DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Just listened and talked with coach Sam

I just returned from hearing Coach Sam talk to the football team at The Baylor School, one of the local top notch private prep schools here in town. I was invited by a friend associated with the school who knew I was a big fan. Actually, I was the only non team member or coach to attend.

The best part was I arrived earlier than the team and had Coach pretty much all to myself for about 10 minutes. He saw my Browns shirt and came right over.

In our private talk, he said Phil was a really sharp guy and for the first time in a good long while, we really have some hope. The draft really fell our way.

We touched on Wright, the corner. He is very sure in this kid and the Browns ability to check players. He said he was with Phil yesterday and was told Merletti did a very extensive search on the kid.

Other than that, it was mostly talk about where I lived up there, his being impressed a person so far away had season tickets and our favorite restaurants in NY.

Once he started in with the main talk to the players, it was mostly a talk about character with some minor Browns stuff mixed in......one thing he said that I got a kick out of.....he was talking about tough losses...how he had to answer the same questions from the media....and the kicker....having to go out to dinner on Monday nights with the owner and his wife and answer "his stupid question"....lol.....I didn't laugh out loud there though. He wasn't talking to a backers group so possibly he added something not a normal part of the program??

I guess it would suck to have to sit at a dinner table with Art and Pat Model for a hour or two and have Art ask you football questions. Really...I don't hate Art like some do, but that would have to be painful to sit there for 2 hours with Art and Pat.

Geesh

He was good enough after the program to come up again and tell me it was good talking and allowed for a photo...

I told him the Browns are very lucky THEY can associate their name with him. Sam Rutigilano is a class act.

I'll second the class act bit. I find it really special that his connection after so many years is still so dear to him!

Thanks for the info, Peen. Hope you don't mind, thought I'd post this here. It may be somewhere else as well but I didn't see it and thought it appropriate:

Rutigliano likes what he sees
Steve King, Staff Writer
05.03.2007
Having retired as a full-time football coach following the 1999 season, Sam Rutigliano is just a fan now.

Albeit a very intelligent, knowledgeable fan since the longtime resident of Waite Hill in Cleveland's far eastern suburbs works for two local TV outlets analyzing the Browns. But a fan nonetheless, especially of the Browns, for whom he served as head coach from 1978 until midway through the '84 season.

And as such, the 74-year-old Rutigliano, like every other Browns fan, had a strong opinion heading into last weekend's NFL Draft on what the team should do with its No. 3 overall pick.

"Take the tackle," he kept imploring in several phone conversations in reference to Wisconsin's Joe Thomas, as if the writer he was talking to had any influence at all on the Browns' decision. "They need to address the line. You need a bodyguard for your quarterback out there."

Rutigliano's second choice?

"Get the quarterback," he said in his still somewhat thick Brooklyn, N.Y. accent, meaning Notre Dame's Brady Quinn. "You can't win in this league without a great quarterback."

So how did he react when the first round was still 10 choices and 2½ hours short of being over and the Browns, after a dramatic trade with the Dallas Cowboys to garner a second pick at No. 22 overall, had both Thomas and Quinn, two top-five prospects?

Like most Browns fans, of course.

"I was ecstatic," Rutigliano said. "I am still ecstatic. It's wonderful, just wonderful.

"The day after the draft, I spoke in Cuyahoga Falls to 140 high school athletic directors from Northeast Ohio. One guy comes up to me and says his daughter is one of something like 12 members of a Browns Backers group from Antarctica. He was telling me how excited his daughter and those people up there were about the draft. All that these high school ADs wanted to talk about with me was the draft. That's good to hear. That's exciting.

"Randy (Lerner), (general manager) Phil Savage and (head coach) Romeo Crennel formed the perfect triangle of leadership and handled the first round well. They did the right thing. They made everybody from Antarctica to Youngstown happy.

"Thomas was the right pick at No. 3. He's a (Tony) Boselli, (Anthony) Munoz pick -- a guy who will play 12 to 15 years at left tackle and help anchor the line.

"Every offensive line needs anchors. Thomas will be the anchor on the left side. (Eric) Steinbach will be the anchor inside at left guard. (Ryan) Tucker, if he's healthy, can be the anchor at right tackle. And if (LeCharles) Bentley can recover enough to play in 2008, then he'll be another anchor inside at center.

"With that type of core group, all of the other guys can just kind of fit in, and you end up having a pretty good -- and much-improved -- line."

He continued, "As for Quinn, he will forget about the suffering on draft day when he slid so far in the first round. What's important for him to realize is that he's going to the right place."

All of this, of course, is just on paper. Neither Thomas nor Quinn has even participated in a minicamp practice yet, let alone played in a regular-season game. Rutigliano understands that but is still optimistic.

"Take it from someone who has done it, nobody -- not even the guys who do the drafting -- knows anything definitively about how these players will turn out in the long run," he said. "The draft is a big crapshoot. But as of this moment, I can say this: For the first time in eight years, we have the audacity of hope."

The audacity of hope.

Rutigliano is more than well-versed on offense. He knows all about the importance of having a great left tackle and a great quarterback, and the importance of having the combination of a great tackle and a quarterback. When he took over the Browns 29 years ago, he made sure they had all those elements -- and then some.

The result was that the Browns, who had struggled offensively for the previous five years, not making the playoffs and posting only two winning records, were transformed from that lethargic state into the Kardiac Kids, who played some of the most exciting -- and successful -- offensive football in team history. The highlight of it all came in 1980, when the Browns finished 11-5 and won the AFC Central for the first time in nine years, and quarterback Brian Sipe, whose career was jump-started through Rutigliano's nurturing, guidance and, most importantly, trust, became the first member of the team to win the NFL MVP award since Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown in 1965.

After experiencing first-hand all that, Rutigliano has a good understanding of what Savage and Crennel are putting together, especially when it comes to the quarterback position.

"The first time I talked to Brian after I was hired by the Browns, he told me, 'Sam, get me five condominiums (big, talented offensive linemen) to play up front,' " Rutigliano said. "Quinn said the same thing -- the right thing -- when he was drafted. He said the Browns did it the right way by drafting a left tackle and a quarterback together."

But what about the bad luck that some people say haunts the Browns? If it does indeed exist, then won't it get to Quinn and Thomas, just as it supposedly got to Bentley with his season-ending knee injury on just the second day of training camp last year?

Hogwash, says Rutigliano.

"You can take all that bad luck stuff and throw it out the window," Rutigliano said, the level of agitation and disgust growing -- noticeably so -- in his voice. "The antibody to that is talent, and talent equals winning."

He paused for a moment and then said, "Here, let me put it this way: The two most important people in the Catholic church are the pope and the quarterback at Notre Dame. Maybe somebody up there likes us in that we now have the quarterback at Notre Dame."

Plus the tackle from Wisconsin.

Two top-five prospects.

Taken in the same draft.

In the first round, no less.

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No problem at all man.....we should all be proud that man was the coach of the Browns. He is a great role model for all people.

Eric Westmoreland is a asst. coach at this school.....Eric played for us a few years back....this place is like a college. The Hannah brothers...as in John Hannah played here.

Willie Idelette, one of our FA signings played here...the coach said he had a poor pro day...Willie is fast as the wind and for what ever reason, didn't run well.

I look for Willie to stick.....hoping anyway...the kid is fast...had a nice career at Wake Forest.

A sideline pass would be the dream of my life.

WOW,, neat story Peen.. I'd love to meet Sam,, and the first thing I WOULD NOT ask him about is Red Right 88 I'm sure he's tired of it anyway,.

We have a show up here on Monday evenings on WKYC Channel 3 during the season.. Jim Donovan, Sam, Doug Dieken and Tony Grossi are there.. It's a half hour show that talks about the game the day before.. I think it's called The Point After..

Anyway, it's always nice to see Sam on TV,, he's honest and funny and you can see how witty the man is even at 74 years old now..

No question, he knows from what he speaks,,,,

thanks for the info Peen,,, nice stuff

A good read, thanks!

Look at the fan base, the history, the many ex players and coaches who cherish their time here! Why then all the media disrespect and sometimes outright unfair hatred? Jealosy perhaps?! I'll stand shoulder to shoulder with our fans anyday in any situation! The learned, true fans here are incredible!

I don't see Willie on the list.

Thanks for sharing Peen.

Hey the Alaska brownsbackers are pretty happy too!!! We are ALMOST as far away as antartica!! (not as cold though) Man that is something if the Antartica Brownsbackers has 15 members!! There can't be more than 5,000 people on that rock period.

Great story, Peen! I'm happy that Sam is happy. Hopefully that eases some posters fears a bit.

I always liked Sam.
"c'mon baby...one time, one time."

Favorite comment..

There are jjust a few inches difference between a pat on the back and a kick in the ass.

Actually he does more than that on STO. He did Training Camp Daily, Sunday Strategy and The Point After last year and will be doing all of them again this year, including the nightly shows now that STO is the cable home of the Browns.

Nice post Peen.. I will never forget Sam and the " Kids : ... .. What a time to be in Cleveland !

He's just such a nice guy, great talker too!

One of the things he told the kids I really liked...."Men, as you walk through life, walk tall and have a spine of solid backbone, not wishbone".

I will use that.

Who said your quote in your sig? If I remember correctly was it Patton?

Thanks for sharing that story Peen.

I had the opportunity to hear Coach Sam speak at a Kardiac Kids reunion about a minute from my house a couple years back.

Great speaker.

I can only imagine what it would have been like on Gameday listening to him before the game began.

Thats really cool Peen - make sure you frame that photo - Sam was and is the MAN

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Actually he does more than that on STO. He did Training Camp Daily, Sunday Strategy and The Point After last year and will be doing all of them again this year

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Yeah in addition to popping up on Channel 3 News when something big happens during the season,,,, he's done that a few times as well,,, I really enjoy listening to Sam,,

Just to add my Sam memory...I was a younger when Sam coached, His first year as coach I wrote him a letter asking him what were his plans as coach of my Browns. I'd write these letters from time to time to diffrent players ect and never got responces, maybe a typed letter a picxture a few sticker, but as a young kid that was cool, anyway I recieved a hand written responce from Sam, thanking me for my intrest in the Browns, explaining he hopes he can do this franchise proud and continue in the tradition of this great franchise and great fans. His plan was to win, he knew I was young and left me with this work to win, and win with class.

I thought that was a classy move to take the time to write back a kid, he could have passed over and never sponded but Sam took the time out of his busy day to forever touch a fan....Too me that's class, Sam will forever be one of my favorate coachs if not people.

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He said he figured in 90 seconds he couldn't screw up with his words the weeks worth of preperation.

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for those of us used to Sam and his quips,, we can all just see and hear him saying that very thing...

Nice..

Thanks Peen, that was great!

Sam and I came to the Browns the same year. I've always loved and respected that guy.

Good times PEEN & thanks for the read CalDawg
I always liked Sam...my brother meet him yrs ago at a Fellowship Christian Athlet Conv...I wasn't there but I got his autographed book "Under Pressure"
bout time to read it again