NFL adds AAFC stats to its record book — so Northwestern's Otto Graham has a well-deserved spot by Tom Brady
Otto Graham played quarterback at Northwestern, not exactly the mecca for the elite throughout college football history.
Yet during his time in Evanston, the Waukegan native did something unheard of today: He led the Wildcats to victories over Ohio State in 1941 and 1943.
That was enough for Paul Brown (the Buckeyes coach in 1941 and 1943) to offer Graham a contract to quarterback the Cleveland Browns beginning in 1946.
Smart move by Brown. With Graham under center for the next decade, the winning continued along the shores of Lake Erie. As Cleveland's starting QB, Graham had an astounding record of 105-17-4 (81%). His career mark of 8.63 yards per attempt is still an NFL record.
Almost half of Graham's career was spent in the competing All-America Football Conference, so the four AAFC championships he won with the Browns weren't recognized in NFL record books.
That is until April 1, when (no April Fools' Day joke), NFL owners approved a proposal by the competition committee to include player, coach and team statistics from the AAFC in the NFL record book.
In the case of the late Graham, he was and still is the embodiment of the adage that winners win.
Now Graham is officially side by side with the NFL's modern version of the ultimate winner, Tom Brady.
Brady and Graham are tied for most championships won by a quarterback with seven each. Graham led the Browns to NFL titles in 1950, 1954 and 1955. The four consecutive AAFC championships Graham helped Cleveland win (1946-49) are now officially an NFL mark, putting Graham at seven titles won.
Brady won Super Bowl titles with the New England Patriots in the 2001, 2003, 2004, 2014, 2016 and 2018 seasons and his final one in 2020 with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before retiring after the 2022 season.
Graham and Brady retired 67 years apart but now will be forever linked for the record they share.
An argument will linger, though. That being, should Graham's four AAFC titles (plus the rest of the AAFC statistics added) really count among NFL records?
The answer is absolutely. After the NFL and AFL merged in 1970, AFL stats were incorporated, so precedence is there.
The first quarterback to throw for 4,000 yards in a season was Joe Namath when he played for the New York Jets in 1967 — while playing in the AFL.
When the AAFC and AFL competed against the NFL, the knock on both leagues was that they were inferior to the NFL. Both leagues proved their worth.
The Browns were the first when they joined the NFL from the so-called inferior AAFC in 1950, went 10-2 and won the championship. In 1969, the Namath-led Jets of the AFL stunned the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. The AFL-NFL merger happened shortly after.
Arguably more impressive than Graham's seven titles was the fact he played 10 years for the Browns and in every season led them to either an AAFC or NFL championship game.
There isn't a quarterback in NFL history who can say he did that.
Was Graham great in all of those championship games? Absolutely not.
In the 1953 title game against the Detroit Lions (a 17-16 loss), he was a dismal 2 of 15 passing for 20 yards with two interceptions.
Most times, Graham was very good in an era when passing yards and touchdown passes weren't as easy to complete compared with today's game. Consider:
In his first AAFC title game in 1946, Graham was 16 of 27 for 213 yards and threw the game-winning touchdown to Dante Lavelli in the fourth quarter of a 14-9 win over the New York Yankees.
In his first NFL championship game in 1950, Graham was 22 of 28 for 373 yards, threw four TD passes and ran for 99 yards in a come-from-behind 30-28 win over the Los Angeles Rams.
In his final two NFL title games, Graham accounted for 10 touchdowns (five throwing, five rushing) as the Browns blew out the Rams and Lions by an average score of 47-12.5.
Winners win. That's the story of Graham, whose place alongside Brady is well-deserved.
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