With the new Cleveland Browns visiting the Minnesota Vikings this Sunday I've been thinking of the old Cleveland Browns. I probably visit this topic a bit too much but the football that Bill Belichick had going in Cleveland in the early 1990s will always intrigue me. What we have seen from the New England Patriots since 2000 we might have seen from the Cleveland Browns in the 1990s. It's pretty hard to believe. It's probably pretty painful for all fans of the Browns. If Art Modell had just been a little more patient, maybe we have no Baltimore Ravens. Maybe, we have a Cleveland Browns dynasty in the last half of the '90s. Maybe, it's a dynasty that continues today.
I'm not sure if it's because Bill Belichick is so connected to the New England Patriots but it's hard to believe that he was the head coach in Cleveland for five years. I think that most people are more inclined to think of his time as a New York Giants assistant coach than they are to think of his time in Cleveland. No matter what it is, his time in Cleveland is significant and it greatly impacted the NFL, as well as college football. Belichick had quite the football "think tank" going in his first shot at running his own team. Perhaps the one thing that I've admired most about Bill Belichick has been his willingness to give people that are enthusiastic about football a shot. Experience doesn't matter. If you're willing to work hard. He's willing to find you a job. There's a long line of football coaches and decision makers that got their shot with Belichick in Cleveland. Nick Saban, Eric Mangini, Jim Schwartz, Al Groh, Kirk Ferentz, and Pat Hill all went on to become NFL or college head coaches. They were on his coaching staff in Cleveland. Future assistant head coaches and coordinators John Mitchell, Jim Bates, and Chuck Bresnahan also spent some time in Belichick's football factory. The list of personnel men that learned their NFL ropes in Cleveland may be even more impressive. Ozzie Newsome and Thomas Dimitroff are two of the most respected and successful general managers in the NFL today. They started in Cleveland. Newsome's first draft with the new Baltimore Ravens included UCLA tackle Jonathan Ogden and Miami linebacker Ray Lewis. Much of the Ravens' scouting of those two players was done with the Browns staff before the move. Scott Pioli, Mike Tannenbaum, and Phil Savage were also part of the Browns scouting department. There was some incredible football taking place in Cleveland.
Any move of a professional team to another city is brutal. The only ones that truly suffer are the fans that are forced to say goodbye. For most of the others involved, it's just business. The Browns move to Baltimore ripped the heart out of Cleveland. Several years later they got a new team but it isn't the same. It can't be when they see the team that they lost win two Super Bowls in the wrong city. It likely hurts even more when they look and see what their old coach is doing in New England. Their coach and their team have won five Super Bowls since both left Cleveland. You can't help but wonder what might have been. I often wonder about Belichick's football "think tank" in Cleveland. There was so much talent that it's highly unlikely that they would have been together for long. I still wonder what might have been if Modell had given them more time.
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