I can't stay away from this team. Fortunately NFL Films feels the same as their most recent episode of "A Football Life" covers that Browns team and its incredible collection of coaches and talent evaluators. It was Bill Belichick's first head coaching job. He's such a head coaching fixture now that it's hard to imagine him just starting out with a team other than the New England Patriots. At 38, Belichick was the youngest head coach in the league when Art Modell hired him to be the head coach of the Cleveland Browns in 1991. Belichick was born a football junkie. His father, literally, wrote the book on scouting methods. Junior couldn't get enough of the game. When he got his first head coaching job he surrounded himself with fellow football junkies. Whenever I see the list of football minds that started their football lives with that Cleveland team I just can't believe it. Michael Lombardi was the only one that had some history in the league. He had spent time with football trendsetters like Al Davis and Bill Walsh. When he speaks of his NFL days he speaks of his four years with Belichick with same reverence. Current general managers Thomas Dimitroff, Scott Pioli, Browns Hall of Fame tight end Ozzie Newsome and Mike Tannenbaum all started with that Cleveland team. Dimitroff's story has always intrigued me the most since his day job was on the Browns grounds crew. He'd head up to the football offices at night all sweaty and dirty to moonlight as an NFL scout. Incredible start for one of the most interesting personalities in the league. Phil Savage was also on that staff. He would return to Cleveland as the new Browns general manager. Belichick introduced this bunch of young talent evaluators to professional football. He did the same with a group of young coaches. Current Detroit Lions coach Jim Schwartz was there. Former New York Jets and Cleveland Browns head coach Eric Mangini was as well. Pat Hill, Kirk Ferentz and Nick Saban found some pretty decent to fantastic head coaching success in college football. Saban referred to his Cleveland Browns days as "one of the best experiences of my coaching career." This group of twenty somethings were labeled with unfortunate nickname of "slappies." This is the second time that I've heard reference to "slappies" in the football world. Brian Billick used the term "slappy" to describe his football playing skill level when he tried to make it as a tight end in the '70s. It's short for slapdick. It doesn't sound affectionate but it brought about a closeness in this football laboratory. They didn't know anything but they had this incredible passion for the game. A bunch of them even pooled their meager finances and lived together. Their stories of those early days in their football careers are priceless. That's what makes this group and this time so special. The people involved knew that they were working towards something great. That's what makes Art Modell's decision to move the Browns so brutal. Especially to the fans of the Browns. The announcement of the move happened during the 1995 season. That team fell apart after a very promising season the year before. There was a somewhat civil war in the stands at every home game. I suppose that Modell wanted a fresh start in Baltimore. It's the only way to explain the firing of Bill Belichick after that disastrous last season in Cleveland. They only people that made the move with the team were Newsome, Savage, Pioli, Mangini and Schwartz. The other thing to make the move was the player grading system created by Belichick and his group. That first draft in Baltimore was essentially put together while everyone was still in Cleveland. A draft that would include Jonathan Ogden and Ray Lewis. The Ravens would win a Super Bowl five years after the move. Belichick's Patriots would win three Super Bowls. Those four Super Bowls are pretty solid proof that what those football junkies were doing in Cleveland was pretty grand. And a serious blow to the people of Cleveland.
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