MLB’s New CBA & What It Means for the Indians: Part 4 – International Draft?
December 1, 2011WFNY 2012 Draft Not-so-Big Board 1.0
December 1, 2011
Growing up in the late 70’s and 80’s, there was one constant in Cleveland Browns Football – the excellence of Tight End Ozzie Newsome.
A first round draft pick in 1978 out of Alabama, the workhorse Tight End started from day one through the end of his illustrious 13-year career. He was the gold standard at his position in the 80’s. Whenever the Browns needed a big third down conversion on a passing down, Ozzie was your man.
His best years came in 1983 and 1984, where he caught 89 balls twice, and scored 11 TDs. For his career, Newsome had 662 receptions for 7980 yards and 47 TDs. His streak of 150 consecutive games with a catch between 1979 and 1989 was an NFL record at the time. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1999.
Two images of Ozzie are ingrained in my memory: The first is on opening day in 1985, with the rains coming down and the baseball dirt still in the closed end of old Municipal Stadium, Ozzie caught a short Gary Danielson pass and turned into a TD which gave the Browns a 24-17 fourth quarter lead. As he scored, he slid into the end zone and came up covered in mud. (yes, the Browns lost 27-24 in OT).
The other is pictured above. Ozzie making a key catch in the third quarter of the Browns/Jets 1986 AFC divisional playoff game in Cleveland. This was an epic struggle where the Browns won 23-20 in double OT. Ozzie caught six balls for a team high 114 yards. Newsome was placed on the next week’s Sports Illustrated cover.
Despite his on-field play and accolades, Ozzie Newsome the man, was just as impressive. He was the model of consistency, a guy the local media could always go to for a good quote and the truth. Inside the locker room, he was the kind of teammate you dream of having on your team.
Ozzie went to work as a scout for the Browns in 1991. By ’94 he was named the Browns director of pro personnel. “I had to find out which direction my career would go,” Newsome explains. “Art (Modell) gave me the opportunity to work with the coaches, and I enjoyed that. At the same time, I increased my experience with the personnel department and decided that’s where I wanted my career to head.”
When the Browns left in 1996, Ozzie went with them. In a city full of angry people, nobody in Cleveland said a negative word towards Newsome. That’s how much respect Ozzie garnered in this town.
Modell rewarded Ozzie’s loyalty by promoting him to Vice President of Player Personnel. By 2002, he became the NFL’s first ever African-American General Manager and hasn’t looked back since. In his time in the Ravens front office, Ozzie has overseen the drafts of All-Pros such as Ray Lewis, Jonathan Ogden, Jamal Lewis, Peter Boulware, Chris McAllister, and Terrell Suggs among others. Newsome has drafted a whopping 13 Pro Bowl players. And of course, who can forget how he fleeced his former colleague and then Browns GM Phil Savage to move up one spot to take DT Haloti Ngata.
This week, Ozzie brings his Super Bowl contending team to town to battle the squad he grew up with. The two organizations couldn’t be further apart. Under Newsome’s watch, the Ravens have become one of the NFL’s top franchises, winning a Super Bowl and reaching the playoffs seven times since 2000. Their draft success has been second to none.
All of the while, Ozzie’s reputation as a great human being has stayed the same. Ask anyone who works for or with him – Newsome is salt of the earth.
The saddest thing to me is that this should be our guy. Ozzie should be running the Browns. Why isn’t he our Mike Holmgren? There is no doubt that owner Randy Lerner had to have put the feelers out for Ozzie to come back to Cleveland and help resurrect our moribund franchise at some point in the past decade of change.
But if you are Ozzie, why would you leave? He’s got an amazing situation with a hand-off owner in Steve Bisciotti, a great young coach in John Harbaugh, and a solid core of both veterans and young players. Why leave that cushy gig to come back to Cleveland, have every call you the savior, and have to rebuild from the ground up again?
Ozzie is a loyal guy. He has stuck to what he knows and it has served him well. His hard work, dedication to his job, and incredible drafting record are qualities that every owner in sports wants for their GM.
All of the success couldn’t happen to a better guy.
19 Comments
My father maybe your typical resentful cleveland fan, but he cursed the heck out of Ozzie every time he came on TV. He always considered him a traitor.
“There is no doubt that owner Randy Lerner had to have put the feelers out for Ozzie to come back to Cleveland and help resurrect our moribund franchise at some point in the past decade of change.”
I, for one, doubt it. I see no grounds for thinking that this was ever on Lerner’s radar.
“Ozzie should be running the Browns.”
As I was reading this, I thought the exact same thing. Sigh.
Remember seeing Ozzie during his prime playing years eating lunch at a modest soup and sandwich place downtown. No posse or gophers, just him and his USA Today sports page, not a hint of arrogance.
Just a minor quibble. He had 3 or 4 great years but slowed down a lot and there was an almost comical effort to keep that catch streak alive toward the end. If there was a tight end “gold standard” in the 80s I think most agree it was Kellen Winslow. May have had the better offense and better QB throwing to him but that guy really changed the perception of the position. He was even more athletic than Ozzie and was dominant over a longer period of time.
Hating Ozzie for what Modell did is like hating your brother in law for still talking to your wife after she cheated on you.
I mean what are you really going to say bad about the guy? He showed loyalty to Modell? Well, duh, in a time when there was ONE black head coach, and ONE black starting quarterback Modell offerred Oz a front office gig. Does anyone remember how passively (and sometimes not passively) racist the world still was in 1990? We can hate Art all we want but to expect a Ozzie to hate him when he was given a shot at a job that most likely no other man would give him, well thats ludicrous.
I’m envious as hell that we don’t have Ozzie, what better story could there have been if a Mt. Rushmore athlete had stuck around and become a Mt. Rushmore team president? Makes me angry just thingking about it, just not angry at Ozzie
Don’t forget that in the game pictured above Bernie set the NFL record which stands to this day – most yards passing in a post season game. Prior to getting his major injury in the game at K.C. he was as good as anyone in the league.
Harv, if by “gold standard” you mean second most precious metal than yeah I’d agree. First I fully agree with you that from an athletic standpoint Winslow was a prototype for what people would look for in the future. As far as best Tight End of the era I couldn’t possibly disagree more.
Both played almost the exact same time, and despite playing with Dan Marino West in a wide open offense, Winslow managed 100 less catches and almost 1000 less yards. Compare that to Ozzie who played the second half of his career with two dominant runningbacks and a coach who was a forward pass atheist. Not to mention Ozzie brought more to the table than just catching, such as blocking and leadership skills. Winslow was an absolute me first guy, although I won’t comment on his blocking ability because I was a little too young to evaluate such a thing.
Just sayin I can appreciate being enamored with Winlsows athletic ability but even today Ozzie’s skill set is still the standard you would want in the position.
@porkchop: disagree, and think most non-Clevelander NFL fans do as well.
Agree that Ozzie was a better blocker but he slowed down a lot and his 100 additional career catches do not indicate he was better. They both had fabulous hands; Winslow was faster and a deep threat far longer into his career. Also was capable of the spectacular catch long after Newsome was reduced to a reliable possession guy.
“and a coach who was a forward pass atheist…” Huh? Ozzie played most of his career under Sam and Marty. Sam totally dug the long ball. Marty certainly went cro-magnon in ’85 to protect rookie Bernie when Gary Danielson went down early in the season. But in ’86 they brought in Lindy Infante as OC, not exactly a passing atheist. Bernie was putting up big passing numbers, threw for more than 400 yards at least once, maybe twice that year and generally they had a good passing attack until Bernie got beat up.
I loved Ozzie. Just don’t think he had the sustained impact that Winslow did, or caused personnel guys to re-think the position as Winslow did.
“There is no doubt that owner Randy Lerner had to have put the feelers out for Ozzie to come back to Cleveland…”
I disagree. I have every doubt that Lerner even knows Ozzie has ties to the old Browns. Plus, Ozzie doesn’t live in NYC and isn’t in the limelight.
If Randy doesn’t see you on Sportscenter every once in a while or on the back page of the NY Post then Randy just doesn’t see you.
First of all, Loved the article. Second of all, it reminds me one more time, that the Ravens, should be our team today… And that kills me!
I agree you can’t blame ozzie, he is in a great position, and nobody would blame him for leaving a better job position, than being the (current) brown’s GM
I grew up in the 90’s, so I never saw him play. I think he’s traitor and want his name out of the Ring of Honor for helping Modell win a trophy. I know I’m being unfair to him, but such is life.
Good stuff.
There’s a reason Ozzie and Sandy Alomar are my favorite Cleveland sports figures of all time and it has nothing to do with their athletic ability. I would never wear a throwback jersey, but if I did, it would be a Browns #82.
@Harv
I think we are just going to have to agree to disagree
On the “revolutionized” the position argument I would strongly disagree. For every team that wanted a hybrid athletic pass catching wide receiver type tight end, there was another that valued a possession guy who could block and had the ego of a lineman. Your team wants Antonio Gates or Tony Gonzalez my team wants Heath Miller or Jay Witten. Its a Beattles/Stones argument, but I don’t think you can say that Winslow caused personel people to change everything they thought about the position, because Ozzie guys still abound.
You might also want to check the stats you’re citing because they don’t really help your cause. Its impossible for Winslow to have been “better over a longer period of time” because his career existed within the time that Ozzie played. Ozzie started before and finished after Winslow. Tell me, when Ozzie’s production dropped off those last years would you rather have his 30 catches or Winslows sitting on his couch watching TV? Its an interesting argument to say that not playing is more productive than diminished playing. There yards per catch are within a half yard of each other, they both had a couple 80 catch seasons (Winlsow had one more), but Ozzie had more 50 catch season. And I’m sorry but comparing Sam and Marty to Don “Air” Coryell is like saying your Camaro is the same as a Ferrari.
Not to drag this on but I think its worth noting that even if you took those last three years off of Ozzie’s career he still has more catches than Winslow, and Winslow played in the number one ranked passing offense for 7 of his 9 years, one wonders what numbers Ozzie might have had playing in better weather with a better QB and for a coach who ran a wide open offense. The more I stare at numbers, put them in the context of each players offensive scheme and check for future influence (admittedly thats highly subjective) the more I have to change my opinion from agree to disagree. I gotta say in the most polite way possible that you’re just flat out wrong.
We are dragging this on too long, take the last word if you want but lemme just ask: is your position stat based, or are you old enough to have seen them play? I’m not old enough to have seen Jim Brown, other than highlights, and sometimes I have to stop myself from talking about who was the greatest player. You really have to see them in games with your own eyes. To me, Winslow was the guy that gave D-Coordinators nightmares way deep into his career, Ozzie only for a few because his body aged and he slowed. For sure Winslow had lots of opportunities (although Fouts spread the ball to a bunch of fine receivers).
For sure, neither Sam nor Marty were Coryell as far as pass-happy schemers, he was legendary. OK, I’m done, take the last word if you want. Don’t need to “win” these arguments, they’re just fun.
Sorry if I came across wrong, too many years as a bartender left me with a broken sarcasm regulator really didn’t mean to be too jerky. I watched them both play as a kid, first year I really watched football was when I was 8 (’83) and my 4 oclock game team instantly became the Raiders mostly because they have the most awesome uni in all of sports. So I actually watched both of them for a few years but I was a kid, I also thought the A-Team and Airwolf were better than MASH or Hill Street Blues, I thought wrestling was real, and Huey Lewis was the next Lennon…
I’ll get back to getting the last word in a bit, right now I’m going to re-examine my childhood and figure out where it all went wrong.
@Harv and Porkchop.
Can we get back to bashing Randy Lerner? I thought that was the whole point of this post. But I think that about every Browns related post.
@subadai: thought WFNY held by the 12-hour rule, after which time all commentary could organically deteriorate into topic hijack and petty squabbles, just a couple of rock’em sock’em robots left in the room.
Wait, that’s another relationship …
@ Harv.
Sounds like a good description of marriage.