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A program from 1964 recalls a time when any teams with pretentions of contention had to beat the Browns.

(The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Within living memory, there was a time when things were different around here. “Woe is us” was “can’t beat us.”

I speak for many Boomers with a drawl when I say it was a hard thing to deal with as an adolescent in Dallas, Texas, in the 1960s with the Browns kicking sand in the face of the Cowboys all the time.

There were no beaches in Dallas, but Galveston Island was only four or so laborious hours away. Even on a vacation there, I knew my hometown team was in the same position as Charles Atlas, the “scrawny weakling” of so many advertisements at the back of boys’ magazines and comic books, bullied and derided before his sweetheart on an ocean strand – that is, until he discovered the secrets of a workout regimen Atlas (born Angelo Siciliano) would be happy to sell to him.

I had credentials for vicariously experiencing the public humiliation visited on the “sand”wich-eating Cowboys by the mighty men in the orange helmets. I was in the stands at the Cotton Bowl in 1965, when the defending NFL champion Browns -- wait a minute, let’s repeat that phrase slowly: the ... defending ... NFL ... champion ... Browns – met the Cowboys before a capacity crowd.

The Browns were clinging to a one-game lead in the geographically ridiculous East Division of the NFL at the time. Dallas was in the East, Baltimore in the West. I am sure there was a reason for this cockamamie set-up. I just can’t remember what it was.

Just as I can’t say how the greatest short gain of Jim Brown’s career happened.

Probably there are explanations of tackling angles and technique, strength and balance. But to me, Brown’s 3-yard touchdown run, which decided the game, was a physical expression of will.

Hit immediately by three Cowboys at the line of scrimmage, he bounced off, retreated to the 6, and somehow spun out of the arms of linebacker Dave Edwards. Lurching back to the 3, Brown was hit from both sides, began to fall, then stabilized himself by placing a hand on the grass and dived into the end zone.

“He was hit by all 11 defenders. It should have been a 3-yard loss, but we needed a touchdown and Jim knew it, so he got it,” said Art Modell without the slightest amount of exaggeration.

It was Brown’s last year. He had already decided to retire after the 1966 season to pursue an acting career that had begun with a role in the Western “Rio Conchos” before the 1964 season. In London, filming the production-delayed movie “The Dirty Dozen” in 1966, Brown missed the start of training camp.

Modell went all Haslam and rashly announced a fine of $1,500 per week for missed practice time. Exit Brown, who retired.

Not until Thanksgiving Day, 1966, after a 26-14 victory in Dallas over the Browns, who now had nobody who could get them a touchdown when they needed one, did most in Dallas think the Cowboys could stand toe-to-toe and slug it out with the big-boy teams.

By 1967, the Cowboys’ confidence was growing. The Browns were a speed bump in the playoffs, falling 52-14. The Super Bowl was on everyone’s lips – until Green Bay won the “Ice Bowl,” 21-17. To this day, I believe on a real field and not Vince Lombardi’s skating rink, the Cowboys would have won.

Which, of course, sounds like Browns fans replaying The Drive or the Fumble games. It is an apt analogy because the Cowboys of the 1960s were a thrilling team that was a symbol of city pride, just as the Browns of Bernie Kosar’s heyday were here in the 1980s.

The Browns couldn’t get past Denver in the '80s. The Cowboys usually couldn’t get past Cleveland in the '60s.

A 31-20 loss to the 10-and-4 Browns on the road after a 12-2 season in 1968 -- the NFL rotated the sites of playoff games then, rather than going by better record -- turned out to be a disheartened Don Meredith’s last game.

The next year was no better. It ended with a 38-14 loss, at home, to the Browns, in which the defense reduced Meredith’s successor, Craig Morton, to abject futility.

In the 1970 season Dallas finally reached the Super Bowl. It lost. One of the biggest steps along the way, however, was a mud-splattered 6-2 victory at old Cleveland Municipal Stadium. That finally exorcised the ghosts.

The Cowboys went back to the Super Bowl the next year with a new quarterback, Roger Staubach, and easily beat Miami.

What’s the lesson in Cleveland?

Historically, it’s that Modell’s mistake in challenging Jim Brown was probably as great as his firing of Paul Brown.

Currently, it might be to draft a mobile quarterback with leadership ability, like Staubach.

Johnny Manziel?