Vintage Browns


Book Description

If you remember the Kardiac Kids … the Dawgs … the old Stadium … Bernie and Marty and Ozzie … this book is for you! Like a Classic throwback jersey, it recalls favorite players and exciting moments from Cleveland Browns teams of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and more. They played it old-school. Doug Dieken set the NFL record for consecutive starts by a left tackle despite three knee surgeries, broken hands and thumbs, torn tendons, a broken arm and “a concussion or two. Maybe four or six. Hard to know.” Ozzie Newsome never expected to play tight end when he was drafted, then practically reinvented the position on his way to the Hall of Fame. Bernie Kosar carried a massive weight on his young shoulders as a hometown hero leading the Browns during years when the team offered a ray of hope to a downtrodden city. Earnest Byner and Kevin Mack together formed one powerhouse backfield and separately dealt admirably with adversity. Phil Dawson discovered that despite popularity and longevity, “Every kick could be your last.” Also includes Gregg Pruitt, Brian Sipe, Marty Schottenheimer, Reggie Langhorne, Brian Brennan, Bill Belichick, Tim Couch, Phil Dawson, and others. These insightful short profiles will entertain Browns fans of any vintage!




False Start


Book Description

Terry Pluto, one of Cleveland's top sportswriters, takes a hard look at the first 5 years of the new Cleveland Browns franchise and doesn't like what he sees. This book chronicles the backroom deals, big-money power plays, poor decisions, and plain bad luck that have dogged the venerable franchise since Art Modell skipped town in 1995. Legions of loyal fans stand by, waiting for a return to past glory. How much longer must they wait? Pluto sifts through the clues from the last five seasons and looks for answers.




Things I've Learned from Watching the Browns


Book Description

Veteran sports writer Terry Pluto asks Cleveland Browns fans: Why, after four decades of heartbreak, teasing, and futility, do you still stick with this team? Their stories, coupled with Pluto's own insight and analysis, deliver the answers. Like any intense relationship, it's complicated. But these fans just won't give up.




Vintage Cavs


Book Description

The Cleveland Arena and Richfield Coliseum are long gone, but they and the Cavaliers teams from 1970 to the 1990s come alive in this personal history by a sportswriter who was there as a young fan and later an NBA beat writer. From expansion team to the brink of greatness with Austin Carr, World B. Free, "Hot Rod" Williams, Mark Price, and others.




Kardiac Kids


Book Description

In this text, Jonathan Knight paints a portrait of the Cleveland Browns' storybook 1980 NFL season, describing its impact on the city of Cleveland. Taking readers from the year's beginning to its end, the author shows how everybody fell in love with the team.




Tom Brown's School Days


Book Description




The Cleveland Browns


Book Description

A history of the Cleveland Browns from 1946 to 1980, emphasizing the contributions of head coach Paul Brown and star player Jim Brown.




The Genius of Desperation


Book Description

If necessity has been the mother of invention throughout the history of professional football, it could also be said that desperation is the father. Rare are the football innovations that have occurred without an owner, general manager, coach, or player up against the wall and reaching for a way to succeed anyway. In this meticulously researched, lively book, Bleacher Report lead NFL scout Doug Farrar traces the schematic history of the pro game through these "if this/then that" moments—paradigm shifts in the game from 1920 through the present. More than just a book about schemes and strategies, The Genius of Desperation: The Schematic Innovations that Made the Modern NFL also tells the stories of the game's most prominent innovators, the adversities they endured, and the ways in which they learned to exceed their own expectations on the path to true greatness. Everyone from George Halas to Greasy Neale, Paul Brown to Sid Gillman, Bill Walsh to Chip Kelly is featured, as well as many more. The Genius of Desperation is a narrative arc through the history of the game as it's never been told before.




Best Kept Secrets


Book Description

From a New York Times bestselling, a savvy attorney in small-town Texas will stop at nothing to catch the man who murdered her mother in this steamy thriller. Lawyer Alexandra Gaither revisits the three men who were with her mother the night she died twenty-five years ago. None of their charms can stop Alex's determined search for the truth–she's not leaving without one of them being arrested and convicted. When Alex's investigation uncovers decades-old intrigues, someone decides she must be stopped. Now, with a one-month deadline to either wrap up the case or drop it for good, Alex must work diligently to catch her mother's killer–and find a way to stay alive.




On Being Brown


Book Description

What is this madness all about? Being a Browns fan is just different. Why are we the only fans in the nation who ever demanded their team back -- and got it? Why have we endured years of heartache (The Fumble, The Drive, "Red Right 88"...) yet grown ever more attached to the experience? To answer that question, these 33 essays seek out the essential elements of being a Browns fan. It's about pride. It's about desire, tempered by crushing disappointment. It's about tradition, rivalry, and electrifying victory. It's about longing -- for a return to past championships, for future glory. It's about heart. If you're Brown, you'll enjoy the ride.