A HISTORY LESSON HE MISSED
By Steve King
There’s a real connection between two former Browns head coaches and two men who may be, and have been, the best ever at their craft in the history of pro football, Bill Belichick and Paul Brown.
Belichick is a real student not just of the game, but also of its history. Yeah, he is as big history guy, and as such, he is a big Brown guy. Being such an innovator himself, Belichick has a lot of respect for Brown, the best innovator the game has ever seen, so much so, in fact, that he is considered “The Father of Modern Football.”
With all that, then, I am nothing short of shocked that Belichick let quarterback Tom Brady get away in free agency. Really, what in the word was he thinking?
With that historical background, Belichick knows full well that once Pro Football Hall of Famer Otto Graham retired – for the second time in as many years, and this time for good, following the 1955 season – that Brown never ever found anyone even remotely close to him.
Sure, the bar was set extraordinarily high – higher than most, if not all, quarterbacks in pro football history – by Graham after he led the Browns to the league championship game in each of his 10 seasons, with seven titles. But Brown failed miserably in looking for his next guy. No matter what he did or what he tried, it just didn’t work out.
And when Graham left, so, too, did the string of championships, and even championship game appearances for the most part. The first year after Graham departed, the two-time defending NFL champion Browns went 5-7 for Brown’s first – and only – losing record in his 17 seasons in Cleveland. The next season, they made it back to the league title game, but got crushed 59-14 by the Detroit Lions in large part because their quarterback play was so bad. They never made it back to the NFL title game in the last five seasons of Brown’s tenure in Cleveland.
Will the same fate befall Belichick after he and Brady won six Super Bowls together?
We’ll see.
Related to History Lesson He Missed
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- “Browns Salary Cap: Resetting the Finances” (OBR) – “The 2019 Browns had quite a nest egg of cap space, $56.6M, thanks largely to the carryover they built up over years and brought forward.”
- “Breaking Down Berry’s Aggressive Acquisitions” (WFNY) – “Andrew Berry has certainly been active in the beginning stages of his first free agency atop the Browns personnel department.”
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