Flashback Friday: 5 coaches the Cleveland Browns should not have fired

Paul Brown, The Greatest Ever

Paul Brown’s team was so far out in front of the rest of the league that it boggles the imagination.  After World War II, a group of businessmen with too much money decided to try to take over pro football with a new league, the All America Football Conference (AAFC). To some degree, Paul Brown helped to kill off the league because his Cleveland Browns were so good that no one could compete against them.

They won all four championships of the AAFC, going 47-4-3. Many observers thought that Brown was a coaching genius and his Cleveland Browns team was the equal of any in the NFL. Of course the majority of sportswriters pooh-poohed that idea, smugly agreeing that the caliber of the rival league was in no way comparable to the NFL.

This belief went out the window after the Browns won their first game in the NFL against the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles. They won the NFL Championship that year as well. They finished first in the NFL Eastern Conference six years in a row and added two more championships, totaling seven league championships.

Paul Brown was not just a coach, but certainly the greatest coach in history up to that time. He was every bit the equal of Belichick. He had many of the same personal characteristics, too, including a desire for total control of football operations and a stern, demanding personality that put off many players.

The firing of Paul Brown rocked the Ohio football universe. Although Art Modell certainly owns the lion’s share of blame, there were some complex financial issues that were unresolved at the time. The previous owners of the Browns had an informal deal with Brown that he would have an increasing ownership role of the franchise. But it was not all in writing, and thus it is hard to say how much obligation Modell and the team had to its only coach (memo to future coaches and their agents: Get it in writing!). Even today we may not know the full story.

That is not the first time a coach has been fired, nor would it be the last. But coaching was not just a job for Brown – any one of several teams would surely have hired him at top dollar – but it was the loss of HIS team (after all, how did the team get it’s name? Well, duh!). In any case, Paul Brown never forgave Modell. For that matter, this pundit also never forgave Modell for firing Brown or Schottenheimer.

For a few years, Brown stayed away from the game, becoming almost a recluse. But eventually Brown decided to rebuild. Rather than taking a ready-made job in the NFL, he would become coach and owner of an expansion team in the Cincinnati Bengals. He would re-do what he had done in Cleveland. This time he got his deal in writing. The Bengals did not have the same success as the Browns, though, as Brown made it to the Super Bowl twice.

When all is said and done, Modell had three of the six winningest coaches in NFL history and fired all three of them, while also running off Nick Saban, who many pundits believe is the best college coach in history. The firing of Paul Brown was the most shocking move in Modell’s career, which offered several shocking – and some might say, dumb – moves.

EPILOGUE

So, back to the present situation.  Freddie Kitchens is trying his darndest to not be mistaken for a turkey, and avoid being executed at Thanksgiving. However the ax is already being sharpened with the team’s bumbling performance and 2-4 record. Remember, Hue Jackson was fired at the halfway point when the Browns were 2-5-1. Kitchens has not shown much separation from the quarterback whisperer.

To make it to Thanksgiving, Kitchens and the Browns will have to avoid being gobbled up by the likes of New England, Denver, Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Miami. It behooves the team to win a few of these games in order to assure the continued livelihood of their coach.

It isn’t fair that the coach is always under intense pressure to win.  But you know what they say: If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the Kitchens.