Grossi Sucks.
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This Browns training camp has the early feel of 1985
Jul 27, 2012 -- 6:00am
By Tony Grossi
The Morning Kickoff …
Adding it up: Saturday marks the beginning of my 25th Browns training camp. Yes, I started covering the Browns when I was 14. Not really. Well, never mind.
I was given the Browns beat at The Plain Dealer in the second week of the 1984 season. I was supposed to be the Indians beat writer, but an editor changed his mind after one week of the Browns season.
That was after I had covered the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles for three weeks. My first road trip with the Indians took me to Anaheim, Calif., Oakland and Seattle. Once assigned the Browns, my first road game was in – you guessed it – Anaheim, against the Rams.
By the time I reached my first Super Bowl – in San Francisco – I was fried. For two weeks I apologized to the editor for getting the final score wrong in my deadline game story. After a lengthy rehab, I recovered to report on the crazy shenanigans that resulted in the acquisition of a new quarterback named Bernie Kosar.
Thus, the 1985 Browns training camp – my first -- remains the most memorable to me. There was a palpable feeling that something special was happening.
The good old days: The Browns held training camp at Lakeland Community College off the Rt. 306 exit of I-90. It was a vast expanse of unshaded green fields. The campus could accommodate thousands of spectators. And every day thousands descended to inspect the gangly kid quarterback who made national news by manipulating the NFL rules to play for the team he rooted for as a boy in Boardman, Ohio.
On weekdays, crowds averaged 6,000 or so. On weekends, more than 10,000 fans would line the fields. No exaggeration. Ever the showman, owner Art Modell would scan the audience, make a bee-line to his coach, Marty Schottenheimer, and order him to give the big crowds something to cheer about. And Marty would crank up the intensity.
Those intra-squad scrimmages were some of the best football I’ve seen. Maybe it was because we in the media literally stood on the sidelines between the fields, right next to the players, and could feel the hitting going on. The fans were close enough, too, to hear the salty language after each play. There was no showboating, no preening. This was pure football.
Hanford Dixon, Frank Minnifield and Eddie Johnson were just starting then to bark encouragement to each other after every play. But even as a rookie, 21 years old, Kosar would beat them often enough to quiet their barks. You were so close to the action, you could practically hear the gears grinding in Kosar’s head as he looked over center.
That camp introduced other rookies to town. Kevin Mack was so shy and quiet, nobody could crack his shell. But on the field, he was a man. After a few days, nobody wanted to tackle him. And they did tackle back then – every day, twice a day. Mack was a cement mixer rolling down Granger Rd. hill.
A physical receiver, Reggie Langhorne wouldn’t make his mark on offense for another year. But he was a hitter on special teams right off. That toughness was infectious.
Fast forward: Now the Browns have a new class of rookies creating a buzz. Brandon Weeden’s arm, Trent Richardson’s legs, Josh Gordon’s length and hands … we haven’t seen an influx of such badly needed assets since, well, 1985.
A lot has changed in the 28 years since that franchise-changing training camp, of course. The game is different, the business is different. The Browns have struggled to reconnect with their fans since returning as an expansion franchise in 1999. The fans remain scarred by the “NFL experience” of the 1996 exodus of the old organization and the corporatization of the eplacement.
The only ones that can make that reconnection are the players. They can only do it by making throws, making catches, scoring touchdowns. This group is young and unproven. But so was that group that convened in 1985, and they kick-started a new era.
Why can’t this one?
