Cleveland Browns: Butch Davis and the art of revisionist history

The years have not been kind to former Cleveland Browns head coach Butch Davis, who is struggling to accurately remember his time with the team.

Despite the fact that he last walked the sidelines as head coach of the Cleveland Browns almost 13 years ago, Butch Davis still holds a distinctive place in franchise history.

He remains to this day the last Browns head coach to lead the team to the playoffs.

In the 14 years since that memorable day in Pittsburgh, the Browns have employed six full-time head coaches and no have been able to bring the Browns back to the playoffs.

That playoff game was the highlight of Davis’ tenure with the Browns as he quit with five games remaining in the 2014 season, having lost 19 of his previous 27 games.

Davis, now the head coach at Florida International, recounted his Cleveland days last week during an interview with Rachel Baribeau at Gridiron Now:

"“I left a great great job (at Miami) to go to Cleveland to work for Carmen Policy, who had won four Super Bowls, and Al Lerner. We go to the playoffs my second year, Al Lerner dies of brain cancer and the son (Randy Lerner) takes over and fires Carmen — complete culture change."

"“The son tells me, ‘We’re no longer doing this my dad’s way.’ His father told me, ‘You got 10 years to turn this franchise around.’ The son says, ‘We’re not doing one thing the way that my father did.’"

"“We just went to the playoffs six weeks ago. He says, ‘You’re $33 million over the salary cap; you got five weeks to get under.’ The only people that you can cut to get under the salary cap are the guys that can play. … Who were the most pissed off (players)? The kids that had to stay, not the guys that lost their job. The kids that had to stay because they’re like, ‘We’re going back to being like an expansion franchise; we got no chance of winning.’"

"“(Randy Lerner) ended up screwing it up and sold the team after he fired five more head coaches.”"

If we are being polite, it is safe to say that the years have not been kind to Davis’ memory of what really happened in Cleveland as he conveniently left out some of the other “highlights” of his time in town, including:

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Ignoring his scouts and selecting defensive lineman Gerrard Warren instead of running back LaDanian Tomlinson or defensive lineman Richard Seymour in the first round of the 2001 NFL Draft.
Selecting running back William Green in the first round of the 2002 NFL Draft while safety Ed Reed – one of his former players at Miami – was available.
Trading away a draft pick to move up one spot to select tight end Kellen Winslow in 2004 rather than quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
Quitting on the Browns with five games remaining in the 2004 season after having a “panic attack” during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Davis also left out the details of the Browns collapse against the Steelers in the playoff game, when Cleveland blew a 17-point lead to a Pittsburgh team quarterbacked by Tommy Maddox.

But don’t worry, while Davis may have forgotten the details, Bruce Arians, Cleveland’s offensive coordinator that day, has not, as he told Pro Football Talk in 2011:

"“Our head coach lost the game. He called off the dogs on defense. You just don’t let Tommy Maddox sit there and go against a prevent defense. He basically fired [defensive coordinator] Foge Fazio at halftime. Foge was blitzing. We had them beat. They knew we had them beat. I don’t care what anyone says. I was on that sideline.”"

Davis isn’t the first person associated with the Browns to blow a draft pick or two, and he isn’t first head coach to become overly conservative during a playoff game. (Everyone who grew up watching the Browns in the 1980s under Marty Schottenheimer is pounding their head against a wall right now.)

But in perhaps his biggest omission, Davis bends the truth about his downfall in Cleveland to the point of breaking it, ignoring that Lerner signed him to a contract extension following the 2003 season. In fact, when Davis quit on the Browns, he still had three years and $12 million left on that contract. When the team announced the extension, Lerner expressed his faith in Davis:

"“We are dedicated to providing Cleveland with a championship-caliber football team and I believe the foundation for this begins with continuity at the top. I have total faith in Butch Davis as a person and as a head coach to lead us in the right direction.”"

Now, if Lerner was really that impatient and disappointed, why would he sign Davis to a contract extension, especially coming off of a season where the Browns went from a playoff team to a five-win season?

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Lerner had several faults as owner of the Browns, but being disloyal to his employees was not really one of them. And Davis is probably the last person who should be pointing fingers, especially given the way he left Miami to take over the Browns.

In some ways, Davis’ time in Cleveland ended as spectacularly as it began, which is a fact even Davis can’t spin any other way.

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