A SURPRISINGLY UGLY START TO THE 1980 SEASON

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

By STEVE KING

The 1980 season wasn’t a breeze from start to finish for the Browns.

Come on, these were the Kardiac Kids, whose calling card was drama.

Indeed, there had to be some drama – some bad stuff – to get the season going, putting the Browns behind the proverbial eight-ball. And so there was, as they began their season with two ugly losses.

They opened with a lackluster performance in getting drubbed 34-17 at New England. Yes, the Patriots were good – they finished 10-6 that year and just missed going to the AFC playoffs – but they weren’t as good as they looked in carving up the Browns with ease.

The following week, in their home opener on Monday Night Football, they played much, much better defensively but did almost nothing offensively – again – in being ground down 16-7 by the AFC Central rival Houston Oilers. To be sure, this team was good, too – the Oilers were coming off two straight seasons in which they made it to the AFC Championship Game before falling to the eventual Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, and they got into the playoffs once more in 1980 – but the Browns had to do better against them than that, especially at home, where they had beaten them 14-7 near the end of the 1979 season.

So, after starting 3-0 in his first season in 1979 and then 4-0 in 1979, head coach Sam Rutigliano’s Browns had dug themselves a huge hole. Their season, filled with so much hope after they almost made the playoffs the previous two years, was on the verge of being over almost before it really got started.

They went about their business quietly, solemnly in the locker room afterward. This was not at what they were expecting, and they were looking for answers, and something encouraging.

They got just that – well, sort of, anyway.