Legends on the line

History buffs like me enjoy the idea of the Browns Legends Club. I have some quibbles with the selection methodology (fan voting counts for just 20%), presentation (the official site's navigation could be better), and even the results, but I enjoy the concept and the chance to bring the team's great legacy of contributors into sharper focus.

Now that the (unnamed) panel has come up with this year's nominees, let's organize the names by era to see who's in, who's up, and who's still left out.

1940's-50s

Legends (year inducted)
Otto Graham (automatic HOF inclusion)
Bill Willis (HOF)
Lou Groza (HOF)
Marion Motley (HOF)
Frank Gatski (HOF)
Len Ford (HOF)
Dante Lavelli (HOF)
Mike McCormack (HOF)
Ray Renfro (2001)
Mac Speedie (2002)
Bob Gain (2003)
Tommy James (2004)
Dub Jones (2004)
Jim Ray Smith (2005)
Walt Michaels (2006)
Horace Gillom (2007)

2008 Nominees
Tony Adamle, LB (1947-51, '54)
Don Colo, DT (1953-58)
Abe Gibron, G (1950-56)
Kenny Konz, S (1953-59)
Warren Lahr, CB (1948-59)
Cliff Lewis, QB/S (1946-51)
Don Paul, CB (1954-58)

Biggest snubs
Edgar "Special Delivery" Jones
Lin Houston
Chuck Noll
Lou Rymkus
Lou Saban
John Sandusky
Tommy Thompson
George Young
Darrel "Pete" Brewster

My choice: Lahr (Gibron and Adamle, runners-up)

1960s

Legends
Jim Brown (HOF)
Bobby Mitchell (HOF)
Paul Warfield (HOF)
Leroy Kelly (HOF)
Gene Hickerson (2001, HOF)
Dick Schafrath (2003)
Gary Collins (2004)
Frank Ryan (2005)
Jim Houston (2006)
Bill Glass (2007)

2008 Nominees
Erich Barnes, CB (1965-71)
Monte Clark, T (1963-69)
Vince Costello, MLB (1957-66)
Galen Fiss, LB (1956-66)
Ernie Green, RB (1962-68)
Jim Kanicki, DT (1963-69)
Bernie Parrish, CB (1959-66)
Paul Wiggin, DE (1957-67)
John Wooten, G (1959-67)

Biggest snubs
Jim Shofner
Milt Plum
John Morrow
Ross Fichtner
Johnny Brewer

My choice: Costello (Green and Wiggin, runners-up)

1970s

Legends
Brian Sipe (2002)
Greg Pruitt (2001)
Mike Pruitt (2004)
Jerry Sherk (2005)
Doug Dieken (2006)
Don Cockroft (2007)

2008 Nominees
Thom Darden, S (1972-74, 1976-81)
Tom DeLeone, C (1974-84)
Jack Gregory, DE (1967-71, '79)
Robert E. Jackson, G (1975-85)
Walter Johnson, DT (1965-76)
Milt Morin, TE (1966-75)
Bill Nelsen, QB (1968-72)
Reggie Rucker, WR (1975-81)
Clarence Scott, DB (1971-83)

Biggest snubs
Dick Ambrose
Ron Bolton
Charlie Hall
"Turkey" Joe Jones
Cleo Miller

My choice: Darden (Johnson and Morin, runners-up)

1980s-90s

Legends
Ozzie Newsome (HOF)
Joe DeLamielleure (HOF)
Bernie Kosar (2001)
Michael Dean Perry (2001)
Clay Matthews (2002)
Hanford Dixon (2003)
Frank Minnifield (2005)
Earnest Byner (2006)
Kevin Mack (2007)

2008 Nominees
Matt Bahr, K (1981-89)
Brian Brennan, WR (1984-91)
Dan Fike, OL (1985-92)
Carl Hairston, DE (1984-89)
Eddie Johnson, LB (1981-90)
Tony Jones, T (1988-95)
Reggie Langhorne, WR (1985-91)
Dave Logan, WR (1976-83)
Eric Metcalf, RB/PR (1989-94)
Cody Risien, T (1979-83, 1985-89)
Webster Slaughter, WR (1986-91)

Biggest snubs
Bob Golic
Leroy Hoard
Mike Johnson
Eric Turner
Mike Baab
Felix Wright
Michael Jackson

My choice: Logan (Hairston and Slaughter, runners-up).

So, who are you voting for?

Supersized census a smart strategy

Gotta like the idea of inviting a whopping 54 players to try out this weekend's minicamp. Yep, that's in addition to the five draftees and 15 undrafted free agents signed this week.

Some of the tryout invitees played for big-time programs and slipped through the cracks in the draft and the ensuing flurry of signings. Others are admitted longshots, including Hall of Famer Joe DeLamielleure's 29-year-old son.

This big group of hopefuls not only provides ample personnel for some meaningful practices, but also serves a positive PR function for the Browns organization.

Before the draft, Phil Savage said the Browns sent letters to every college in Ohio informing them of the weekend tryout situation. The Browns, as the letter said, would need bodies in order to have a full practice, and any eligible player who'd like to take a crack at the NFL would be considered for the opportunity.

"They can always say they wore that orange helmet and played for the Cleveland Browns, if only for one weekend," Savage said.

This proves that the regime's earlier efforts to bring in players with local ties (Cribbs, Fraser, Zastudil, Stewart, Bentley, et al) were not just tokenism, not that I had any doubt. It does help cement the Browns as a destination employer in regional football circles.

That's a little jargony, I know. But really, I'm strongly in favor of anything that helps localize pro sports teams, counteracting the prevailing, all-too-accurate perception that athletes are just mercenaries who'll follow the money wherever it leads them, at the expense of continuity, cameraderie, connections, community.

Of course the Browns should and do go anywhere to secure the talent necessary to win. But if they become known as a franchise that looks with extraordinary care for gems in their own backyard, then that becomes one more great reason to root them on. It ain't just cheering for the laundry. It's supporting a local institution that offers tangible hope to the thousands of young area athletes at all levels who strive to excel at the sport.

It helps paint their football dreams in brown and orange.

Now back to the nitty-gritty. NFL owners recently beat back a proposal to expand the off-season roster above the current limit of 80. The demise of NFL Europa and the NFL pre-season roster exemptions for its players will make things even tighter this summer as teams prepare for cutdowns to the 53-man limit for the grueling regular season.

The roster on the official site currently lists 90 players, so any given tryout player will need to show something amazingly special pretty darn fast to have even the slightest chance at a brief Browns career. Realistically, the best he can hope for is to merit a callback should opportunities later arise at his position. A spot on the eight-man practice squad would be his ceiling for 2008.

Still, the large tryout is no mere formality. In this salary-capped era, there are only so many ways of getting a competitive edge. The gradual but huge expansion of coaching staffs has been one strategy. Making full use of the scouting department's work, plus scouring the small schools other teams probably overlooked, just makes good sense.

Mining through a mass of raw talent, if it has even a ten-percent chance at yielding a golden flash like Josh Cribbs, is well worth the catering bill.

Sweet schedule worth saving

Courtesy of Browns fan BuckFigBen, here's an outstanding version of the 2008 schedule, with a PDF version here.

Hey Tony ...

... Dungy, that is:

You don't care about the Browns. I know that. You're a former Steeler, after all. You had a job to do last night, and that was to protect your best players from getting hurt and missing their next game two weeks forward. Fine.

The players you sent out there did try. They did play hard, if not for you, then for themselves and their team. You, Mr. Dungy, did not put forth a professional effort. It was all too clear that you did not act as if winning was even on your list of priorities. Padding individual stats? Check. Getting your star QB some practice calling in plays? Check. Evaluating your backups in game conditions? Check.

But you conceded this game before it was over. Your Colts, facing fourth-and-11 with your backup QB, snapped the ball rather than wait one more second, when the two-minute warning would have given the offense time to catch their breath and prepare for what turned out to be their final play.

Then, you kept a timeout in your pocket rather than force the Titans to run a fourth-down play with over 30 seconds to go.

You were fine with losing. You were ready to lose. You were delighted to chat with your counterpart at midfield after your decisions greased his entry into the playoffs. I'm sure he was delighted with you too.

But the football gods will get you. They ought to, anyway. For one thing, your team was exposed as pitifully thin at QB. But more importantly, you let up. You let your big-picture vision and side goals obscure the game in front of your face. You did not coach hard. You did not coach to win.

I know you're a mature man who's accomplished and endured more than most, and you're entitled to your decisions. But they will come back to bite you. I hope.

Surely some will say that I'm just a bitter Browns fan, and my team blew its chance by losing any of those six games. True, but the predicament I found myself in last night, rooting for a team whose coach plainly didn't care to win (the division rival Titans earned a lower draft pick, after all), simply motivates me to point out a flagrant violation of one of the core elements that makes football particularly appealing in the first place. It is, or should be, an earnest, no-nonsense contest between two teams whose primary motive is to win the game.

Anything less is an affront to the sport. And bad karma.

The league's competition committee could remedy this going forward by establishing some criteria for teams whose late-season games are irrelevant to their playoff destinies. Such teams would remain free to rest and protect uninjured starters. But the benefits of doing so would be offset by the forfeiture of late-round draft picks.

After all, the draft is meant to replenish rosters subject to the ravages of full NFL seasons. If a team backs out of such combat and relies excessively on reserves to the detriment of fans and the fundamental basis of the sport itself, it obviously has less need to bring in new players.

Harkening heart

Do you need any reason to get pumped about Sunday's game in Cincitucky?

Playoffs on the line. Cross-state banter between the players, without the Pepto this time. Intrastate division rivalry. Sequel to September's 51-45 shootout. Tiebreaker of a 34-34 all-time series.

It's a big one, all right. Equivalent to a playoff game. Win, and the Browns are in the postseason, with an outside chance to capture the AFC North title the following week. Lose, and they'll be home for the playoffs if the Titans win their final two games.

It's the biggest Browns game in southwest Ohio since 1980, when the Kardiac Kids, fresh victims of Ahmad Rashad's winning Hail Mary catch, needed to rebound against the ornery Bengals in the final week to make the playoffs. If you think Carson Palmer and Chad Johnson are relishing their potential spoiler role, try Paul Brown and Forrest Gregg, the two deposed Browns head coaches on the other side back then.

That epic clash in Riverfront Stadium, played 27 years ago today, was the high-water mark for my boyhood fascination with the Browns. It was three years in waiting, which is an eternity to a 12-year-old. Still, much of my knowledge of the game is reconstructed, as memory often favors impressions over episodes. I do still recall Thom Darden's wicked hit on receiver/punter Pat McInally, third wideout Ricky Feacher coming up big with two TD receptions, and Don Cockroft's late straight-on boot to break a 24-24 tie.

I've since been refreshed with some other details, crucial at the time, but eroded in my mind with the ebb and flow of each passing year. There was tiny returner Dino Hall recovering two Bengal muffs, the Browns needing to rally from ten points down, MVP Brian Sipe passing for 308 yards despite getting sacked six times, injured QB Ken Anderson replacing Jack "The Throwin' Samoan" Thompson for the last-ditch drive, which expired on the Browns' 13.

Fortunately, a relic from this day survives in my family, my mother later acquiring one of the footballs used in this game in a charity auction. Its provenance is verified by a hand-signed letter from the donor, Bengals owner Paul Brown.

The next summer (or was it the summer after that?), my dad and I toted that football to Bowling Green for a scrimmage between the Browns and Lions. Afterwards, we waited amid a horde of Browns fans between the stadium and the team busses, hoping to get a few autographs. Players would file out sporadically, with various degrees of willingness to sign for their fans. We never did spot everyone's prized target, Brian Sipe. It was a confusing scene.

If you knew my dad, this would be funnier -- it's a family classic for us -- but some pen-wielding dude even asked him if he was Dino Hall. At the time, Dad stood 5-foot-2 ("and three-quarters!"), packed all of maybe 135 pounds onto his ex-wrestler frame, and was in his mid-30s.

In the end, the two men we got to sign our ball were Sam Rutigliano and, sure enough, the real Dino Hall. Two of the biggest hearts in Browns history.

That ball rests on my dad's rec room Browns shelf, and as I go there today to celebrate an early Christmas before heading out of town to visit more family, I am grateful to all of those who have enhanced my life with enjoyment, inspiration, excitement, and love, in all its miraculous manifestations. I wish that all Browns fans will find their own stories of emotional resonance to experience and share with their friends and families over this holiday season.

A win on Sunday would make it nicer.