Every NFL Team’s Best Trade of All Time

Cleveland Browns Received: OT Mike McCormack, DT Don Colo, LB Tom Catlin, DB John Petitbon, G Herschell Forester

Baltimore Colts Received: DB Don Shula, DB Bert Rechichar, DB Carl Taseff, LB Ed Sharkey, E Gern Nagler, QB Harry Agganis, T Dick Batten, T Stu Sheets, G Art Spinney, G Elmer Willhoite

While the Browns have been anything but a model franchise in recent years, there was a time when they were one of the top teams in pro football. Cleveland’s history is littered with Hall of Famers, including one whom it acquired while he was still serving in the Korean War.

McCormack was a Pro Bowler for the New York Yanks in 1951 before he was called into military service. His rights were transferred to the Baltimore Colts when the Yanks folded, and the Browns made him the centerpiece of a blockbuster 15-player trade in 1953.

McCormack began his nine-year Browns career in 1954 and made a massive impact for the franchise. He made five Pro Bowls in Cleveland, helped push Cleveland to four playoff berths and helped deliver NFL championships in 1954 and 1955.

“He was [a] stabilizing factor throughout the period that he played for us,” former Browns coach Paul Brown said of McCormack, per the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

McCormack was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1984.