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Chick Ludwig covers the Cincinnati Bengals. He also writes about his other passions: college football, basketball and golf.Home > Blogs > Chick Ludwig At Large > Archives > 2008 > September > 27 > Entry
1980 rewind: Take it from Rutigliano, Brown-Modell hatred was very real
FINAL GAME OF 1980 SEASON
SENT BROWNS TO PLAYOFFS;
BUT SET TONE FOR BENGALS’
1981 SUPER BOWL SEASON
===LUDWIG AT LARGE would like to thank the Cleveland Browns and Steve King, who covers the Browns for ClevelandBrowns.com … This story is reprinted with permission from the Cleveland Browns.===
By STEVE KING
ClevelandBrowns.com
The Pittsburgh Steelers have been perceived for quite some time now as the Browns’ biggest rivals.
That’s probably true.
However, that was never really the case for the original Browns franchise — or at least the team’s owner, Art Modell. For him, the club’s biggest rival was the Cincinnati Bengals. And for the Bengals, the biggest rival was the Browns.
Modell fired Browns founding head coach — and Pro Football Hall of Famer — Paul Brown after the 1962 season after they had disagreed on a number of issues. Brown was out of football for the next five seasons and then helped bring pro football to Cincinnati with the Bengals in 1968. That was the year after he had enshrined in the HOF.
He served as their founding head coach, too, for eight years, through the 1975 season, before stepping down to assume full-time duties as general manager until his death on Aug. 5, 1991.
To say Modell and Brown did not like each other is like saying Cleveland and Cincinnati are both located in the state of Ohio. That is, it’s obvious.
MODELL FIRED BROWN & GREGG
Modell wanted to beat the Bengals more than any other team. And Brown wanted to beat the Browns — the club named for him — more than any other team.
Former Browns head coach Sam Rutigliano tells a story that epitomizes how Modell viewed the rivalry.
It occurred Dec. 21, 1980 — the Kardiac Kids year — as the Browns were getting ready to play the Cincinnati Bengals that afternoon at Riverfront Stadium in the season finale.
The Browns were 10-5 after having lost 28-23 to the Minnesota Vikings the previous week on a Hail Mary pass from Tommy Kramer to Ahmad Rashad on the game’s final play. The Browns could have clinched a playoff berth with a win, but as a result of the stunning loss, they now could not get in as a wild card. They had to win the AFC Central title to make it, and to do that, they had to defeat the Bengals.
It was very simple: Either win or go home.
A LITTLE CHAT ON THE BUS
The Browns had won the first meeting between the teams 31-7 at Cleveland a month earlier, but they knew it would be much tougher this time. The Bengals had been out of contention for a while, and at 6-9 had guaranteed themselves of a third straight losing season. But they were set to give the Browns all they wanted. Brown and Bengals first-year head coach Forrest Gregg, who was fired as head coach of the Browns with one game left in the 1977 season, would see to that.
On the morning of the game, the Browns were boarding the team bus at the hotel in Downtown Cincinnati for the short ride of just a few blocks to Riverfront. You could cut the tension with a knife. The importance of the game was not lost on anyone with the Browns.
“I was sitting in the front seat of the bus when Art got on,” Rutigliano recalled. “When he saw me, he patted me on the back.
“He said to me, ‘Sam, no matter what happens today, I want you to know that this season has already been a big success. You’ve turned the team around in your three years here, and we set an attendance record this season. Everything is looking up.’
‘ART! YOU’RE FULL OF IT!’
“He started to say something else, and I stopped him in mid-sentence. I told him, ‘Baloney, Art! You’re full of it!’
“He looked at me kind of stunned that I would talk to the owner of the team like that, but I didn’t care.
“I said to him, ‘Look, the owner of that team we’re playing today is Paul Brown. You fired him, remember? And the head coach of that team is Forrest Gregg, You fired him, too, remember? Those two guys would like nothing better than to win today and deny the Browns — but especially you — a chance to go to the playoffs.
” ‘And in turn, you know you want to go to the playoffs by beating them more than you love life itself. So don’t give me all that junk about this season already being a success no matter what happens out there today.’
“With that, he smiled, chuckled a little bit and then sat down. He knew full well that I was right.”
As it turned out, the Bengals did rise up and play a whale of a game. It was a classic, in fact.
The Browns fell behind 10-0 right away and then went ahead 24-17 midway through the third quarter on two Brian Sipe TD passes to little-used wide receiver Ricky Feacher, the self-proclaimed “Hollywood Dude” who was playing for the injured Dave Logan.
The Bengals rallied to the game 24-24 later in the third quarter, though, and then Don Cockroft kicked the game-winning 22-yard field goal with 1:25 left in the game.
KREIDER ‘PINNED’ TO GROUND
But it wasn’t over yet. The game ended with Browns cornerback Ron Bolton tackling — and then pinning down — Steve Kreider in bounds at the Cleveland 14 after the wide receiver had hauled in a 21-yard pass from Ken Anderson, who was hurt but was inserted into the game by Gregg as he pulled out all the stops to win.
The Bengals, out of time-outs, rushed down the field to try to set up for another play, but were unable to do so before the final gun sounded.
The win gave the Browns their first division title in nine years, and their first playoff berth in eight seasons, and made 1980 an unqualified success in every way, shape and form in everybody’s eyes.
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By psychostats
September 27, 2008 2:18 PM | Link to this
I remember reading quoted statements from Art Modell where he claimed that Pittsburgh had ALWAYS been the Browns main rival. Cincinnati was merely an afterthought. If Steve King’s story is true — and I’m sure it is — then Modell was being disingenuous in order to snub the Bengals. That too suggests a high degree of animosity between the two parties….I was pleased to see the Browns described as the “team named after” PB. The official story now put forth by the Cleveland franchise is at odds with this assertion, but of course we all know better.By Diamond Dave
September 27, 2008 8:57 PM | Link to this
I can still hear it… SIPER BOWL!!! SIPER BOWL!!! SIPER BOWL!!! SIPER — Red Right 88 — Done.