JJ Redick, the new head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, wasn’t the first pro coach to err in using profanity in a public venue when he dropped not one, but two f-bombs in his introductory press conference the other day.
And he won’t be the last.
There have been a number of other coaches through the years to make a language faux pas, including some in Cleveland.
It was almost 32 years ago, in late July 1992, and the Browns were beginning their first training camp held at team headquarters.
The Browns had practiced there during the 1991 regular season, the first year for head coach Bill Belichick, but the building and practice fields weren’t quite done in time for the 1991 training camp to be staged there. It remained at Lakeland Community College in Kirkland.
There used to be a set of bleachers right next to the practice field on the extreme northeast corner of the complex, adjacent to the indoor facility. The bleachers were so close to the field that the bottom row of seating came right up to the sideline.
Talk about getting close to the action! Indeed, there was no better place to be.
As such, there were a lot of families, with their children, watching a defensive drill being conducted one morning under the watchful eyes of Belichick and his defensive coordinator Nick Saban, the first assistant coach he hired when he got the job. Saban had been the head coach of Toledo for one season, 1990.
Imagine that, the guy (Belichick) who is now regarded as the best pro football head coach ever, working with the guy (Saban) who is now regarded as the best college football head coach ever. Who knew?!
The two coaches were intense, even at that long-ago time, and the profanity was thick and constant that hot, humid day. What was hotter, Mother Nature or the language? It was getting almost as much attention as — probably, more than, to be honest — the practice itself.
I don’t know if a parent complained to Art Modell, or if the Browns owner acted on his own, but anyway, he called Belichick and Saban into his office after practice and told them that while he promised his support of them in every way, shape and form, and would get them anything they wanted to return the club to its winning ways of the 1980s, they could never use that kind of language within earshot of children again. As much as we’ve said about Modell’s character, let’s be clear in stating he was a family man and a gentleman who loved children and would never harm them, including subjecting them to profanity.
As an aside, Belichick uttered an f-bomb in a post-practice informal press conference in the old media room at Browns Headquarters a year later, in 1993, when he became upset with a reporter’s question. He abrutly ended the session and bolted out the door, leaving reporters and a few TV cameramen stunned, wide-eyed and staring at each other.
And speaking of bad moves, the current Browns made one when they released their training camp schedule. It includes only six practices that will be open to fans in Berea. That is absurd. To have only six practices open to fans will close out a lot of people who come every year to watch training camp because they can’t afford game tickets. It is their way of getting to see the Browns up close and personal. That the Browns have offered their season- ticket holders the first chance at registering for tickets for training camp practices, only serves to exacerbate the problem. There has to be a better idea. Shame on you, Browns, for not coming up with one.
Steve King
