

Hey Gip, you forgot Groza, Fiss, Shofner, Costello, Fleming, Plum, Renfro, & others.

That was my favorite time as well, the late 50's through the mid '60s.

I hope the younger folks on this board get to witness Teams like those. Not only do I think they will, I believe WE will live to see it too. Great times.

 

Mike

[Orion]

Jim Brown, Paul Warfied, Gary Collins, Frank Ryan, Shafrath and Hickerson, ERnie Green etc. I was not old enough for the Otto Graham era.

...Milt Moran, Erich Barnes, Bernie Parish, Walter Beach....onto Leroy Kelly, etc.

 

I also missed Graham's era.

 

The Kosar days were good days also.

[TexasAg1969]

Grew up in the Jim Brown era starting with his Senior year at Syracuse. Browns = Browns (Jim + Paul). I think it's in a definition somewhere.

 

"On November 4, 2010, Brown was chosen by NFL Network's NFL Films production The Top 100: NFL's Greatest Players as the second-greatest player in NFL history, behind only Jerry Rice."

[Zombo]

My Favorite Eras:

 

1. Dawgpound Browns 1985-1989

This was the best team we have fielded in my life. We could run, we could pass, we could play defense with passion and precision. And it was fun! We were at the top of the NFL in talent, wins and notoriety,

 

2. Old Guard Browns 1969 -1973

This is the team I fell in love with as a kid. Leroy Kelly, Bill Nelson, Milt Morin, Gene Hickerson, Walter Johnson, Jerry Sherk, Erich Barnes ... I still have all of their football cards memorized. This was after the glory of Paul Brown and Jim Brown but before there was any hint of mediocrity. I figured the Browns would always be 9-5, or 10-4 and make the playoffs my whole life.

 

3. The Kardiac Kids 1979-80

I enjoyed the whole Sipe era, 1976-83, we were always outmanned underdogs but fought our hearts out to the last whistle. 79-80 was the best, when we were pulling out victory after last-second victory. I was in high school, living in Steeler country during the Noll years, and these Browns gave me something to believe.

 

4. Belichick figures it out 1994

Not an era, but just a year, thanks to Art Modell. But it had all the makings of an era: Belichick's defense was becoming no less than "great". The offense was running, bumbling and stumbling to victories. Ozzie Newsome picking the players and Bill Belichick coaching them ... nah, never would have worked ...

 

5. Butchie gives us hope 2001-2002

I need a fifth, so I will mention Butch Davis' first two years. The defense was playing lights out in 01 before injuries caught up, but in 02 we hung in there as a team and made the playoffs and came one play from shocking the world. Then it all fell apart ... Hoping the Hue jackson era knocks this out of the Top five real quick.

[Tour2ma]

Easy to love the Championship era... and I did. Bobby Mitchell is one name missing above from that era. Great RB before his WR conversion in WSH. Dr. Ryan was as cerebral a QB as I can remember playing.

 

Added OL names were Wooten and Monte Clark... relatively easy to forget with Schafrath and Hickerson as their opposites.

Same for Johnny Brewer... our "blocking" TE lost in the receiving corps of Collins and Warfield. Some will remember that Johnny finished his career with us at OLB.

 

D side was a virtual no-name collection. Paul Wiggins and Bill Glass were bookend DEs in our 4-3 flanking Ed "Big Mo" Modzelewski and Jim "No. 69" Kanecki. Jim Houston and Galen Fiss flanked the above mentioned Costello. Bernie Parrish and Bobby Franklin were secondary favs.

 

 

After "the glory days"...

 

Leroy Kelly, an 8th round pick, had the toughest act to follow in the history of the game and did so to an extent no one could have imagined.

 

Jerry Sherk remains my all-time favorite defender. As you've read here before, I maintain that were it not for a knee cutting his career short he'd be in the HoF.

[TexasAg1969]

And then there is the one drafted and traded to the Browns, but who never got to play as a Brown. A real tragedy. Heisman winner Ernie Davis from an undefeated Syracuse National Champion team. Died at age 23 of leukemia in 1963.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Davis

[The Gipper]

And then there is the one drafted and traded to the Browns, but who never got to play as a Brown. A real tragedy. Heisman winner Ernie Davis from an undefeated Syracuse National Champion team. Died at age 23 of leukemia in 1963.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Davis

What about the guys drafted by the Browns and traded away: Doug Atkins, Henry Jordan, Willie Davis, Dick LeBeau. All HOF, all fairly contemporary...all went to other teams.

Think what the Browns defense would have been with all those guys playing on it...

[Orion]

Jerry Sherk remains my all-time favorite defender. As you've read here before, I maintain that were it not for a knee cutting his career short he'd be in the HoF.

 

He and Walter Johnson were a good pair together!