Top 10 Most Hated Cleveland Browns

The Steelers and Browns have been playing one another since dinosaurs walked the earth. The two teams are natural enemies like cats and dogs (although Steelers and Browns is more analogous to sharks and seals or lions and gazelles).

I have followed this storied rivalry since the late 1960′s, I have seen both teams win their fair share of these contests. Over that time, I have developed a hatred for certain Cleveland Browns players. Here is my list of my top 10 most hated Cleveland Browns.

#1 – Joe “Turkey” Jones

“Turkey” Jones will always be public enemy #1 in Pittsburgh. For those of you who are too young to remember Turkey Jones and the play that made him infamous, let me take you back down memory lane.

It was October 10, 1976, and the Steelers were playing their arch-rival, the Cleveland Browns. The Browns had signed Turkey Jones to their roster specifically to try to injure Steelers’ quarterback Terry Bradshaw. Prior to that game, Jones had been a prisoner in a maximum security penitentiary. The Governor of Ohio gave him a pardon so he could join the Browns to play against the Steelers. The Governor made a secret agreement with Jones; hurt Bradshaw and win your freedom.

The Steelers were beating the Browns 79-3, when the Browns sent in Turkey Jones to do his dirty work. Jones knew that he could never get past the Steelers’ vaunted offensive line, so he waited until after the refs had blown a play dead and Terry Bradshaws was walking back to the huddle. Jones had to make sure that Bradshaw and the other Steelers’ backs were turned, since no Brown would ever challenge a Steeler face-to-face. When he knew that Bradshaw wasn’t looking, Jones sprinted towards Bradshaw, picked him up in the air, turned him upside down, and slammed him head first into the ground. A loud applause rose among the unwashed Cleveland fans. Simultaneously, Steelers fans and the rest of the civilized world looked on in utter shock and horror.

As Bradshaw hit the ground head first, most fans thought that his spine would snap. Bradshaw’s body spasmed violently as he writhed in pain. But before anyone could react, Turkey Jones proceeded to stomp repeatedly on the helpless Bradshaw’s throwing hand in an attempt to injure him further. Finally, he gave Bradshaw a brutal kick to the face before he was apprehended by the police.

Due to the secret arrangement between Jones and the Ohio Governor, Jones was released by the Cleveland police as soon as they got him safely away from Municipal Stadium. Turkey Jones has lived in a Browns-owned mansion in Shaker Heights ever since, and he draws a secret pension of $1,000,000 per year that is paid for by the Cleveland City Council.

You may find very different versions of this story in other places like ESPN, NFL.com, Google, Wikipedia, etc. This is due to the Cleveland Browns’ propaganda machine successfully revising all written (and video) accounts of the incident. But we here at Steelers Today remember the true story.

Dirtiest play in NFL history.

#2 – Joe “Turkey” Jones

#3 – Joe “Turkey” Jones

See #1 & #2.

#4 – Joe “Turkey” Jones

Did I mention that after kicking Bradshaw in the face, Jones proceeded to spit on him?

#5 – Joe “Turkey” Jones

A coward’s coward.

#6 – Kellen Winslow Jr.

Winslow is the antithesis of everything the Steelers stand for. He is arrogant, self-centered, self-aggrandizing, soft (though he pretends not to be), and he has never accomplished anything on the field. He has spent much of his career on the injured list. I believe one of those injuries occurred while being tackled by the Pittsburgh Steelers’ kicker (but I could be wrong). The others were thinly veiled excuses to avoid having to play the Steelers.

#7 – Braylon Edwards

See “#6-Kellen Winslow Jr.” Same guy, different jersey number.

#8 – Ozzie Newsome

Newsome was unstoppable as a player. That is reason enough to hate him. But now he is General Manager of the only team that Steelers fans hate more than the Cleveland Browns, the Baltimore Ravens. If it weren’t for Turkey Jones, Ozzie Newsome would be much higher on this list.

#9 – Eric Metcalf

To this day, I still don’t think a Steelers special teams player has ever tackled this guy. He wasn’t much of a running back, but he was a terror on kickoff and punt returns. We hate you Eric Metcalf!

#10 – Webster Slaughter

I’ll give Slaughter the greatest compliment I can ever give a Browns player; I wish he were a Steeler. Slaughter was good. Very good. When Slaughter was playing, he was the Browns player that I worried most about.

Honorable mention

Brian Sipe, Michael Dean Perry, Bob Golic, Bernie Kosar, Paul Warfield

*Editor’s note: As with much of what we write at Steelers Today, this article is intended to be humorous. Several readers have informed us that they thought it was serious. Turkey Jones was not a convict who was hired to hurt Terry Bradshaw. He was simply a professional football player. While he did slam Terry Bradshaw on his head, he never kicked him in the face or spit on him. We apologize to Mr. Jones if anyone else didn’t realize that the article was a joke.

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September 14, 2008 · Posted in Lists, We hate the Browns!

Comments

12 Responses to “Top 10 Most Hated Cleveland Browns”

Jay on September 15th, 2008 11:38 am

Pretty sure that guy’s name is Eric Metcalf, not Terry.
admin on September 15th, 2008 12:54 pm

Thanks Jay. You are absolutely right. It was Eric who played for the Browns. I am showing my age here, but Terry Metcalf was Eric’s dad. He also was a professional football player.

Good catch. Sorry about the error. But I’ll never forgive you for forcing me to reveal how old I am.
Dave on September 15th, 2008 4:26 pm

I think you already revealed your age by chosing Turkey Jones as numbers 1-5 of your most hated Brownies.
admin on September 15th, 2008 6:18 pm

Okay, good point. So, would anyone believe me if I said that I was 23 years old? No really, I am.
Judith on January 23rd, 2009 9:09 pm

Get over the fact that you will never win a Super Bowl, not even by injuring the other team. After 30 years, you have to admit that you still suck and can’t even win a game by trying to mortally wound or kill the Quarterback of the World’s Best Football Team of all times.
Joe Collins on February 10th, 2009 2:34 pm

I was at the game in Cleveland on 10/10/1976 and saw the hit on Bradshaw. Funny but I don’t remember it as described above. Unlike Jack Lambert, Joe Jones was not known to be a dirty player. He claimed he did not hear the whistle, which is understandable given the level of noise in old Cleveland Muny. Jones grabbed bradshaw, spun him around and threw him. The fact that he landed on his head was mere happenstance. A good throw none the less. A little know fact is that the Gator dance was invented that day.
andrew on July 28th, 2009 6:41 pm

first of all the BEST TEAM OF ALL TIME IS THE SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS JUDITH and second of all ARE YOU A PROPHET? CAN YOU TELL THAT THE BROWNS WILL NEVER WIN A SUPER BOWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????????????????????????????????oh,and super bowl xliii should’ve been CARDINALS VICTORY SO THE STEELERS WOULD’VE HAD 5 SUPER BOWL RINGS JUST LIKE THE SF 49ERS SO #$%%^ OFF!!!!!!!! BECAUSE THERE WERE SO MANY BAD CALLS IN SUPER BOWL XLIII!!!!!!!!!!!
thurgood on October 1st, 2009 4:17 pm

Guys, quit picking on us Browns. With owners, and managers like ours – Modell, Lerner, Policy etc., – who needs enemies? Enjoy your six rings. You’ve got an owner with a heart of gold who could’ve made a few trillion dollars more if he had chosen some other line of business. But Papa Rooney likes and loves football, and will take care of the town and the Steelers before anyone, save the Lord and his Momma Mary themselves. Much as I hate the Steelers, I know you’ve got a great club. All the best!

BTW Turkey Jones is the nicest dude this side of the Mississippi, and I have met him, believe me, you can’t hear him talk, he’s so soft spoken!
kerry on December 8th, 2009 10:44 pm

thanks for the memories, i had forgoten how much i enjoyed seeing hillbilly bradshaw get k/oed he still has nothing but bad to say about cleveland can you somhow ad the rest where he is quivering on the ground, better yet send it to his freinds at fox sports, im still laughing and bookmarked your site, thanks turk jones
Eric on December 22nd, 2009 4:10 pm

I think we could add Joshua Cribbs to this list now
Andy on February 9th, 2010 11:02 am

One of my most cherished sports moments, directly as a result of this one play, was coincidentally being in Ohio the day fans discovered the Browns had moved and seeing an unshaven, crying cab driver on the news cursing Art Modell. Clear evidence of the curse on the Browns and their fans, who cheered the play. I heard, although not verified, that the Steelers duct taped Bradshaw into his seat for the trip home because they couldn’t trust a doctor in Cleveland.
henry on May 12th, 2010 3:06 pm

you seriously were happy to see the browns move?? you must not be a true fan(a grade A asshole forsure tho). I hate the steelers but i like them to be good, just boring otherwise. when both teams are good battling it out thats when its at its best! f the bengals f the mavens squeelers and clowns were the titans of old and I for one cant wait til those days return