Dante Lavelli - Professional Career

Professional Career

After returning from the war, Lavelli was again offered a chance to play baseball with the Tigers. He saw a matchup in late 1945 between the National Football League's New York Giants and Washington Redskins and noticed that a former teammate at Ohio State named Sam Fox was an end for the Giants. "I thought if he could make the grade, so could I," Lavelli later said. When Paul Brown offered him a chance to play on a new professional team he was coaching in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) in 1946, Lavelli jumped at the opportunity. He was given a $500 bonus ($5,959 in today's dollars) for signing with the team, called the Cleveland Browns.

Lavelli attended the Browns' first training camp in 1946. Competition was fierce for a spot on the roster, but Lavelli was one of the men who made it. He was up against a number of National Football League veterans and former college stars. "The toughest game I ever played in was the first intrasquad scrimmage game," he said later. "Nobody talked to each other for two days." He joined an offense that featured quarterback Otto Graham, fullback Marion Motley, placekicker Lou Groza and fellow end Mac Speedie. Lavelli quickly became Graham's top passing target and led the AAFC in receiving as a rookie with 40 receptions and 843 yards. The Browns made it to the league championship that season, and Lavelli caught the game-winning touchdown in a 14–9 victory over the AAFC's New York Yankees. The victory "didn't mean so much then, but as time goes on, it builds," Lavelli said in 2008.

The Browns won the AAFC championship again in 1947. Lavelli finished second in the league in receiving behind his teammate Speedie. Both Lavelli and Speedie were named to all-AAFC teams, as they had been in 1946. Lavelli broke his leg in a preseason game in 1948 and sat out seven weeks. He came back later in the year and helped Cleveland finish a perfect season, catching a touchdown pass in a 31–21 win over the AAFC's Brooklyn Dodgers in the championship game. In a game against the Los Angeles Dons the following year, Lavelli caught four touchdowns and had 209 receiving yards, an AAFC record. In 1949 Cleveland won the AAFC championship for the fourth year in a row. The AAFC dissolved before the 1950 season and three of its teams, including the Browns, were absorbed by the more established National Football League (NFL). Lavelli was the AAFC's all-time leader in yards per catch and second in receiving yards behind Speedie.

As the Browns won in the AAFC, Lavelli continued his studies at Ohio State between seasons and got his degree in 1949. He married Joy Wright of Brecksville, Ohio that year.

When Cleveland entered the NFL in 1950, questions lingered about whether the team could sustain its early dominance. The Browns, however, began the season by beating the defending NFL champions, the Philadelphia Eagles. The team finished with a 10–2 regular-season record and reached the championship game after winning a playoff game against the New York Giants. In the championship against the Los Angeles Rams, Lavelli caught 11 passes – then a record for a title game – and had two touchdown receptions. The Browns won the game 30–28.

Cleveland reached the NFL championship game the following year but lost to the Rams. The 1952 and 1953 seasons followed a similar pattern: the Browns made it to the championship game but lost both times to the Detroit Lions. Lavelli was named to the Pro Bowl in 1951 and 1953. He was seventh in the NFL in receiving yards in 1951, with 586. He gained 783 receiving yards in 1953, the fifth-highest total in the league.

Paul, Otto Graham, Mac Speedie and I developed several passing options that were new to football and later would be copied by other teams. The most famous of these was "the come back toward the passer" option. After it appeared that a pass pattern was not going to be successful, the End would break his pass pattern and turn back toward his passer. It would take another second or so for Otto to hold the ball before passing it, but it proved a valuable addition for our offense.

Over the years, Lavelli developed a reputation for making big plays when they counted most, as he had done with his touchdown reception in the Browns' first championship game in 1946. He was nicknamed "Mr. Clutch" in a Pittsburgh Steelers scouting report, although "Gluefingers" – a name bestowed upon him by Browns announcer Bob Neal – was more widely used. He practiced with Graham tirelessly to refine routes and was not afraid to run over the middle, where he risked a pounding from defenders when the ball came his way. "Dante was the greatest guy at catching a ball in a crowd that I have ever seen," Brown once said. Among other innovations, he and Graham also mastered sideline patterns at a time when few teams used them.

The Browns won another championship in 1954, thanks in part to a strong regular-season performance from Lavelli. Lavelli led the team in receiving that year and made the Pro Bowl after the Browns beat the Lions for their second NFL title. A third NFL championship followed in 1955. In the championship game against the Rams, Lavelli caught a touchdown in the second quarter and scored a second time on a 50-yard pass just before the end of the first half. The Browns won 38–14.

Lavelli initially planned to retire in 1955 but came back for a final year in 1956, when the Browns posted a 5–7 record, the team's first-ever losing season. In his 11-year career, Lavelli caught 386 passes for 6,488 yards and 62 touchdowns. He was a confident receiver, former teammates said in later years. He could often be heard calling for Graham to throw him the ball while running routes. He was also known for his ability to improvise on the field. In a 1955 game against the Eagles in slippery conditions, he caught the winning touchdown with less than a minute left by swinging around the goalpost with his arm to get open.

During his Browns career, Lavelli was involved in the creation of the National Football League Players Association. The concept of a union to represent players in league matters was hatched in Lavelli's basement in 1954. Lavelli and two teammates, Abe Gibron and George Ratterman, met every Wednesday to discuss the union. They approached Creighton Miller, a Cleveland lawyer and former Notre Dame star who had worked briefly as an assistant coach with the Browns, for help. The union was founded at a meeting before the NFL championship game in 1956. The following year, the players got $50 per exhibition game, a $5,000 minimum salary, injury pay and medical care. The union is now the primary representative of players in labor negotiations and disputes with the NFL.