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The Cleveland Browns dynasty was in its dying days in the early 1970s after years of being one of the league’s marquee franchises.
A playoff loss to the Miami Dolphins in 1972 closed out a 27-year run that saw the Browns collect eight league championships and make the postseason 19 times.
Related: The best player to wear No. 26 in Browns history
That season also saw the debut of safety Thom Darden, who would spend the next decade as the anchor of the defensive secondary and earn him the selection as the best player to wear No. 27 in franchise history.
Darden’s first love was baseball and he almost signed a contract with the Cleveland Indians following a tryout while at Sandusky High School. But he became enamored with football after switching from offense to defense in high school and embraced the opportunity to be the one dishing out the hits on opposing players.
Football provided an opportunity to get out of his hometown and he accepted a scholarship to play at Michigan, where he was a two-time All-American and All-Big Ten selection for the Wolverines.
The Browns selected Darden in the first round of the 1972 NFL Draft and he became an immediate starter on defense, a spot he would hold through the 1981 season as he made 124 starts. A severe knee injury forced him to miss the 1975 season, but he came back strong in 1976 and earned a Second Team All-NFL selection.
Darden led the NFL in interceptions (10) and return yards (200) in 1978 and is still the franchise leader in career interceptions (45) and return yards (820).
Cleveland only made one other playoff appearance after Darden’s rookie season, which came against the Oakland Raiders in 1980, and that team, affectionately known as the Kardiac Kids, hold a special place in Darden’s heart, as he told clevelandbrowns.com in 2020:
“The one thing that I have learned, and it follows me both in business and in raising kids, there’s a certain amount of love and, I guess you call it, opportunity that comes with a team, an organized team, especially in the sports realm. There’s an intangible feeling of success that you already have. I did not play on another Browns team that had all of those intangible feelings that we had on that team. We went into every game knowing that, as long as we stayed close, regardless, somehow or another we were going to win the game at the end of the game.”
Darden may have played during one of the darker periods in franchise history, but he still managed to make his mark as the best player to sport No. 27 for the Browns.
If not Darden, then who?
The Browns signed running back Kareem Hunt as a free agent heading into the 2019 season and in his four years with the club (he is currently a free agent and not expected to re-sign with the Browns) combined with running back Nick Chubb to form a talented backfield duo.
Hunt’s best year in Cleveland came in the playoff season of 2020 when he had 1,145 combined yards from scrimmage and 11 combined touchdowns. He is currently at No. 20 on the franchise’s all-time rushing list with 1,874 yards, tied at No. 14 with Bobby Mitchell and Cleo Miller with 16 career rushing touchdowns, and at No. 40 in career receptions with 132.
The best of the rest
Safety Al Gross, who played for the Browns from 1983 to 1987 and was a member of the defense that went to consecutive AFC Championship Games in 1986 and 1987, defensive back Nick Sorenson, who appeared in 56 games for the Browns from 2007 to 2010, safety Stevon Moore, who had five interceptions while starting 52 games for the Browns from 1992 to 1995, and wide receiver/kick returner Walter Roberts, who played in Cleveland from 1964 to 1966 and averaged 25.9 yards on 62 kickoff returns and resides at No. 9 on the franchise’s all-time list for kickoff return yards with 1,608.
Poll
Who is the best player to wear No. 27 in Browns history?
This poll is closed
-
2%
Karim Abdul-Jabbar
(9 votes) -
0%
Edwin Baker
(1 vote) -
0%
Dee Brown
(0 votes) -
0%
Lamar Chapman
(1 vote) -
79%
Thom Darden
(322 votes) -
0%
Matthew Dayes
(0 votes) -
0%
Derrick Douglas
(0 votes) -
0%
Brian Dudley
(0 votes) -
0%
Derrick Gainer
(0 votes) -
0%
Thomas Graham
(1 vote) -
1%
Al Gross
(8 votes) -
0%
Eric Hagg
(0 votes) -
9%
Kareem Hunt
(40 votes) -
0%
Randy Minniear
(1 vote) -
1%
Stevon Moore
(7 votes) -
1%
Walter Roberts
(6 votes) -
0%
Brian Russell
(3 votes) -
0%
Nick Sorenson
(2 votes) -
0%
Tavierre Thomas
(3 votes) -
0%
Robert Turbin
(0 votes) -
0%
Carl Ward
(2 votes) -
0%
Roosevelt Williams
(0 votes)
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