I refuse to believe the Cleveland Browns have a brighter future than the Miami Dolphins.
Not me. I always look at big picture and not recency. That Browns team is a legendary franchise. I remember attending the 1970 game in the Orange Bowl. The Dolphins were a great young team under Shula and the entire city was excited. We were 4-1 and rolling. Then the Browns came in here and methodically shut us out.
We sat in the upper deck of the west side. It was so silent all afternoon. Cleveland looked too big and too strong. It was our first glimpse of an NFL powerhouse coming into the Orange Bowl. The Browns had been one of 3 NFL teams that had agreed to switch to the AFC.
The following week another NFL transplant also shut us out...the Colts.
I realize everyone will scramble to say the Browns haven't won titles in their lifetime. That's not the way it works. That franchise is known for more than a full decade of dominance from the mid '40s through the late '50s, and then a great stretch in the '60s also, with one title and the great Jim Brown.
When I was young I heard countless fans talk about those '50s Browns teams. They were in the NFL championship game almost every season. Then similarly in the mid to late '60s the Browns were in the NFL championship game more often than not. They have something like 12 or 15 championship game appearances, and that doesn't even count the All-American Conference years in the '40s.
The Dolphins can't be considering anything too old to care about, not when our heyday is approaching a half century ago.
