May

18

They Might Just Make It After All

Posted by Jeff Sack under Cleveland Browns, NFL 

1964, if you were around and aware in most of the United States (and that would make you well north of forty) could be summed up in two words. February, Beatles; that was the month the mop topped quartet made their American debut on the Ed Sullivan Show, and music and to a great extent American culture would never be the same. 1964, however has a different significance to sports fans of Northeast Ohio; Browns Championship. That was the last year the Cleveland Browns won the NFL league championship, before the era of the Super Bowl and long before most of their current fans were born. And it was the beginning of a drought that would leave the city without a championship in any Major League Sport that that remains to this day (Sorry Crunch fans, the MISL is not considered a Major League.) For a city that is as passionate about sports as Cleveland, it is a cross they bear every waking moment, like a pebble in your shoe always making you uncomfortable and irritable. Sure there have been franchises that have undergone longer droughts than the Browns, and the Cleveland Indians. But no other multi teamed Major League City has gone longer without a championship in any major sport that Cleveland. Heck, the city is so desperate to celebrate anything the year that is known as “The Miracle At Richfield” for the NBA franchise the Cleveland Cavaliers, is in commemoration of an eastern Conference semi-finals victory! The Cavaliers have never even been to a NBA Championship Round except as spectators, never mind winning one. The Browns have never been to a Super Bowl, and the Indians, who wandered around in futility from 1954-1994 went to two World Series in the Nineties only to walk away empty handed. No wonder the city has such a hunger for a winner.

Although the city of Cleveland has come to love the Indians, since the nineties, and the Cavaliers since they acquired LeBron James, there has always been a special bond between the city and the Browns. That passion has never been more apparent then in 1995, the year that Art Modell took the “Real Browns” to Baltimore never to return. That team now known as the Baltimore Ravens has won a Super Bowl, and they are the true descendants, of Jim Brown, Leroy Kelly, Otto Graham, Brian Sipe and Bernie Kosar. The team that now calls themselves the Cleveland Browns are an expansion team, or as I prefer to refer to them as “Cleveland Browns, The Sequel.” The expansion team bought by Al Lerner who helped engineer the original team in their move to Maryland, has gone through a series of unsuccessful regimes since their inception in 1999. Lerner, who I believe was accepted to readily as a savior by the fans of Northeast Ohio as well as then Cleveland Mayor Michael White chose Carmen Policy to run his franchise. Policy is the epitome of the smooth talking spinmeister, a man who in my opinion got a lot more credit in San Francisco with the 49ers than he ever deserved. Policy was a lawyer, a friend and adviser to the DeBartolo family who became Team President and basically road Bill Walsh’s coat tails.

Policy’s first hire was his new general manager Dwight Clark, who’s true last moment of glory in the NFL was when San Francisco made their first Super Bowl run and he made that great catch against the Dallas Cowboys. As a NFL General manager however probably the kindest thing you could say about him was he dressed relatively well. This was a man who as G.M. for the 49ers picked quarterback Jim Drukenmiller in the first round, a guy who would be released two years later and never found the slightest bit of success as a pro. Not really the kind of a resume you want the man to build your team from scratch to have. The organization, then went about trying to hire a coach, and again shot themselves in the foot. The “Hot” candidate that year was Brian Billick, the offensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings. This was the man that Cleveland wanted, but Billick knowing this was his moment to cash in wanted to check out his options. He had scheduled interviews with Cleveland and Baltimore. When the Cleveland brain trust heard about this they became apoplectic. How dare Billick want to interview with anyone else, was the message they sent out, maybe not truly realizing they were an expansion team with no cache, and no resume. They immediately broke off contact with Billick who was hired by the Ravens, and subsequently won a Super Bowl with them.

The Browns settled on their first Head Coach, Chris Palmer a career NFL assistant who was labeled a quarterback guru. They then made the first of a series of ill advised first round draft choices, when they took with the number one pick Kentucky quarterback Tim Couch. Couch looked like the All American Boy, and Policy and Lerner thought this was a man they could market the team around. The game plan going into the season was that Couch would spend most if not all of that first year on the bench as Ty Detmer another refugee from San Francisco would be the starter. That plan quickly went by the wayside, as the Browns were humiliated in their season opener by the Pittsburgh Steelers and Detmer had a quarterback rating of just over 25%. Couch was the starter in the next game and even though he was not ready remained the starter until his inaugural campaign ended in November due to injury. Detmer’s time with the Brown’s would not be long, and after the 2000 season Head Coach Chris Palmer came to find himself unemployed as well.

The man who succeeded Chris Palmer was a man who was full of bravado, and full of himself, former Miami Hurricanes Coach Butch Davis. Davis who had lied to his team and the media just a month before about never leaving Miami for Cleveland was looked upon in Northeast Ohio as a man who would finally bring success to the Cleveland Browns. And although I predicted the day he was hired that he would become the “Rick Pitino of the NFL” (and would eventually be proven right) his way did seem to work his first couple of years. Davis was a man who sold a concept of winning and for the first couple of seasons, a team that had a previous leader who would readily admit when he did not have all the answers, the players bought into his plan. The team improved from 3-13 in 2000, to 7-9 in 2001, and actually made the playoffs in 2002 with a 9-7 record. But a quarterback controversy consumed the team over the next season and the team started picking sides between incumbent Tim Couch, and backup Kelly Holcomb who had a career passing day in the playoff game against the Steelers, before Cleveland fell apart at the end. Davis’ magic was starting to fray in the clubhouse and with the media, as the team started to spiral downward. Davis was so desperate to find nuggets to praise his team about, he actually praised his team after a loss about their preparation in the film room. Davis and his right hand man Pete Garcia now ran the show. The Browns owner Al Lerner passed away, and the team was taken over by his son Randy. Dwight Clark found himself out of a job as Davis and Garcia now ran all aspects of the team and before the 2004 campaign started Carmen Policy cut his ties with the team. Meanwhile. after that brief moment of success in 2002, the team saw their record fall to 5-11 in 2003, and 4-12 in 2004. Tim Couch was now gone, and Jeff Garcia a quarterback who had some success with San Francisco came in before the ‘04 season. As the rumbles for Davis to be fired grew louder on a daily basis, Davis finally resigned after suffering a panic attack in the middle of the 2004 season. The Browns were now looking for a new direction.

Cleveland did not find immediate success with their new regime, which consisted of three men. John Collins the new team president, a suit from the league offices, whose claim to infamy was setting up the Janet Jackson halftime fiasco at the Super Bowl. The man they picked as their new General Manager was ironically out of Baltimore, Phil Savage who was the assistant to Ravens General Manager and former Browns great Ozzie Newsome. Savage had the reputation of being an extraordinary evaluator of college talent something the Browns desperately needed. And the man they picked to be the new coach was Romeo Crennel, a disciple of Bill Belichick, former Browns head coach who had won three Super Bowls with the New England Patriots. A power play took place after year one of the new regime, as it looked like Collins was going to force Savage out. But in a surprising eleventh hour decision, Cleveland owner Randy Lerner chose Savage over Collins showing the suit the door.

Unfortunately for Cleveland the 2005, and 2006 seasons turned out to be less than desirable as well. The 2005 campaign was over before it started as 2004 first round pick corner back Kellen Winslow Jr. ended his year by getting into an off season motorcycle accident. Braylon Edwards the talented wide receiver the Browns chose with their number one pick in 2005 ended that year on injured reserve. And the quarterback they pinned their hopes on Charlie Frye out of the University of Akron, has shown he does not have the ability to be a starting QB on a contending NFL team. He is neither athletic enough, nor cerebral enough to get it done. You can be athletic and not too bright, or brilliant and not too athletic, but if you have neither of these traits you will not last long in the NFL. And to add insult to injury, the Browns made a huge off season acquisition before the 2006 campaign picking up a legitimate Pro Bowler in LeCharles Bentley the center they needed to fortify their porous offensive line, go down to what may be a career ending injury in the first exhibition game.

But things may finally be looking up for Cleveland during this off season. The signing of former Baltimore Ravens running back Jamal Lewis, was a masterstroke finally bringing in the featured back that this team has so desperately needed since their inception. After passing on the likes of Ladainian Tomlinson, Edgerrin James, Ricky Williams, just to name three of many, the franchise has settled for a motley crew of guys like Wayne Kirby, William Green, Lee Suggs, and the Infamous Ben Gay. Sure the original Cleveland Browns had some great quarterbacks, among them Otto Graham, Brian Sipe, and the hometown hero Bernie Kosar. But the key to Cleveland’s success on the gridiron has always come through the running game. And they made a wise decision in signing Lewis for one year, to keep him hungry and motivated. If he has the season Cleveland hopes he will have Randy Lerner will pay him the money Lewis wants to keep him in a Browns uniform. And Then Savage pulled off a masterstroke in the NFL Draft coming up with two legitimate top five picks in the first round in left tackle Joe Thomas, and quarterback Brady Quinn. And with their second round pick in Eric Wright the defensive cornerback out of UNLV they might have gotten the steal of the draft. Wright has legitimate first round talent, and because of off the field controversies he fell to the second round where the Browns were able to pull off a trade with Dallas to get him. He will be a corner stone of their pass protection if he can keep his nose clean for years to come.

So does this mean the Browns will make the playoffs this year? I don’t think so, if the Browns are smart they keep Quinn on the bench all year long and not repeat the mistake they made with Couch in 1999. And the Browns still have one more piece of the puzzle that needs to change. Romeo Crennel is not the man to take the Cleveland Browns to the next step. He is a Colonel, not a General, nothing wrong with that very few men are fit to be Generals. But there is a man sitting on the sidelines who will be feeling pretty hungry by the end of the 2007 NFL season. Bill Cowher, who started his NFL coaching career in Cleveland as an assistant under Marty Schottenheimer, will be tanned rested and ready for his next mountain to climb. They don’t come any bigger than the one in Cleveland.

(c) Copyright thesackattack.com 2007


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