By Tony Grossi, The Plain Dealer
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Anyone who experienced the Kardiac Kids of 1980 still equates Christmastime with the climax of that remarkable Browns season.
The Browns in the playoffs,
Dave Logan leapin',
Doug Dieken blockin',
DeLeone a hikin' ...
The Twelve Days of a Cleveland Browns Christmas was the No. 1 hit on every radio station in town as the Browns pulled out last-gasp wins seemingly every Sunday. As the team caught fire, the city fell in love. 
Don Cockroft, the kicker on that magical team, has completed a four-year project that produced "The 1980 Kardiac Kids -- Our Untold Stories." The 672-page volume, co-authored by Bob Moon, includes more than 650 photographs and a DVD of the Twelve Days song produced by Cockroft's son, Matt.
The entire package, tipping the scales at 5.6 pounds, is a veritable encyclopedia of that special team and season that lifted the spirit of Cleveland during typically rough economic times.
Cockroft also sought memories from fans who lived the season. He said he received about 350 emails during his work on the project.
"And I would say one-third or more were people saying they remembered The Twelve Days of a Cleveland Browns Christmas most," Cockroft said.
The Kardiac Kids a-winnin',
Darden interceptin',
Newsome a-catchin',
Both the Pruitts' moves.
The staying power of that season is now 31 years and not letting up.
"I think in our efforts to win games, it brought such a hope to the city of Cleveland and Browns fans," Cockroft said. "That was a very difficult time. I think it was just a miraculous season. Dave Logan said we just caught lightning in a bottle.
"I talk to fans who were at the '46 games, when [the Browns] all started, and I ask if there was any season that compared [to 1980] in excitement and drama. Everybody agrees that season was absolutely extra special."
The book wasn't supposed to be so large and encompassing, but Cockroft got lost in it during 140 hours of recorded interviews with every living player and coach. In the book, players talk vividly of the throng of some 10,000 fans who descended on Cleveland Hopkins Airport following the conclusion of a 17-14 win in Houston on Nov. 30. (I was among them and can still envision fans pulling their cars off the freeway, locking their doors and sprinting to the concourse to greet the Browns' return home.)
"What was amazing is we just went one game up in the division race [with that win]," Cockroft said.
Alzado attackin',
Brian Sipe a-passin',
Don Cockroft kickin',
On a Rutigliano Super Bowl team.
The Super Bowl never came, of course.
In a playoff game on an Arctic day on the Lakefront, Brian Sipe's ill-fated pass, intercepted in the end zone by Oakland's Mike Davis, sent the Raiders to the AFC Conference Championship in San Diego the next week. Had the pass on second down been thrown "to the blonde in the mezzanine," as Sam Rutigliano frequently recounts, Cockroft would have trotted on for a chip-shot field goal to win the game.
"There were no guarantees," Cockroft said. "Up till then, I was 17 for 17 in my career with PATs and field goals with games on the line. I don't think I would have been 17 of 18."
Cockroft doubts that the incredible fever pitch of that season could be duplicated by anything short of a Super Bowl championship for the modern-day Browns.
"I don't think it will ever be the same because of the connection with the players in those days," he said. "We shopped in the shopping malls and our kids went to school with their kids. So I don't think it will ever return in that regard. But I truly believe something spectacular would absolutely occur if the team won a championship."
The book and DVD, priced at $54.95, is available at thekardiackids.com. A schedule of book signings can be seen on facebook.thekardiackids.com.
http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2011/12/don_cockroft_project_a_kardiac.html
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