Trying to take the money and run 26 years ago
By STEVE KING
Though no one knew it at the time — aside from possibly owner Art Modell, and he wasn’t telling — the Mike Miller incident was an indication of how things would go — south — for the Browns in that long-ago year, their final one in Cleveland before the original franchise up and moved to Baltimore to become the Ravens.
The Browns held their rookie mini camp over the weekend, which reminds me of the rookie mini camp they staged 26 years ago, in 1995.
The smallish Miller, a wide receiver/returner, was the latter of the team’s two fifth-round picks in the 1995 NFL Draft out of Notre Dame. When he showed up at camp that Friday, April 29, a week after the draft, reporters noticed nothing unusual when weekend, which reminds me of Miller and the rookie mini camp 26 years ago, in 1995. they talked to him. He was just another young guy with an NFL dream, and the fact that he was quick, fast and elusive, played right into the plan that fifth-year head coach Bill Belichick had for the team. He wanted players like that. He wanted them to be bigger, but if he had a choice between the two, he would take fast/quick/elusive, especially at returner, which is I think where Miller would have mostly played. The Browns needed help there after Eric Metcalf, for some reason that I still don’t understand all these years later, was traded to the Atlanta Falcons in the offseason.
Practice went smoothly that day, but on Saturday, Miller was nowhere to be found. He was AWOL.
As it turned out, he had taken the guaranteed portion of his contract and skedaddled out of town. Belichick was furious, and Modell was even madder.
Who knows what Miller was thinking, but though he had great moves, he couldn’t move fast enough or well enough to elude the long arm of the Browns. They easily and quickly tracked him down, demanded their money back from him and got it. As you might have guessed, that effectively ended his pro career, not just with the Browns but every team. Nobody likes a thief.
What wasn’t made public back then was the fact that Miller had had some scrapes with the law in similar kinds of matters while at Notre Dame. The Browns certainly had to know about this when they drafted him, but at that time, Belichick, like so many other coaches then and now, thought he had the magic pill to rehabilitate wayward players and turn them into decent human beings and even better football players. So they went ahead and drafted him anyway.
By the middle of the 1995 season, when news of the Browns’ move to Baltimore became public, no one cared anymore about Mike Miller or anyone or anything else. The guy they wanted to get their hands on was Modell, but, unlike Miller, he made a clean getaway and was already out of town, settling into his new home of Baltimore. He would return to Cleveland just one more time, being snuck into town in April 1996 to meet with Browns employees, who were still working out of the team headquarters in Berea, to see if they wanted to go to Baltimore or take a golden parachute to remain in Cleveland. Some went, while others stayed. As for Modell, he went quickly — later that day, in fact, before he was discovered. His personal well-being depended on it, and he — and those who smuggled him into Berea — knew it full well.
I don’t think the Browns have to worry about a repeat performance with any of this year’s rookies. They — and that includes another Notre Dame player, second-round pick Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, a linebacker — seem like they have behaved themselves in their lives for the most part and will continue to do so. That’s one of the things the Browns are looking for in their players.
The only thievery the Browns want is with interceptions and fumble recoveries.
