Blanton Collier’s Quiet Legacy: Coaching Greatness One Step at a Time

Tackling the art of line play, one foot at a time

Blanton Collier was a great head coach for eight seasons (1963-70) with the Browns.

As mentioned in this space recently, he might have made it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame had he not had to retire prematurely because of poor hearing.

There are some who think he belongs there anyway. I became one of those people — in regards not just to Collier but also to former Browns/Kansas City Chiefs/Washington/San Diego Chargers head coach Marty Schottenheimer — after Don Coryell got into the HOF. Huh? A good coach, sure, but Canton? Really? Are you kidding me? In the same way, when former Buffalo Bills guard Billy Shaw got into the Hall, I felt even stronger — much stronger, in fact — about the candidacy of former Browns left tackle Dick Schafrath.

Anyway, along with Collier being a great head coach, he was also a tremendous assistant coach with the Browns in three different stints (1946-53, 1962 and 1975-76).

It was, though, in another way, as a volunteer, that Collier was at his best as an “assistant coach.” One time after leaving as head coach, Collier spent some time working with the Browns offensive linemen, including a young man named Doug Dieken who had played tight end at Illinois but was being converted to left tackle.

“Blanton worked with us, and the first thing he focused on was our footwork,” Dieken said. “He spent an hour — I mean, a whole hour, if you can believe that — on nothing but footwork, beginning with our stance and how to line up. I was amazed by the way he broke it down into the smallest points. It was that day that I realized how important footwork is in offensive line play.”

Dieken was a good student, using Collier’s teaching as one of the foundations of his 14-year career with the Browns as one of the top left tackles in the game.

It was also why, 36 years after that mini minicamp day with Collier, Dieken kept his head down as he stood next to a bunch of media people watching a young left tackle by the name of Joe Thomas working out in his Browns “debut” on the first day of the 2007 rookie minicamp.

“What are you looking at?” I finally asked Dieken.

“I’m watching his feet,” he said. “You have to have good feet to play left tackle. This kid has pretty good feet. He’s got a chance.”

It’s probably exactly what Blanton Collier said a long time ago while watching another kid wearing No. 73 trying to get a foot up on the competition.

Steve King