95 Browns Season

[nickers]

Bill Belichick was a failure before Tom Brady,and will be a Failure after him...Nuff said...I still think hes an asshole.

[NEPatriots]

Bill Belichick was a failure before Tom Brady,and will be a Failure after him...Nuff said...I still think hes an asshole.

 

Our first Superbowl win here in New England came when Brady was nothing more than a rookie game manager. He wasn't Tom Brady `the legend,` the elite passer, the dreaded Tom Brady who torches and humiliates defenses through the air with 450 yards and 6 touchdown passes. Now Tom Brady is something of a folk hero here in Massachusetts, he's the pride and joy of sports in our area, but in 2001, when Bledsoe first went down, that wasn't the case.

 

The Patriots team that shocked the world and defied the naysayers in 2001 was not the elite Tom Brady lead offensive team that shattered records on the way to their 18-0 Superbowl appearance or went to the Superbowl last year on the back of arguably the greatest quarterback ever and Belichick's revolutionary TE attack. It was the "blue collar, hard nosed" very physical defensive team that Belichick had in mind for Cleveland. Tom Brady was a very lucky break for us, coming in the 6th round, but the 2001 Superbowl was more Belichick's baby than it was Brady's.

 

I registered on this forum after watching A Football Life: Cleveland '95.

 

I was 15 years old at the time and while I watched the NFL religiously with my friends, I learned a lot from this I didn't previously know.

 

I didn't realize the extent to which that abomination, the Baltimore Ravens, are essentially Belichick's bastard child, and that the success of their entire organization basically came through him from his time spent in Cleveland.

 

And while this isn't meant at all to rub salt in your wounds, it seems pretty clear that all of the football success that we've enjoyed here in New England, the Dynasty, the Superbowls, the lasting legacy of success that will now carry us forward even after Brady and Belichick one day retire, putting us with the great NFL organizations of the league, may have, if not for a strange twist of fate, instead belonged to the Cleveland Browns.

 

It's an amazing story I think more football fans should know. You guys are the martyrs of the NFL.

 

Every true fan of football should also find it in them to be a Cleveland Browns fan as well.

Best of luck in the rebuilding of your football team.

[BadNewsBrowns]

No one gave New England a chance in the 2002 Superbowl and despite Brady's final drive he had a very mediocre game.

(16/27 145 1/0)

 

Belichick played 6 db's most of the time and shut down the "greatest show on turf".

 

People like to say the Ravens and Bucs were the last two team that won with defense but they always fail to mention the Pats also.

 

The Patriots kept winning with their slow no- name defense with unorthodox defensive schemes and Belichick became known as the defensive genius.

 

Then Mangini spilled the beans and revealed that the Patriots were actually cheating and they haven't won since.

 

It's hard to think about what could have been.

 

Mike Lombardi has said before that Ray Lewis was basically locked as their pick in 95'.

 

Apparently Modell was in love with Lawrence Phillips but Ozzie Newsome finally convinced him that Ogden was the better choice.

 

That all star staff + Ray Lewis,Ogden the Browns would of became a powerhouse combination of the Ravens and Patriots had they never moved.

 

Oh well that's Cleveland for you.

[PoeticG]

Heads up for anybody wanting to see the show- You can YouTube it for now atleast. It will probably be taken down soon, so if you want to watch it check it out on Youtube if you don't have the NFL Network... It's bullshit that I get the Golf channel for free...

[BadNewsBrowns]

Pretty sure you can just watch it in segments on nfl networks site.

 

http://www.nfl.com/videos/a-football-life

[MDDawg]

I thought it was a great documentary, kind of relates to how I became a Browns fan. In '94 while visiting from the UK I was invited to an interview at the Cleveland Clinic at the insistence of a former classmate who was doing his residency there. During the interview the Browns was mentioned by the interviewer (even though I knew nothing about "American Football")and I remember sitting in the Modell Atrium on the ground floor in the cardiology wing. Three years later I took the position at the Cleveland Clinic and noticed the Modell sign in the atrium had been ripped off (literally, the supporting wires and nails were still sticking out of the wall). I learnt the team had moved but was overjoyed when the city got the franchise back and have been supporting the Browns ever since even though I no longer live in Cleveland.

Since the return this has been the best assembly of talent I've seen and I think with a good coach (if Shurmur ever becomes one) this team has the foundation for a superbowl. The Ravens and Steelers' best days are over, the future of the AFC North is in the Browns, may not see it this season but that's what I believe.

[BadNewsBrowns]

Just watched it, depressing as shit. Fuck Modell.

 

And fuck Mike Holmgren for firing Mangini.

[Harry Buffalo]

One of the biggest things that I thought about during this documentary is that we need to stop this 2 years and fired shit. Ya ok go ahead and fire Shurmer so our new owner can get the guy he want in but after that stop. Billy boy didn't do shit in Cleveland his first 3 years then turned it on. He did the same in NE. Sit tight and hunker down. Remember how two years ago everyone was saying our coaches should turn the team around in 1 or 2 seasons because other teams were doing it in that span of time (Chiefs and Bucs). Look at those teams now. We need long term success, not 1 year wonders.

[djdawg2010]

Our first Superbowl win here in New England came when Brady was nothing more than a rookie game manager. He wasn't Tom Brady `the legend,` the elite passer, the dreaded Tom Brady who torches and humiliates defenses through the air with 450 yards and 6 touchdown passes. Now Tom Brady is something of a folk hero here in Massachusetts, he's the pride and joy of sports in our area, but in 2001, when Bledsoe first went down, that wasn't the case.

 

The Patriots team that shocked the world and defied the naysayers in 2001 was not the elite Tom Brady lead offensive team that shattered records on the way to their 18-0 Superbowl appearance or went to the Superbowl last year on the back of arguably the greatest quarterback ever and Belichick's revolutionary TE attack. It was the "blue collar, hard nosed" very physical defensive team that Belichick had in mind for Cleveland. Tom Brady was a very lucky break for us, coming in the 6th round, but the 2001 Superbowl was more Belichick's baby than it was Brady's.

 

I registered on this forum after watching A Football Life: Cleveland '95.

 

I was 15 years old at the time and while I watched the NFL religiously with my friends, I learned a lot from this I didn't previously know.

 

I didn't realize the extent to which that abomination, the Baltimore Ravens, are essentially Belichick's bastard child, and that the success of their entire organization basically came through him from his time spent in Cleveland.

 

And while this isn't meant at all to rub salt in your wounds, it seems pretty clear that all of the football success that we've enjoyed here in New England, the Dynasty, the Superbowls, the lasting legacy of success that will now carry us forward even after Brady and Belichick one day retire, putting us with the great NFL organizations of the league, may have, if not for a strange twist of fate, instead belonged to the Cleveland Browns.

 

It's an amazing story I think more football fans should know. You guys are the martyrs of the NFL.

 

Every true fan of football should also find it in them to be a Cleveland Browns fan as well.

Best of luck in the rebuilding of your football team.

 

 

Martyrs is a great way to put it. We sit here and watch Belichick in New England, and Ozzy Newsome in Baltimore continue to build winning organizations, while we in Cleveland continue to think about "what could have been" and now deal with constant "rebuilding" and excuses along with constant losing! Yeah, Cleveland and it's loyal fans were left holding the bag! I wonder what we did here to piss off the football Gods! We can only hope that the new owner can right this thing, and I have to believe that he will, because nobody would spend 1 billion dollars to allow this shit to continue!

 

I'm by no means flaming you, but my advice would be enjoy what you have with your football team, because you never know when it will end! And not in the sense of the Patriots picking up and leaving town, but more like the dynasty ending. Good luck, and thanks for the well wishes.

[The Gipper]

I didn't realize the extent to which that abomination, the Baltimore Ravens, are essentially Belichick's bastard child, and that the success of their entire organization basically came through him from his time spent in Cleveland.

 

And while this isn't meant at all to rub salt in your wounds, it seems pretty clear that all of the football success that we've enjoyed here in New England, the Dynasty, the Superbowls, the lasting legacy of success that will now carry us forward even after Brady and Belichick one day retire, putting us with the great NFL organizations of the league, may have, if not for a strange twist of fate, instead belonged to the Cleveland Browns.

 

It's an amazing story I think more football fans should know. You guys are the martyrs of the NFL.

 

Every true fan of football should also find it in them to be a Cleveland Browns fan as well.

Best of luck in the rebuilding of your football team.

 

 

To some extent, perhaps you are right, the Ravens may be Belichick's bastard child.....but I think that takes away from the job that Ozzie Newsome did in putting that team together....after and without the help of BB.

And it is highly difficult to second guess what would have happened here. As long as Modell was going to be the owner things were going to be done on a shoestring with the Browns. Had he, say, sold the team to Lerner then perhaps we would have simply had the same results that the Lerner ownership gave us....only a couple of year's earlier.

 

I, for one, am not going to lay the failures of the Browns the past 13 years on the loss of Bill Belichick...or even on Art Modell. Not directly anyway. Those failures have been the result of the poor management under Randy Lerner for the most part...and his various minions that he brought in here to try to run things. Kokinis, Savage, Davis, Holmgren, Dwight Clark etc. All did a piss poor job.

Compare to the Houston Texans who were "born" as an expansion team 3 years after the Browns were "reborn". They may in fact be the very best team in the NFL right now. So its not like the Browns could not have been successful. They just weren't because of poor ownership/management.

 

As for Cleveland being martyrs. I wouldn't feel that sorry for us. Cleveland/Northeast Ohio has won 13 Championships over the years (tied for most with Green Bay). New England has won 4, including the 1928 Providence Steam Roller title.

We only took several decades off to allow someone to catch up. Green Bay caught up two years ago. Now it may be time for Cleveland to splurge back ahead.