Cleveland Browns Flashback Friday: Turkey Jones slams Terry Bradshaw

The Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers rivalry seems to be renewed, which dates back to when Turkey Jones slammed Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw.

One of the scariest moments in the history of the Cleveland Browns-Steelers rivalry came when Joe “Turkey” Jones sacked future Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw in Week 5 of the 1976 season. In some ways it channels the recent dispute between Mason Rudolph of the Steelers, who experienced great unhappiness after being tackled by Myles Garrett of the Browns.

It did not come on Thanksgiving weekend, but it did involve 250 pounds of turkey, in the form of Browns defensive end Turkey Jones. He received that nickname because he is the only player in Browns history to fall for the fake turkey gag two years in a row.

As many Browns fans are gleefully aware, the Browns had a tradition of lying to rookie players that they would get a free turkey at a particular farm 50 miles out-of-town. The only problem was that the turkey farm did not exist. Well, somehow they got Jones to fall for the gag two years in a row!

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Anyway, to put the game in context, it came at a low point in the career of Browns head coach Forrest Gregg. The team was 1-3, which was grounds for firing the coach in the minds of Browns fans, who were used to the team making the playoffs every year. Not only that, but the team went 3-11 the previous season, which was at the time the worst record in team history. So at that point, Gregg stood at 4-14 for his career.

Now they had to play the Pittsburgh Steelers, who were the defending Super Bowl champions, and who had already beat up the Browns 31-14 three weeks earlier. Sure enough they asserted their superiority, knocking Browns quarterback Brian Sipe out of the game in the first half with a concussion. Mike Phipps was also out with an injury, so in came third string Dr. David Mays, DDS, who really was a dentist in the offseason. The kid had never played in the NFL, but instead had played in the ill-fated World Football League. So the Browns were behind 10-6 at halftime with a dentist playing quarterback.

In the third quarter, however, the dentist put together a drive highlighted by a 29-yard pass to Paul Warfield, followed by a 1-yard plunge by Cleo Miller, and suddenly the Browns were ahead, 13-10. They added to the lead with a Don Cockroft field goal, and then extended it to 18-10 with another field goal in the fourth quarter. The Browns defense was playing at an incredibly high level, stuffing running backs Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier while limiting Bradshaw through the air. The Browns were in Bradshaw’s face all day, with three sacks and two forced scrambles.

Still, the Steelers were a threat in the fourth quarter, with the rocket-armed and mobile Bradshaw at quarterback. But about four minutes into the quarter, Jones blasted through the Pittsburgh offensive line and grabbed Bradshaw in a bear hug. In the process of pulling him down, Jones sort of heaved Bradshaw to the ground, but Bradshaw landed squarely on his helmet. On the one hand it was a great play, but on the other hand it was frightening because Bradshaw could have been paralyzed or even killed.

Was it a dirty hit? Some people thought so. But Steelers guard Gerry Mullins was quoted as saying: “Throwing him down was just a freak accident. Terry has a tendency to bust tackles like that and run for a gain.” It is true that Bradshaw was extremely difficult to bring down, and even a defensive lineman could not simply wrap him up.

Jones apologized after the game, but was still fined $3,000 for the sack. More importantly the Browns hung on and won 18-16, despite allowing a meaningless rushing touchdown by Bradshaw’s replacement, Mike Kruczek.

When Terry Bradshaw retells the story of the sack, he is able to chuckle about it now, though at the time it was horrifying. The medics did not have a table for him, so they took a door off the locker room and strapped him to it, and made him wait out it in the hall until the game was over, at which point they flew him back to Pittsburgh. All the while, poor old Bradshaw had no feeling in his body and lay there wondering if his career was over or whether he could lead a normal life. In the video, which was made in 2007, Bradshaw says, “That was thirty years ago, folks. You got to realize that what the NFL has done today is absolutely phenomenal.”

Next. Biggest questions Browns need to answer against Steelers. dark

That year both the Steelers and Browns got hot as the season went by. The Steelers went 10-4, and the Browns went 9-5. The Browns missed the playoffs and the Steelers were downed by the eventual Super Bowl champion Oakland Raiders.

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