YEARS: 1954, 1955, 1964, & 1965
SIGNIFICANCE: Bills and Browns each won monumental championships in their franchise’s history
After the Los Angeles Rams exacted their revenge on their former hometown’s Browns in the 1951 NFL Championship Game, Cleveland returned to the next two title games but fell to the Detroit Lions both times. The two teams met up yet again in 1954, but the third edition wasn’t nearly as close as the first two were. After ten-point and one-point losses in the 1952 and ’53 title games, the Browns flat-out embarrassed the Lions in Cleveland to win their second NFL championship — sixth including the AAFC — while K Lou Groza converted an NFL-record eight PATs on this exact day 66 years ago.
Precisely one year later, the Browns made it back to their 10th consecutive title game and faced off yet again with the LA Rams. After three consecutive bouts with the Lions (1-2), the reigning-champion Browns entered the LA Coliseum as six-point favorites but absolutely rolled to their second-straight championship blowout. The first run of back-to-back NFL titles for the former AAFC giant, legendary QB Otto Graham would announce his retirement soon after the victory. Their seventh overall championship would be their last until the latter years of Paul and Jim Brown (1964), while the Rams wouldn’t fight for a title again until the year 2000.
Nearly 20 years after the inception of the AAFC — which spawned the Browns, 49ers, and Colts — the upstart AFL was gaining stream. Exactly 10 years after Cleveland’s first of two blowout title victories, the Buffalo Bills secured their very first title against the San Diego Chargers — the reigning AFL Champions. They had ran roughshod over the Boston Patriots (56-10) in the previous title game, but the Lou Saban-led Bills had become a juggernaut. Fielding the league’s top-ranked offense and defense, Buffalo held San Diego’s outstanding offense to just seven points, clinching their very first Championship in franchise history by a score of 20-7.
Exactly one year later, BUF & SD met yet again to decide the AFL’s champion. Held in Cali this time around, the Bills entered as underdogs due to their 34-3 loss to SD in October, notwithstanding their Thanksgiving tie. Lou Saban’s defense came to play that day, however, as the Bills blanked the Chargers in front of their home crowd to win their second straight AFL title. Scoring a combined seven points over the two bouts, SD advanced to five of the AFL’s first six championships but managed to only win one. This would also be the last game before the first “AFL-NFL World Championship Game” was instituted (which became the Super Bowl).