Top five 1970s Cleveland Browns games to watch while social distancing

Here are videos of five great Cleveland Browns games from the 1970’s to tide you over while the sports world is on hold due to social distancing.

Finding good games from the 1970s is a bit of a challenge, because it was a down period in Cleveland Browns football. After years with only one losing season (1956, the first year the team was without Otto Graham), the Browns fell back into the pack in the 1970s.

The 1970s started with Blanton Collier as the coach, but he had to retire due partly to difficulties with hearing loss that had started to affect his ability to coach. He was ably replaced by Nick Skorich, who coached the team to the playoffs in 1972 (and almost beat the Dolphins in the playoffs, let us not forget!), and went 7-5-2 in 1973 and was generally realized to be aging and in danger of slipping further.

1974 was a pivotal year. The Browns tried to reverse their fortune by trading away more draft picks, including a first-round pick and a 1975 second-round pick for linebacker Bob Babich. Ridiculously, they traded away two more picks (third and sixth) for quarterback Don Horn, an okay backup quarterback from Denver. Their top draft pick was Billy Corbett, an offensive lineman with knee problems from unknown Johnson C. Smith University. Then they lost him to the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League and he never played a down in the NFL. Wait, what? I swear I am not making this up!

You see, Art Modell was acting as his own general manager, calling the shots in order to assert his prominence as a football genius. As a result, Paul Warfield was catching footballs in Miami, and Ron Johnson was playing for the New York Giants. They also traded away wide receiver Clifton McNeil, end Jack Gregory and defensive tackle Jim Kanicki and linebacker Bob Matheson. To put that into concrete terms, that’s one Hall of Famer (Warfield), three All-Pros (Johnson, McNeil and Gregory) one player from the Browns all-time top 100 list (Kanicki), and another player who had the Miami defense named after him (No. 53, Matheson). No team could survive that level of stupidity.

Skorich was a fine coach, but the bottom fell out that year (are you surprised?), and the team went 4-10 and Skorich was replaced by Forrest Gregg. The disciplinarian had some success, but after two losing seasons out of three, was replaced by Sam Rutigliano, who oversaw a (almost) successful rebuilding effort starting in 1978. At least they would make it back into the playoffs again.

For the most part, the Browns continued to draft well when given the opportunity by their meddling owner, getting quality players outside of the first round, like quarterback Brian Sipe (13th round,1972), defensive tackle Jerry Sherk (2nd,1970), Turkey Joe Jones (2nd,1970), linebacker Charlie Hall (3rd, 1971), tackle Doug Dieken (6th, 1971), running back Greg Pruitt (2nd, 1971), Dick Ambrose (12th, 1975), wide receiver Dave Logan (3rd, 1976), guard Robert E. Jackson (5th, 1976), guard Henry Sheppard (6th, 1970), cornerback Oliver Davis (4th, 1977), Cody Risien (7th, 1979), and several others.

Their first round picks included Phipps, safety Clarence Scott, cornerback Thom Darden, fullback Mike Pruitt, linebacker “Stonewall” Robert L. Jackson, tight end Ozzie Newsome and should-be Hall of Famer Clay Matthews.

In 1976, Modell finally admitted that he was not adept at making trades and hired Peter Hadhazy to be a true general manager. That was a major enhancement for the Browns, as the stupid trades stopped. Hadhazy, though skeptical at first, realized that he had a quarterback in Sipe, and traded Mike Phipps to Chicago for a first round draft pick.

By the late 1970s, with Coach Sam Rutigliano coaching, the makings of the Kardiac Kids were in place.

Leading off for the 1970s is the first ever Monday Night Football game, starring the Cleveland Browns against Joe Namath and the New York Jets.