Alan Haller memories – of Michigan State’s new AD and the 1992 Browns

By STEVE KING

Do you remember Alan Haller, a long-ago cornerback who played one season — 1992 — with the Browns?

That’s the same Alan Haller who was promoted to athletics director at Michigan State University earlier this week. He had been assistant AD there. He also played for MSU.

In his new job, Haller will be overseeing the work of second-year Spartans head football coach Mel Tucker, a Cleveland native and former assistant coach with the Browns and at Ohio State, including in the latter’s 2002 national championship season.

As for Haller, he was part of the many no-name, low-profile but highly effective defensive backs the Browns were forced to use that season because of a number of injuries.

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The injuries hit a low point heading into a trip to Houston to play the explosive, run-and-shoot, pass-happy Oilers at the Astrodome. With that hodge-podge secondary, the Browns were overwhelming underdogs. If there was one team against which you needed all hands on the deck in the secondary, it was the Oilers. Moon and Co. were chomping at the bit to carve up their AFC Central rivals.

But something happened on the way to the game. The Browns had two defensive geniuses in head coach Bill Belichick and defensive coordinator Nick Saban. They put their heads together and came up with a defensive scheme that, even with a lack of top talent, flummoxed Moon and the Oilers. The Browns didn’t make Moon look average. They made him look like a rookie.

The result was that the Browns pulled off the upset of all upsets, 24-14. The Oilers, especially Moon, walked off the field stunned. They didn’t think something like that could happen, but it did anyway.

Those 1992 Browns didn’t score a whole of points — just 272 — but they also didn’t give up many, either (275). After beating the Oilers, they were 5-4 and hanging in the wild-card race. They improved to 7-6 by rolling past the Cincinnati Bengals 37-21 in quarterback Bernie Kosar’s best game of the season.

But they lost their last three games to finish 7-9.

By the offseason, Haller was gone, not surprisingly.

And by the middle of the 1993 regular season, so was Kosar, surprisingly.

No need to elaborate, for y’all know that story.

Browns sign K Chris Naggar and T Jordan Steckler to Practice Squad

Berea, Ohio – The Cleveland Browns signed K Chris Naggar and T Jordan Steckler to their practice squad. The team has one practice squad opening remaining of its 16 spots.

Naggar (5-11, 193) is an undrafted free agent that signed to the New York Jets out of SMU. Naggar began his collegiate career at Texas (2016-19) before transferring to SMU for his redshirt senior season. The 2020 AAC Special Teams Player of the Year made 17 of his 21 field goals (81.0%) and 43 of 46 extra points (93.5) last season. Naggar is a native of Arlington, Texas.

Steckler (6-5, 305) is a first-year player who originally signed with the New Orleans Saints as an undrafted free agent in 2020 from Northern Illinois. After spending the 2020 offseason with the Saints, he later served time on the New England Patriots’ practice squad for the second half of the season (Weeks 8-17). Steckler hails from Two Rivers, Wis.

Key dates ahead Sept. 12: Week 1 at Kansas City, 4:25 p.m.Sept. 19: Week 2 vs. Houston, 1 p.m.Sept. 26: Week 3 vs. Chicago, 1 p.m.Nov. 2: NFL trade deadline, 4 p.m.