A Look Back at "Red Right 88"

Last week, for the Bengals game, we touched on the legacy of Paul Eugene Brown. For the Oakland Raiders game, we will touch on a subject that most Browns fanatics would probably like to wipe away from their memory. Before Dwayne Rudd, before "The Fumble", before "The Drive", there was Red Right 88.

The 1980 Browns team was regarded as the Kardiac Kids. That years Browns squad had a penchant for winning games that seemed out of reach, and winning games that seemed unlikely at best. The team was led by the MVP of the league Brian Sipe and Browns fans thought that this squad was destined to win its first NFL Championship after a solid 11-5 regular season.

In the bitter January cold the Browns played host to the Oakland Raiders. Most fans thought the California team would wilt away in the snow filled, blustery, and windy January day. However, the Cleveland Browns of that year never seemed to do things the easy way. The game was like a war of wills in playoff temperatures that had not been seen since the legendary Ice Bowl of 1967. The Browns would make the game interesting once more. Cleveland place-kicker Don Cockroft would keep the Raiders close throughout the game with two missed field goals attempts, a blocked point after try, and another PAT was not even able to be attempted due to a poor snap.

The Browns, despite all of the kicking exploits, look like they were going to pull off another miracle late in the game. On a 72 yard drive in the closing minute of the game The Browns decided to run the now infamous "Red Right 88" play. The second down pass attempt on Oakland's 13 yard line was suppose to take the Raiders by surprise. Instead, it took the whole city of Cleveland down in the midst of a deep depression when Mike Davis of the Raiders picked the ball off that was intended for Ozzie Newsome.

Rubbing salt in the wounds of Clevelanders, who were enduring another Cleveland weather, was the fact that the Raiders, who the Browns had on the ropes just three weeks previously, defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XV by a lopsided score of 27-10.