Throwback Thursday: Some AAFC

I'm quite sure that the All America Football Conference will make frequent visits to the Throwback edition of the Flea Flicker. I'm really quite fond of the feisty little league. My father and I had many conversations about those days, those players and those teams. He became a San Francisco 49ers fan the day the team was born in 1946. Despite being loyal to the 49ers, he was always able to appreciate great football in general. He had tremendous admiration for Paul Brown and the team that carried his name, the Cleveland Browns. Both the coach and the team were difficult to ignore. They were revolutionary. They were exciting. They were a machine. The Browns won all four AAFC championships, 1946-49. They had a 47-4-3 record. When the Browns, 49ers and Colts moved to the NFL in 1950, the Browns showed their dominance was not left in the ashes of the rival league. They won the NFL titles in 1950, '54 and '55. In all, the Cleveland Browns played in 10 straight championship games, winning seven. Pretty much everything we see in the NFL today has the fingerprints of Paul Brown somewhere in it's development. George Halas may have been the heart of the NFL. Paul Brown was it's mind. As a kid, I went to sleep at nights with tales of Browns' Otto Graham, Marion Motley, Dante Lavelli, Bill Willis and Lou Groza. Two of my favorites were Mac Speedie and Dub Jones. How could a kid not like players named Mac and Dub? A receiver named Mac Speedie? The 49ers had their own story makers in Frankie Albert, Alyn Beals, Bruno Banducci, Norm Standlee and the amazing Joe "the Jet" Perry. Who could forget other AAFC stars like Glenn Dobbs and Spec Sanders? I can't. Fantastic football players.
My father had such tremendous respect for the entire league. Despite the championships, the stars and the gaudy stats, the Browns were not the only strong AAFC team. The New York Yankees gave the Browns difficulties in the early years, the 49ers gave them scares later. The Browns, Yankees and 49ers would have challenged the NFL champs from those days. The Browns proved that by winning in 1950.

Calling the Empire State Building home, the AAFC stood tall in those four years of the late '40s. The AAFC played some fantastic football. They did it their way, and they did it well. The league didn't bring the numbers to the NFL that the AFL did later, but they sure brought quality. They proved that the greatest threat to the NFL is great players playing great football. Those conversations with my father started my passion for the history of professional football. The AAFC has so many terrific stories. I'll try to tell some of them.