In the Browns' early years, Paul Brown wanted to keep on reserve a number of promising players who did not make the team's official roster. McBride made this happen by putting the reserves on his payroll as taxi drivers, although none of them were asked to drive cabs. This group came to be known as the "taxi squad", a term still in use to describe players kept on hand to fill in for injured team members. The taxi squad was just one of the ways in which McBride backed Brown. He viewed owning the team as primarily a civic duty – as a gift to the city. "Cleveland has been good to me," he said in a 1947 interview. "I've made a great deal of money here. If I was looking for a get-rich-quick investment, the last thing I'd do is buy a pro football club. It's a risky business. Too much depends on ideal weather conditions, and this is no climate to risk a buck on a raindrop."