Cleveland Browns 1971 Topps Football Cards

Cleveland Browns 1971 Topps Football Cards
(Complete Set)

Cleveland Browns 1970 Season

The NFL merges with the AFL to form the NFL with the American Football Conference and the National Football Conference. The Browns join the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cincinnati Bengals, and the Houston Oilers in the AFC Central Division
Browns Head Coach Blanton Collier who started with Paul Brown as an assistant coach in 1946 retires after the 1970 season because of a hearing problem. His record as the Browns head coach from 1963-1970 was 76 wins, 34 losses, 2 ties, and coaching his team to four NFL Championship games winning one of them in 1964
Because of concerns for quarterback Bill Nelsen's damaged knees the Browns trade Paul Warfield to the Miami Dolphins in order to draft Purdue QB Mike Phipps. This trade ended badly for the Browns as Warfield went on to win a Super Bowl with the Dolphins in their 1972 perfect season and Mike Phipps proved to be an ineffective NFL quarterback
On September 21, 1970 the Browns beat Joe Namath and the New York Jets 31-21 in the first televised Monday Night Football game. The broadcasters are play by play annoucer Keith Jackson and analysts Howard Cosell and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Don Meredith
Paul Brown who had founded the Cleveland Browns in 1946 and was their head coach until Art Modell fired him 1962 founded a second team the Cincinnati Bengals in 1967. Their first two seasons of 1968 and 1969 were played in the AFL. In 1970 they joined the Browns in the Central Division of the AFC. On October 11, 1970 Paul Brown, the Bengals head coach, returned to Cleveland Municipal Stadium for the first time since he was fired. The Browns beat the Bengals 30-27 but the Bengals went on to win the Division with an 8-6 record
In the third game of the season the Browns defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 15-7 in Cleveland. On November 29, 1970 the Browns began a horrible streak of losing to the Steelers at their new home Three Rivers Stadium that would not end until sixteen years on October 5, 1986 when Bernie Kosar led the Browns to a 27-24 victory at Pittsburgh

1970 Season
Coach Blanton Collier - 7-7-0

Finished Second
AFC Central Division (Bengals 8-6-0)

Team Passing Leaders

PLAYER	GAMES	COMP	ATT	COMP %	YARDS	TD	INT	QB Rating
Bill Nelsen	12	159	313	50.8	2156	16	16	68.9
Mike Phipps	14	29	60	48.3	529	1	5	49.9
Don Gault	14	2	19	10.5	67	0	3	2.2

Team Rushing Leaders

PLAYER	GAMES	ATT	YARDS	AVG/ATT	AVG/GAME	LONGEST	TD	FUM
Leroy Kelly	13	206	656	3.2	50.5	33	6	3
Bo Scott	13	151	625	4.1	48.1	63	7	4

Team Receiving Leaders

PLAYER	GAMES	REC	YARDS	AVG/REC	AVG/GAME	LONGEST	TD
Bo Scott	13	40	351	8.8	27.0	24	4
Milt Morin	14	37	611	16.5	43.6	36	1
Fair Hooker	13	28	490	17.5	37.7	69	2
Gary Collins	12	26	351	13.5	29.3	28	4
Leroy Kelly	13	24	311	13.0	23.9	55	2

Punt Return Leaders

PLAYER	GAMES	RET	YARDS	AVG/RET	LONG	TD
Reece Morrison	14	15	133	8.9	34	0
Walt Sumner	14	8	70	8.8	38	0

Kick Return Leaders

PLAYER	GAMES	RET	YARDS	AVG/RET	LONG	TD
Homer Jones	14	29	739	25.5	94	1
Reece Morrison	14	7	153	21.9	36	0

Team Kicking Leader

PLAYER	GAMES	FGA	FGM	FG %	PAT/ATT	PAT/MADE	PAT %	POINTS
Don Cockroft	14	22	12	54.5	35	34	97.1	70

Team Punting Leader

PLAYER	GAMES	PUNTS	YARDS	LONG	BLOCKED	AVG/PUNT
Don Cockroft	14	71	3023	71	1	42.6

Team Interceptions Leaders

PLAYER	GAMES	INT	YARDS	TD	LONG
Erich Barnes	14	5	85	1	38
Walt Sumner	12	4	85	0	34
Dale Lindsey	14	2	65	1	56

Ernie Kellerman 1971 Topps #7 football card	Gene Hickerson 1971 Topps #36 football card
Gary Collins 1971 Topps #75 football card	Walter Johnson 1971 Topps #104 football card
Mike Phipps Rookie 1971 Topps #131 football card	Leroy Kelly 1971 Topps #157 football card
Erich Barnes 1971 Topps #168 football card	Don Cockroft Rookie 1971 Topps #193 football card
Bill Nelsen 1971 Topps #220 football card	Milt Morin Rookie 1971 Topps #249 football card

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