Video of old games

[pbmax]

I don't remember this game. I'm sure it was on national TV, so I didn't see it.

I am pretty sure I saw this game. John Dorsey, eventual personnel guy is playing for the Packers I thought I heard.

The Browns O coordinator will be instantly recognizable to middle aged Rats as Lindy Infante. Pass to daylight worked for these Browns. Marty Schottenheimer was the HC. It was his second full season. Webster Slaughter was a rookie and a initially disappointing first round pick, because we could find him listed nowhere but as the 8th best WR prospect in the Sporting News I think. Mack and Byner were coming off twin 1,000 yard seasons. Mack was the more talented back, but he as always getting nicked up. Byner could do everything, including fumble at horrible moments. The Browns were playing a static AFC 3-4 with a no name line and 3 first round linebackers - Clay Matthews, Chip Banks and Tom Cousineau. Matthews was not happy playing strong side and losing his pass rush role when Banks was drafted.

I think both Hanford Dixon and Frank Minnifield were on the defense (CBs) by then, two of the original "Last Dogs of Defense", which was a poster to raise money for the Humane Society or something along those lines, and then became a section of the bleachers (the Dog Pound). The Browns had traded (year before I think) a reg draft pick to someone and picked up ALL the other teams supplemental picks. These picks were used to take several USFL players. Mack, Mike Johnson (the non first round LB), Minnifield and a few others came to the team that way. It was a very smart move and probably was engineered by eventual Giants GM Ernie Accorsi.

They went 12-4 I think and played in the AFC Championship game, losing to Horse Face on The Drive. I am going to go kick the dog now. This team was also the first I think, to defeat the NY Jets and Mark Gastineau in the playoffs for 3 of 4 seasons. They eventually got even one year, but beating Gastineau and the sack dance was a treat.

[pbmax]

Hoo boy. Old school. Clay Matthews Jr. as a 2nd year player, recently a 1st round pick out of USC. I cannot be sure, but when I saw Clay Jr. up close at a Brown's training camp in Berea OH in 1987 or 88, I thought he was on something. He was far larger than he had been as a young player. PEDs were not as well known then, mainly a subject for Olympic coverage, but something tells me it was in the news for me to have suspected. Even in his practice uni he looked like a comic book superhero. Lyle Alzado was on the team after they got him from Denver. The connection seems ominous now, it meant nothing then.

The 1980 Browns were the Kardiac Kids and won the Division from the Steelers for the first time in a decade. Bam Bam Ambrose was the middle linebacker. Mike Pruitt was the best RB, but Greg Pruitt was the one you wanted to watch. Like the Metcalfs only bigger, he could catch, run and return punts. He wore the tearaway jerseys when the were legal and he lost at least one per game. Reggie Rucker was the veteran WR, smooth and fast but getting older. Dave Logan was a precursor to basketball style TEs. He played WR, but ran routes like a TE. His best route was the fade into the endzone for a jump ball which he always seemed to win.

These Browns lost in the playoffs to eventual champion Oakland when Red Right 88, a pass to future Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome in the corner of the endzone was intercepted by the Raiders to seal a 2 point win.

The best season on the team was had by Brian Sipe, who should have been MVP over Fouts (I think) as he had a nearly duplicate statistical season with far less resources at his disposal.

[pbmax]

Can't forget about Calvin Hill. Browns first 3 rd down back. One of a wave of pass catching backs in the 80s. Ultimate checkdown guy. Worked a lot of short routes for first downs. Could block blitzes too. And Paul Warfield is calling this game with Stockton.

[esoxx]

I don't remember this game. I'm sure it was on national TV, so I didn't see it.

Funny seeing Randy Scott #55 LB for Packers. A former girlfriend of mine moved to Milwaukee and ended up dating Randy Scott. That bastard.

[pbmax]

#77, Mike Butler apparently, was a pretty good player if the two videos mean anything. He was torching Cody Risien the RT in the 1980 video, and Risien would eventually replace old Left Tackle Doug Dieken and make a Pro Bowl or two if memory serves. Dieken used to joke that he played so well for so long because he had mastered the art of holding without getting caught. When he retired, he claimed that fans shouldn't worry, he taught Cody everything he knew about holding.

[Freak Out]

What an awesome thread...I still have newspaper clippings from the Lynn Dickey era. Coffman was a badass. So many great games yet so many heartbreakers....I will never forget the MNF game in Denver when the fucking Broncos scored two touchdowns off fumbles to start the game. Dickey and the boys went to work and just tore up the Bronco D until I think???... a sack of Dickey sealed the deal at the end. Fuck I was bummed after that game.

[Freak Out]

Was Moseley the last of his kind in the NFL?

[Iron Mike]

[Iron Mike]

Here's an old game for you.....

[Fritz]

Wow. Thanks for posting...I watched the introduction of the lineups for the 1961 Giants/Packers game. The offensive linemen were all between 230 and 255 pounds. The wide receivers were called ends...Boyd Dowler was introduced as the "flanker back" and of course the running backs were halfbacks,

And Bart Starr weighed 200 lbs.