Cleveland Browns: 15 greatest moments in team history
By Randy Gurzi
Greatest moments in Cleveland Browns history: 11. The first win in their second stint
Cleveland had to go four years without a football team, but in 1999 they finally had their Browns back. After Art Modell ripped the team away from one of the most history-laden cities in the NFL, the league did the right thing and gave the franchise a reboot. That doesn’t mean things were easy though.
The Browns had to come in as an expansion club as they were building from scratch. That’s often a hard thing to do and that was the case here for the new Browns. They started out with a stretch of seven losses in 1999 and had to wait until the midseason mark to notch their first win.
That came on Halloween when they headed to Louisiana to face the New Orleans Saints — and they played in one of the more memorable games of the new-era Browns history. A close-fought game between the two teams came down to the final seconds. Ricky Williams of the Saints ran the ball 40 times as they put all their eggs in his basket — and it nearly worked.
New Orleans had knocked in a field goal to take a 16-14 lead with only enough time remaining for the Browns to run a couple of plays. That ended up being all they needed. After a solid return and one completion, the Browns were sitting at their own 44-yard line with just two seconds remaining. They needed a miracle and found one.
Quarterback Tim Couch rolled to his right and heaved up a Hail-Mary to the end zone. Somehow, Kevin Johnson came down cleanly with the ball and the new Cleveland Browns had their first win as an expansion team. They may have gone 2-14 that season, but that first win came 1,415 days after their last one. And it was a beauty.