Patriots
“We didn’t even do a scouting report on you because, honestly, you guys were terrible.'”
Long before Bill Belichick became a six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach with the New England Patriots, he had some struggling seasons as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns.
Belichick’s coaching tenure with the Browns started off on the wrong note, as well. They fell at home to the Dallas Cowboys to open the 1991 season, losing 26-14.
The Cowboys still hadn’t made the playoffs yet with Jimmy Johnson entering that game, but Belichick revealed on the debut episode of his podcast, “Coach with Bill Belichick,” that he could sense Dallas was on the upswing. So, following the loss, Belichick wanted to get some pointers from Johnson.
The call didn’t go too well.
“They were just too much for us that day. They really were,” Belichick said. “So, after the game, I called up Jimmy. Cleveland’s in the AFC. Dallas is in the NFC. We really weren’t competing against each other very much. I said, ‘Jimmy, can you help me out? Tell me what you guys saw and what you think we could work on or do better?’
“And Jimmy said, ‘Bill, you know, I really didn’t watch you guys. I just saw you a couple of times in the preseason. We didn’t even do a scouting report on you because, honestly, you guys were terrible.’ “
While harsh, Johnson’s assessment of Belichick’s squad wasn’t necessarily far from the truth. The Browns had gone 3-13 in the previous year, firing Bud Carson in the middle of the 1990 season. The 462 points the Browns allowed in 1990 were also the most allowed by any team in a single season that decade.
With the NFL only having limited free agency in the early 1990s, the Browns didn’t have any quick avenues to drastically improve, either. So, Belichick began his head coaching career practically at the bottom, and Johnson’s message to him served as a brutal reminder of where he was at.
“That was humbling for me, when Jimmy said, ‘We didn’t even do a scouting report on you guys,’” Belichick said with a chuckle.
Belichick was able to steer Cleveland in the right direction following that “humbling” moment with Johnson. He won his first game a week later, picking up a 20-0 win against the Patriots in Foxborough. The Browns went 6-10 in 1991, a three-win improvement, and eventually made the postseason in 1994.
Of course, things ultimately didn’t pan out for Belichick with the Browns. He was fired following the 1995 season, when the team went in the midst of their decision to move the franchise to Baltimore.
But, as you likely know, Belichick rebounded well with the Patriots. He led the organization to six Super Bowl wins, the most ever for any head coach. When he was let go at the end of the 2023 season, Belichick was 15 wins shy of breaking Don Shula’s record for the most by head coach in NFL history.
Johnson has also changed his tune on Belichick, too. The two iconic coaches actually became friends, with Johnson saying the two struck up a bond during Belichick’s time in Cleveland.
“I said, five or six years ago, I think Bill Belichick’s the greatest head coach of all time,” Johnson told Patriots.com in an interview in 2018. “The reason I say that, and I don’t want to take anything from the great coaches of the past … but the game is so different now than what it was back then. Back then, you built a great team and that team stayed together for a long period of time. So, you were able to build a lot of victories up.
“Now, with the salary cap and free agency, there’s so much movement around the league that you almost have to rebuild your team yearly. In fact, you’ve got to pick up players in the middle. You’ve got to be an outstanding teacher. That’s why I say he’s the greatest of all time.”
The Browns and Cowboys will actually meet on Sunday, which coincidentally serves as Tom Brady’s debut as a game analyst for Fox.
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