Customer Reviews

Rugged and Enduring: The Eagles, the Browns, and 5 Years of Football

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My name is David Cohen. I wrote this book. I hope that anyone with an interest in the history of pro football, particularly fans of the Philadelphia Eagles and Cleveland Browns, will give this book a look.

It focuses on the seasons from 1946 to 1950 when the Eagles and Browns - who were in different leagues until 1950 - were the world's two best football teams. I was able to talk to or correspond with dozens of old players, from Hall of Famers like Otto Graham, Chuck Bednarik, Steve Van Buren, Lou Groza and Crazy Legs Hirsch to guys who only had a cup of coffee in the NFL; much of what they had to say is woven into my narrative. I wanted to share their stories and bring those years to life again.

Football history is a topic that interests me, and I would recommend this book to other people interested in this topic. Primarily this book is about the 1946 through 1950 seasons of pro football. The Cleveland Browns and, especially, the Philadelphia Eagles are spotlighted. This was an intriguing era in pro football as World War II had ended and the talent and manpower shortage of the National Football League during the war years came to an end. In fact, the influx of talent was sufficient for the creation of the AAFC, a rival league to the NFL where the Browns got their start.

The book has no index, no photos (other than on the cover), and probably a more-than-average amount of typos for a book that size. However, all these things are fairly unimportant. The quality of the narrative is what stands out. The author combined original research (such as interviews) with published sources. What I liked best was that I felt that the author made sure to get his facts straight and his presentation avoided the sensationalized exaggerations and undocumented tales sometimes passed down as football history. The author earned my trust.

The book combined recounts of individual seasons with a lot of interesting information about the changing dynamics of the game. It put things in context better than many other books I've read. The explanation of the gradual change from two-way players to having offensive and defensive specialists was very good. Also, for years I've wondered why it is that when I watch old football film clips that when a player has just been tackled, sometimes the play isn't considered over and he gets up and keeps running and sometimes not. Now I know.