Excellent recount of how the Big Red reportedly turned down an offer of Jim Brown for John David Crow. In hindsight, the Cards should have made this trade, but Crow would have been a Hall of Famer himself if not for injuries in 1961 and 1963.
The NFL’s St. Louis Cardinals may have rejected a chance to acquire running back Jim Brown.
On Feb. 4, 1961, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported the Cleveland Browns twice offered to trade Brown to the Cardinals for running back John David Crow, but were turned down.
The Cardinals confirmed the story and the Browns denied it.
In retrospect, the Cardinals should have done the deal if given the chance, but at the time the decision wasn’t so obvious.
First-round picks
The potential blockbuster featured two of pro football’s premier players.
Brown, who played college football at Syracuse, was selected by the Browns in the first round of the 1957 draft and went on to lead the NFL in rushing in eight of his nine seasons.
Crow, the 1957 Heisman Trophy winner from Texas A&M, was selected by the Chicago Cardinals in the first round of the 1958 draft. He was…
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THE BIG RED ZONE 