19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

BROWN TASTE
Sirs:
Here's a great big thank-you from all loyal Cleveland fans to that great prognosticator, Tex Maule. The Browns' glorious victory over the "invincible" Colts was undoubtedly assisted by Tex's brave prediction of an overwhelming Colt victory. Tex's record over the past few years has been perfect (always wrong), and I hope he keeps it going with future predictions of Cleveland losses.

Keep up the good work, Tex, old buddy, and please don't pick the Browns to win next year—Cleveland couldn't take another second-division team like the Indians.
EUGENE SCHMIEL
Parma, Ohio

Sirs:
Having read Tex Maule's scholarly article, in which he says (among other remarkable things) that "the game will not be, as some seem to think, a rout but...it should result in a decisive victory for Baltimore," and having viewed the complete offensive and defensive humiliation of the Baltimore Colts, I should like to suggest some sort of award for Tex. Perhaps an Oscar for "deadwrongmanship."
WILLIAM E. DEVITT
Rushville, Ill.

Sirs:
Your two men, Tex Maule and "Tex" Shrake, have proved that once again the way to predict a championship game is to use the opposite of what you say.
FRANK O'DONNELL
Baltimore

Sirs:
I think it is time SI gave an award to the most consistent performer in sport. The winner by a large margin would be Tex Maule.
NED C. HOELZER
Cleveland

Sirs:
Just how wrong can a sports predictor be?
PHIL JACKSON
New York City

?In six years of predicting the outcome of the NFL championship game, Tex Maule has picked the winner four times, missed twice.—ED.

Sirs:
The myth of the fabulous Western Conference of the NFL (How the West Has Won, Nov. 23) was brought to a close forever by the Cleveland Browns, despite anything your writers ( Maule and Shrake) continue to say.

The Western defenses have been overrated for years: Green Bay, Detroit, Chicago and, now, Baltimore. If a team that could not score in the championship game could score 30 points a game against Western opponents during the season, then there is no difference between the two conferences, or at least there is no such thing as Western superiority. Perhaps the reason that the East has won but two of the last eight championship games has been that the New York Giants played in five, losing all of them.

I sincerely suggest that you find some writers who realize that Cleveland is and will be for some time the best team in the National Football League—which, despite the absurd words of any AFL fan, is the same thing as being the best team in professional football.
BOB LAMM
Mount Vernon, N.Y.