Like most Redskins fans, I’ve had it. Time to clean house. This year has been a big flop. The offense struggles and the defense is not good. So let’s start over. I can see Mike Shanahan has had it so it’s time to let him and his boy go. So you ask, who died and made me general manager? Oh, just venting.
So after the blow out in the light snow, there isn’t much to talk about the KC game.
He (Larry Brown) was an eighth round pick of the Skins in the 1969 NFL draft. If anything, he was undersized back from Kansas State.
Of course I want to give full credit to George Allen for finding him to play offense. But Brown came to us when the legendary Vince Lombardi was in town. Brown’s rookie debut was nothing to brag about. He ran for about 30 yards and caught one pass for 31 yards from Sonny Jurgensen. We beat the Saints that day. And they were quarterbacked by one Billy Kilmer.
Brown didn’t score his first NFL touchdown until week four. In a sense, he was sharing carries with Charlie Harraway. Or rather, they were taking turns carrying the football. Brown’s first 100-yard rushing day came at home in week five. It helped in a win over the Giants.
In his first season as a Skins rusher, Brown netted a team-high 888 yards. The 1970 season saw Brown take the reins of the offense. Coached by Bill Austin (no memory of him), the Skins won 6 games. And Brown gave an idea of what kind of a season he would have on opening day. The game was in San Francisco and the Skins were down a touchdown when Brown broke one from 75 yards. Evidently, the 49ers felt that was enough for Brown as he finished the game with 74 yards rushing.
OK, it was still a better season than the one we have now. In this 6-8 campaign, Brown led the NFL in rushing (1,125 yards). He also caught 37 passes that season. Pay attention to that Mr. Morris and Mr. Helu.
By 1971, George Allen had brought in his defense and the Skins won 9 games. Although, Allen didn’t care for offense, he went along with the game plan that allowed both Brown and Harraway to carry the ball. In the 20-16 win over the Cowboys in week three, Harraway and Brown combined for 192 yards on the ground.
In his third season of running for the Redskins, Brown netted 948 yards. Between his running and catching he scored 6 touchdowns. That was the season in which we reached the playoffs in San Francisco. Brown scored the last touchdown of the season. It was a 16-yard touchdown pass from the ex-Saints QB Kilmer.
This all-Pro had his best season in 1972. The Skins were the NFC champions. Oh, boy does that sound good. In week seven of the season, Brown had a whale of day. He scored twice and netted 191 yards. The Skins went to 6-1 with a 23-16 win over the Giants.
In the two playoff wins prior to the Super Bowl, Allen’s conservative offense relied on Brown. He carried 55 times in wins over the Packers and Cowboys. Even in the tough Super Bowl defeat, he carried 22 times for 72 yards. He would finish the season with a career-high 1,216 yards. This performance netted him the NFL Offensive Player of the Year Award. He was named the NFL player of the year. How about that.
Now much was made at the time, how it was discovered that Brown had some hearing problems. However, the Skins fitted his helmet with a hearing device and all was well. This super back was done with football at age 29. He finished 125 yards short of the 6,000 yards mark.
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