D2 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2020The Cleveland Browns’ post-
season drought grew from a
crabby and cranky toddler into an
exasperating adolescent. After its
tumultuous teens, it seems ready
to say goodbye.
The Browns are primed to qual-
ify for the playoffs for the first
time in 18 years after bludgeoning
the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, a
41-35 victory in Nashville that im-
proved their security in the stand-
ings to an extent largely alien in
northeast Ohio since the current
incarnation of the franchise re-
turned in 1999. Only twice before
in that time had Cleveland fin-
ished with even a nonlosing
record, but the Browns are now
9-3 for the first time since 1994,
when they won their last playoff
game and Bill Belichick prowled
their sideline.
It’s unclear whatever hap-
pened to that guy, but the Browns,
in the meantime, endured one
self-inflicted indignity after an-
other: from a relocation to Balti-
more to numerous regime
changes to a 1-31 stretch that
produced the draft capital that
has spurred this revival. The
Browns’ top offensive selections
from their critical 2018 draft —
quarterback Baker Mayfield, tak-
en first over all, and running back
Nick Chubb, chosen in the second
round — contributed to all five
touchdowns against the Titans
(8-4), each coming in the dizzying
first half, which produced a most
improbable halftime score of
Cleveland 38, Tennessee 7.
“I think people know that we
are a good team now,” Chubb said.
This game represented a pivot
point in Cleveland’s season, at
once an opportunity to dismiss a
perception that it had puffed its
record with victories against infe-
rior teams and to affirm it is lev-
elheaded enough to defeat an-
other A.F.C. contender. In a
matchup of 8-3 teams with power-
ful rushing offenses — Cleveland
ranked first in the N.F.L., Tennes-
see second — both strayed from
type.
The Titans, who had five turn-
overs all season, committed
three. And the Browns, echoing
the aggressive approach they de-
ployed in scoring 49 points at Dal-
las earlier this season, called trick
plays and passed often, sprin-
kling in Chubb and his dynamic
backfield counterpart, Kareem
Hunt, instead of relying on them.
The play design and play-calling
of Coach Kevin Stefanski, coupled
with Mayfield’s execution, gener-
ated one touchdown pass after
another — a dart to Jarvis
Landry, a goal-line grab by offen-
sive lineman Kendall Lamm, adeep ball off a nifty play fake to
Donovan Peoples-Jones, a lofted
toss to Rashard Higgins. At half-
time, Mayfield had completed 21
of 26 passes for 296 of his 334
yards.
“He’s playing at a high level and
he has to continue to do so,” Ste-
fanski said. “We’re counting on
him, and he knows that.”
In a game that featured 76 total
points and 889 total yards, it was
two defensive plays that truly
powered the Browns. Those plays
countered consecutive first-quar-
ter carries by Derrick Henry, who
seemed to embark on his annual
December rampage last week
when he rushed for 178 yards and
three touchdowns against Indian-
apolis. On Sunday, Cleveland
stuffed Henry, among the league’s
best short-yardage backs, on
fourth-and-1 and then stripped
him deep in Tennessee territory.
The Browns’ 3-0 lead ballooned to
17-0. Had the Titans’ Mike Vrabel
coached beneath a ladder while a
black cat circled his feet, the first
half could not have gone worse for
Tennessee.
The Browns’ minus-15 point dif-
ferential is the worst for a team
that has won at least nine of its
first 12 games in N.F.L. history, ac-
cording to the Elias Sports Bu-
reau. With occasional exceptions
— Houston (minus 7) last season,
Buffalo (minus 57) and Tennessee
(minus 22) in 2017 — teams withnegative point differentials don’t
reach the playoffs because teams
with negative point differentials
generally don’t win that often.
The Browns had won their last
three games by a combined 10
points, but for them, the margin
was irrelevant. They are winning
games by minimizing mistakes —
Mayfield fumbled late on Sunday,
but he has not thrown an intercep-
tion since Oct. 25 — and recogniz-
ing their strengths.
The playoff hype that reached a
zenith before the 2019 season,
when an influx of talent raised ex-pectations to an unhealthy de-
gree, is more legitimate now that
Cleveland, under Stefanski and
the new general manager, An-
drew Berry, is rooted in stability.
“They need to reset their expec-
tations,” Mayfield said, referring
to Browns fans. “We all need to re-
set the standard, and that’s what
I’ve been saying. There’s a new
standard, there’s a foundation we
have to continue to build on and
improve. That’s just the way we
need to handle things.”
With four games remaining,
Cleveland holds the top wild-cardspot in the A.F.C., a game ahead of
Miami and Indianapolis (both
8-4), which currently have the
other two postseason berths, and
two games ahead of Las Vegas
(7-5). The division rival Baltimore
(6-5), Cleveland’s opponent next
Monday night, and New England
(6-6) are also in the mix.
If all goes as scheduled, the
Browns’ season will end at home
against unbeaten Pittsburgh on
Jan. 3, two days short of the 18th
anniversary of their last playoff
game and a fine day to bid it
farewell.Browns, Nearing a Playoff Berth,
Have Grown Beyond Unmet Hype
By BEN SHPIGELBrowns 41, Titans 35
The Browns’ Rashard Higgins catching one of the four touchdown passes Baker Mayfield threw.WADE PAYNE/ASSOCIATED PRESSSPORTS OF THE TIMES
If you want to be like someone,
my father said, reiterating some-
thing he had been telling me for
years, “be like Rafer Johnson.”
It made sense. Johnson and
my father had a fair amount in
common. They didn’t know each
other, but both were proud Black
men who were born during the
1930s and were teens in the
dusty interior of California dur-
ing the 1940s. Both competed as
college athletes on the West
Coast. My father became the
only African-American player on
the Oregon Ducks basketball
team. At U.C.L.A., Johnson
played basketball for John Wood-
en before focusing on track.
Growing up as I did, with
idealistic parents who crossed
the color line to marry in 1954,
athletes like Johnson, Jackie
Robinson and Arthur Ashe were
held up as the ideal. Such rever-
ence was about how these sports
stars carried themselves as
African-Americans — and the
way they blended sports with
scholarship, committed to help-
ing others and embraced all
parts of humanity.
How perfect that Johnson
burst onto the world stage at the
1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.
With the Cold War raging and
the battle for civil rights gaining
steam in the United States, John-
son became the first Black ath-
lete to carry the U.S. flag at the
Olympics. The role was a sym-
bolic retort to the Soviet Union,
which delighted in highlighting
America’s segregation, and a
signal that change was coming.
“Rafer Johnson, the person
and the athlete, was viewed as a
powerful antidote to the other-
wise irrefutable poison of Ameri-
can racism,” David Maraniss
writes in “Rome 1960: The
Olympics That Changed the
World.” “No one could question
his sense of purpose or his good
will.”
Johnson captured the gold
medal in the decathlon by fend-
ing off his friend and U.C.L.A.
training partner, C. K. Yang, who
was competing for Taiwan. Their
battle was among the most stir-
ring in Olympic history and with
the victory, many considered
Johnson to be the greatest all-
around athlete in the world.
It was Johnson’s last competi-
tion, but he hardly shrank from
the stage.
After the 1960 Olympics, hav-
ing met him at an awards cere-mony, Johnson grew close to
Robert F. Kennedy, who, as it
happened, was the one politician
who held saintlike status in my
household.
During Kennedy’s race for the
White House in 1968, Johnson
was a regular in the candidate’s
entourage. “My old friend, if I
may, Rafer Johnson, is here,”
Kennedy announced to support-
ers during the joyous speech
delivered after his victory in
California’s Democratic primary.
Moments later, as the two men
passed through the kitchen of the
Ambassador Hotel in Los Ange-
les, gunshots flashed. Johnson,who had been just feet behind
Kennedy, helped to tackle Sirhan
Sirhan and wrestle the assassin’s
.22-caliber revolver away.
At Kennedy’s funeral, Johnson
was among the pallbearers.
In the weeks that followed, he
struggled against the urge to
wall himself off. But another
Kennedy, Robert’s sister Eunice,
drew Johnson into her effort to
create the Special Olympics for
people with disabilities.
It would become his calling.
“Mrs. Shriver would tell me
that ‘even if people had disabili-
ties, they could still be the best
they could be,’ ” Johnson told areporter. “ ‘Nobody should be
denied that opportunity.’ ”
“That’s all I needed to hear. I
was in.”
For the next five decades,
Johnson became a leader in the
Special Olympics movement. The
role was a glovelike fit for a man
who became known as much for
helping others as for his exploits
in sports.
“Everyone blessed enough to
be around Rafer, their lives were
improved,” said Valorie Kondos
Field, a former U.C.L.A. women’s
gymnastics coach and a close
friend of Johnson’s. She added,
when we spoke last week, that hewas always there for those in
need, whether on campus or in
the community. “But Rafer took
it a step further,” she said. “He
didn’t just help make you better
— he lifted you up when you
needed it.”
I needed that lift once.
It was 2014, the only time I
met Rafer Johnson.
We were backstage at Royce
Hall on the U.C.L.A. campus. He
was nearly 80, but still strong
and capable of lighting up a room
simply by being in it. I was on
hand to moderate a panel discus-
sion featuring Johnson that
focused on race, sports and the
integration of the N.F.L.
I was uneasy. The audience
looked huge. And I was about to
be onstage with an icon con-
nected to some of my most pow-
erful personal memories. Up
close and in person, he even
carried himself like my father,
whose death a few years earlier
was still a fresh wound.
Sensing my nerves, he calmed
me, making a particular point to
ask about my job, my life and my
experience as an athlete. For a
moment, he wrapped an arm
around my shoulders, just as my
father would have done. You’re
going to do fine, he said. “This is
going to be a great night.”
It was indeed.
I will never forget that
evening. Nor will I ever forget
Rafer Johnson.
With all that we’ve been
through this year, may we hold
tight to memories of those we’ve
lost, in sports and beyond.The Life That Rafer Johnson Led Guided My Path
Rafer Johnson won the decathlon in the 1960 Summer Olympics. He later became an advocate for the Special Olympics.ALLSPORT HULTON/ARCHIVEFrom First Sports Page
Working to improvethe world, and also
calming one writer.
N.F.L. Week 13
At the midpoint of the Giants’
2020 season, they had lost seven
of their eight games, with four of
those defeats by four or fewer
points.
Asked to characterize his team,
Giants Coach Joe Judge had an-
swered: “I see a lot of improve-
ment.”
As a rookie head coach in the
N.F.L., Judge is given a little slack
for maintaining his optimism in a
dreary situation. But Judge is
nothing if not a no-nonsense guy.
He was tutored for nearly a dec-
ade by the Patriots’ Bill Belichick
and Alabama’s Nick Saban, who
are royalty in the blunt-speaking
category.
Sunday, after the Giants' 17-12
road victory over the Seattle Sea-
hawks, one of the biggest upsets of
the N.F.L. season and the fourth
consecutive victory for the first-
place Giants, Judge’s message
had changed in only one minor
way. He still talked about the on-
going improvement he sees, then
he added: “I’m glad to see some
tangible results for all the hard
work.”
He almost smiled.
Oh, and the Giants (5-7) handed
the Seahawks (8-4) their first
home loss this year behind a
backup quarterback, Colt McCoy,
who had not won as a starter in six
years.
Most surprising, the Giants did
not claim their most meaningful
victory in several years with skul-
duggery or a novel game plan that
knocked Seattle off its usual, effi-
cient rhythm. The Giants pushed
the Seahawks around on both
sides of the line of scrimmage and
focused on a conservative, run-
first approach, especially in the
second half when they scored all
their points.
Along the way, the Giants
rushed for 190 yards and sacked
Russell Wilson, Seattle’s elusive
quarterback, five times. McCoy
had only 105 yards passing with
one interception after a deflection,
but as the Giants were building
and then protecting their second-
half lead late in the game, McCoy
completed a series of pivotal third-
down passes to extend drives.
Or, in the (few) words of Judge:
“Colt really stepped up.”
To keep things in perspective,
the Giants are only in contention
for a postseason berth because
they play in the dreadful N.F.C.
East, where a losing record that is
only two games under .500 is good
enough to make them the divi-sion’s headliner, a game ahead of a
Washington team that will face
undefeated Pittsburgh on Mon-
day. But, consider this bit of
progress — or improvement, as
Judge would say: Sunday the Gi-
ants became the first N.F.C. East
team this season to beat a team
with a winning record.
“They were really tough and
gave us a hard time all day long,”
Seattle Coach Pete Carroll said.
“We didn’t move the ball well —it’s kind of an uncharacteristic
feeling.”
Most prominent in the Giants’
defensive effort was the team’s
pass rush, which hounded Wilson
throughout the game. Beyond the
sacks, Wilson, who completed 27
of 43 passes for 263 yards with one
touchdown and an interception,
was forced to hurry multiple
throws and was frequently on the
run as he passed.
The Giants’ Leonard Williams,the former Jets defensive lineman,
had two and one-half sacks Sun-
day, which gives him a career-high
eight and one-half sacks for the
season. When the Giants used
their franchise tag to sign
Williams in the spring, Giants
General Manager Dave Gettle-
man took some criticism for the
transaction. Williams has been a
highly disruptive force for oppos-
ing quarterbacks in nearly every
game this year. Or, as Judge said
Sunday evening: “The dude is a
man.”
Another rising Giants star, run-
ning back Wayne Gallman, had a
stellar game, rushing for 135 yards
on only 16 carries. Replacing the
injured Saquon Barkley, Gallman
has given the Giants’ offense sta-
bility and taken a lot of the pres-
sure off quarterbacks Daniel
Jones, who missed the game with
a hamstring injury, and McCoy.
Although Gallman had rushed
for 94 yards in the Giants’ previous
game against Cincinnati, Carroll
seemed a bit startled by his per-
formance Sunday.
“They ran some basic stuff and
got away from us,” Carroll said of
the second half when Gallman had
129 of his rushing yards.
Trailing Seattle 5-0 at the half, a
60-yard dash by Gallman on the
Giants' second possession of thethird quarter set up a 4-yard
touchdown run by Alfred Morris.
A successful 2-point conversion
attempt gave the Giants an 8-5
lead.
A Gallman run for 23 yards on
the Giants’ next drive led to an-
other Morris rushing touchdown
and a 14-5 lead after Giants place-
kicker Graham Gano missed the
extra point attempt. Gano added a
field goal in the fourth quarter to
put the Giants ahead, 17-5, but Wil-
son led the Seahawks on an 11-
play drive that culminated with a
28-yard touchdown pass to Chris
Carson with a little more than six
minutes remaining in the game.
Gallman and McCoy teamed up
to run down an ample amount of
clock on their next possession be-
fore punting the football back to
Seattle with 108 seconds left in the
fourth quarter. But the stout de-
fensive effort continued and the
Seahawks never advanced closer
than the Giants’ 46-yard line.
Noting that there were more
winning teams — in the form of
Cleveland (9-3) and Baltimore
(6-5) — on the remaining sched-
ule, Judge did not appear overly
enthusiastic about the Giants’ up-
set victory. He still seemed to have
improvement on his mind.
“I love the fact that we’re a
young team,” he said.Giants Best Seahawks in the Season’s Biggest Upset, and a 4th Straight Win
By BILL PENNINGTONNew York Giants defensive back James Bradberry defends a
pass to Seattle Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf on Sunday.STEPHEN BRASHEAR/ASSOCIATED PRESSGiants 17, Seahawks 12