Comments on: Anti-Tomlin, 2016 Version: Part 2

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Sat, 24 Sep 2016 05:40:06 +0000

Obviously you are a person after my own heart : )

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By: Toronto Steeler Fan

Toronto Steeler Fan — Fri, 23 Sep 2016 14:21:23 +0000

That episode was called “Requiem for Methuselah”. Yes I did not have to look that up.

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By: Homer J.

Homer J. — Fri, 23 Sep 2016 08:16:06 +0000

I spent a lifetime in Cleveland from 1975-78, working for an all-news radio station. When I got there, our sports guy was the legendary Bob Neal, who covered the original Browns. By the time I left, Paul Warfield was one of our sports guys, and I got to know Art Modell. In the ’70’s, the original Browns were still icons in Cleveland, much like the Steel Curtain Steelers still are in Pittsburgh. And the stories were regularly told and retold in the Plain Dealer. The Browns were cellar dwellers during the years when I worked there (not much has changed), so there were a lot of trips down memory lane in the P-D.

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By: Ivan

Ivan — Fri, 23 Sep 2016 07:06:45 +0000

I think its appropriate to mention that Cowherd’s comments might not driven by anything more than to create controversy. In retrospect I believe that much of what Limbaugh did then (and now) may be more about calculated entertainment. But obviously given the ongoing and unresolved issues in this country wildly dangerous and unethical. Especially because there are so many who believe these things and find encouragement in these types of forums.

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By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Fri, 23 Sep 2016 06:00:30 +0000

I think maybe it’s like that Star Trek episode (from the original Star Trek, naturally) in which there was a guy who couldn’t die for some reason I can’t remember, and was Da Vinci and Brahms and I forget who else, as he would just disappear after an appropriate lifetime and emerge somewhere else as someone amazing. I think he is now Homer J. : )

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By: Bill S

Bill S — Fri, 23 Sep 2016 04:54:35 +0000

Mind blown. How do to you know this sh!t?

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By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Fri, 23 Sep 2016 04:13:03 +0000

Fascinating as always, Homer. Reading your comments is an education in itself…

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By: worldtrip

worldtrip — Fri, 23 Sep 2016 03:53:52 +0000

Wow. Great article.

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By: Homer J.

Homer J. — Fri, 23 Sep 2016 00:13:13 +0000

Not sure what percentage of Cowherd’s comment had to do with his underlying prejudices and how much had to do with the relentless need to say or do something to fill air time and stir the pot. When you’re on a sports net, you have to constantly feed the giant maw. What will you write about? What will you talk about? And, when you do, you often tell us a lot about yourself.

Anyway, comparing Paul Brown to Branch Rickey was spot on, even though Brown didn’t break the post-war color barrier in the NFL. The story is a bit complicated and fascinating.

The Cleveland RAMS moved from Cleveland to Los Angeles at the end of the 1945 season, and planned to play their home games in the Los Angeles Coliseum. The black media – and others – reminded the LA Coliseum Commission that the stadium was built and supported with public funds and could not have a segregated white football team without also providing for a segregated black team (Plessy v Ferguson still be the law of the land), and suggested that UCLA All-American Kenny Washington be given a tryout. Needing a place to play, the Rams acquiesced, signed Kenny Washington and then signed Woody Strode. So the Rams – under duress – broke the NFL color barrier with Washington and Strode.

The All-American Football Conference, a second pro league, began play in 1946, filling the void in Cleveland with a franchise owned by taxicab magnate Mickey McBride* and coached by Paul Brown. Brown willingly signed Marion Motley of Canton McKinley High School and Nevada-Reno and Bill Willis of Columbus and Ohio State. During the four years of the AAFC’s existence, the Browns won every title with a combined record of 52-4-3, and then – when the league folded – they were absorbed into the NFL, where they played in five NFL championship games in their first five years, winning three NFL titles.

So Brown was the first coach and GM to willingly break the post-war pro football color barrier. But the Rams broke it in the NFL with Kenny Washington and Woody Strode. (BTW, I visit Woody’s grave at least once a year. He is laid to rest at Riverside National Military Cemetery in California, just a few feet from my Uncle Milt and Aunt Jeri.)

*Yep. The rosters were limited, but Mickey McBride gave the Browns an advantage by hiring guys who had been cut to drive his cabs, so that they could stick around in Cleveland and practice with the team. That way, they’d be ready in case of injuries. And, yeah, that’s where the term “taxi squad” comes from.

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By: Ivan

Ivan — Thu, 22 Sep 2016 21:14:22 +0000

Thanks Hawaiian. I didn’t know anything about Tomlin at the time he was hired either. Folks were expecting that it would be either Whiz or Grimm ( I was pulling for Grimm). It fits a pattern. Nobody knew about Noll. Some were pulling for Joe Paterno. Cowher was unexpected too. The thinking then was Joe Greene.

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