I remember watching the AFC Championship that year, wishing the game wouldn't end. To this day, it was one of the most entertaining games I've ever watched. And I'm not even a Browns or Broncos fan. But I will say this. When I saw the field goal kick at the end of the game, I sat in my chair, thinking, "Denver missed it! The game continues!" Then it was announced the field goal kick was good. Huh? No, it wasn't.
A lot of neat stuff and things I haven't heard before. I've followed the Browns since 1988. Even Minnifield, being a USFL guy, didn't really watch the Browns or even care about the NFL.
I'm 64 years old and have been a lifelong Browns fan through thick and thin.I watched the '64 championship on a Columbus,ohio station.The team of'86-'89 provided the Greatest thrills of being a Browns fan.
I'm 56 and been a fan since I can remember .sad thing is even if we made it this year or next year it won't be the same we missed our plenty opportunities.but I still loved those years smash mouth mud and snow I get goosebumps
They were a brilliant team and I’m a Bronco fan. Fantastic piece! In fact because of the way that team was constructed they would have given the 49ers in Super Bowl 24 more problems and would be more feared.
im a die hard jet fan i will never get over the double overtime playoff loss . i have a weird relationship with that game it was a crushing loss but i watched that entire game as a 12 year old with my dad and brother its one those days ill remember my entire life from my childhood
I miss watching games in those old stadiums, real grass, some having dirt infields during baseball season. Mud, and sod clumps getting wedged into facemasks after a hard takedown into the turf! A few places come to mind, “The Met”, “Shea Stadium”, “Oakland Colisseum”, “Candlestick Park”, “RFK Stadium”, “Jack Murphy Stadium”, and of course Clevelands.
I had season tickets in '86-'87 in the Pound with my late dad. I was 15-17 years old then. Those memories I cherish more than any in my life. Watching this video brought back a flood of good feelings and memories of better days and times. Anyone who was a Browns fan, or more specifically, was a fan living in NE Ohio then knows how absolutely magical those times were and that team was. 👊
Still hurts. I was 9 years old and cried like a baby. My dad kept saying during the drive, “They’re gonna blow it.” And they did. So, for a couple of years I blamed my poor dad. Lol
As a 52 year-old Browns fan, and one who was at the Jets playoff game, this video brings back SO many wonderful memories.That '86 team was incredible, and it took a miraculous drive to beat us, much less a FG that still looks wide left to me.I still have no doubt we would have beaten the NYG, but of course, we'll never know,but I loved that team almost as much as the 1980 Kardiac Kids, even though they got farther towards the gleam of a SB.
You smoking some POWERFUL WEED MY MAN YALL LOST to Denver barely we tore them NEW ASSHOLES IN PASADENA!!!!! we would have bitchslapped YALL YALL got outplayed by the N.Y. JETS but that ASSHOLE Gastineau roughed Kosar or you LOSE in Divisional Playoff beat my Giants the number 2 Defense who BLEW OUT THE NINERS AND REDSKINS!!! Never would have happened L.T. And Banks would have BEAT THE HELL OUT OF Kosar !!!!!
Your Kardiac Kids were SUPPOSEC TO BEAT OAKLAND ILL WAIT!!!!! RED RIGHT 88 HE HAD REGGIE Rucker WIDE OPEN IN THE POST and went to Ozzie Newsome a DOUBLE COVERED Ozzie Newsome!!!!! Brian Ripe was a FUCKING idiot !!!!!!! Now YALL would have won that year YALL Could've beat the Chargers and the Eagles in New Orleans BUT NOT IN 1986 MY DUDE!!!!!!!
Edmond Wynn The Browns and Giants played in Dec 1985. With a rookie QB, Cleveland scored 33 and beat the shits out of LT and your Giants. So to recap, a young Browns team helmed by a rookie QB and a HC in his first full season, went into New Jersey and beat up the Giants in front of their own fans. Same era, same teams. Again: the Browns beat the Giants in that cookie cutter stadium in New Jersey that you had to share with the Jets (guess some things never change). In future, might want to check the facts before you troll Brownstown you horse’s ass.
As a Bronco fan, I always wondered what it was like to lose 3 of 4 AFC title games..to the same team (2 of them in excruciating ways)..then see that team get killed in SB every time.
Until Browns win Super Bowl, this remains my favorite team in 48 years as a fan. The team found a different way to win every week. All 3 units contributed to victories. Our team probably ran out of gas after playing 4 OT games in the final 6 weeks of season, including playoffs. Couple that with losing both starting safeties (Rogers and Gross)and Byner and kicker Bahr. Plus the rash of turnovers in both Playoff games, contributed to slow starts. It's just not a good feeling to know that Marty coached teams never got over that stigma throughout his career. He had an albatross and he couldn't remove it.
THAT ball NEVER went through the uprights! Even on the TV screen it looked NO GOOD! This was perhaps one of the great NFL teams that never played in the Super Bowl, the 1986 Cleveland Browns.
I get that frustration. My 1998 Vikings were also a good team cut short of the super bowl. I understand Cleveland pain better than most. Best of luck to the Browns this year!
I was at the drive and the game a week earlier, 12 rose up behind field goal post in the dog pound. That was the happiest time in my life next to my first born child. It was sooooooo awesome.
I keep asking to see that kick from another angle, and even in `86 there must have been many more cameras, yet this is the only shot you ever see. The NFL knows that that was a bad call. It's time they admit it.
That game was set up on purpose. The bookies and the mob, and the NFL made a killing on it. No way that in a game this important, that kick was not reviewed. This was a thrown game, and the NFL knows it.
Thank you for this beautiful documentary. I am so grateful to those who spend the time, energy, and resources to make historic Cleveland Browns films. I find something new about my Browns teams history with each film such as this one because of writers /journalists/film makers like you. I personally THANK YOU, and other content creators for digging through films and archives to create this masterpiece and others. The more one knows, the more it becomes important and dear to them. You begin to feel a stronger connection to your team and thus may even begin to strengthen your bonds and ties with family or friends or co-workers if they are a fan of the same team. Keep up the good work. 👍 GO BROWNS SON!!!!!!!!!!!
Beautiful days though we didn't get it all but our passion as fans still exponentially Go Dawgs Donnie starrted all of the that Lord have mercy on his soul:)***
34 1/2 years later, my 8 year old self is still saying that kick wasn't good. Not saying we go down and win that game because we had the ball to start OT and did nothing but it shouldn't have ended there. And I do know for certain that the Browns play the Giants tighter in the Super Bowl than the Broncos did.
The FG was good and it wasn't even close. If it was no good the broadcasters players would have said it after the kick. The angle of the camera is deceptive. The ball doesn't go directly through the uprights but over them. It was good. Browns choke.
@@bengaljam4550 then every field goal that's Miss to the right or to the left they should be good because it went pass the post. Go look at again, it was hooking left and there was people down there motioning it went left. This is not the only call the Browns ever got screwed on. A fumble in the Washington game and the female referee comes in there to the pile and she starts going Washington ball with a Browns player holding the ball and handing it to her. Please explain that one to me. A Browns player has the ball and she drinks to the her arm Washington Ball when she can't find the ball under the pile she just thinks the Washington player has it
@Ravens Fan4 , enjoyed your Super Bowl victory. It such be the city of Cleveland instead if the NFL would have donecthe right thing and gave Mr. Modell the the expansion team instead giving it to Cleveland
Many felt had the Browns beaten Denver in that AFC championship game, I don’t think they would’ve beaten the Giants in that Super Bowl in Pasadena. Now while they would have been a tougher opponent for Giants, and would have put up a better fight in the 2nd half than Denver ultimately did, I think the Giants defense would’ve been too much for Kosar and while Simms might’ve not gone 22-25 against Cleveland’s secondary, he would do just enough to win. I would say Giants 28-17 over Cleveland in that Super Bowl if they had met.
I love this video. But the '87 Browns were a better team. The strike cost them a chance to play Denver at home in Week 3. All of the Week 3 games were canceled unfortunately while the teams assembled their replacement rosters. If the Browns had played and won that game, they most likely would've held home field advantage in the playoffs.
Denzell Ward and Greedy Williams: Can they match the awesome duo of Hanford Dixon and Frank Minnifield? Grant Delpit at safety along with Karl Joseph, I love the Browns defensive backfield! Go Browns!
Kosar is very analytical about the whole season. It's almost clinical. I loved Dixon and Minnifield talking about how they would give signs to Dave Adolph (the defensive coordinator) indicating they would play bump-and-run coverage. What's even more unusual is that at 4:30 Reggie Langhorne says it is a WCO. I thought it was more of a downfield vertical game like the Chargers or the (lol) Bengals at the time. Boomer would throw deep to Collinsworth and Eddie Brown, and Fouts had Chandler, Jefferson, etc.
Honestly he shouldn't went for it but the guy blankly head rammed him ironic how there supposedly so protective of players but they didn't even review it why does the nfl continuously fk Cleveland its obvious calls never go our way
THey still miss the point. Yes is a tragedy for the family that Don died , BUT drug abuse again, probably why he was so "powered and aggressive" always looking for others to blame but he is responsible for his own choices
Don't disrespect the dead and he was a great player with or without the cocaine use hell half the league was on something back then but it took Don Rogers and Len Bias 2 great players who o'd to change the sports world forever in the summer of 1986
Bruh that's a horrible take dude was gr8 in college too(Don Rogers) SMH but sad he o'd & died. Hell LT was powered up on Crack Cocaine before every game so he wasn't a great because of it either I can guarantee U that SMH
The field goal is good and it wasn't even close. The camera angle and the fact that the ball is above the uprights makes it look like it is wide left. There was never an argument from the Browns about it being good or not.
This team was so much better than that Denver team. Coaching scared of Elway instead of attacking him late in the game made no sense. Not to mention Cleveland Giants would have been such a better Super Bowl
History can be cruel. So many great teams can have all they accomplished forgotten because they came up short in a big game. The only thing I knew about the 86 Browns before watching this was that they lost to Elway in the Championship.
The '86 Browns would have been a far tougher matchup for the Giants in Super Bowl XXI than Denver. They were built more like an NFC team of that era, rather than the noticeably weaker and less physical AFC. My Packers went to Cleveland and won that year--a big highlight for us in a dismal season. And this was one of only four Brown losses in the entire season.
This team was good, but the team I remember the most fondly was the 2000 browns. Not as many wins, and no playoff , but I was proud of the one (1)win we got that year..
I dont know HOW THAT FIELD GOAL WAS NOT REVIEWED... either the game was set up, or the game was set up. The NFL and the bookies needed a Denver win. It's appalling how that was considered a score. This game was bought and somebody (mob and NFL) made a killing. Very obvious missed field goal that was not reviewed on purpose
Everyone calls the final failure "the Drive." I've always called it "The Schottenheimer." The Browns defense dominated that game and Elway looked awful. 17-7 the Browns led, then Schottenheimer shut down the offense and started playing cover 4 on D. We backed off. Instead of letting Bernie call the plays, Marty called failed run after run. We started playing prevent on defense and backed off. Marty leashed up the dogs and handed the game to Denver. I never forgave him and laughed at his other coaching stops as he would be handed talented teams and find a way to choke in the playoffs and fail again. It's the history of Cleveland. We have great teams, only to have coaches or managers make the scared call instead of the gutsy one to snatch failure from the jaws of championship- Marty, Hargrove, Wilkens, and even Francona. When a chance to finally win a title appeared, they choked. The Cavs broke the jinx by firing a coach mid-season despite being in 1st Place. Everyone else... too scared to make the move.
Amazing some of the Best coaches and skippers but like u said I'm 38 yrs old my man Cleveland born and raised I lived it all beginning with the Dawgs the Browns in the 1985 playoffs blowing the game to Miami
Anthony Dodge The Model Train Outsider - I agree Marty could have been more aggressive in that game, but it is wrong to lay it all at his feet. It was a true slugfest, dominated by both defenses. Kosar was picked twice to go along with 2 TD’s and a few very memorable big throws. Also, the Browns never led 17-7. The game was tight all the way through. It was 10-10 at halftime, and the Browns were actually down 13-10 until Kosar hit Weathers on a big play to set up Mosley for the equalizer. The Browns went ahead 20-13 on a BK audible (this was Lindy Infante’s offense) that went for a 48 yard TD to Brennan. The ensuing Drive Marty’s crack Special Teams (coordinated by his protege, Bill Cowherds) pinned Denver at their own 2 yard line. The “Drive” came next. So it wasn’t like the Browns had a big lead and squandered it. That was a TIGHT game with championship level defense on both sides. And Marty’s D, which shut down #7 all game, very nearly stopped Elway again on that Drive...it was only through superhuman will - and a little luck - that Elway found Mark Jackson for paydirt in the final seconds of regulation. So...can’t really blame the ‘86 loss to Denver on Marty, or anyone else for that matter. Browns played great, deserved to win...but fate had other things in store that cold January day.
@@Hotspur77 No, it can be put squarely on Schottenheimer. Your defense has shut down Elway ALL GAME and, with a 10-point lead you call of the Dawgs and play prevent, plus you go even more conservative on offense. Schottenheimer's great fame in Cleveland, KC, and San Diego was snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in key playoff games. He was the John Cooper of Ohio's professional football and elsewhere.
Anthony Dodge The Model Train Outsider the Browns never had a 10 point lead in that game. They were BEHIND 13-10 in the 4th quarter. You can criticize the final drive of regulation, but you are overstating your case. The overall gameplan was sound.
Anthony Dodge The Model Train Outsider Also: Schottenheimer wasn’t “over conservative” with the offense in this game - for starters, he didn’t coordinate the offense, Lindy Infante did. And Infante let Bernie throw it all game - including after BK had been picked off twice. Similar to the win over the Jets, when the Browns came back on Bernie’s arm but only after the young QB had nearly thrown the game away. When the game was tied at 13, the ball at midfield, and only 6 mins to play, Kosar threw it long and deep to Brennan - that was a gutsy call for a team that could have played it safe, and it put the Browns up 20-13. You can critique the Browns D on the final drive of regulation, but then again, they put Elway in multiple 3rd and 4th down situations, and in more than one instance a player either missed an assignment or Elway just made a great play. Dave Puzzoli has said that he had outside contain on a key play and git pinned inside...Elway was able to scramble for the 1st down as a result. Stuff happens - and the Browns didn’t lose because of Puzzoli either. Marty called a good game, he was a good coach for the Browns, definitely was a mistake for Modell to fire him.
Hey Mike Baab the Borwnies were not even CLOSE to the Best offense in the league 86-88 . Lol Ex Browns players as bad as Browns fans for having exaggerated memories. Hahaaha
@@ernestboykin3rd706 Actually the late 1990s Broncos were better teams than their 1980s counterpart in general. If they had TD in 1980s, it wouldn't have made much difference aside from having an upgrade over Winder.
Yeah. Cleveland will never be the best in The NFL. Maybe they were pre merger. They will never be the best in The NFL. The fans don't protest the games. Instead they show up to them.
TheKingsman 17 Im a pirates fan so there ya go. You sir are a moron for supporting an owner and a team that doesn't want to win. Simply put, the Browns should be contracted and Cleveland should just go away from football. It's embarrassing. You guys blow every game possible. You ruin guys careers like Joe Thomas, almost with Joe Haden, Joe Jurivicious, nearly every talented or somewhat talented player. Learn to complain. Complaning gets results. Being a fan means caring about winning bc only winning matters.
TheKingsman 17 And btw I'll out school you son on any football related topic. Again such arrogance... I watch the drive constantly and I will school you on 80's football.
TheKingsman 17 And you don't see Detroit lions fans bragging about going to the NFC Title game. Albeit they've only gotten to one NFC title game, but you don't see that can base bragging about how they beat teams like the packers ten years ago in a you tube video lol. You guys act like you guys have suffered. Oh please.... Houston Oilers.. that's way more suffering to me. In fact in 1979 add title game they should have won the game against my steelers. A bad call by the ref gave us the game. So back to your home baby Browns fan... stop whinning about our fan base and stop bragging about a team that couldn't get the job done. You don't see use bragging about how the Steelers were upset to the Chargers in 1995 lol. No we shame that team bc they deserve it. Same way these browns deserve it too.
