Sam Rutigliano 1980 Draft

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 April 23, 2020

Sam Rutigliano 1980 Draft, tv merger

By STEVE KING

In regard to the players they picked, the 1980 NFL Draft is not memorable for the Browns.

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Their top selection, in the first round, at No. 27 overall, was USC running back Charles White who, only after battling through some off-the-field issues and going to the Los Angeles Rams, finally produced.

Their second-round choice was Arizona defensive end Cleveland Pittsburgh Crosby. Really. So much for the talk that if the Browns end up taking left tackle Ezra Cleveland in the NFL Draft, it would mark the first time that the club has had a player named Cleveland.

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BTW, that long-ago Cleveland never did anything long ago in Cleveland.

Of the Browns’ remaining 1980 draft picks, only fourth-rounder Paul McDonald, a quarterback, and fifth-rounder Elvis Franks (defensive end), are notable. Franks was the only halfway-productive player of the whole draft, playing five seasons, while McDonald, who took over as the starter in 1984 after Brian Sipe bolted to the big money of the USFL, failed miserably.

Still, even with those meager returns, Sam Rutigliano, the head coach of the Browns at the time, remembers the 1980 draft well. So do other people, for that was the first time that the draft was televised.

ESPN, then a brand-new, fledging sports cable station desperately searching for attractive programming of any kind, aired it, and, 40 years after that really-out-there, crazy-sounding and historic move, will do so again this weekend, along with its sister network, ABC, and NFL Network, beginning Thursday night with the first round. Rounds two and three will be shown Friday night, with rounds four through seven coming Saturday afternoon.

The Browns currently have the No. 10 overall pick, but there is good reason that they will not stay there. They may well trade down in the first round, and then could do it again. One trade-down would probably upset a good number of Browns fans, and two trade-downs would make their heads explode. Most fans want the club to stay at 10 and make a pick, preferably a much-needed left tackle.

For the record, the Browns made all kinds of trades in the 1980 draft, which had 12 rounds.

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There is an absolutely fantastic story written by Craig Ellenport on sportsillustrated.comdetailing how the 1980 draft telecast came about. Aptly titled, “A Bold New Network, a Preposterous Idea: How the NFL Draft Came to TV,” it is well worth reading.

The story states that when the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network – yeah, that’s what ESPN stands for — approached Pete Rozelle with the proposition, the NFL commissioner said with disbelief, “You want to televise what?!”

And keep in mind that Rozelle was a TV guy. He fully understood the importance of live TV to make the game grow and as such had worked with Browns owner Art Modell, a big TV guy, too, to broker lucrative TV contracts beginning in the 1960s. Those were for games, of course.

But televising the draft? As Rozelle told ESPN then, according to Ellenport’s story, there’s nothing that really goes on during the draft, just a bunch of no-name guys sitting at tables and talking on the phone.

It’s the NFL, though, as ESPN countered, so whatever happens is special, worth watching.

“I know what that first draft telecast meant to me, because I had already worked in TV by that time, and I know what it meant to Art because he was heavily involved in TV. We both loved the idea of the draft being televised,”Rutigliano, now 88, recalled from his Waite Hill home in the far eastern Cleveland suburbs that he has lived in since his days coaching the Browns.

Rutigliano said he and Modell both saw the value of the draft telecast, and the possibilities it presented going forward. But, he made clear, neither one of them – nor anyone else back then — could ever envision how much the draft telecast would grow in the four decades since. It is mind-boggling, and spawned the idea of something just as bizarre – it is the present-day version of what the draft was back in the day –in televising the NFL Combine.

Again, the reaction of many people was, “You want to televise what?!”

Yup, TV wants to show viewers a bunch of draft prospects running 100-yard dashes and agility drills – while wearing short pants.

Modell’s TV background went way back, as he produced one of the first regular daytime TV shows in the country in the early 1950s. As for Rutigliano, he realized the importance of engaging with people and building relationships while serving as a high school coach in New York state and Connecticut. It was a way to help himself work his way up the coaching ladder.

Rutigliano was an assistant on head coach John Mazur’s Boston Patriots staff 50 years ago. Mazur was so bad communicating with reporters that he sometimes asked Rutigliano to help him make football talk understandable.

Things like that are what led to Rutigliano getting a job as a third man in the booth for the telecast of an NFL playoff game while he was serving as an assistant coach with the New Orleans Saints in 1976, just two years before going to Cleveland. He also worked on the telecast of college’s Hula Bowl one year.

“Those were great experiences. I really liked it,”said Rutigliano, who worked as a color analyst for NBC’s telecasts of NFL games after leaving Cleveland, and has done both TV and radio work on Browns-themed programming in recent years.

With that, then, plus the fact he enjoyed talking to the media during his time with the Browns from 1978-84, he welcomed the televising of the draft.

“People like to see what goes on behind the scenes, what coaches, general managers, scouts and owners go through on draft day,” Rutigliano said.

The fans’ appetite for that type of stuff has only increased over the years, and so has the networks’ ability to keep pulling the curtain back to reveal more and more.

Rutigiano said of the telecast of this year’s draft, especially on that all-important opening round on Thursday night, “It will be interesting.”

Yes, that’s a virtual certainty in more ways than one.

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