Red Right 88

Red Right 88 was the designation of a Cleveland Browns passing play that was called during the January 4, 1981 American Football Conference divisional playoff game against the Oakland Raiders; in the years since, the term has been used to refer to the game itself and its ending.

Trailing 14-12 with less than a minute remaining in the game, the Browns had the ball on the Raiders 13-yard line and were in position for a potential game-winning field goal. Browns quarterback Brian Sipe called a time out and conferred with head coach Sam Rutigliano, who called a pass play, "Red Right 88" and instructed Sipe to "throw it into Lake Erie" if the play was anything less than wide open. On the ensuing play, Sipe chose to force a pass to tight end Ozzie Newsome. However, the pass was intercepted in the end zone by Raiders safety Mike Davis who had cut in front of Newsome's square in pass route, putting an end to the Browns season. Oakland subsequently advanced to the AFC conference championship, where they defeated the San Diego Chargers, and went on to win Super Bowl XV over the Philadelphia Eagles.

The logic behind trying for the touchdown was that Browns kicker Don Cockroft had previously missed two field goal attempts, had one extra point attempt blocked and had another aborted following a bad snap. In addition, the weather was brutally cold and windy. "What many people don't know about that situation is that I was a long way from being 100 percent physically in 1980," Cockroft said in a 2006 interview. "I had two herniated discs and needed four epidurals to just get through the season. I probably should have gone on IR." Cockroft was released by the Browns at the end of their 1981 training camp and retired soon after.

Had the play been executed properly, it would have presumably resulted in a touchdown. The primary receiver, Dave Logan, was crossing left-to-right, had a step on his defender and was open at the six-yard line. Sipe misread the defensive back's movements and thought Logan was covered so he went to the secondary receiver and threw in traffic where it was intercepted. Another bitter irony of the play is that Davis, who intercepted the pass, had by far the worst hands of any Raider defender; he was an excellent tackler and play-caller but rarely received recognition largely because he dropped almost every interception chance he ever had.

The play call itself has since become an infamous part of Cleveland sports lore, ranking with The Drive, The Fumble, The Catch, Off Nagy's Glove, The Shot, and The Decision as a bad memory that symbolizes the 46-year professional championship drought that has plagued the city.

The game itself, with a temperature of 4 °F (−16 °C) and a −36 °F (−38 °C) wind chill, was the coldest NFL game since the legendary Ice Bowl of December 31, 1967 that pitted the Dallas Cowboys against the Green Bay Packers. Other cold conditions prevailed in later games, such as the AFC Championship game between the Cincinnati Bengals and San Diego Chargers, also known as the Freezer Bowl, a year later, and the AFC Divisional Playoffs game between the Denver Broncos and the Baltimore Ravens in 2013.

See also

• Cleveland sports curse
• NFL playoffs, 1980-81