Otto Graham Should Not Be Forgotten

The year is 1946. A new professional football league is going to see if it can compete with the NFL. It is called the All-American Football Conference. The city of Cleveland lands one of these teams. They call upon local coaching legend Paul Brown to lead them.

Brown was a national-championship winning head coach at Massillon High School in Massillon, OH. He would move on to win the first national title in Ohio State University's football history, starting a rich tradition at that school.

After being forced to serve in the Navy during the end of World War II, Brown would return with the new AAFC team waiting for him.

Now what this team needed was some players. More specifically, a quarterback. An on-field leader. And they would sign a young tailback out of Northwestern University. His name was Otto Graham.

Otto Graham was originally drafted by the Detroit Lions in 1944, but was obligated to serve in the Coast Guard. After signing the contract with Cleveland upon his return, he still found time to play a season of professional basketball for the Rochester Royals of the National Basketball League.  He would win a championship in the NBL, a sign of things to come in his football career.

After converting to quarterback, Graham tore the AAFC apart, throwing 86 touchdown passes in four seasons. He led the Browns to all four AAFC championships.

The AAFC only lasted four seasons, as the NFL's pressure on the fledgling league forced them to fold, after a compromise.  The AAFC had to dissolve after the NFL accepted three of its most competitive franchises: the Cleveland Browns, the San Francisco 49ers, and the Baltimore Colts. The other two franchises would eventually see their own great QBs in Joe Montana and Johnny Unitas, respectively.

When the Browns were adopted by the NFL in 1950, they were heavily scrutinized for being so good in what many considered a subpar league. But this team would be out to prove that they dominated that league because of their talent, not because of a lack of competition.

For the next six seasons, Graham would hold the torch in leading this team of brute animals across the NFL, to show all of their doubters what they were made of. And that he did; the Browns advanced to the NFL Championship all six seasons, winning in 1950, '54, and '55.

Otto Graham's career stat line reads like this:

126 career games, 0 starts missed; 174 passing touchdowns, 135 interceptions; a career passer rating of 86.6, including the seventh-best single-season rating of all-time—109.2; a completion percentage of 55.8; and finally, the highest career yards-to-pass-attempts ratio in professional football history—9.0 yards/attempt.

His career professional record was 105-17-4.

Granted, he played on a very solid all-around team. He was teammates with eight future Hall Of Famers. But I would highly doubt that any of those players are in the Hall without Otto G. there to lead them.

Whenever we football fans talk about the greatest quarterbacks in the game's history, this guy rarely comes up.  Is it because he is truly only the third-star quarterback in the timeline of football history, after Sammy Baugh and Sid Luckman? Or is it because we are focused on the stars of today?

Friends, I would just like to tell you this: If Otto Graham would have been playing today's game, with today's players, and today's coaching schemes, he would be winning titles just like it was 1946. And eight of his teammates would be inducted into the Pro Football Hall Of Fame.

This is truly one of the greatest champions sports has ever seen, and none of us should lose sight of that. I mean seriously, who else can say they went to the title game every year of their professional career? Oh, but there's a better question. Who can say they have won seven championships in a 10-year span? Anybody?

I can't think of anyone neither.