A CRAZY DREAM THAT NEARLY CAME TRUE

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fourth in a series of stories about former Browns head coach Sam Rutigliano as he turned 90 on Thursday.

By STEVE KING

In the doom and gloom of the Browns locker room after they dropped to 0-2 with a 16-7 loss to the Houston Oilers in their home opener on Monday Night Football, head coach Sam Rutigliano knew he needed something – anything, and quickly – to rally his beleaguered troops, lest they, in this hopeful, much-anticipated 1980 season, march off into the abyss, never to be heard from again.

He relied on his biggest strength: unwavering positivity.

“How about we win the rest of them and go 14-2?” he said to startled, even stunned looks.

Finish 14-2, which would probably earn the Browns the AFC Central championship? They were about as close to doing that as they were to walking on the moon. Stepping in you-know-what in a cow pasture was much closer, and more probable. It was in the next block.

But it was a stroke of genius. Rutigliano knew that the last thing the Browns needed was to get beaten down more emotionally. So he worked to prop them up and give them something big – perhaps unimaginable at that point but certainly possible – on which to focus.

What did the Browns have to lose by giving it as shot? And what did Rutigliano have to lose by saying it?

It was a glimmer of light to which they could cling.

And they did.

“You know what? We just about did it,” Rutigliano would say years later.

They didn’t win all 14 of their remaining regular-season games, but, as Rutigliano pointed out, they came close, capturing 11 of them to finish 11-5, with the three losses — by three points to both the Denver Broncos and the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers and by five to the Minnesota Vikings on the “Hail Mary” touchdown pass to Ahmad Rashad — all being decided at the end.

It was a wild and crazy ride nearly each and every week, but, because they dared to believe the seemingly impossible instead of latching onto the seemingly inevitable after the rough start, and caving in, the Browns got it done.

They almost did themselves in, though, in the middle of the year.