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My new favorite “Taxi Squad” Browns player

By Roger Cohen

PHILADELPHIA, PA - SEPTEMBER 11: A Cleveland Browns helmet rests on the field prior to the game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field on September 11, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Eagles defeated the Browns 29-10. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)
PHILADELPHIA, PA - SEPTEMBER 11: A Cleveland Browns helmet rests on the field prior to the game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field on September 11, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Eagles defeated the Browns 29-10. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) /
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Cleveland Browns linebacker Deon King, a member of the team’s practice squad, has at least two fans from back home in Virginia.

For more than a half century I’ve been laser-focused on the Cleveland Browns roster, from draft choices to trades, cuts, free agent signings and waiver wire pickups.

But not once over those 50 years did I ever care who made the practice squad – until this year.

I was wearing a Browns golf shirt at work when a colleague asked me “Browns fan, huh? You know Deon King?”

I was dumbfounded. While I can – without taking a breath – recite the position, college and uniform number of every player from the 1964 NFL championship squad, I was embarrassed to admit that I didn’t recognize one of the 90 present day players in training camp . I shot back “you sure he’s a Brown and not a Bengal?”

“Yep, I’m sure Cleveland. I coached him in pee wee football,” my friend confirmed.  Still not convinced, I went online and sure enough, there he was: Deon King, No. 56, Linebacker, Norfolk State. I was doubly embarrassed because King was from neighboring Reston, Va. – where former Brown Calvin Hill and his wife raised NBA star Grant Hill. (One more tidbit of useless trivia: Browns quarterback  Kevin Hogan grew up in McLean, Va., another adjacent DC suburb).

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Deon King has bounced across the NFL in little more than a year. The Dallas Cowboys signed the undrafted free agent out of historically all-black Norfolk State, then cut him, picked him back up and then cut him again over just three days last September.

The Los Angeles Chargers picked him up and then promptly cut him after two games last November (sparing King the three-hour one-way schlep up the 405 to LA this year). The Indianapolis Colts signed King a week later, then showed him the door after this year’s draft class, and the Browns signed him in June. King’s NFL stat line: 6 cuts, 3 teams, 2 NFL tackles.

With my newfound “connection,” I focused on King’s performance during preseason and, for his sake, I’m glad the Browns saw his potential because King messed up at least three key times, any one of which would have gotten most players cut:

  • Holding call nullifying a big Jabrill Peppers punt return against the New York Giants.
  • Late sideline push on Chicago Bears (and Mentor) quarterback Mitch Trubisky, earning a 15-yard personal foul penalty.
  • Missed arm tackle chasing after a Bear runner in garbage time.

But the Browns braintrust saw similar potential to what the defensive coach of the 2002 Reston Seahawks Ankle-Biters League saw in the 8-year-old King :

"“Quiet, respectful kid, able to take instructions. I taught him how to hit and hit properly. Even at a young age, Deon respected the game and lived it to the fullest. He was my A-1 linebacker”"

With the injury to top draft pick Myles Garrett, King may get his chance to move up to the 53-man active squad, maybe as soon as Sunday for the Pittsburgh Steelers opener. Or, like so many of the thousands of young men who bounce around the margins of NFL rosters each year, King could  get cut – again, maybe even before  Sunday if the Browns pull a better prospect off the unemployment line.

Next: The Browns are not tanking in 2017

Whatever happens – except maybe for another unnecessary roughness penalty – I’ll be pulling for the “quiet, respectful kid” who my friend coached in Ankle Biters.

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