BEST BROWNS T-SHIRT AND THE SPOILS OF VICTORY
By STEVE KING
A victory always freshens the air.
It shines a light on all the good things that are happening, and could be happening going forward.
That’s especially the case with an upset victory, such as the Browns’ 28-16 whipping of the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.
You’ve heard all about the players in the hours since that game ended, and you will continue to hear about them. And that is as it should be.
But what about the coaches?
Yes, the Cleveland coaches, namely head coach Gregg Williams and offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens, both of whom have been in those roles for only a little over two weeks.
If they preside over a sustained about-face of the team overall, which had lost four straight heading into last Sunday, and the offense, which had really been languishing, then they could well set themselves up for some interesting career opportunities once this season is over. It won’t be in Cleveland – General Manager John Dorsey wants to clean house and start fresh – but it will likely be somewhere.
Williams talked about both himself and Kitchens on Monday as the Browns, still savoring their win, got ready to enjoy their bye week.
“One of the things is – I do not know if I mentioned this at all or if I did this a few weeks ago – no matter where I have been involved or what position I have had, I have always tried to take that position as a position of accountability at a position of the head coach of that position,” Williams said in a conference call with the Cleveland media. “Be it the head coach as a secondary coach. Be it the linebackers coach. Be it the quarterbacks coach. Be it you are the head coach of what you are involved in.
“When you do what you do, what you are involved in so well, maybe somebody else might ask you to do more. But when you do not do what you are supposed to be doing so well, why would they ask you to do more?
“My dad told me that many, many, many years ago about how you get promoted in life. The big part of that is on how we and I have organized staff issues, how I have organized the organization of the things that we do. I have always felt like I was a head coach in charge of whatever I was in.
“Now, sometimes it has to go up to do more area and more people involved, but there is a philosophy in an organizational way of going about being accountable, disciplined and focused. After that is that person has to it off and run, and the player has to follow through on game day because their day is inside the white lines.”
Here’s what Williams had to say about Kitchens, and what he has learned about him these last two weeks:
“The one thing is until you get in the most stressful situations in life, you really do not know everything about a person. I have always taken a look at a player, a friend, a classmate, a teammate in all the different years of life is I think you can better evaluate people under stress than under being relaxed. Not that he has been stressed, but he has been asked to do more too and I feel like, boy, that is a pretty good coach over there. All of a sudden, he was ready to go when the next man up came.
“I am real proud of him, and I feel really good for him. He got an opportunity and the ownership provided that opportunity and decided that is what they wanted to do, and he has done a very good job. I have been impressed, and we have had some good times behind the scenes talking about the things he continues to want to do and the things I can help him about pointing in the right direction or maybe bringing up another thought process is, ‘Do you really want to do it that way?’
“I have been through a little bit more than he has in some of those things. He has been around some really good mentors in life, also, as I have been around, but there has been a really good sharing of ideas. There has been a really good asking opinions of each other over forcing opinions of each other, and I think he has done a very good job with that and I think he will continue to grow.”
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