GOODBYE SIPE, HELLO MCDONALD – AND DISASTER
By STEVE KING
Oh, yes, just like every other pro sports team, the Browns have had their share of occasions when a good season – or at least one with a good ending – that inspired hope for the following year, ended badly.
Here is Part 2 of that infamous list:
*1983-84 – The Browns in 1983 started 8-5 and seemed to have a playoff spot locked up, but then they lost two straight, the latter of which was by seven points to a horrible Houston Oilers team that won only two games all year. Still in the race on the final day of the regular season, but now needing help to make it, the Browns held up their end of the bargain by rolling past the Pittsburgh Steelers 30-17 but were denied a playoff berth by tiebreakers.
That was quarterback Brian Sipe’s last game in a Browns uniform after more than a decade, as he bolted to the big money being offered him by owner Donald Trump’s New Jersey Generals, where a guy by the name of Chris Palmer would be his offensive coordinator. Head coach Sam Rutigliano thought that Sipe’s understudy for four seasons, Paul McDonald, was ready to take over, but he was oh, so wrong and it ended up costing him his job.
McDonald was a disaster, and so were the Browns. Despite being picked before the season to win the AFC Central title, based in large part on how they did in 1983 (and 1982, when they made the playoffs), the Browns, their high-powered offense having left town when Sipe did, lost their first three games and eight of their first nine. Six of the eight defeats were by a combined total of just 17 points.
When the Browns fell to Cincinnati 12-9 on a last-play field goal to drop the record to 1-7, owner Art Modell, who hated Bengals owner Paul Brown and viewed his team as Cleveland’s biggest rival, fired Rutigliano after 6½ seasons and replaced him with defensive coordinator Marty Schottenheimer. The Browns got much better the rest of the year, going 4-4, but the damage had already been done as they still finished only 5-11.
To be continued.
