Doug Dieken just doesn’t get it, and that’s ok

By STEVE KING

Doug Dieken has never taken himself seriously.

That’s both good and bad.

It’s good in that no one wants to be around a pompous person. It’s emotionally painful.

But it’s bad in that he never thought he was making much of an impact during his more than a half-century with the Browns. The way he saw it, in his 14 years as the club’s left tackle, he was just one of the big uglies in the middle of the scrum that is also known as NFL line play. In his three years with the Browns Trust, he was just an ex-player trying to keep the flame burning with his old team when it wasn’t on the field.

And in his 34 years as the color analyst for the Browns Radio Network, he was, in his own estimation, not a true radio guy but rather, again, just an ex-player, only this time simply talking about what he saw on the field and what he knows about the Browns and the game.

Not taking himself seriously enough — not realizing what he was truly doing, how well he was doing it, and how well it was being received from not just the fans, most of whom he will never meet, but also from other players and coaches, all of whom fully understand what he has meant to the Browns, the game and the region, was the one of the few mistakes he’s continually made over the years, and certainly the biggest.

“It’s been overwhelming,” Dieken said the other day when asked how many people have reached out to him following the announcement Tuesday that he will retire after Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Cincinnati Bengals at FirstEnergy Stadium, ending a 51-year tenure with the Browns, the longest for any employee in club history.

“I thought there would be a little bit made of it, and that would be it. But that’s not been the case at all. What I thought would be a little deal has turned into a big deal. My phone hasn’t stopped ringing. I have to check every hour to see how many messages I have and how many calls I have to return. I have heard from a lot of players and coaches not only from the Browns, but also from other teams.

“There are even some former teammates coming in from out of town for the game, That includes (ex-running back/returner) Dino Hall, one of my favorite all-time people.

“I went out to dinner the other night. These people I didn’t know were coming up to our table shaking hands with me and offering me congratulations and thanks.

“I never saw this coming. I really didn’t.”

When Dieken, who was born and raised in Streeter, Ill. and then was a record-setting pass-catcher as a tight end at Illinois, was taken by the Browns in the sixth round of the 1971 NFL Draft, he had been to Cleveland only one time. When he was finishing up his college career, he was visited by just one NFL team. It was the Browns’ Lou Groza, a Pro Football Hall of Famer who was back with his old club doing some scouting. Little did Dieken know that he would be only the third left tackle in club history, behind Groza, a Martins Ferry, Ohio native, and then Dick Schafrath of Wooster High School. Both of those men had played at Ohio State.

” I was hoping to play tight end in the NFL,” he said. “But when I got to the Browns, they laid out a jersey on a table for me. It had a 73 on it, so I said to myself, ‘I guess I’m not playing tight end.’ “

It worked to his benefit, though. Left tackles usually play a long time, much longer than tight ends not named Ozzie Newsome. That gave fans a chance to really get to know him.

When he retired, he was encouraged to go into radio by his good friend, Danny Coughlin, a talented, whimsical writer for first the Cleveland Plain Dealer and later the Cleveland Press whose chronicling of Dieken’s humorous off-the-field antics made him more than a football player to those fans.

It worked again to Dieken’s benefit, for what he may have lacked in prim-and-proper radio tact and protocol was more than made up for by his honesty, humor and homespun delivery. He loved the Browns just as much as they did, and as such, like them, he reveled when they were playing well and was disappointed when they weren’t.

Though he would argue, and did during the interview, saying that the moniker belongs to Dino Lucarelli, the beloved and well-respected former longtime public and media relations assistant for the team, but actually it is Dieken who is the true representative of everything that is good about the Browns.

Again, Dieken has failed to understand his connection with the fans and others.

That will likely happen one more time before he and his longtime partner in the booth, play-by-announcer and dear friend Jim Donovan, sign off together for the last time a little after 4 p.m. Sunday following the game with Cincinnati. When asked if he will be able to keep from getting emotional then, he said, “I think so. The only time I’ve lost it the last couple days was when I talked about my (special needs) brother (who passed away).”

Those who know Dieken know better than that.

And who could blame him, for even the most selfless among us want to be loved, and Doug Dieken definitely is.

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