Of Meyer, Tressel and their beloved Browns
By STEVE KING
It will be odd to see Urban Meyer on the other sideline.
The former Ohio State head coach made his NFL head coaching debut when the Jacksonville Jaguars took on the Browns in the preseason opener.
As luck would have it, Meyer did so against the team he rooted for while growing up in Ashtabula.
There were times, of course – lots of times, really – when the Browns were struggling and fans were begging him to leave Columbus and come to Cleveland and rescue Jimmy and Dee Haslam’s team. Whether or not he ever seriously considered it is anyone’s guess, but it could have easily been, at some point in the past, Meyer making his NFL head coaching debut with the Browns and not against them. How he would have done we’ll never know, but we can take a guess based on how he fares in trying to turn around the woebegone Jags.
Before Meyer got to Columbus, the man coaching the Buckeyes, Jim Tressel, was another guy fans dreamed of coming to Cleveland to right the Browns. Tressel grew up in Berea, going to high school just a few blocks from the present Browns Headquarters, as a huge Browns fan. For years, his mother worked at Browns training camp checking people through the pass gate. There are stories of Jim working in his office in Columbus on Sunday afternoons listening to the Browns on the radio.
How would he have fared? Again, just as with Meyer, there’s no telling. But I never believed Tressel was cut out for the NFL. His personality didn’t seem suited for it. There was too much college in him.
I think Meyer, because of the much harder edge he had, would have been a much better fit. Again, we’ll see if that’s true.
In any event, it all adds a nice little sidelight to the season.
