Moment 21: A perfect season

11.22.2006

During the first two years of their existence, the Browns absolutely wowed the football world.

They had a quarterback in Otto Graham who could beat you with his quick feet or with his precision passing.

He was always on the same page with his two wide receivers, Mac Speedie and Dante Lavelli. They called Lavelli "Glue Fingers" for a reason. He dropped a ball about as often as people sunbathed on the beaches of Lake Erie in January.

Graham had a bodyguard in front of him in center Frank Gatski. Nicknamed "Gunner," this fun-loving, fearless man would stop at nothing to protect his quarterback.

They had Lou Groza, who would knock you down with his blocking from the left tackle spot -- protecting Graham's blind side -- and then kick you -- literally and figuratively -- with his ability to make field goals. They called him "The Toe" for a reason, too.

Trying to stop fullback Marion Motley was akin to trying to stop a freight train. With thighs the size of tree trunks, he ran over defenders with ease.

Middle guard Bill Willis was so quick that he could run down halfbacks from behind -- if he didn't charge into the backfield and meet them head-on, first.

The other players on the Browns didn't become Pro Football Hall of Famers like these guys, but they were pretty good as well.

And the Hall of Fame head coach, Paul Brown, was light years ahead of his counterparts with his countless innovations and his organizational skills.

The Browns, then, were multi-faceted. They could -- and did -- beat you with a fast-paced passing game, the likes of which no one had seen before, or by something called a draw play, in which they sent Motley thundering up the middle as defenders ran past him while rushing Graham.

Then the defense, which was outstanding as well but never got the recognition due it because of all the talented players on offense, would smother the opposition with its quickness.

If Groza didn't beat you with a field goal, the Browns' other special-teams weapon, Horace Gillom, would punt the ball out of sight and pin teams back in the shadow of their own goal line.

And if you were somehow able to create a stalemate on special teams, defense and offense, Brown would figure out a way to win the game by out-coaching you.

There seemed to be no way to stop this team. The Browns didn't appear to be the kings of just the All-America Football Conference, but all of pro football as well. There was no one in the NFL at the time that could have stopped them, which they proved when they moved to that league a few years late in 1950 and won the championship there as well in that first season.

In short, the Browns appeared to be almost perfect.

True. And in 1948, they were perfect. It could be measured and quantified in tangible ways.

Yes, the 1972 Miami Dolphins aren't the only pro football team that won every game it played. The Browns of 58 years ago did so as well, finishing the regular season 14-0 to win the AAFC's Western Conference title and then adding an exclamation point to it all by crushing the Eastern champs, the Buffalo Bills, 49-7 in the league title game to end at 15-0.

The Browns and the AAFC were both three years old, and they had been its champion every season. And with the Indians also winning the World Series and the Barons capturing the American Hockey League crown in 1948, Cleveland was aptly dubbed "The City of Champions."

Just like the 1972 Dolphins won six games by seven points or less en route to going 17-0 and capturing Super Bowl VII over the Washington Redskins by a score of 14-7, the Browns of 24 years before had some close calls, too, with four of their 15 wins coming by seven points or less.

They edged past the Los Angeles Dons 19-14 in the opener, turned back the Baltimore Colts 14-10 and gained 14-7 and 31-28 decisions over their arch rivals at the time, the San Francisco 49ers.

But for the most part, the Browns ravaged their foes.

They beat the Bills 42-13 and 31-14 in the regular season, the Chicago Rockets and Colts both by 28-7, and the Dons by 31-14. In their other wins -- 21-10 over the Rockets, 30-17 and 31-21 over the Brooklyn Dodgers and 34-21 over the New York Yankees -- the scores were close only because the Browns lost interest at times.

All this, though, is not necessarily the most important aspect of the unbeaten season.

Sure, it was obviously important to win those games -- after all, you can't have an undefeated record if you stub your toe once -- but what was most impressive was what the Browns did during an eight-day stretch almost 58 years ago to the day.

They won three games in that span.

Yes, you read that right. They won three games in an eight-day stretch -- an unbelievable feat.

But it becomes more unbelievable when the details of that stretch are revealed.

On Nov. 21, they traveled to New York and beat the Yankees 34-21, then they flew back to Cleveland -- not quickly, as you would today, because air travel was much slower then -- took the dirty clothes of their suitcase, packed some clean ones back in it and then got onto another plane and headed to the West Coast.

They played the Dons in Los Angeles on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 25, winning 31-14. As mentioned, the 49ers were the Browns' biggest rivals -- and the biggest threat to their supremacy -- and the next stop was San Francisco on Nov. 28. A challenging game in a challenging situation, to say the least.

So, just three days after beating the Dons, they topped the 49ers 31-28.

Three games. Eight games. Coast to coast.

During Thanksgiving week, no less.

To top it off, the Browns didn't even get a home game the following week. They flew back to the East Coast and, on Dec. 5, beat the Dodgers in Brooklyn 31-21 to end the regular season.

The only salvation they got was a two-week respite before meeting the Bills in the league title game -- at Cleveland, mercifully.

These are things that the 1972 Dolphins never had to do or worry about, and it's why the 1948 Browns truly stood out -- to the point of perfection -- in more ways than one.