You may be surprised to learn that Bill Belichick has feelings. Perhaps he only has feelings about certain things — specifically, things related to football. What Belichick said after the Patriots beat the Browns on Sunday suggested that he still has a soft spot for Jim Brown and Paul Brown and what they did for football in Cleveland.
Bill Belichick may only have emotions about one thing, and it’s the Cleveland Browns
Belichick said that Jim Brown and Paul Brown and what they did for football in Cleveland hold a special place in his heart.
Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
Jeanna Kelley has been covering the Falcons for The Falcoholic since 2011 and the NFL for SB Nation since 2015.
After Sunday’s win in Cleveland, several Patriots players posed for photos in front of the statue of Jim Brown, who Belichick called “the greatest player that ever played.”
Belichick shared that he has the utmost respect for Browns great Jim Brown as well as Paul Brown, for whom the Browns are named.
“It’s a special little quirk for me when you think of Paul Brown, and you think of Jim Brown, and the Cleveland Browns who were named for Paul Brown, and being in that stadium, not because I was the coach there, but because of what Paul Brown and Jim Brown did for professional football in that city,” Belichick said. “It’s a special place in my heart.”
Belichick was the coach in Cleveland from 1991 to 1995 and led the Browns to an 11-5 record and a playoff bid in 1994, which was his only winning season with the team.
“After three years of losing football, they were nearing the end of their rope in Cleveland,” Rick Venturi, the defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator under Belichick, said via ESPN’s David Fleming. “We turned it around in 1994. We won 11 games and won the wild-card playoffs. We were really on the cusp of something great there in Cleveland.”
Cleveland entered the 1995 season with high expectations, but after a 3-1 start, the Browns collapsed.
Owner Art Modell announced midseason that he would move the team to Baltimore, and the Browns went 1-7 over the remainder of the season to finish 5-11. Belichick was fired after the final game.
It’s easy to feel sorry for the Browns, especially after your team beat the Browns 33-13. It would also be easy for Belichick, who isn’t the most emotive guy, to harbor ill feelings toward Cleveland after the way his tenure with the team ended. Instead, it’s clear that Cleveland Browns football is one of presumably few things that Belichick thinks of fondly.
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