Paul Brown Would Never Allow This — And Neither Should the Browns

The biggest distraction in Browns historyBEREA, OH - JULY 30: Deshaun Watson #4 of the Cleveland Browns throws a pass during Cleveland Browns training camp at CrossCountry Mortgage Campus on July 30, 2022 in Berea, Ohio. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images)

Posted By: County Sports Network December 5, 2025

The Browns’ first head coach, Paul Brown, was a clean liver.

So was Blanton Collier, the guy who followed him, in no small part because he first coached under Brown and was affected by how he operated.

Brown didn’t tolerate poor behavior from his players, or they were no longer going to be his players. He wanted them to be disciplined in every sense of the word and in every aspect of their lives, on and off the field. You have to have that if you’re going to have “the New York Yankees of football,” which, he informed everybody in the organization, was the goal for the Browns.

Brown was constantly on his defensive lineman, Chubby Grigg, who lived up to his nickname by flirting with 300 pounds at a time when such a weight was way off the charts, literally and figuratively. He told Grigg to get lean and mean. The coach believed in speed and quickness over size when no one else in pro football did.

Brown took that insistance of being disciplined with him when he went to the Cincinnati Bengals. Returning home late one evening from being out to dinner with his wife, he passed near the Bengals training facility and noticed that head coach Sam Wyche’s car was still in the parking lot. He turned around and headed back to the facility. Excusing himself to his wife, he went in and found Wyche in his office.

“Hi, Sam, what are you doing here?” Brown asked.

“I’m just going over some things to make sure we’re ready for Sunday’s game,” Wyche explained.

“Are you aware of what time it is?”

“Yes, but I needed to get this done.”

“Well, you’re done as of right now. You need to be home spending time with your family, not here working. It’s too late in the evening for that. Now grab your coat and get out of here. I will be back to check on you sometime — I’ll come unannounced — and I had better not find you working. Is that understood?”

I thought of that story when I chewed on the news that quarterback Deshaun Watson has begun practicing with the Browns. And if he’s practicing, then that opens up at least the possibility that he could actually play in a game(s) down the stretch this season.

Oh, man, what would Paul Brown say about that to Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski?

Probably something to the effect that, “I will be back to check on you sometime — I’ll come announced — and I had better not see Deshaun Watson out there.”

Indeed, it’s bad enough that he’s practicing, but playing in a game would be a whole other level of distasteful.

It simply can’t happen, ever.

Steve King

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