Sea World, Blue Jacket bankruptcy, and Indy Browns… While We’re Waiting
November 21, 2014Ohio State Preparing for Indiana, Not Looking Past Them
November 21, 2014You know some things to be true. That they may technically only be your opinions is just noise. You’re right, and when others disregard or disbelieve you, a certain amount of frustration builds. At least if you are like me, anyway.
Not to mention when you encounter resistance to demonstrable facts. Twenty years ago- when the internet wasn’t nearly as widely used- this was more common than it is today. I’d occasionally find myself mired in a fruitless discussion with someone who was simply ill-informed. For instance, I recall needing to spend way too much time defending the fact that Cleveland is an international shipping port. I mean, come on. Of course, some (like, oh, I don’t know…maybe my wife?) might remind me that it isn’t always others who are ignorant.
Regardless, I recall, probably twenty five years ago, being absolutely convinced that there was a large, untapped market for bobblehead toys. When I was a youngster, we had the old-school bobbleheads, which were made out of papier-mache. Bright, white chip marks on their oversized heads were the price they paid from being mishandled by kids. They were just too irresistible to avoid being played with. The spring holding the head may have become stretched and exposed, causing the head to slump to the side. The finish on the spring may have grown dull with oxidation.
Well-preserved bobbleheads were nerdy-cool. But by the late 1970s, their availability trickled to almost nothing. I was a lone voice in the wilderness- people still loved the smiling little guys!
Another opinion of which I was certain: authentic replica professional sports jerseys would be a sure-fire seller. Why couldn’t consumers purchase these?
Still yet another truism I held- and continue to hold- involved the patriarch of the Cleveland Browns, Paul Brown.
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If you, like me, are too young to have watched the Cleveland Browns during the Paul Brown years, your understanding of the man may resemble mine. Ohio born and bred; brilliant coach; began sharpening his legendary coaching techniques and skills as the high school head football coach at Massillon. He eventually coached the Ohio State Buckeyes and won a national championship. He stepped up to professional football and led the Cleveland Browns to several championships. He was forced out as the Browns’ coach by owner Art Modell in the early 1960s during a less successful era . This came amid some turmoil between Paul Brown and players such as Jim Brown. He had become seen by many as a man whom football had passed by. He resurfaced as the owner and coach of the expansion Cincinnati Bengals, and oversaw their initial rise to prominence.
You know the litany of innovations Paul Brown pioneered. He turned football into a science, and many Browns fans can dutifully recite: he invented the facemask and the playbook. He was the first coach to call plays from the sidelines and was the first to try radios in the quarterback’s helmet. He was the inventor of the draw play and the zone pass defense. He established the concept of the practice squad, known then as the “taxi squad” because he arranged for those players to be employed by then-owner Mickey McBride’s cab company. He created the concept of sports booster clubs. He was the first to use practice and game films, classroom techniques, the forty-yard dash, and IQ tests as coaching tools. He invented the concept of ‘position coaches.’
So, much is rightly made about what Paul Brown was. Here are some things he was not.
1) Paul Brown was not the first owner’s first choice to coach the new team in Cleveland.
Mickey McBride’s taxi-cab business thrived in several cities across the country. He also owned a radio station, a printing company, and a race wire syndicate. He knew business- but he really didn’t know football, other than knowing he wished to own a franchise. (He’d actually tried to purchase the NFL Cleveland Rams at one time.)
McBride, however, knew Frank Leahy, and he knew the coach of the powerhouse Notre Dame Fighting Irish would be a quality hire. Leahy had won 5 National Championships between 1943 and 1949 while coaching Boston College, then Notre Dame. McBride had a handshake agreement with Leahy, to coach the new professional team in Cleveland. The university approached McBride, asking him to back away from Leahy. McBride had two sons who were enrolled at Notre Dame, and he didn’t want them to suffer any derision that might result from the pilfering of their football coach. McBride consulted with a sports reporter in Cleveland, asking for some other names to consider. The reporter told the owner he needed to hire Paul Brown.
2) Paul Brown was not interested in receiving input from his players.
It was the coach’s role to think- not the players’. His innovation of using messenger guards to send in plays was an extension of that concept. As was Brown’s eventual experimentation with helmet radios. Some observers derided his insistence to call each play, and his quarterbacks chafed as he disregarded their opinions on game strategy.
Regardless, his messenger guard model was state-of-the-art in the NFL, and by the mid- 1950s, several head coaches were similarly calling plays for their quarterbacks (a notable exception was Vince Lombardi, who took the Green Bay Packers job in 1959. Lombardi maintained if he couldn’t get his game plan in place during the week, he wasn’t an effective coach).
Paul Brown’s relationship with star fullback Jim Brown is an interesting study. Jim Brown was well ahead of his time with his on-field exploits, but also with his off-the-field interests. He had strong opinions and was perfectly comfortable with speaking about them publicly. His outspoken nature paved the way for others, including the media giant that Muhammad Ali soon became. Add Jim Brown’s predisposition for self-expression to Paul Brown’s disdain for players’ opinions… a schism was inevitable.
I once spoke to a Paul Brown biographer about this. He didn’t think the Jim Brown/Paul Brown friction was a racial thing. Jim Brown simply represented a problem for the coach due to his role as a team leader, and to his insistence that his thoughts as a player mattered.
3) Paul Brown was not interested in receiving personal credit for helping to desegregate professional football.
In 1946, while he was in baseball’s Brooklyn Dodgers’ front office, Branch Rickey famously announced the signing of Jackie Robinson to a professional player contract. Robinson was going to become the first black ballplayer in Major League Baseball. While his heart certainly appears to have been in the right place, it also seems clear Rickey never tired of patting himself on the back.
Tension had been building within MLB to accept players of color. An underrated influence was the Mexican League, which posed a threat to MLB as it began to ramp up the signing of MLB-quality players – both black and white. Several contracts compared favorably to those in force north of the border.
The new All America Football Conference, with Paul Brown in the forefront, integrated professional football. Brown had coached African American players at Ohio State and at the Great Lakes Naval Academy during World War II; he knew several who were available and who were good enough to help a team win games. In 1946, a year before Jackie Robinson’s Dodgers debut, defensive lineman Bill Willis and fullback Marion Motley were the first African Americans to play for the Browns. Interestingly, it had taken about a year for the moves to occur; Paul Brown is said to have maintained the delay occurred in order to ease the pressure on the players. Some do wonder if it also eased the pressure on Paul Brown…
The two players were assigned as roommates. During that inaugural 1946 season, the coach took some heat for not taking them on the road for their game in Miami. As if the malicious verbal and physical abuse from opponents on the field during games weren’t enough for Willis and Motley to endure, Florida state law forbade the mixing of races in sporting events1. What was not made public at the time was the ominous death threat Motley received by mail. Brown discussed the issue with the two players, who agreed they’d prefer not to make the trip.
Anyway, racial integration was Paul Brown’s choice. Unlike Branch Rickey, he insisted it was not a social statement. His goal was to win football games2.
4) Paul Brown was not of the opinion that the Cleveland Browns was his “dream job.”
Paul Brown’s “dream job” was at Ohio State. He loved the energy of the campus, and leading his team onto the field in The Horseshoe…
When the United States was finally drawn into World War II, Paul Brown was commissioned as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. He’d enjoyed a successful run as head coach of The Ohio State University, and now found himself as coach at the Great Lakes Naval Academy.
As the war was ending in 1945, Brown accepted Mickey McBride’s generous offer to become the new professional coach in Cleveland. Apparently, Ohio State was upset over his decision, as they had assumed he’d be returning.
By 1951, the Browns were such a dominant NFL team that it seemed to dampen fan interest. The franchise was profitable, but some wondered about the long-term viability of professional football3. Coincidentally or not, rumors began to circulate that Paul Brown was considering leaving the team. Colleges such as Minnesota4, USC, Stanford and Ohio State were said to be interested in him.
Publicly, the coach demurred, until he admitted being “willing” to talk with the USC athletic director while he was in town running practices for the American Conference Pro Bowl squad. Negotiations did not develop.
Meanwhile, Ohio State’s interest grew. An Associated Press editor served as the coach’s mouthpiece, and expressed the interest he had in returning. Privately, a huge obstacle for Brown was removed; he and athletic director Lynn St. John never got along, and now St. John was gone.
A backdrop to the drama were the Kefauver hearings on organized crime, led by Senator Estes Kefauver from Tennessee; this was the first time the Mafia entered the consciousness of mainstream America. Mickey McBride was called to testify in those hearings in 1951, and at the time, there were whispers that he might be implicated in criminal activity (ultimately, he would not be).
Ohio State was split on whom they wanted to hire. The alumni and the high school coaches in Ohio were solidly behind Paul Brown. In retrospect, it is obvious the selection committee at OSU did not want him to return. He did not get the job, and later spun it as though he never really campaigned for it. After the job was offered to and accepted by Missouri coach Don Faurot (who rescinded after two days), the university turned to Miami University coach Woody Hayes.
5) Paul Brown was not the father of the West Coast Offense.
So many Browns fans consider this to be true. After all, Paul Brown was the Father of the Modern Offense, right?
The 1940s/1950s Paul Brown/Blanton Collier offense featured the fullback running the ball up the middle, or the halfback or quarterback running sweeps with the offensive line pulling ahead of them to block. The Browns also liked to throw, way more than traditional football teams. They were derided by the older guard of football, who considered the running game to be ‘real’ football.
But when those early Browns teams threw, they looked downfield. Check the highlights on YouTube.
A fascinating story: when the Browns entered the NFL, they were the four-time defending AAFC champions. The very first game on their NFL schedule in 1950 was in Philadelphia against the defending NFL champion Eagles (being set up to fail?). Eagle coach Greasy Neale had scoffed at the Browns’ willingness to pass, calling them “just a basketball team.” In that game, Otto Graham threw for three touchdowns, and after the game was well in hand, the Browns ran for two more scores as the Browns clobbered the Eagles. When the rematch in Cleveland approached, Neale again had some disparaging words for Paul Brown’s team. On a rainy day, the Browns won again, this time without completing a single forward pass. Paul Brown would later admit, “It was a grandstand play, but I wanted to prove we could win the hard way.” He later commented that Greasy Neale never really forgave him for that.
It is well-known that Bill Walsh was the master of the West Coast Offense. The expansion Bengals had drafted Greg Cook out of the University of Cincinnati, and he had a tremendous arm. Walsh described him as the most talented quarterback he ever coached. Unfortunately, he injured the rotator cuff in his shoulder early in his rookie season and would never be the same. The Bengals’ backup, Virgil Carter, did not have a strong arm. However, he was bright, and extremely accurate. Necessity being the mother of invention, the WCO was born.
That offensive scheme features horizontal routes by the receivers, with the quarterback using pre-snap reads depending on the alignment of the defense (typically, the safeties). It is a quick-hitting offense, with the QB favoring three-step drops. Ultimately, the aim is to set up longer runs and pass plays.
Another offensive assistant in Cincinnati was Lindy Infante, who would eventually become the coordinator in Bernie Kosar’s most effective offense in Cleveland. Infante’s scheme featured up to a seven-step drop, with options to throw to specific receivers on the third step, the fifth step, and the seventh step. The quarterback – and the receivers – were responsible for both pre-snap and post-snap reads. Interestingly, the tenures of Walsh and Infante in Cincinnati did not overlap. There was a four year gap in between the two.
Infante has noted that he was influenced by Don Coryell’s use of tight end Kellen Winslow in San Diego. During film study, he noted that Winslow’s pass routes seemed to depend on what the defense was doing. Infante expanded that approach to include other receivers.
Bill Walsh was an assistant under Paul Brown when he developed the WCO. But that offense was not an extension of the PB offense. Not only was it largely a horizontal scheme, but it relied on players using their brains and making decisions.
***
So whether we’re talking twenty years ago, or today – that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. Folks love bobble heads; they can’t get enough of jerseys, and Paul Brown did not invent the West Coast Offense.
Can you prove me wrong?
- This, by the way, was a huge reason MLB began using Arizona as a spring training destination [↩]
- Conversely, the NFL found itself under pressure to employ black players. For instance, the Los Angeles Coliseum authorities began to threaten to deny the NFL the use of that venue to any segregated teams [↩]
- Baseball was king; boxing was still bigger than football. Also, football fans favored the college game [↩]
- Minnesota was perhaps the top football rival of Ohio State, back then [↩]
16 Comments
Fantastic. Agree on all of the above except #5 (but only to some degree).
Yes, Bill Walsh invented the WCO. And, many of the principles Walsh utilized came from Sid Gillman who taught him to put players into positions where they can thrive rather than creating a system and force-fitting players into it (cue laugh-track on WCO-disciple Shurmur and others). But, it was Paul Brown’s demanding presence of having the coaches create a gameplan, draw up plays, and create a system to execute that molded the creative mind of Walsh into a repeatable pattern to great success (and likely why those 2 didn’t really get along).
Does Walsh create such an extensive playbook and pattern of plays without Brown? I guess maybe, but I think it would have been a tougher road for him and the structure that Brown provided was a huge component in the creation.
Those expansion Bengal teams were also as terrible on the OL as our ’99 expansion Browns, so there was no way they were running the ball. Add in a noodle-arm QB and they weren’t opening things up deep either (there go those draw plays Paul Brown liked). So, Walsh put his players in a position to succeed. A short pass is just like a run. Low risk (especially with CBs not prepared for them) and usually low reward (with a higher probability of breaking long plays, but he likely didn’t realize that yet).
I love that the current spread-craze is really just an extension of those same principles. Get those players in positions to succeed. The bubble-screen replaces the quick-slant as the primary tool. Spreading the defense horizontally remains the same, but they throw back in some more vertical components to keep the defense off-balance. Oh, and let’s not forget that Steve Young in a WCO is one of the primary factors into those initial spread-offense coaches in the 90s realizing what a mobile/running QB could do when you have spread a defense thin on the field.
Joe Haden might be able to re-brand the taxi squad as the Shoe Crew
From what I’ve read, later in his career PB was having trouble with younger, “modern” players that dared to question his absolute authority. Brown was certainly one of those guys. A bunch of the players in the photo above had already been to war and seen combat, some before they started college. Maybe it’s my own bias, but hard to imagine rookies who had already served in Iraq doing what we saw last night: obliviously performing look-at-me celebratory handshake rituals while the clock ran and their team was trying to close out a one-score game.
Not saying Brown would be able to coach as effectively in that same style today. Guys like Coughlin had to soften up, Mangini’s martinet act doesn’t last and even Belichik figured out he couldn’t duplicate the Parcells thing.
You forgot to mention how Jim Brown liked to throw white women off his balcony.
“You didn’t build that”? J/k
Great point in bringing up the name of Sid Gillman.
Definitely a good point on the mindset of the war veteran.
Not sure why race is a factor in the statement, but Jim Brown’s personal life problems are something I’d never defend.
When this stuff comes up, however, I do feel compelled to note that when my mother met him at a fan event years ago, he treated her with respect and I’ll always appreciate that.
Race is not a factor. I simply stated a historical fact. Why can’t people handle the truth?
(1) by saying that he “liked” it you are putting an opinionated spin on it.
(2) by saying “women” you are indicating he threw more than 1 woman off his balcony.
Jim Brown has allegedly done some pretty nasty things in his personal life, has been quite curmudgeony with respect to the recent teams, and there are plenty of other things I don’t like about him. However, despite these things, you should not slander. There are plenty of corroborated facts you could simply point to if that is your aim (though sort of strange to do in a story that really isn’t about Jim Brown other than the reference to his relationship to his coach).
Well…possibly he didn’t like throwing a woman off his balcony. You can’t change the fact that at least one went over. I heard there were two but I didn’t fact check it. I was in that high rise and there had to be a little lifting to go over. Hey, I was glad he didn’t get the slammer, I’m a Browns fan you know.
Paul Brown didn’t integrate pro football. The Los Angeles Rams signed Kenny Washington on March 21, 1946 and in May signed Woody Strode. Brown invited Bill Wiilis and Marion Motley to try out in August, 1946 and then signed them. He had considered it prior to that, as you said, but it was likely the signing of Washington and Strode that made that decision easier for Brown. Also, in a later autobiography “PB: The Paul Brown Story” he did humblebrag about integrating pro football and conveniently forgot that Washington and Strode were signed earlier. In his later years he did court credit for that.
The biggest head scratcher, why didn’t PB hire Walsh to become head coach in Cincinnati? Tiger Johnson and Homer Rice, ugh. Super Bowl 16 & 23; ouch.
The fathers of the “West Coast” offense were Jerry Burns, offensive coordinator, and Bud Grant, head coach, of the Minnesota Vikings.
Agreed. Bud used to say how they were in the business of throwing short passes before Walsh did, but Walsh had a P.R. department to make him look better than he was.
Walsh didn’t invent the WCO. Fran Tarkenton was the first WCO QB. On an NFL Films video, he said that the WCO was started in New York when he was with the Giants in 1967, and he went on doing similar things in Minnesota.
Yeah, it is fair there were components of the WCO that were in many offenses before Walsh. He had a different version of it though that popularized it and became more wide-spread. I should not have been so quick to use the term “invented” though and I apologize.