DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Ozzie Newsome to step down after 2018 season

What a great run. Two Super Bowls, some of the greatest defenses of all time, some of the greatest players of all time.

Sucks that all of his skills outside of playing tight-end went to pure evil. Wow, starting with that first draft. . .

Bravo, Ozzie!

Pure evil, really.....calling the kettle black are you...Ozzie, good for you, the Ravens have been a stable, good team for many years....to bad our team can't claim the same thing....GO Browns!!!

Yes. Pure evil. He worked for the enemy for many years.
I love Ozzie the player. I’m glad Ozzie the GM is retiring.

Ravens = EVIL

Ozzie made Cleveland proud ... Hall of Fame TE

Good. And screw him for his undying loyalty to Modell. I hope the entire franchise goes to hell.

JMHO

Since he stayed with the Ravens so long after Modell was gone, I'd say it was more undying loyalty to a paycheck. No harm no foul.

Enjoy retirement Ozzie, you had a great career!

Hats off to The Wizard. Great job there. I resented every minute he was a Ratbird. But he did some outstanding things. A life well lived.

The owner already talked about almost firing John Harbaugh at the end of the 2017 season. So with a new GM in charge, my guess is that Harbaugh has to greatly exceed expectations to keep his job.

Just remember who hired Ozzie to be GM.


Art deserves to be in the HOF.

j/c:

This is great succession planning. What an NFL career for Ozzie, both as a player and FO-type.

DeCosta has been in demand for several years but never took the leap with another team--now we know why. I'm guessing this had been talked about for some time.

Think what you want, but he does.

j/c:

I have a lot of respect for Ozzie Newsome. He was a great player who played the game w/integrity. He was part of Belichick's staff [that may have been the greatest of all-time] here in Cleveland. He did a remarkable job in Baltimore and has always handled himself w/class and dignity.

This "evil" talk sound juvenile. It's a sport.

I agree. The team moved, nothing evil about it. I don't blame Oz for not stepping down and I don't blame Art for moving.

Amen... love Ozzie the players... respect him as a gm but thank god he's retiring... hope the Ravens pick up sashi...

Who else almost singlehandly created an entire NFL division due to the mismanagement of his franchise? The Bengals formed after Art forced Paul Brown out. The Ravens story we know all to well. And by creating a footballess vacuum in Cleveland, he helped recreate the Browns, after being sued for the rights. That's 3/4 AFCN teams that he had a hand in making. I'm not sure if that should be a sign of fame or of infamy. Either way censor him.

I'm glad that Ozzie is retiring. As a Millennial Browns fan, there is nothing more important to me than the history of the Browns. If it wasn't for hearing stories about Groza, Jim Brown, Ozzie and Bernie as a kid then I would have never grown up a Browns fan. So I'm very glad I can get over my conflict of thinking positively about a person employed by the Ravens.

Props to him .. that's a great career

Great TE, possibly even better GM?

I think Ozzie revolutionized the TE position. He was a WR at Alabama. Tight ends typically big, strong blocking types. John Mackey was big and strong, but he could also catch and run.

Ozzie was small for a TE. However, his route running, speed [for the position] ability to exploit the seams, etc was eye-opening for the NFL. Kellen Winslow Sr arrived shortly afterwards and those two really changed how TEs were used around the league. I think that is pretty cool.

The Wizard of Oz was a Hall of Fame TE and he was equally a Hall of Fame General Manager. Looking back the biggest lose we had as Browns fans from the original team moving to Baltimore was having Ozzie being the team General Manager for 20 years. How special would it have been to have had a Browns legend like Ozzie run our teams Front Office for 20+ years.

I really think that staff was perhaps the greatest of all-time. Too bad Art blew it and that staff never had a chance to work their magic.

Consider {I'll give more info if some haven't heard of these guys.

Belichick

Ozzie

Nick Saban

Scott Pioli: future GM for New England and KC

Mike Tannebaum: future NFL GM

Thomas Dimitroff: GM for Atlanta Falcons

Kirk Ferentz: Long time HC for Iowa

Jim Scwartz: NFL HC and now a DC for Eagles

M. Lombardi

Eric Mangini

Henry Shepard

Rick Venturi [NFL HC]


I mean.............are you kidding me? All we had to do was give that group time.

Was this Ozzie's choice or the owners? Ozzie built the Ravens. He had some great drafts.

Agreed. The Browns were on the verge to becoming a special team. In 1994 they beat the Regaining Super Bowl Champion Dallas Cowboys in Dallas. Heck, in 1995 when Art announced the move the Browns were tied for first place.

It's the history that should have never have happened. All Modell had to do is wait and the city would have built his stadium. Because of his own mismanagement, he knee jerked his way out of town. Those Super Bowls the Pats & Rats have would likely have been ours and then some. Imagine if Belichik wasn't forced to make stops at the Pats & Jets before going back to the Pats. Imagine if he's been able to retain his staff, go into the 1996 season with the draft they had, and then continue to build from there instead of job hopping until 2000. It would have been epic. It would have dwarfed the Pats dynasty, and could have continued to this day.

Instead, here we are.

Yeah. I'm bitter.

Unfortunately the only trophies at the end of that season was souvenir stadium seats.

Yep, and they beat NE in the playoffs.

I don't think Bill B would have lasted another season or 2 if the Browns had stayed. He was villified around Cleveland for getting rid of Kosar, and he wasn't getting along too well with Modell. That was one hell of a staff he had, though. Nick Saban, Jim Schwartz, Ferentz, Mangini, Pioli, etc.

Bill B was vilified for sure. But, when his team made the playoffs a year later much of that hate turned. It only resurfaced again once Art announced the team was moving. Many people went back to the moment Bernie was released and said Bill knew then that Art was moving the team and got rid of the fan favorite at that time.

Actually, Nick Saban left Cleveland after the 1994 season for the head coaching job at Michigan State. He was not on the staff at the time Art announced the move.

Yeah. Winning would have turned all that animosity around. And future coaches and GMs would have moved on but the SYSTEM would have been in place. Bottom line, we got boned by one bad decision.

j/c

I had resentment towards Ozzie for a while after the move. Emotions ran high and I'm still a Raven Hater. Far more than I hate the Steelers. It's just more personal.

But over time and through reflection, I can't really be mad at Ozzie. I mean what was he supposed to do, quit? There were no Browns for three seasons. It's not like he could go to work for the Browns.

I remember fondly watching him play and just how in awe I was seeing some of those plays. I wish him all the best wishes and luck moving forward from his football career.

yeah, that's always been a stellar line-up.

Great TE and pretty decent GM.

He helped the Ravens by drafting HOF Ogden and Ray Lewis their first year. I hope we pick two guys in this draft who will impact our franchise for 15+ years.

Can't say I'm upset about this news, but he's one of the greatest football men of my era.

Reading this thread, recollecting how close we were to a bonafide team and having that ripped from our fingers, man. Breathe....

I wish Ozzie all the best. Some folk are just good at whatever they do. He seems to fall into that category. He was a helluva a TE. May the wind always be at your back, sir.

Ozzie learned how to make his big board from Belichick while in Cleveland. The Rats had the 4th overall pick in his first draft. Art Modell wanted the team to draft Lawrence Phillips, the talented but troubled RB out of Nebraska. Ozzie was adamant that the team should stick to the big board and he took Ogden despite what Art said.

Phillips played a few seasons in the league w/the Rams, but was soon out of it. He was always in trouble. A few years ago, he was accused of killing his cellmate in prison. They found Phillips dead in prison two years ago of a suspected suicide while Ogden is in the HOF and considered one of--if not thee--greatest LTs of all-time.

It takes an empty heart to move the Browns. Screw Newsome, too, for following the money.

There were only 30 of those jobs when Modell moved the Browns. Was Ozzie supposed to not only quit, but also quit on the only team owner who gave him such an opportunity?