Cleveland Browns fans should listen when John Wooten speaks

John Wooten is more than a Cleveland Browns legend. He also has an eye for coaching talent and the Browns would be wise to listen to him.

Although he is a member of the Cleveland Browns Legends Program, it’s safe to say many Dawg Pound Daily readers have never heard of John Wooten.

And unless you’re AARP eligible, you never even saw him play.

But watch any footage of the great 1960s Browns’ teams, including the mythical 1964 NFL champions, and you can’t miss burly No. 60, right alongside Hall of Famer Gene Hickerson, opening holes for running backs Jim Brown and Leroy Kelly. Wooten and Hickerson formed the greatest guard tandem in NFL history, blocking for four different Hall of Famers: Brown, Kelly, Bobby Mitchell and Paul Warfield.

A fifth round pick in the 1959 NFL Draft, Wooten learned his craft from Paul Brown and Blanton Collier, and later served in player personnel positions with Gil Brandt and Tom Landry in Dallas, with Ozzie Newsome in Baltimore, and even with Joe Banner in Philadelphia (where Banner was pretty successful before failing in Cleveland).

At each stop of his career, John Wooten has helped build Super Bowl winners and wants to see Cleveland fans experience another championship.

At each stop, Wooten helped build Super Bowl teams – but his heart remains firmly embedded in Cleveland along with all of the long-suffering fans.

I know, because John has been a family friend for 50 years.

NFL geeks might know Wooten’s name since he now heads the Fritz Pollard Alliance Foundation, which is responsible for  ensuring that teams comply with the NFL’s “Rooney Rule” to promote minority coaching and front-office hiring. It’s not just politically incorrect, it’s just plain incorrect to classify the group’s work as an affirmative action exercise, since Browns fans can only wish the team’s hires were as successful as Super Bowl winners Tony Dungy, Jerry Reese and Newsome – or weren’t beaten regularly by AFC North “Rooney Rule” coaches Mike Tomlin and Marvin Lewis, who have a combined record of 32-10 against Cleveland.

This January’s NFL coaching merry-go-round has put the Fritz Pollard Alliance back in the Browns news cycle thanks Wooten’s reported role in trying to lure defensive coordinator Ray Horton back to Cleveland from Tennessee. (As well as the Browns efforts to bring Kirby Wilson over from the Minnesota Vikings.)

A story in The Tennessean might lead readers to believe Wooten feels the Tennessee Titans “dissed” Horton by not giving him a fair shot to land the Titans head coaching job (the only team with a worse record than Cleveland). According to the story, Horton has distanced himself from the alliance’s intervention on his behalf, perhaps not wanting to appear needing outside help to land a job.

Who knows what is really going down in Nashville? But here is what we do know  from watching Horton during his first Cleveland stint.

Horton comes across as a proud, outspoken individual with a good-sized ego, so distancing himself from the Rooney Rule isn’t a surprise. He’s earned all the coaching bona fides, but his 2013 Cleveland defense fell apart in the season’s second half,  giving up 38 points to Jay Cutler’s Chicago Bears, 41 to rookie Andy Dalton’s Cincinnati Bengals and, sorry to open old wounds, three fourth quarter touchdowns covering 202 yards in under five minutes to Bill Belichick and Tom Brady against the New England Patriots in Foxboro.

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Horton left Cleveland in the Rob Chudzinski purge, landing soon after in Nashville.

But if Wooten is pulling the strings to get Horton back on the Browns sidelines, Browns fans should be all in. Wooten has spent a half century in the NFL, worked with Paul Brown and Gil Brandt – the two men who invented NFL analytics. Wooten has forgotten more about pro football than most so-called experts will ever know.

But there’s a bigger reason why Browns fans should listen when Wooten speaks. More than any other person who has coached, picked the players or paid the bills for the team since 1999, maybe even more than owner Jimmy Haslam, Wooten cares about bringing winning football back to Cleveland.

He helped bring a title to the city 52 years ago and, at age 79, wants to see Cleveland fans experience another championship.

Just like we all do.