The focus of my last post was that the Browns’ Kevin Stefanski should, without a doubt, win the NFL Coach of the Year award.

But in a lot of ways, a head coach is only as good as his assistant coaches, and that is certainly the case with the Browns. They have a number of tremendous assistant coaches. In fact, this is probably the best set of coaches they’ve had in the expansion era. There is coordinator Jim Schwartz, offensive line coach Bill Callahan and running backs coach Stump Mitchell, just to name a few. The Browns wouldn’t be where they’re at right now, with an 11–5 record and a postseason berth already in hand, without all the assistant coaches.

This needs to be said, because assistant coaches never get their due. They are the men behind the scenes who make the team, in a lot of respects, either sink or swim.

It’s a credit to Stefanski for building such a good staff, and then for being able to keep it together and grow. It’s just another reason why the Browns are in such a good stead right now.

On a different note, Wednesday is the 37th anniversary of the Browns’ dramatic 23–20 double-overtime comeback win over the New York Jets in the 1986 season, played on Jan. 3, 1987 at Cleveland Stadium. The Browns fell behind 20-10 with 4:14 left in the fourth quarter, and tied it on Kevin Mack’s one-yard touchdown run and Mark Moseley’s 22-yard field goal to send it to OT. The Browns then won it in the second overtime on Moseley’s 27-yard field goal.

Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar passed for a staggering, 489 yards, but the real story of this game is that the club never gave up, despite their gloomy prospects late in the fourth quarter

As with a number of victories during the great Kosar era of the last half of the 1980s, you had to see it to believe it.

Steve King