Big-League Browns

For four years the Cleveland Browns were the champs of professional football's All-America Conference. When the ill-balanced All America folded up last December, its surviving teams (Cleveland, Baltimore and San Francisco) merged with the 30-year-old National Football League. "Just wait till the Browns run up against those old pros," said National League fans. By this week, with eight victories in ten games, the Browns had run up against--and over--a lot of the old pros and were leading their own (American Conference) division of football's big-league.

Among the victims of the Browns this year, in exhibition and regular-season games, have been such longtime N.F.L. powerhouses as the Chicago Bears (27-23) and the champion Philadelphia Eagles (35-10). This week, though it added no special luster to their record, the Browns scalped aging (35) Sammy Baugh and his down-at-heel Washington Redskins, 20-14.

In Theory. Over the season, opponents have been learning that the only way to stop the Browns is to stop both passing Quarterback Otto Graham and line-smashing Fullback Marion Motley. This is not simple. More often than they like to remember, defending linemen have sifted through to smear Passer Graham, found themselves mousetrapped behind the line of scrimmage while 235-lb. Fullback Motley crushed downfield with the ball.

When Coach Paul Brown set about to form, his squad five years ago, big (200 lbs., 6 ft. 1 in.) Otto Graham, onetime Northwestern halfback, was the first man hired. Brown has a ready, if unconventional, explanation for his choice: "He was an All-America basketball player, a playmaker." Instead of flattening his receivers with bullet throws, Graham likes to feather the ball at them. His theory: "Hand it to 'em high, and let 'em run under it." In four years in the old All-America Conference, Graham completed more than 50% of his passes. With 114 completions out of 221 so far this year, he is right up to standard.

Fullback Motley, whose knee-action power makes fans think of the great Bronko Nagurski, also had a major place in Coach Brown's original plans. Brown first spotted the big Negro as a high-school player in Canton, Ohio, later coached him at Great Lakes. Motley became the leading ground-gainer of the old conference in his third year, and this week (with 746 yards) was leading the N.F.L.

In Retrospect. So far, only the New York Giants have been able to stop Graham, Motley & Co., and the Giants have done it twice, 6-0 and 17-13. Fundamentally, Giant Coach Steve Owen managed this feat by getting his linemen to charge the Browns so furiously that it kept the timing of the Browns' offense off balance. Such tactics had the desired effect, but proved costly in retrospect. The Giants themselves were so bruised that four players had to be sent to the hospital, and right after the victories over Cleveland they dropped two out of three games (to underdogs) for their only defeats of the season.

Nobody else seemed either able or anxious to follow the Giants' formula. Unless somebody did, and soon, the Browns seemed headed for the pro-league playoffs and a good chance at the N.F.L. championship.

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