Fritsch: A three-way deal

Ted Fritsch with Packers Head Coach Curly Lambeau

Packers/NEA Telephoto image

Posted Sunday, September 27, 2026 4:00 pm

Highlights from previous segment

•In April 1946, Ted Fritsch became the first Green Bay Packer to jump to the rival All-America League, signing with Paul Brown’s Cleveland Browns.

•After working construction in North Dakota, meeting privately with Curly Lambeau in Green Bay, and playing for the Manitowoc Braves over the summer, Fritsch ultimately reported to the Browns’ training camp on Aug. 5.

By Kris Leonhardt-Kobs
MMC Senior Editor

Over the following days, while Ted Fritsch spent time at the Browns training camp, newspapers quoted Packers Head Coach Curly Lambeau saying that there was a 50-50 chance that Fritsch would end up back in Green Bay.

“He may be all set to do a ‘Mickey Owen,’ which is a new word in baseball for a player who jumps a club,” the Aug. 9, 1946 News-Record stated,

It wasn’t until Aug. 10 that the news hit stands that Fritsch would in fact return “home.”

“The first deal between the National Football league and the new All-America conference was reported by [Curly Lambeau], with the Fullback Ted Fritsch scheduled to return to the Green Bay Packers and the Cleveland Browns to gain full title to two former members of the Los Angeles Rams,” the Stevens Point Journal stated.

“Lambeau said that he understood Fritsch would be released by the Browns and that as part of the arrangement the Los Angeles Rams would relinquish any legal rights they have to Chet Adams and Gaylon Smith. Adams and Smith were members of the NFL champion Rams last year when the club represented Cleveland, but signed contracts with the Browns for the 1946 season.

“Lambeau said the Rams wanted the Packers to reimburse them for the loss of Adams and Smith by transferring a Packers ‘name’ player to Los Angeles but that he had not agreed to do so.”

Cleveland officials told the Journal that Fritsch had left the Browns and that if “Green Bay and the Rams fail to fulfill their part of the proposed deal,” they would retain the title to Fritsch’s contract.

Browns GM Paul Brown said that Green Bay had tentatively agreed to grant contract rights to one of their players to the Rams, but the Packers and Rams would need to come to those terms.

In addition, the Rams “filed suit in Cleveland” demanding that the “Browns be restrained from holding contract rights to Adams.”

The Rams also “threatened to sue for rights to Smith if they won the Adams case.”

Adams and Smith were both Cleveland residents and reportedly wanted to stay in Ohio, and while rumors swirled that both leagues would never give in to the other, Fritsch was back in Green Bay for the start of the 1946 season.

To be continued