There’s a gleam men: What Marty Schottenheimer means to Cleveland Browns football
With the recent news of Marty Schottenheimer’s declining health, we revisit his time as the Cleveland Browns head coach and celebrate what he meant to the organization and to the fans.
Schottenheimer arrived in Cleveland in 1980 to serve as the teams’ defensive coordinator, a role he would thrive in for four and a half seasons.
At the half-way point of the 1984 season, Schottenheimer was elevated to the role of head coach after Sam Rutigliano was dismissed following the team’s 1-7 start. The Browns finished 4-4 over the last half of the 1984 season and the foundation for the future was set.
Coach Schottenheimer brought instant stability to the organization (sound familiar to anyone) and turned the Browns into legitimate contenders by his second full season at the helm. Schottenheimer’s tenure as head coach coincided with two other key cultural elements that helped shape and define the fanbase, one of which is still embraced to this very day.
The first of which was the birth of the Dawg Pound, thanks to Hanford ‘Top Dawg’ Dixon and Frank ‘Mini’ Minnifield. The fans latched on to the identity bestowed upon them by the teams’ lockdown cornerbacks instantaneously and never looked back. The fans and the players of Schottenheimer’s Browns’ squads formed a symbiotic union, and the two fed off of each other giving the Browns a truly significant home-field advantage.
The second key element was the Browns landing their quarterback in the 1985 NFL supplemental draft. Bernie Kosar, a native of Youngstown Ohio, played his hand perfectly and wound up playing for the team he rooted for growing up. It was a perfect storm and standing right in the eye of it was Schottenheimer.
With his quarterback in place and hungry blue-collar defense, Marty-ball was born. The Browns played a brand of football that would work in any era, as is evident by watching the current iteration of the Browns. Schottenheimer’s Browns relied on a two-headed monster attack at running back, with Earnest Byner and Kevin Mack. With Kosar under center, the Browns exploited blitzing defenses that were desperate to stop the run with their dynamic playmakers in the passing game.
The results were undeniable. Schottenheimer served as the Cleveland Browns head coach for four full seasons, all of which resulted in playoff berths. The Browns reached the AFC championship games twice under Schottenheimer and gave the fans an excitement, a gleam if you will, that has eluded the franchise up until the 2020 season.
Coach Schottenheimer compiled a 44-27 regular-season record with the Browns, and a 2-4 record in the post-season. He would be unceremoniously let go, by owner Art Modell, after perhaps his most impressive coaching job with the Browns, pulling an injury decimated squad across the finish line and into the playoffs in 1988.
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Schottenheimer would go on to coach for numerous franchises, and unsurprisingly, success always followed. Marty Schottenheimer was an outstanding head coach in the National Football League, but more importantly, he is an even better human being who cared immensely for the men that he led. Our thoughts are with coach and his family at this time. There is a gleam men.