Speaker 1: Welcome to Special Teams, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Greetings and welcome inside another episode of Special Teams with
Speaker 1: Jason Smith and Mike Harmon, a podcast where we look
Speaker 1: back at special teams and special years in the history
Speaker 1: of sports and what made these teams special. Really enjoying
Speaker 1: the run we're on right now where we are looking
Speaker 1: back at the special teams taking place in some of
Speaker 1: the biggest games and football, baseball, basketball history. And we
Speaker 1: have another big NFL playoff game to break down today,
Speaker 1: and one with a name on it. Well, it doesn't
Speaker 1: really have a name, but you can title it. When
Speaker 1: you can title a playoff game, it's a big deal.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna look back at the most recent Browns
Speaker 1: playoff game, which of course was in two thousand and three.
Speaker 1: But it is that the uh colon, it's been a minute,
Speaker 1: it's been a bit been but well I haven't seen you.
Speaker 1: How you doing. Oh well, you know, I moved away
Speaker 1: after college and won the lottery and got married and
Speaker 1: uh uh that look well, you look like you put
Speaker 1: on a little bit of weight. You still got the
Speaker 1: Brown helmets. You've done nothing about that. Now it's Brenda
Speaker 1: and Nettie getting together at the scenes from an Italian
Speaker 1: restaurant after all those years. But this game was legendary,
Speaker 1: a game in which the Steelers hold on to beat
Speaker 1: the Browns thirty six thirty three. Both teams quarterbacks did
Speaker 1: not have long tenures. Uh. It was full of incredible
Speaker 1: twists and turns, and the Browns nearly pulled off a
Speaker 1: huge upset. Potentially you could say they just needed one
Speaker 1: more second on the clock. Two thousand and three the
Speaker 1: Steelers and the Browns January five, Hines Field start time
Speaker 1: one oh one pm. But before we get to this,
Speaker 1: how did both of these teams get to this point
Speaker 1: of the season. For the Pittsburgh Steelers, you're thinking, oh,
Speaker 1: was that roethlisbritt No, this was pre Ben Roethlisberger, in
Speaker 1: which the Steelers two years before, in two thousand and two,
Speaker 1: in their draft had a huge draft. You would think, okay, right, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: In this draft Antoine Randall, l Chris Hope, Brett Keisel.
Speaker 1: They signed James Harrison as an undrafted free agent. These
Speaker 1: are players who would go on to be building box
Speaker 1: and lynchpins of great Steelers teams of the future. I mean,
Speaker 1: I would love the Larry Foot to otherwise White's gonna
Speaker 1: come get you. No, that's okay. Anytime I bring up
Speaker 1: Michigan football, now whether she's just kind of blows it
Speaker 1: off because they can't beat Ohio State, so you know,
Speaker 1: she's kind of just okay, Well, do you just walk
Speaker 1: in and throw khaki pants at or now just to
Speaker 1: torture no words. Yeah, I need those good khaki pants
Speaker 1: and Lulu lemon, all right, so get those for me
Speaker 1: because those all where they're like bucks. Uh, Christmas is coming.
Speaker 1: But this situation at quarterback for the Steelers coming into
Speaker 1: the year was it was Cordel Stewart's team, all right.
Speaker 1: Cordel Stewart was the dual option quarterback of the millennium.
Speaker 1: Now every team wants a player like Cordell Stewart, but
Speaker 1: he was the guy. He and Randall Cunningham were credit
Speaker 1: as being the quarterbacks to show everybody, Hey, you know
Speaker 1: what these guys can do a lot. Don't worry about
Speaker 1: them being one dimensional. They can throw the football, they
Speaker 1: can make plays with their legs. That's who Cordel Stewart was.
Speaker 1: Cordel Stewart was fantastic. He was the Offensive player of
Speaker 1: the Year in two thousand and one. But since he
Speaker 1: came into the league as slash, because he came in
Speaker 1: all right, maybe he's not a quarterback that you can
Speaker 1: play wide receiver, running back. He made his mark being
Speaker 1: able to do all of these things in the late nineties.
Speaker 1: He could throw the football once in a while, but
Speaker 1: he's a good wide receiver. Finally, the Steelers said we're
Speaker 1: gonna put him at quarterback, and Cordel Stewart was terrific.
Speaker 1: But it was a roller coaster ride. Some years he
Speaker 1: was really good. Some games he was really good, but
Speaker 1: still he made too many mistakes. He had been on
Speaker 1: this ride with Cordel Stewart since seven In fact, one
Speaker 1: year he lost a job to Kent Graham before he
Speaker 1: got it back, but his talent allowed him to stay
Speaker 1: around a long time, and he goes into this season
Speaker 1: as the starting quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers. However, against
Speaker 1: Cleveland in Week four, he throws a really bad pick
Speaker 1: in the double coverage into the end zone, and for
Speaker 1: Bill Kauer, this was the last straw. This was I'm
Speaker 1: done and we are going to Tommy Maddox at quarterback. Maddox,
Speaker 1: who would come into this year with a lot of
Speaker 1: hype behind him. He hadn't thrown a pass in the
Speaker 1: NFL since n but resurrected his career with big season
Speaker 1: the XFL and two thousand and one. Hey, maybe this
Speaker 1: guy can play well. He was someone who Steelers fans
Speaker 1: were always itching to see, can this guy play quarterback?
Speaker 1: You know, Cordel Stewart, the turnovers. I want to pull
Speaker 1: my hair out. Let's see if Tommy Maddox can play again,
Speaker 1: a guy who hadn't thrown a pass in the NFL
Speaker 1: since and Steelers fans are saying, boy, really hope Tommy
Speaker 1: Maddis can get it done for us? Well, you always
Speaker 1: love an underdog story. I mean he got you a xfluh.
Speaker 1: He did Fantasy Time XFL Fantasy title him and Joe
Speaker 1: Asca and Jose Cortez. I still remember a lot of
Speaker 1: the good players on my Cortes was automatic. But but
Speaker 1: we look at the way this roster was constructed, and
Speaker 1: certainly for Tommy Maddox, Cordell Stewart, and you look at
Speaker 1: the schedule, man, no, no favors that you have a
Speaker 1: week three by like, that's just stupid. But that was
Speaker 1: the schedule that they had here. They eke out that
Speaker 1: narrow win against the Browns at home in Week four
Speaker 1: and just shift trying to see if you can jump
Speaker 1: start the offense. Right. You mentioned the arrival of Antoine
Speaker 1: Randall l You know, knowing that you now have a
Speaker 1: guy with with great aptitude and YAK potential, you gotta
Speaker 1: figure out how to get the ball in his hands,
Speaker 1: get creative and you're still knowing Bill Cower want to
Speaker 1: have that power running game working and find that balance.
Speaker 1: But what's the best way and to really get that
Speaker 1: off is to have a little more efficiency from the
Speaker 1: QB position. This is a guy who was drafted in
Speaker 1: where Joe Thiseman. Other analysts said, oh my goodness, we
Speaker 1: we you know, why are you drafting this kid? He's
Speaker 1: not ready out of U c l A. Jimmy Johnson
Speaker 1: did a bit where he said in college, we would
Speaker 1: call him turn over Tommy. You know you always get
Speaker 1: him to throw the football. T I mean, this is
Speaker 1: a guy who came in and he's drafted in ninety
Speaker 1: two by the Broncos to be the air apparent to
Speaker 1: John Elway. Of course that doesn't work out. He leaves
Speaker 1: the NFL to be an insurance salesman. He left. He
Speaker 1: was done in the NFL. He's done, he wasn't gonna
Speaker 1: do anymore. But when he got asked to play in
Speaker 1: the Arena Football League just before the XFL started, he
Speaker 1: sells his insurance business and says, I'm gonna get football
Speaker 1: another shot. And he gets back in and he by
Speaker 1: crazy circumstances meaning Cordell Stewart being unable to stop throwing
Speaker 1: your studs, he gets the starting job with the Steelers,
Speaker 1: and he goes on a big run and the Steelers
Speaker 1: go to the playoffs and they wind up with eleven
Speaker 1: five and one record. After it's all said and done,
Speaker 1: Maddox has a big year and suddenly Maddox is the guy.
Speaker 1: After a journey in which it took him eleven years
Speaker 1: to get to this point, he winds up being the quarterback.
Speaker 1: In fact, they believed in him so much that Maddox
Speaker 1: got hurt late in this year before they get to
Speaker 1: the playoffs, he misses two games. Cordel Stewart comes in
Speaker 1: and wins both of them, and he plays really well,
Speaker 1: and you're like, Okay, well, Cordel Stewart's gonna get the
Speaker 1: job back because it was his job. Nope, Bill Coward says, thanks, Cordell,
Speaker 1: you're on the bench, and Tommy Maddox is our guy.
Speaker 1: So much so they kept Maddox and they waved Cordel
Speaker 1: Stewart after the season. That's how much they were stuck
Speaker 1: on making that move to Tommy Maddox, who after eleven
Speaker 1: short years suddenly becomes a household name. Well, I wanted
Speaker 1: him to stick around, and while he was there for
Speaker 1: another three years in some capacity. Yeah, just a curious Uh,
Speaker 1: that's one of those let's stand out with Bill Cower
Speaker 1: and let's talk about those times, right, because he was
Speaker 1: even there when Roethlisberger comes into the league and as
Speaker 1: their first round pick in two thousand four and touchdown,
Speaker 1: Tommy's still there. Tommy Maddox was in again. I mean really,
Speaker 1: he was like Ryan Fitzpatrick. Accept it took him even
Speaker 1: longer to get the starting job again, but that that's
Speaker 1: that's kind of who Tommy Maddox was. He but he
Speaker 1: gets to stick around, right, two thousand two goes seven,
Speaker 1: three and one, but the touchdown the interception ratio is
Speaker 1: twenty to sixteen. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And then the following
Speaker 1: year they go six and ten, showing how this works.
Speaker 1: Eighteen and seventeen is the touchdown the interception, right, thus
Speaker 1: prompting the drafting of Roethlisberger, but still just showing they
Speaker 1: had a lot of faith that he was still gonna
Speaker 1: bail him out. They win the a f C North,
Speaker 1: which is brand new that year as first a f
Speaker 1: C North. So they win at ten five and one.
Speaker 1: They go to the playoffs, where right, it was, okay,
Speaker 1: how is this gonna work out? Now? And look, I
Speaker 1: was glad to get the Indianapolis Colts out of the
Speaker 1: division because I'm like, I don't want Peyton Manning beating
Speaker 1: the crap out of us for all these years. Uh.
Speaker 1: And they faced the Cleveland Browns, still to this day
Speaker 1: their most recent playoff appearance. Butch Davis is the head coach,
Speaker 1: and the season started for them and ended for them
Speaker 1: in well, the way the season started should have told
Speaker 1: you how the season was gonna end, because it began
Speaker 1: with what a big famous play in Brown's history where
Speaker 1: Morton Anderson is kicking for the Chiefs and he misses
Speaker 1: a field goal that would win the game for them,
Speaker 1: So the Browns are gonna win. Dwayne Rudd, who was
Speaker 1: a linebacker for the Browns, took his helmet off on
Speaker 1: the field after the missfield goal to celebrate. This is
Speaker 1: back when taking your helmet off on the field was
Speaker 1: a penalty that they enforced very strictly. So Dwayne Rudd
Speaker 1: takes his helmet off. It's a fifteen yard penalty, so
Speaker 1: Morton Anderson gets a much easier chance. He makes the
Speaker 1: field goal, and they win the game for nine. You
Speaker 1: should have own this is the kind of year we're
Speaker 1: gonna be in for with the Cleveland Browns after the
Speaker 1: season started that way. It's never boring with the Browns.
Speaker 1: I mean it never has been. There's always some curiosity, uh,
Speaker 1: to keep us guessing because I mean, here, here's a
Speaker 1: couple of random stats for you to kind of frame
Speaker 1: what we're talking about here and how important this playoff
Speaker 1: run was for the Cleveland Browns. Uh. Since two thousand three,
Speaker 1: there have been ten head coaches since Butch Davis welcome
Speaker 1: in Kevin Stefanski. Uh. Twenty quarterbacks have started a game
Speaker 1: since that year. Forget about Yeah, it's just unbelievable. Uh
Speaker 1: So this year, though, the Browns kind of become the
Speaker 1: new Cardiac kids. This was such a roller coach of
Speaker 1: season and they won five games in the final two minutes.
Speaker 1: This was Tim Couch's best season as a Browns quarterback.
Speaker 1: Eighteen touchdowns, eighteen picks, the best year. Well, everybody in
Speaker 1: this episode is on the was a former Bear. Cordial
Speaker 1: Stewart was on Bears everybod. No, no, look, I've told
Speaker 1: you that Cordell Stewart's story. I told it to him once.
Speaker 1: When my uncle passed away. We found out that it
Speaker 1: might have been after a particularly excruciating loss to the Vikings,
Speaker 1: and my cousin in the funeral services attributed it to
Speaker 1: Cordell Stewart. Wow, yeah, you told him that story. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, he didn't hit, you know, Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1: Well you gotta frame it right. Yeah, no, I know,
Speaker 1: but still, hey, you know he got and he blamed
Speaker 1: and I did it. I did it the concise way.
Speaker 1: Here for Odd Special Teams podcast. This was not on air.
Speaker 1: This was I was doing bits with him, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, but good humor. Yeah, I'm glad he did.
Speaker 1: I'm glad for you that he did, because I didn't
Speaker 1: start cursing in the other my fist day. I don't
Speaker 1: want but I wouldn't want to hear that story. If
Speaker 1: I would want to hear that, Oh, come on, it's
Speaker 1: kind of funny. But for Tim Couch, I mean, this
Speaker 1: is what I mean by being the CARDI yeat kids.
Speaker 1: Couch never lived up to expectations at all. He beats
Speaker 1: Jacksonville with a hail Mary pass. Right, he beats the
Speaker 1: Jets with a touchdown pass and a two point conversion,
Speaker 1: the craziest two point conversion in the final minute that
Speaker 1: I shook my head going, oh my god, we just
Speaker 1: lost to the Browns in that way. Um. They actually
Speaker 1: dedicated that game to Al Learner, the team owner, who
Speaker 1: died very suddenly in the middle of the season. I
Speaker 1: remember Tim Couch grabbing the football and all the players
Speaker 1: stood in the middle of the field and held fingers
Speaker 1: up to the sky. They dedicate that win to him.
Speaker 1: But despite all this excitement, Tim Couch like, like I said,
Speaker 1: this was his best season. But still it was eighteen touchdowns,
Speaker 1: eighteen picks. He gets booed because he just wasn't the
Speaker 1: quarterback you expect a guy drafted number one overall to
Speaker 1: b He had had injury problems, he had never been
Speaker 1: productive enough. In fact, this season, here's how it started
Speaker 1: for Tim Couch. And the Browns. Couch hurches elbow, so
Speaker 1: he can't play the first two games. So backup Kelly Holcom,
Speaker 1: who comes into this podcast in a large way in
Speaker 1: a couple of minutes, winds up starting the first two games.
Speaker 1: But Kelly Holcomb breaks his leg, so then Couch takes over.
Speaker 1: Couch plays well enough throughout the course of the season
Speaker 1: to keep the Browns in playoff contention, but he breaks
Speaker 1: his leg in the final game. Cleveland still wins thanks
Speaker 1: to a huge touchdown run from William Green, which is
Speaker 1: a big run in Brown's history. The play by play
Speaker 1: called run William Run helps them win this game and
Speaker 1: potentially get into the playoffs. So you add a season
Speaker 1: that was started by Holcomb because of an injury to Couch.
Speaker 1: Couch plays, Okay, he gets hurt. Now here comes Kelly
Speaker 1: Holcomb and the Browns win a game. You think, ok,
Speaker 1: nine and seven, they make the playoffs. But this was
Speaker 1: that year where there were so many dominoes that had
Speaker 1: the fall in the final week for the Browns to
Speaker 1: make the playoffs. Because nothing's easy for the brownch Right,
Speaker 1: they can't just win the final week and make the playoffs, right,
Speaker 1: they win, they lose their quarterback. They still had to
Speaker 1: hope that New England would beat Miami in the final
Speaker 1: week and the Jets would beat Green Bay. If that happened,
Speaker 1: the Browns make the playoffs. Well, New England beats Miami
Speaker 1: with a field goal and the Jets just route Green Bay,
Speaker 1: and so the Browns make the playoffs. And this is
Speaker 1: how we needed to beat them to make it. And
Speaker 1: the Jets needed New England to beat Miami the final
Speaker 1: week two. And this wasn't like oh, the Patriots in
Speaker 1: the middle of the Super Bowl run there, No, this
Speaker 1: was boy Miami. They should win this game. And the
Speaker 1: Jets were losing the Green Bay early in the first quarter,
Speaker 1: and everybody in the stands was watching this game between
Speaker 1: New England and Miami. And New England kicks the field
Speaker 1: goal to win. The entire crowd goes crazy. And it
Speaker 1: was during a penalty announcement on the Jets, like a
Speaker 1: fifteen yard penally on the Jets, and you hear the
Speaker 1: the the referee go, we have personal foul on the play,
Speaker 1: fifteen yards on the defense, and you hear this huge
Speaker 1: roar go up in the stadium and Jets players after
Speaker 1: the game said, we didn't know what was going on, like,
Speaker 1: why are they cheering a big penalty for us? Then
Speaker 1: they all got it, Oh, Miami must have lost New England.
Speaker 1: We win this game, we make the playoffs. And from
Speaker 1: that potan it was a different game and my signal
Speaker 1: unleashed and the Jets just blow out the Packers. The
Speaker 1: Jets make the playoffs. This is Chad Pennington in his
Speaker 1: two thousand two year, which was he was like a
Speaker 1: video game. Wound up losing the Raiders in the playoffs
Speaker 1: that year, but it was like a video game that Jets,
Speaker 1: and it was so exciting. And oh, by the way,
Speaker 1: the Browns make the playoffs as a result of both
Speaker 1: of these finishes going this way. So typical. This is
Speaker 1: how the Browns get in the playoffs. Fantastic finishes, Jets
Speaker 1: beating the Packers, I know, and we beat him pretty
Speaker 1: bad to h yeah, we it was awesome. Uh. And
Speaker 1: so now the Browns going to the playoffs with Kelly
Speaker 1: holp them as their quarterback. Now Browns fans aren't so
Speaker 1: bummed because Holcom was always someone who was intrigued by
Speaker 1: Cleveland fans because in Spurts and Small Chances he played
Speaker 1: pretty well in the two games he started in two
Speaker 1: thousand and two, he threw for eight touchdowns in almost
Speaker 1: eight hundred yards. So this was a guy that the
Speaker 1: fans and the team thought, we know he can give
Speaker 1: us offense. They were excited to have this guy out
Speaker 1: there to go play. So it's Kelly Holcomb and Tommy
Speaker 1: Maddox as we get set for a playoff game. That
Speaker 1: was the last time the Browns visited the postseason. How
Speaker 1: did it go? How did it unfold? We had heroes,
Speaker 1: we had goats, We had a hero turn into a goat.
Speaker 1: All coming up next right here on special teams. So
Speaker 1: we arrive at the a f C Wildcard game between
Speaker 1: the Browns and the Steelers in thrilling fashion, both teams
Speaker 1: taking different journeys to the postseason, both teams starting quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: They didn't think we're gonna be starting for them all.
Speaker 1: This is where you had two guys who were Jags.
Speaker 1: They were just guys, and now suddenly here they are
Speaker 1: starting playoffs games. And what a playoff game. Both of
Speaker 1: the these guys had h The game starts with Joey
Speaker 1: Porter getting separated from Cleveland players pregame for joining, which
Speaker 1: you know that's Joey Porter. That's his act. That sounds
Speaker 1: about right, But it was Cleveland who came out big.
Speaker 1: Holcomb is slinging it early on. Kevin Johnson has a
Speaker 1: huge day, hundred yards receiving. Uh. There's a long completion
Speaker 1: of Dennis north Cut to set up a touchdown. More on,
Speaker 1: Dennis north Cut coming up, Uh, touchdown past and north
Speaker 1: Cut made it fourteen nothing. It was all Cleveland. Tommy
Speaker 1: Maddox had thrown a couple of picks. Pittsburgh had no
Speaker 1: momentum at all until Antoine Randall l returns a punt
Speaker 1: for a touchdown to make it fourteen seven. But clearly
Speaker 1: this was a game that not many people thought was
Speaker 1: gonna go this way, because look, Pittsburgh it's still won
Speaker 1: you know, ten games. The brown squeaked in at nine
Speaker 1: and seven, and here's Kelly Holcomb just throwing the ball
Speaker 1: all over the field early on. It's what are the
Speaker 1: Steelers doing? How are you getting torn up by Kelly
Speaker 1: Holcomb in this game? Well, and that's always the wild
Speaker 1: card because you look at the two games during the
Speaker 1: regular season, Steelers wins both by three points UH and
Speaker 1: both low scoring affairs sixteen thirteen and then, which by
Speaker 1: NFL standards these days, Bah, that's an old, grinded out
Speaker 1: three yards in a cloud of dust kind of game
Speaker 1: with some of the pinball scoring we see these days.
Speaker 1: But but certainly, uh, a little bit different, right playing
Speaker 1: Holcombe and seeing how they operated the offense versus perhaps
Speaker 1: well what you've seen from Tim Couch in the past,
Speaker 1: So maybe just a little bit of a split there.
Speaker 1: And then you know, big plays right off the jump.
Speaker 1: I mean your guy out of Syracuse, Kevin Johnson making
Speaker 1: the huge play on that opening possession, really kind of
Speaker 1: a punch in the face to the Steelers. Yeah, this
Speaker 1: was this was unexpected. And after the Steelers get the
Speaker 1: punt return for a touchdown by Randall l you think, okay,
Speaker 1: maybe they'll settle back in the game. No, this is
Speaker 1: more attacking by the Browns. Uh. North Cut has a
Speaker 1: big sixty yard punt return, sets up a touchdown past
Speaker 1: to him twenty four seven. The Browns get out to
Speaker 1: this lead and north Cut has a huge day. He
Speaker 1: goes for six nine, two and two touchdowns. Kind of
Speaker 1: stick a pinning that for now, because Dennis north Good
Speaker 1: comes back in a way that Browns fans here his
Speaker 1: name and go Dennis north Cut. But Holcom is incredible.
Speaker 1: He is He is just throwing the ball all over
Speaker 1: the field and the Steelers don't have a prayer stopping him.
Speaker 1: You know, you watched the tape of this game, and
Speaker 1: watching this game after as we're getting ready to this podcast,
Speaker 1: I'm going, boy, the Steelers really laid off in coverage.
Speaker 1: You know, they they found you know, Holcom was able
Speaker 1: to find spots and and find and he was accurate
Speaker 1: as hell that day. He was great. But I felt
Speaker 1: like the Steelers could have been much more aggressive and
Speaker 1: gone after him, especially when you see, this is how
Speaker 1: we're gonna win the game. We're not gonna win by
Speaker 1: running the football. And I thought maybe they could have
Speaker 1: dialed things up a little bit better and made life
Speaker 1: more difficult for him. But it didn't matter. He's comfortable,
Speaker 1: he's throwing the football and and and the Browns can
Speaker 1: do no at this point. Well, and that's I mean,
Speaker 1: that was the hallmark of those Steeler defenses still is
Speaker 1: right there, usually among the league leaders in sacks. Here,
Speaker 1: they got the Holcom once. I mean that that's a
Speaker 1: pretty big deal. When he drops back forty three times
Speaker 1: and you're only able to register one sack, and really
Speaker 1: pressure was not consistent at all. He had time to
Speaker 1: work down field and find the creases for for Northcut
Speaker 1: to have himself a game. Andre Davis with a big
Speaker 1: catch as well a little bit of yak and already
Speaker 1: mentioned you know Kevin Johnson with that early catchy. I
Speaker 1: mean he finished with a hundred forty yards himself on
Speaker 1: four big plays. So I mean you're you're looking at
Speaker 1: work in the ball down field. Normally you don't have
Speaker 1: time against the Pittsburgh defense. So credit the Cleveland offensive
Speaker 1: line for being able to hold up and let him
Speaker 1: stand tall. Yeah. So here the Dealers who are an
Speaker 1: eight point favorite, and suddenly now with the numbers, you're
Speaker 1: gonna man, I'm up thirty three seven. I'm feeling pretty good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're feeling pretty good about that, aren't you. One thing
Speaker 1: about this game the field was really torn up and
Speaker 1: it was to the point where you could see players
Speaker 1: having struggling to find purchase and find footing. That never
Speaker 1: bodes well for a defense, never bodes well for really
Speaker 1: trying to run the football. Either. It bodes well for
Speaker 1: the passing game because the old adages the offense knows
Speaker 1: where the ball is going, the defense doesn't, and this
Speaker 1: is why you had huge games from both Maddox and
Speaker 1: Kelly holkm But here's where things changed, and the Browns,
Speaker 1: with all kinds of momentum, driving for what likely would
Speaker 1: have been the final nail in the Coffin touchdown. It's
Speaker 1: too big a lead. The Steelers are not gonna come back.
Speaker 1: Kelly Holcom throws a pick in Pittsburgh territory, and this
Speaker 1: is where Tommy Maddox heats up. You talked about the
Speaker 1: Browns protecting hold them the way they did in the
Speaker 1: first half into the second half of this game, this
Speaker 1: is where things changed for the Steelers. As Tommy Maddox,
Speaker 1: I don't think the Browns were able to sniff him
Speaker 1: during the second half of this game. They tried blitzing in,
Speaker 1: they tried laying off, they tried putting guys in coverage.
Speaker 1: It didn't matter. Maddox had all kinds of time to
Speaker 1: make all kinds of throws. Whether it was Plaxico, Burris Hines,
Speaker 1: Ward Randall l it didn't matter. Slowly, but surely Maddox
Speaker 1: would maneuver his way down the field and the Steelers
Speaker 1: get back in this game. And I am again watching
Speaker 1: this game. You go, man, that Brown just couldn't figure
Speaker 1: out a way. Neither defense really figured out a way
Speaker 1: how to stop the other offense. But it was more
Speaker 1: pronounced in the second half of the Steelers because Tommy
Speaker 1: Maddox was just throwing darts all over the field started
Speaker 1: to find his stride to put a little bow on
Speaker 1: the Steelers. Uh. Stat total, they were third in the
Speaker 1: NFL with fifty sacks that year. Yet Kelly Holcombe stood
Speaker 1: tall here in this playoff game. Now from there, we
Speaker 1: look at that drive right the seven of eight seventy
Speaker 1: yards they had one running play to Amos zero way.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, we'll get him in later. We'll find out
Speaker 1: what he's up to. But Maddox toward to Jeremy Tuman too,
Speaker 1: Randall l spreading it around, finally burst with the touchdown
Speaker 1: a sudden you know, you get a little bit of
Speaker 1: in Cleveland, you go, wait a minute, we've had a
Speaker 1: good run. Uh and now you've you're down four minutes
Speaker 1: remaining in the third quarter, and suddenly there's a little
Speaker 1: bit more of the pressure to get out and make plays.
Speaker 1: Showing also you know how long ago this is. But uh,
Speaker 1: showing the longevity of kickers. If you can do your job.
Speaker 1: When you can see Phil Dawson's uh in the box score.
Speaker 1: He went to went to school in Texas, was a
Speaker 1: you know, a guy that they had great, great hope
Speaker 1: for because well he was automatic. Just let Phil come
Speaker 1: and do it. Uh. And there he was for Cleveland
Speaker 1: for all those years. No matter what the Browns did,
Speaker 1: they couldn't stem the tide of the Steelers. All right.
Speaker 1: Burris catches that touchdown, makes Browns kick a field goal.
Speaker 1: Tuman catches a touchdown pass from Tommy Maddox, the Browns
Speaker 1: get a touchdown pass from Holcombe to Andre Davis. It's
Speaker 1: thirty three twenty one, and the Browns are thinking, Okay,
Speaker 1: we've done enough, we're putting them away. But no, this
Speaker 1: Dealers get down the field and Maddox strews a touchdown
Speaker 1: past the Hines Ward that cuts it to thirty three
Speaker 1: with three minutes left in the game. Now, if you're
Speaker 1: the Browns, okay, you've given this lead away. You can't
Speaker 1: stop Tommy Maddocks. You gotta hold on to the football
Speaker 1: and not give it back. This is how you're gonna
Speaker 1: win the game. This is what comes down to what
Speaker 1: is commonly known as the most famous drop pass in
Speaker 1: Cleveland Brown's history. There's two forty nine left on the
Speaker 1: clock and the Browns couldn't run the football all day.
Speaker 1: All right, just let me just give let me give
Speaker 1: you this before we set up Dennis north cutt William Green,
Speaker 1: who was the number one running back on the team.
Speaker 1: We had the big touchdown run we told you in
Speaker 1: the final week of the regular season. His stats on
Speaker 1: the day were twenty five carries for thirty yards. Five
Speaker 1: carries for thirty yards. Here's the best part. He had
Speaker 1: a twenty three yard carry, so that meetings his other
Speaker 1: twenty four carries amounted seven yards seven yards. He had
Speaker 1: a twenty three yard run, but the other twenty four
Speaker 1: carries went for seven yards. Now, you're trying to grind
Speaker 1: a lot of clocks, Smith, Yeah, but at some point,
Speaker 1: don't you realize, Okay, we're just we're just giving plays away.
Speaker 1: Don't we're just giving plays away? Hey, holkm you just
Speaker 1: run it straight in the line. You can get more
Speaker 1: than the one eighth of a yard that William Green
Speaker 1: is getting. So you like to think that maybe they
Speaker 1: knew we have to outscore Pittsburgh. Right, we we can't
Speaker 1: just keep running the football and grinding clock. At some point,
Speaker 1: you would think they would disband the run. I'd say,
Speaker 1: all right, it's just it's really just not gonna happen
Speaker 1: for it today. It really isn't. But no, they kept
Speaker 1: giving the ball to William Green and and and maybe
Speaker 1: this could have been a game where if they don't
Speaker 1: commit to the run that much, we talk about Kelly
Speaker 1: Holcom and his six touchdowns and the Browns three win
Speaker 1: over the Steelers, but instead we're talking about a thirty six,
Speaker 1: thirty three loss. You're looking for one of those Derrick
Speaker 1: Anderson uh crazy games from two thousand seven. That was
Speaker 1: a couple of years later he and Braylon and words
Speaker 1: against Cincinnati. But not it went for nothing. Big thing
Speaker 1: the circle out of the box score here is that
Speaker 1: William Green, for all his touches, had two receptions. Right,
Speaker 1: Jamal White had five catches out of the backfield. But
Speaker 1: this is where if you're starting tailback and catch the
Speaker 1: ball at all, you know you can at least open
Speaker 1: it up and maybe get him a little running room
Speaker 1: at another time, But not so fast here. So thirty
Speaker 1: three on the road Cleveland needs a first down to
Speaker 1: basically run out the clock again to forty nine on
Speaker 1: the clock. It's third and twelve. Holcomb, who has been
Speaker 1: throwing the football incredibly well. He winds up with a
Speaker 1: four yard day throwing the football find Dennis north Cut
Speaker 1: wide open. This is when Dennis north Cut was on
Speaker 1: the cusp of potential becoming one of the great game
Speaker 1: breakers in the NFL. Because he was fast, he was
Speaker 1: able to get separation on the football. He looked like
Speaker 1: he could become one of the great weapons. There's no
Speaker 1: one behind him, no one behind Dennis north Cut, who
Speaker 1: cuts from the middle of the field towards the sideline,
Speaker 1: but he turns around a little too quickly, like he's
Speaker 1: expecting to get hit. Holcomb puts the football right where
Speaker 1: he has to. It's a perfect pass and north Cut's
Speaker 1: gonna catch this pass, turn it up feeling another ten
Speaker 1: or fifteen yards. So suddenly the game is basically over
Speaker 1: because they're gonna be well on the Steelers side of
Speaker 1: the fifty yard line with the first down, getting down
Speaker 1: to the two minute warning. Except because he turns a
Speaker 1: little bit too fast, like he's expecting to get hit,
Speaker 1: he drops the football it falls right through his arms
Speaker 1: and the Browns have to punt on fourth down. It
Speaker 1: was like the life gut breathed back into Hindes Field.
Speaker 1: Maddox slices the Browns up and down the field for
Speaker 1: a go ahead touchdown, a two point conversion, and they
Speaker 1: take a thirty six thirty three lead with just under
Speaker 1: a minute left to go. Chris Fumatu ma Fala, it
Speaker 1: would always say, he's a bad mom falla uh takes
Speaker 1: the touchdown on in for the lead, and then Jeremy
Speaker 1: Tuman actually catches a pass from Randall L. Remember this
Speaker 1: is a big play for this. They would always have
Speaker 1: Randall L, who was a college quarterback in Indiana throw
Speaker 1: passes through a very famous touchdown pass in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: And Randall L throws the two point conversion of Jeremy Tumans.
Speaker 1: So it's a three point lead from Pittsburgh with just
Speaker 1: under a minute left to go, but the Browns are
Speaker 1: getting the football back. I want to circle back to
Speaker 1: that possession for the Browns though, with the just under
Speaker 1: three minutes remaining, you had a play before the north
Speaker 1: cut play where Quincy Morrigan waiting forever for the ball
Speaker 1: to get there. Washington is able to get a hand
Speaker 1: in and separate him. Ball gets out the quicker from
Speaker 1: Kelly Holcomb. You got a big play and the Steelers
Speaker 1: are in trouble following play. Yeah, obviously they're looking around
Speaker 1: in the old let me start pumping my fists looking
Speaker 1: for a flag that never comes. Holcomb incredulous, staring down
Speaker 1: the official and kind of staring blankly into the Steeler crowd,
Speaker 1: which now whipped into a frenzy. And you go to
Speaker 1: the Alcoa Fantastic finishes here ALCA presents fantastic finishes. Nah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so you know, and in television presented you make the call.
Speaker 1: I mean all our our childhood wrapped up here in
Speaker 1: the excitement of a playoff game that involves the Cleveland Browns.
Speaker 1: But yes, the opportunity inside of a minute down three
Speaker 1: and a crowd that was dormant for much of the game.
Speaker 1: It's cold, it's miserable, and now it's all on the
Speaker 1: arm and Kelly home. This is where you'd expect. Okay,
Speaker 1: the Browns are gonna fold. This is where it just
Speaker 1: got too much for them. They couldn't make the playce no, no,
Speaker 1: In true Browns fashion, We're gonna get you even closer
Speaker 1: to the end before we break your heart again. Because
Speaker 1: it turns out the Browns maybe just needed one more
Speaker 1: second on the clock to potentially win this game. Holcomb
Speaker 1: takes the Browns down the field, takes a little a
Speaker 1: bit of time to uh snap the ball after the
Speaker 1: Browns get a first down with thirty one seconds left,
Speaker 1: So there's twelve seconds go by from the Browns first
Speaker 1: down until Holcomb snaps the ball. Now, they could have
Speaker 1: spiked the ball, could have anything. But Holcomb calls for
Speaker 1: a play and completes a pass. Northcutt makes a big
Speaker 1: play and they have the ball at Pittsburgh's forty six
Speaker 1: yard line with seven seconds left. Right now, it's too
Speaker 1: far for a field goal, even for Phil Dawson on
Speaker 1: this field, so they have to try to get a
Speaker 1: little bit closer and get out of bounds. This is
Speaker 1: what I mean by one more second, seven seconds left.
Speaker 1: Holcomb fades back and he throws a pass to Andre King,
Speaker 1: who catches the ball near the sideline Pittsburgh's thirty yard line.
Speaker 1: This is typical Browns and this is the Browns franchise
Speaker 1: in a nutshell. Holcomb completes the pass and Andre King
Speaker 1: is open, but King has to stop. He can't keep
Speaker 1: going because it's an out pattern towards the sidelines. He
Speaker 1: has to stop for the football and as a result,
Speaker 1: he loses his footing, so he goes down on one
Speaker 1: knee to catch the ball. So now he's got to
Speaker 1: get up and run out of bounds because that's where
Speaker 1: the ball was. So Holcomb throws him the pass, but
Speaker 1: he can't catch it in stride or catch it standing up,
Speaker 1: where he could maybe get out of bounds a little
Speaker 1: bit faster. So he's got to get up. He dives
Speaker 1: towards the sideline, doesn't get there in time. Clearly he
Speaker 1: doesn't get there, so even though it's a first down,
Speaker 1: the clock runs out. The Steelers win the game thirty
Speaker 1: six thirty three. They go on in the playoffs. Had
Speaker 1: the Browns had one more second on the clock, he
Speaker 1: dives out of bounds and Phil Dawson's trying to kick
Speaker 1: a forty seven yard field goal to send the game
Speaker 1: to overtime. Had Holcim been able to throw the ball
Speaker 1: a little bit towards the sideline and Andre King not slip,
Speaker 1: they get out of bounds, maybe they're kicking a field goal.
Speaker 1: That's how close it was for the Browns. But instead
Speaker 1: they go out with a thirty six thirty three loss,
Speaker 1: despite Holcomb having a game of games four nine yards
Speaker 1: and three touchdowns. It was a big game for Tommy
Speaker 1: Maddox as well. Maddox is over three hundred yards. He
Speaker 1: throws for three forty three. It was up and down,
Speaker 1: an aerial show, and the stealers just had enough and
Speaker 1: the Browns losing. You know what has been Brown's fashion
Speaker 1: now over the past few years. Oftentimes you can't win
Speaker 1: that third game against the team, right, they beat him
Speaker 1: twice around, No, they beat him three times during the season,
Speaker 1: each a three point win. I mean that is the
Speaker 1: ultimate in flipping off a divisional bones as you roll through.
Speaker 1: But you know, one of those could you have communicated
Speaker 1: with the referee that I'm gonna catch it in the
Speaker 1: middle of the field and give myself up, so blow
Speaker 1: the whistle. Well it doesn't matter because the clock is
Speaker 1: gonna start with another second anyway. Yeah, it's more just
Speaker 1: the philosophical All right, what can we do here? Uh?
Speaker 1: To try to buy ourselves sometime I don't know, he's broken,
Speaker 1: uh and run Dawson out there. But yeah, the field
Speaker 1: was an absolute quagmire. It looked like they'd had lollapalooza
Speaker 1: out there on Hines Field before the game. But just
Speaker 1: an amazing effort from two quarterbacks that are, you know,
Speaker 1: footnotes into history and in a lot of ways, right,
Speaker 1: I mean Kelly holk Ms right now, the the answer
Speaker 1: to a trivia question in Cleveland Baker Mayfield hoping to
Speaker 1: take that mantle from him as a playoff quarterback. Uh
Speaker 1: for Kevin Stefanski and company. And and Tommy Maddox, Oh,
Speaker 1: he's not just the guy that won you a lot
Speaker 1: of money in the XFL. So how did it go
Speaker 1: for Tommy Maddox and Kelly holk m both of them
Speaker 1: at the tops of their professions. Well, coming up next,
Speaker 1: we'll tell you why moments in the sun can be
Speaker 1: a year, a month, or even one game. What happened
Speaker 1: next to both of these teams and both of these quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: That's next on special teams. What was now next for
Speaker 1: both of these teams after this legendary playoff game. Well,
Speaker 1: for the Steelers, they lost the Titans the next week.
Speaker 1: They were eliminated from the playoffs thirty one. But Maddox
Speaker 1: played really well again. So now the Steelers, after all
Speaker 1: these years and Tommy Maddox being forty seven years old,
Speaker 1: finally he feels like he's the answer to the Steelers
Speaker 1: prayers at quarterback. But in two thousand three it fell
Speaker 1: apart form. Pittsburgh finished just six and ten. It was
Speaker 1: their first losing season at Hines Field. In fact, it
Speaker 1: was the most recent losing season by Pittsburgh up until
Speaker 1: current times. All Right, that's amazing run when you say
Speaker 1: we don't have a losing season back to two thousand
Speaker 1: and three. But but yeah, but you match it up
Speaker 1: with the Browns, they don't get back to the Steelers
Speaker 1: don't have another losing Yeah, I know exactly. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean that. That's that. That was, that's kind of where um.
Speaker 1: But so after that, even though Maddox was okay in
Speaker 1: two thousand and three, Pittsburgh knew, all right, we need
Speaker 1: to change, we need we need to get something else
Speaker 1: going on here on offense. So they draft Ben Roethlisberger
Speaker 1: in the first round of two thousand and four. Tommy
Speaker 1: Maddox wasn't happy, but they renegotiated his contract before week
Speaker 1: one because you can tell, all right, Roethlisberger is gonna
Speaker 1: be the future out of Miami of Ohio. But is
Speaker 1: he ready? He's young, he's raw. Maddox still played pretty
Speaker 1: well last year, but Pittsburgh ofference was only right twenty
Speaker 1: two in the league, so the dealers knew we needed
Speaker 1: a change. Maddox starts the season but hurts his elbow
Speaker 1: in the second game. Ben Roethlisberger comes in and well,
Speaker 1: he hasn't given up the job since he leads Pittsburgh
Speaker 1: to the a f C Championship against New England as
Speaker 1: a rookie. Maddox would then back up Roethlisberger in two
Speaker 1: thousand five and got to play a little bit. But
Speaker 1: Bill Cower really wasn't a fan of maddox is anymore.
Speaker 1: In fact, at one point he got devoted to third
Speaker 1: string behind Charlie Batch. Uh. Pittsburgh didn't win the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl over Seattle, but it's Roethlisberger at quarterback. Maddox who
Speaker 1: wins a Super Bowl, ring decides to not go to
Speaker 1: the White House with his teammates and never played in
Speaker 1: the NFL again. That's how it ended in a whirlwind
Speaker 1: for Tommy Maddox. You think he's the future right now?
Speaker 1: A year later, you'll lose your job to Ben Roethlisberger,
Speaker 1: you wind up with a super Bowl ring, and suddenly
Speaker 1: you never play in the NFL again after that. I
Speaker 1: mean that, that's that's the NFL for you drafted in leaves.
Speaker 1: The league comes back is an insurance salesman has incredible highs.
Speaker 1: Then they draft another guy to replace you. You get
Speaker 1: money in a contract renegotiation, and then you're out of
Speaker 1: the league. I mean, that's some kind of journey. You
Speaker 1: had a good run man to be able to come
Speaker 1: back a couple of times. I mean, that's one of
Speaker 1: those feel good stories of redemption and reclaiming, uh the
Speaker 1: career you never had in Denver. That's not too bad.
Speaker 1: And let's face it, you can sign super Bowl champion
Speaker 1: uh name forever. That's it's weak for him. Hey what
Speaker 1: do you play that year? Get bent? Get bent, get
Speaker 1: out of here. I mean that the Tommy Maddox, I
Speaker 1: mean begat. Ben Roethlisberg where taking this guy in the
Speaker 1: first round. And you know, you got to give the
Speaker 1: Steelers credit because they knew when to pull the plug
Speaker 1: on Cordell, because Cordell never really went on to do
Speaker 1: anything else in the NFL. They knew when to pull
Speaker 1: the plug on Tommy Maddox because they got Ben Roethlisberger
Speaker 1: in here. They are no losing seasons since Tommy Maddocks
Speaker 1: was the quarterback. That's the triviar question. He's gonna aswer
Speaker 1: to who was the starting quarterback the last losing season
Speaker 1: the Steelers. Oh that's Tommy Maddox. Oh alright, great, so
Speaker 1: you know the Steelers knew when to make those moves. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: for the Browns, things went a little bit differently because
Speaker 1: they had a lot of excitement. Look, they lose this game,
Speaker 1: but like, hey, the Browns are back and maybe Kelly
Speaker 1: Holcom is the next Dan Marino and open competition the
Speaker 1: following year for the starting quarterback job in Cleveland. Holcomb
Speaker 1: wins it, but he winds up getting hurt and that
Speaker 1: lets Tim Couch start some games. But it really didn't
Speaker 1: matter because Tim Couch at that point goes from number
Speaker 1: one overall picking the draft to having his NFL career
Speaker 1: the end of it staring him in the face. He
Speaker 1: was waived after the following year due to arm injuries,
Speaker 1: and he never played in the NFL again. Now, partly
Speaker 1: for Tim Couch, boy you think, boy, if he was
Speaker 1: able to stay healthy, but still he had a long
Speaker 1: time to establish himself in the National Football League. Could
Speaker 1: he have hung on as a backup for a lot
Speaker 1: of years, Yeah, he could have done that because he
Speaker 1: played well enough as it started to say, okay, you
Speaker 1: get a guy with starting experience who can stay in
Speaker 1: the NFL's a backup, but those arm injuries. Tim Couch
Speaker 1: was the present, the future. Then he was out and
Speaker 1: suddenly the Browns wanted to turn to Kelly Holcomb and
Speaker 1: it didn't work out for Holcom, which we're gonna get to,
Speaker 1: but for Tim Couch it was Boy, this was the
Speaker 1: ride for him out of the National Football League where
Speaker 1: you look back and go it wasn't that long ago.
Speaker 1: He was the face of our franchise and in a
Speaker 1: year that he really got us to the playoffs. Because
Speaker 1: it's not like Kelly Holkm was phenomenal all season long.
Speaker 1: I mean the Browns the teeth of the season. Tim
Speaker 1: Couch played well enough to get the Browns to the
Speaker 1: cusp of the playoffs and and they wind up getting
Speaker 1: in and you think, Okay, finally it's here for the guy.
Speaker 1: His moment is here now, and it just never even
Speaker 1: happened for him. He couldn't even win the job going
Speaker 1: into the next year. Yeah, I mean you look at
Speaker 1: his career post Roy for the return of football to Cleveland,
Speaker 1: all the hype, right, so much excitement UH in branding
Speaker 1: around him, and then you you look at the overall
Speaker 1: career marks UH sixty four, touchdown sixty seven I n
Speaker 1: t s, a number of comeback attempts, UH, including a
Speaker 1: cup of coffee with the Jaguars as a practice squad guy.
Speaker 1: The Packers had a tryout with the Bears. Just go
Speaker 1: on down the line. It was the al right, he
Speaker 1: was the number one overall pick. One of us is
Speaker 1: going to be able to figure out what's what the
Speaker 1: deal is, right, workouts in Miami, Pittsburgh, Houston, and Tennessee.
Speaker 1: May just think about that. The number of looks the
Speaker 1: Bengals UH going all the way through because you had
Speaker 1: John Kitten and whether he was gonna come back or
Speaker 1: not at that point, and then eventually with the philadel
Speaker 1: Alfhia soul hanging out with Jon bon Jovi. So, I
Speaker 1: mean a lot of different things on the career owing
Speaker 1: to the fact that if you're a guy selected that
Speaker 1: high and there's always that curiosity of is it is
Speaker 1: it a mental thing? Is it a system thing? Is
Speaker 1: it a communication thing? Who's going to be the guy
Speaker 1: and everybody thinks you're the smartest guy in the room,
Speaker 1: that they're going to figure out what that missing pieces,
Speaker 1: uh and give him the career based on what you
Speaker 1: saw those years ago at Kentucky. But for Kelly Holcum,
Speaker 1: that was as good as it was gonna get. He
Speaker 1: goes into two thousand three, thirty year old starting quarterback
Speaker 1: and Cleveland fans are expecting all kinds of great things.
Speaker 1: This from a guy who, after his first year in
Speaker 1: the NFL and with the Cults, was out of the
Speaker 1: league until the Browns brought him back in two thousand
Speaker 1: and one. So he kind of had the same kind
Speaker 1: of Tommy Maddock's journey to the NFL. But hey, maybe
Speaker 1: he's got it. Maybe just took him a little bit
Speaker 1: of time. He hadn't played a lot in the NFL,
Speaker 1: but he really underwhelmed. In two thousand and three. He
Speaker 1: started eight games, As we said, he had injury problems,
Speaker 1: ten touchdowns, twelve picks, and his moment in the sun
Speaker 1: had ended. He went on to start a handful of
Speaker 1: games for the Bills and the Minnesota Vikings a couple
Speaker 1: of years later, but was out of the league in
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven. This is what I mean by
Speaker 1: sometimes your moment in the sun as a quarterback can
Speaker 1: be a year, it can be a month, it can
Speaker 1: be a game. But that hype behind Kelly Holcom, hey,
Speaker 1: he's he lives forever in Cleveland because of what he
Speaker 1: did being that quarterback. No one blames him for the loss.
Speaker 1: He played as well as you could possibly play as
Speaker 1: a quarterback in the playoff. But this is how it
Speaker 1: goes sometimes, and sometimes guys are backups for a reason.
Speaker 1: Sometimes guys never get a chance and they show you
Speaker 1: how good they can be. But here's Kelly Holcom. It's
Speaker 1: like his whole career built towards this game, and then
Speaker 1: after this game it's slowly just built away, kind of
Speaker 1: like one of those curves where it gets all the
Speaker 1: way up to the middle and then it slowly comes
Speaker 1: down like a mountain curve. Because that's really what Kelly
Speaker 1: holkms was. He didn't have no zero highlights after this game,
Speaker 1: but ill it wasn't nearly what it was, and he
Speaker 1: was slowly the downward trajectory to the end of his career. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but he gets to have the wall of jerseys, including
Speaker 1: the Barcelona Dragons in the world page. I mean, right,
Speaker 1: he got that, the Bucks, the Colts, the Browns, the Bills,
Speaker 1: he never played for him, but he can add an
Speaker 1: Eagles one when he got traded there. He got the
Speaker 1: Vikings and eventually retires. I mean, that's a pretty good run.
Speaker 1: That's not a bad run at all for a guy
Speaker 1: out of Middle Tennessee State, right who for his career,
Speaker 1: I mean, here's his senior year ready, fifty four yards,
Speaker 1: fifteen touchdowns, nine interceptions. Is he finding the NFL at
Speaker 1: any point at this point in time with those kind
Speaker 1: of stats. No, his junior year seven touchdowns, six picks,
Speaker 1: and seventeen hundred yards, nine touchdowns, six picks, hundred yards
Speaker 1: as a sophomore, no chance he's ever getting a sniff.
Speaker 1: But here was able to be in the league with
Speaker 1: you know, career yards, thirty nine touchdowns, thirty eight picks
Speaker 1: and over the course of twelve thirteen years, cup of
Speaker 1: coffee and a number of stops, and still holding the
Speaker 1: distinction as being the last Cleveland Playoffs quarterback. I'll take
Speaker 1: it now. Normally we finished with where are they now?
Speaker 1: But Mike has already told you about what happened to
Speaker 1: some of the players. And this really should be the
Speaker 1: coda to this story for the Cleveland Browns, because as
Speaker 1: the Browns now are looking for answers at quarterback in
Speaker 1: different positions across the board. Butch Davis, who also holds
Speaker 1: the distinction as the most recent head coach to take
Speaker 1: the Browns of the playoffs because of this game in
Speaker 1: two thousand and three, was out as Brown's head coach
Speaker 1: during the two thousand and four season. Butch Davis, who
Speaker 1: had succeeded greatly at Miami and did great things to
Speaker 1: get the Browns to the playoffs in two thousand and two,
Speaker 1: just a short year and a half later, he is
Speaker 1: out as he resigns following a fifty eight forty eight
Speaker 1: loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. Right there, the offense plays well,
Speaker 1: the defense just gets uh rooked up and down the field,
Speaker 1: so he resigns. There's a bit of a discrepancy over
Speaker 1: whose idea it was. Was it Butch Davis resigning under pressure?
Speaker 1: Was he told to resign or was this Butch Davis
Speaker 1: saying listen, I am done I can't do this anymore
Speaker 1: because look, after the two thousand and two season, the
Speaker 1: Browns hadn't really played that well, and Butch Davis was
Speaker 1: in charge of the franchise and charge a lot of
Speaker 1: the personnel decisions, and things weren't going well. But it
Speaker 1: was still surprised that he resigned in the middle of
Speaker 1: the season with a three and eight record. The Browns
Speaker 1: will tell you that this was completely Butch Davis. Team
Speaker 1: president John Collins said, this was Butch's decision. I'm personally disappointed.
Speaker 1: But he had his agent called the Browns and say
Speaker 1: that there was a lot of pressure that he felt
Speaker 1: from the fans and the media. So wait a minute,
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, wait a minute. Was the brown tell
Speaker 1: him to resign and they're playing it off like it
Speaker 1: was his idea? Or was Butch Davis really under too
Speaker 1: much pressure from the fans and the media to continue
Speaker 1: on as Brown's head coach. Can you imagine that headline now,
Speaker 1: like a coach resigning the middle of the season. Why, well,
Speaker 1: the fans and the media on my case, so I'm
Speaker 1: stepping down. Oh my goodness, how would you spend that?
Speaker 1: Like if that's the story that gets out there's just
Speaker 1: no coming back from that. I don't think you could, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, because think about the time frame that we're
Speaker 1: at here. This is I mean, the internet is churning.
Speaker 1: I was in the middle of my run at Yahoo.
Speaker 1: Are starting to write full time and starting to do
Speaker 1: some video hits and and what have you. Maybe an
Speaker 1: occasional radio spot. But like it, it was nowhere near.
Speaker 1: We didn't have all these social media spheres where there's
Speaker 1: no chance you're able to pull that back. As soon
Speaker 1: as words like that gets out, forget about it. There's
Speaker 1: no one ringing that belt. He I mean, he's only
Speaker 1: coached at North Carolina and f i U since right,
Speaker 1: so never at the top of the game like he
Speaker 1: was in Miami and the collegiate ranks. But you're not
Speaker 1: getting another coaching job anywhere. Maybe you left because the
Speaker 1: fans were Meetnia. Come on, I mean, he sent his
Speaker 1: his wife and his kid back to Florida after he
Speaker 1: was booed off the field, like they lost the Jets.
Speaker 1: They lost the home game to the Jets. Ten course
Speaker 1: seven fact of the Jets, and it always does. Everything
Speaker 1: comes back to the Jets, and he had to send
Speaker 1: his family away. Listen, it's too it's too much right
Speaker 1: now with what's going on with with with the pressure
Speaker 1: on me. So he sends his family back to Florida
Speaker 1: because it was it was growing in Cleveland. What's gonna
Speaker 1: happen with Butch Davis? And maybe because he resigned the
Speaker 1: way he did, maybe because he needed a break. I mean,
Speaker 1: he doesn't coach again for another three years, and as
Speaker 1: you said, it's North Carolina where he returns to. I
Speaker 1: mean this this should have been, Hey, Butch Davis finishes
Speaker 1: the year, it's not working, he resigns or they fire him,
Speaker 1: and hey, I'm gonna go someplace big in coach. But
Speaker 1: he was out of the game for three years after this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just curious, right of. I would love a little um.
Speaker 1: You don't need a full thirty minutes on it, but
Speaker 1: give me a segment. The hell happened? I mean, what
Speaker 1: really happened in that? I mean, it was was something
Speaker 1: brewing at home that you needed to attend to. Right.
Speaker 1: Did the booing of dad, you know, cause some some
Speaker 1: issues and and I mean what was there more than booing?
Speaker 1: I mean, we know fans can get a bit unruly.
Speaker 1: Now we have thick glass because of Cleveland fans reacting
Speaker 1: to some some words out of the studios that we
Speaker 1: work out of. So you know, there there's certainly, you
Speaker 1: know a lot more to that. But for Butch Davis,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sitting here, I've got a case of
Speaker 1: mini helmets from my days in Northern California in front
Speaker 1: of me where they had the East West Shrine Game
Speaker 1: all those years. You know, got a chance to meet
Speaker 1: Brady coming out of Michigan and you always had these
Speaker 1: great coaches and Butch Davis came one year, great conversation.
Speaker 1: Still have a nice beautiful mini helmet sun by him.
Speaker 1: That's part of the the archives of another lifetime ago.
Speaker 1: But always thought he'd be back on top somewhere. But
Speaker 1: the media and fan thing uh certainly puts the uh
Speaker 1: and smashes that down. So Butch Davis, the future was
Speaker 1: so bright for him in the Browns, and a year
Speaker 1: and a half later after a lot of his personalized
Speaker 1: draft picks that he made really underperformed, including we mentioned
Speaker 1: William Green, but there are other guys he picked two
Speaker 1: that just never really stepped up and and and made
Speaker 1: headway in the NFL. And you're gonna need that. You
Speaker 1: can't keep drafting guys early on that don't wind up progressing.
Speaker 1: They at least have to be contributors. Right. They don't
Speaker 1: have to be stars in every case, but you at
Speaker 1: least need guys, you know, in those middle rounds that
Speaker 1: are at least functional, rotational guys on the defensive side
Speaker 1: of things. Man, look at what happened in all those years.
Speaker 1: We talk about the Seahawks a lot as a benchmark
Speaker 1: of how in organization is to be run. Uh. And
Speaker 1: yes they got more stars, but you at least had
Speaker 1: most of the back end draft picks at least sticking
Speaker 1: on a roster. Here in Cleveland. It just became a
Speaker 1: yearly running joke of all right, we're gonna draft ten.
Speaker 1: What's the percentage to stick around this year? Right? And
Speaker 1: all the way through you finally have the quote unquote
Speaker 1: breakthrough and that's a seven eight and one season. This
Speaker 1: was the last Browns performance in the playoffs in team history.
Speaker 1: Performance typical Browns though, right, I mean this is this
Speaker 1: is Browns. It's typical Browns. I mean that takes you
Speaker 1: to the edge, think that you're about to get over, uh,
Speaker 1: and then have that rug taken out from underneath you
Speaker 1: absolutely so, that was it now? Baker Mayfield, good luck.
Speaker 1: This is what This is the season you have to
Speaker 1: live up to the Topsy Turvy two thousand three campaign
Speaker 1: for the Cleveland Browns. Uh. If you have an idea
Speaker 1: for a future episode of Special Teams, hey hit us
Speaker 1: up on Twitter at how about a Fresco or at
Speaker 1: Swollen Dome Jason Smith, Mike Harmon. Our show is heard
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