“No Time for Patience: Why Brian Sipe Wouldn’t Make It in Today’s NFL”
One of the things that never came up in the great story about former Browns star quarterback Brian Sipe recently by the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Mary Kay Cabot is one of the most important facts in team history.
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That is, if Sipe, quite possibly the best passer not named Otto Graham who the Browns have ever had, would not have stuck around long enough to blossom had he been playing today. The time given to a quarterback to prove himself now is considerably shorter than it used to be 50 yards ago.
Being essentially a throwaway pick in the 1972 NFL Draft, taken near the bottom, in the 13th round of a 17-round process, Sipe never even made the regular roster in his first two seasons and instead was stashed onto the cab squad, the forerunner of today’s practice squad. When he was finally promoted to the varsity in 1974 and given a chance to play, and start, he didn’t make much of an impression. That continued in 1975, and, in fact, when Mike Phipps played well down the stretch, it was thought that the No. 3 overall draft pick in 1970 had at long last come of age and he was solidly the starter heading into the offseason.
But Phipps separated his shoulder in the 1976 opener against the New York Jets, effectively ending his time in Cleveland, and Sipe stepped in and did some good things, passing for 17 touchdowns against 14 interceptions. He took a step back, though, in 1977 with nine scoring passes with 14 picks.
So, then, Sipe had been with the Browns for six years and still had done nothing to prove that he was the guy. Today, he would be released at that point, if it hadn’t happened already. The Browns — or any team in the league — would have long since run out of patience.
Then good fortune smiled upon Sipe, and, as it turned out, the Browns with the arrival of Sam
Rutigliano as head coach in 1978 after the firing of Forrest Gregg. Rutigliano immediately took a real liking to Sipe and made him the starter long before practice even started.
But still, there would be bumps in the road. Sipe and the Browns started well in 1978 and then began to struggle. Heading onto their 12th game of the year, on the road against the Baltimore Colts, the Browns had dropped four of their last five, with the offense scoring a combined total of just 34 points in the losses, and Rutigliano was having some serious doubts about his quarterback. Another clunker and he might have had to consider making a change. But Sipe came through with his first 300-yard passing performance in a rousing 45-24 win and never looked back. He had arrived after almost seven full seasons. Two seasons later, Sipe was the NFL Most Valuable Player with the greatest year ever by a Cleveland quarterback and the Kardiac Kids were winning the AFC Central title for the first time in nine seasons and making their first playoff appearance in eight years. It was a long time coming, much, much more time, in fact, than he would have been given today.
How different Browns history would be without that wonderful 1980
season and the presence of the man who, in many ways, made it all happen.
Steve King
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