"The Browns' 13-7 win at Cleveland Stadium was perhaps even more notable for another reason: It remains the last time an NFL team won without recording an official pass attempt. The weather was decidedly not conducive to an air raid on the lakefront, with rain and wind, as snow continued to melt from what in Cleveland is still called the Thanksgiving Blizzard."
"The history of professional sports in America is a good example of survivorship bias. It only seems like the current major leagues were fated to survive, but there have been plenty of challenges from competitor leagues, some more serious than others. Competing leagues generally raise the cost of labor-which was kept artificially low for decades, thanks to the reserve clause in baseball, which was imitated in other sports."
The Cleveland Browns, newly absorbed from the All-America Football Conference into the NFL, defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 13-7 on Dec. 3, 1950, eliminating the two-time defending champions from the playoffs. The game remains the last NFL victory recorded without an official pass attempt. Inclement weather and melting snow from the Thanksgiving Blizzard made passing difficult, and coach Paul Brown deliberately avoided passes to demonstrate superiority. The NFL absorbed three AAFC teams in 1949 amid a still-developing professional football landscape. Competing leagues raised labor costs and challenged baseball-style reserve clauses that had suppressed player pay for decades.
Read at Defector
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]