Sport: Loser's Fate

"I want to battle," Cleveland's Paul Brown once said. "I want to beat the hell out of you." And in 33 years, with Brown calling every play from the bench, his football teams beat practically everybody—at Ohio's Massillon high school (80 wins. 8 losses. 2 ties), at Ohio State (18-8-1), at the wartime Great Lakes Naval Station (15-5-2). In 1946 he founded pro football's Cleveland Browns. The Browns won four straight championships in the old All-America Conference, moved into the National Football League in 1950 and won seven conference titles, three N.F.L. championships.

This season Brown's touch left him. Favored to win...

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