Cleveland Browns one game from Super Bowl, 1969 season

Coach Blanton Collier

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Everyone agreed that the 1969 National Football League championship game between the Cleveland Browns and the Minnesota Vikings would be much closer than the game the teams had played on that Nov. 9, when the host Vikings blitzed the Browns, 51-3.

The blowout was considered an aberration. After all, the powerful Browns had routed the Dallas Cowboys -- possibly the league's most talented team -- 42-10 during the regular season and 38-14 in a playoff contest to advance to the title game.

And yes, the Browns did close the gap on their 48-point loss to Minnesota. This time, in the championship game on Jan. 4, 1970, the Browns played the Vikings four touchdowns closer than they had eight weeks before. They lost by 20 points, 27-7.

It didn't make the Browns look any better when Minnesota went on to lose the Super Bowl to the Kansas City Chiefs, 23-7.

For the Browns, it was their final game before moving from what was re-named the National Football Conference to the American Football Conference, as the NFL completed its merger with the American Football League to become the new NFL.

Pro-Football-Reference.com details the 1969 Browns and the 1969 Vikings, and has the boxscore and statistics from the championship game.

The late Chuck Heaton, The Plain Dealer Browns beat writer, covered the game. His complete game story can be found on The PD's Browns History Database, which includes Plain Dealer stories for every Browns regular season and playoff game.

Heaton wrote, in part:

The Browns looked as though they were on ice skates, as the Western rulers showed the way with drive and second effort.

The Vikings perhaps have a team better suited to the elements - the biting cold and somewhat slippery field. At any rate, they seemed right at home.

CLEVELAND ALSO made the mistakes. There were two interceptions of passes by Bill Nelsen, with Paul Krause and Wally Hilgenberg making the steals. There also were two fumbles by the usually sure-handed Leroy Kelly, and once he lost the football with Hilgenberg recovering.

Walt Sumner and Erich Barnes slipped and went down to allow Gene Washington, a gifted receiver who caught three passes for 120 yards, to make two big first-quarter grabs.

Washington gained 33 yards on the pass from Joe Kapp when Sumner slipped. That was the big chunk of real estate en route to the first touchdown, scored by Kapp from 7 yards out.

Lined up to the other side, Washington went deep only minutes later and was all alone on the Cleveland 45 after Barnes fell. The end from Michigan State just ambled for 75 yards and the second touchdown.