Sam knew it would never be the same

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the 10th – and final – installment in a series of stories about former Browns head coach Sam Rutigliano as he turned 90 on July 1.

By STEVE KING

After home games, former Browns head coach Sam Rutigliano had to meet with team owner Art Modell in his office at Cleveland Stadium to discuss how things went.

For almost every week during that wild, crazy, fun-filled and successful 1980 Kardiac Kids season, those meetings were like parties. Another game, another big win and another reason to celebrate.

But not this time. Not after the Browns’ last-minute, 14-12 loss to the Oakland Raiders in the AFC divisional playoffs on a bitterly cold day.

More than just stunning and disappointing, the loss was numbing. It appeared as if it were going to be another Kardiac Kids finish, but it just didn’t work out that way.

The loss was not the end of just the season, but rather an entire era, that of the Kardiac Kids.

And Rutigliano knew it.

On his way up to Modell’s office, Rutigliano excused himself from his wife, Barbara, and walked out the runway of one of the sections of the stadium. It was empty and quiet. Everybody had left after screaming their lungs out all afternoon.

He took it all in, took a big breath and then it took everything he had to admit to himself, “Things will never be the same.”

He was right. The magic of 1980 did not carry over to 1981. In fact, just the opposite was true. The Browns’ record was inverted as they went from 11-5 to 5-11. In 1982, Brian Sipe, who struggled in 1981, did so again and was eventually benched in favor of Paul McDonald. McDonald rallied the Browns to a 4-5 record in the strike-shortened season and the final spot in the AFC playoffs. Once again, they met the Raiders, who had since moved to Los Angeles, and got crushed 27-10 at Memorial Coliseum.

Sipe won his job back in 1983, and the Browns, after starting 8-5, struggled down the stretch to finish 9-7 and just miss the playoffs. Sipe was wooed by the big money being him by Donald Trump, the owner of the USFL’s New Jersey Generals, and bolted the Browns.

McDonald was horrible in taking over in 1984. At the midway point of the season, after the Browns lost 12-9 to the Cincinnati Bengals on a last-play field goal to fall to 1-7, Rutigliano was fired.

It was a sad ending to an unforgettable time.