THE DAWG POUND DYNASTY: AN ALTERNATE HISTORY OF THE NFL
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Introduction
There are some teams that you just have to hate. They represent everything that is wrong in sports. They are too cocky. Too arrogant. They buy championships in free agency. And their fans…their fans just rub you the wrong way. They win a dozen championships and still they are not satisfied. They are like a virus, destroying the entire league to feed their insatiable appetite for glory. You can’t help but hate those teams, unless you are lucky enough to love them. Then sports become something different for you. An affirmation of everything that is right in the world. That no matter how bad a deck you were dealt in life, there is always a team that will prove the world wrong for you. That you will always be a winner as long as you remain faithful and true.
Some people love them. Most people hate them. They are the teams that are just too damn good. The New York Yankees. The Montreal Canadians. The Chicago Bulls when Michael Jordan was still playing. And the Cleveland Browns. Or as they are known to everyone outside of the State of Ohio, the Fucking Browns.
From the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary “The Dawg Pound Dynasty”
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You need to realize, the Browns Dynasty was a perfect storm of luck. Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. But due to fate, or the hand of God almightily, it worked out for them in the end. Randy Lerner may act like he knew he was going to turn an expansion team into a Super Bowl powerhouse overnight, but let’s be honest. He was lucky. If he knew then what he knew now, there is no way that his father would have chosen Carmen Policy and Dwight Clark as their President and VP of operations! But by the grace of God, Policy and Clark turned them down, and then Al Learner was left scrambling at the last minute for a President. And by the grace of God everyone in the league could see what a train wreck the Browns organization looked to be and turned him down. That was, until he made the call to former Detroit Lions head coach Wayne Fontes.
Jon Gruden on ESPN Radio (July 11, 2012)
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Excerpts from the book “Maize and Blue and Brown all over: A coaching odyssey” by Gary Moeller
Published by Random House © 2013
Chapter Five: The unexpected comeback
When all was said and done, I didn’t see it coming at all. The Lions were struggling under Bobby Ross, and we just received the worst news ever: Barry Sanders retired after the final game of the 1998 season. It was bad enough that we couldn’t win with him, but we couldn’t even keep him on the team! I was worried that both Bobby and I would be out of a job, and I was honestly worried that our resume in Detroit wasn’t exactly blowing anyone away. I didn’t think anyone would be offering me a head coaching job, and I spent the off season trying to figure out how to fill the rather large gap at running back.
“Wayne,” I said softly into the phone. “Are you serious? You want me to come down to Cleveland and coach the Browns?”
“Yes Gary,” The jovial former Lions head coach said into the receiver, “the draft is coming up quickly, and I want you on board before we make our picks. I think we can make some noise with this team, and I’m eager to have a man of your caliber on board to make that a reality.”
“Wayne, you are looking at a rough couple of years,” I replied, “you are in charge of an expansion team and nobody is picking you to win more than three games next year. I have to be honest Wayne, it is common knowledge that you weren’t Lerner’s first pick-“
“Hell Gary, I wasn’t even his seventh pick.”
“That’s what I mean Wayne,” I replied firmly, “when the Browns lose next season, and they are going to lose a lot, who is to say you won’t be fired…along with your head coach. A GM is given a window to turn a team around, but I can’t help but feel like you are an interim President filling in until next season.”
“Well Gary,” Wayne replied, “I won’t lie, I’m not Lerner’s first pick. But if we are going to be perfectly honest, you’re not my first pick either.”
I said nothing as Fontes began to laugh at his joke, apparently oblivious to the fact that it didn’t help his position at all.
“I’ve been turned down by a few folks as well, and I expect that the first question you’ll be asked at your press conference is if you feel pressure knowing that I called nine other coaches before I called you.”
“Nine?!”
“Yeah,” Fontes said with a sigh, “three turned me down right off the bat, and the other six turned me down once I started talking about the draft.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, “you are not planning to trade the second round pick? If you can get a solid wide receiver in the second round you can set up Tim Couch to be a superstar.”
“Gary, I’m not picking Tim Couch with the number one pick.”
I nearly dropped the phone at the revelation.
“You can’t seriously be considering wasting the #1 pick on Akili Smith or Donovan McNabb then?!”
“No, not a quarterback,” Fontes replied, “I’m looking at Ricky Williams and Edgerrin James. I think I can trade down to the #3 pick with Cincinnati, and then threaten Mike Ditka down in New Orleans to give me all of his draft picks in order to get Williams. He seems pretty desperate to get a hold of him, although I certainly can understand why. But if it all works out, we could have all of New Orleans picks and half of Cincinnati’s picks by the time the draft ends. And as far as I’m concerned, we don’t need one pick, we need a lot of them. We are literally building this team up from the ground.”
I suddenly understood why six men had already told Fontes no. Not only was he going to pass on the best quarterback in the country, but he was making it public knowledge. He was lessening the trade value of the number one pick with every phone call.
“Wayne,” I said softly, “I don’t know if I can sign up for this either. If you pass on Tim Couch and the Browns struggle, there is no question you will be fired. That’s the kind of decision that haunts a general manager forever. Do you really want to be known as the guy who passed on Tim Couch?”
“Gary, the last time I felt this strongly about a pick was in 1989, when I had to use every trick in the book to convince the Lions to pass on Dion Sanders and pick up Barry Sanders with the #3 pick. But I know in my heart that Couch is not going to pan out with Cleveland. A quarterback should be the last piece of the puzzle, not the first piece.”
“Do you really believe that Wayne,” I replied, “or are you still gun shy about Scotty Mitchell.”
Fontes’ decision to pick up Scott Mitchell as a free agent doomed his tenure as head coach in Detroit, and the rumors had already been floating around that Fontes was gun shy. He was afraid of picking a quarterback because he lost faith in his own ability to coach them, and to gauge their talent.
“I won’t lie, Gary,” Fontes replied, “I am not particularly eager to pick a quarterback to build this team around. I’d much rather pick a running back to build this team around. But at the end of the day I know I am right. I’ve gone over a hundred different mock drafts with Couch as the top pick, and in every one of them it ends the same way: with Tim Couch at the helm of a very mediocre team. And I’d rather run a good team looking for a quarterback than run a terrible team that already has one. I’m not picking a quarterback this year. But we are going to build one hell of a team, and in 2000 when we are in the market for a quarterback, we will be giving him the tools to win that year.”
“So who is going to fill the gap until then?” I asked.
“Well, Gary, as you know, I picked up Doug Flutie in the expansion draft. From what I am seeing, he is more than up to the task of leading this team.”
I said nothing as I rubbed my eyes.
“Wayne, you are going to pass on Tim Couch and go with Doug Flutie?! What does Lerner think about this?!”
“Well, from what little he does know, he isn’t much pleased,” Wayne replied, “but I think by the end of next season he should be on board.”
“Wayne,” I said softly, “I just don’t think I can do this. I mean, you are taking some huge gambles, and for that you should be commended. But I’ll be honest, I don’t know if this can work.”
There was silence on the other end of the phone for what seemed like a full minute.
“Gary,” he replied, “I have been head coach of the Lions for a long time. And that team still feels like my team when I watch them play. But Barry is gone and you guys are starting Charlie Batch at quarterback. You are in a rebuilding process right now, no different than I am. But here it will be your ship, your team. And no matter what happens, the fans will never forget the man who helped build this team from the ground up.”
“Yeah,” I said sarcastically, “I am sure the state of Ohio is going to just embrace me with open arms. After all, I am the former head coach of the Michigan Wolverines.”
Wayne laughed.
“Gary,” he said with a chuckle, “if you can turn this team into a contender when it’s all over, they won’t care a lick about that. You will be Brown and Orange at the end of the day. All you need to do is take the gamble and come down to Cleveland to help me give these fans something they deserve: hope.”
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