It was Shofner, Sam and Sipe on the Kardiac Kids

By STEVE KING

Jim Shofner never got his due for his role in the success of quarterback Brian Sipe and the Browns’ Kardiac Kids teams 40 years ago.

And that’s a real shame, for without Shofner’s patience with, and guidance of, Sipe, he never would have finally developed and matured, finally coming of age in the last half of the 1978, Shofner’s first season as quarterbacks coach on head coach Sam Rutigliano’s staff. And without Sipe, who is the last Brown to have won the NFL Most Valuable Player award after doing so in 1980, there would have been no AFC Central title for the Browns that year. Indeed, the Kardiac Kids era never would have happened.

Rutigliano was focus of the coaching staff as the head coach and his effervescent personality, with his wide-cracking jokes and great sayings, dominated the news about Sipe’s growth and that of the Browns. But while Rutigliano certainly contributed – he made him a starter shortly after he was hired as head coach following the end of the 1977 season and stayed with him during some rough times in 1978 after a quick start that year – it was the quiet, patient Shofner working diligently behind the scenes and serving as the real hands-on, nuts-and-bolts brains of the outfit, who turned Sipe around after he languished for his first four seasons.

Shofner passed away recently. He was 85.

When Rutigliano hired him after three struggling seasons as head coach at his alma mater of TCU, it was Shofner’s second stint with the Browns. The first was on the field, as he played cornerback for Cleveland for six seasons (1958-63), starting the last five years, after being taken in the first round, at No. 13 overall, in the 1958 NFL Draft.

Shofner did so well with Sipe that the rival Houston Oilers, whom Cleveland edged out of the division championship on tie-breakers, hired him as their offensive coordinator in 1981. Meanwhile, Sipe was never the same quarterback after Shofner left, struggling his final three seasons, so much so that he actually lost the job to Paul McDonald for the last part of 1982.

Shofner returned to the Browns as the offensive coordinator on head Bud Carson’s staff in 1990, and when Carson was fired at mid-season, he was named interim head coach for the remainder of the year. He was considered in the search for a permanent head coach, but owner Art Modell ended up giving the job to some guy named Bill Belichick.