Of Marty, Sam and even Art

Sam Rutigliano 1980SEPTEMBER 15, 1983 CLEVELAND, OH: Head coach Sam Rutigliano of the Cleveland Browns is congratulated by defensive coordinator Marty Schottenheimer on the sideline during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals on September 15, 1983 at the Cleveland Municipal Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland won 17-7. (Photo by: Ron Kuntz Collection/Diamond Images/Getty Images)

Posted By: County Sports Network February 5, 2021

Of Marty, Sam and even Art

By STEVE KING


The story that was supposed to run in this space, about former Browns linebacker Clay Matthews’ chances to be voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday, will have to wait a day.
An ex-Brown having a chance to be a Hall of Famer is significant — it’s huge news indeed — and as such it was going to take something even bigger to get it bumped back a day. And that’s exactly what happened after the news the other day that former Browns head coach Marty Schottenheimer, who served in that role for 4 1/2 years of Matthews’ career in the 1980s, has been admitted to a hospice facility near his home in Charlotte, N.C. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2014.
I was doing research for the Matthews story on Wednesday, watching the NBC telecast of the 1987 game between the Browns and Cincinnati Bengals at Cleveland Stadium, and there was Schottenheimer barking instructions from the sidelines. Serving as the color analyst on NBC’s telecast of the game was Schottenheimer’s predecessor with the Browns, and the man who hired him as defensive coordinator in 1980, Sam Rutigliano.
The two men don’t get along at all, and haven’t for years. In fact, I don’t think they’ve spoken since Schottenheimer was named as the replacement when Rutigliano was fired midway through the 1984 season.
There are reasons for it, but I don’t want to get into them now. This is neither the time nor the place.
But , no matter the reason, the fact there’s such a disconnect between them makes me sad. The 1980s, with first the Kardiac Kids era and then the Bernie Kosar years, were such a great time for the Browns, and I would love to have heard the two men who orchestrated it all talk and reminisce about it together. There would have been some wonderful stories.
Rutigliano and his wife of 67 years, Barbara, still live in the house in Waite Hill in the far eastern Cleveland suburbs, near Kirtland, that they purchased when he was hired by the Browns just after the 1977 regular season ended. He will turn 90 on July 1.
The house is located less than a mile from the home Art Modell lived in when he owned the Browns and hired both men. He passed away in 2012 at the age of 87.
It’s all a sign that we’re getting older and time marches on.

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