Dan Coughlin Talks Browns, HS Football Championship and Much More

Lotta things to cover. I'll do it quickly.

The Browns scored nine points in the last two minutes to make the score look close against San Diego Sunday because the Chargers relaxed and had some defensive backups in there. The Browns scored only seven points when the Chargers were serious.

When I was driving to Channel 8 in the afternoon to anchor the Sunday night shows, there was virtually no traffic headed into town. In the old days there would be traffic jams on the Innerbelt Bridge an hour before the game, lined up to exit at Ontario and E. Ninth St. None of that this past Sunday. Then I saw why. The Stadium was only half-filled. They called it a sellout. What a charade! Tickets may have been sold but went unused. They couldn't even give them away.

Back to the X's and O's. Let's see how the Browns do Thursday against the Steelers, a team in trouble. They are really bumbling. Their defense is uncharacteristically porous. If the Browns can put together a 10--play drive against Pittsbsurgh -- which they should, it will suggest that the opening drive against San Diego was no fluke.

Hilliard Davidson is the most one-dimensional team I've ever seen. But they do their one dimension so well!! They run the ball as well as anybody I've ever seen because their blocking is textbook perfect. Don Shula only came close to that when he had Csonka, Kiick and Mercury Morris with the Dolphins in the '70s.
I knew they would go for the two-point conversion and the win with 1:04 left in the state championship game against Glenville Saturday night because they went for two earlier in the game for an 8-0 lead.

Furthermore, that's what they did against Mentor in the 2006 state title game. You may recall that three years ago in the second overtime, Mentor went first and scored a touchdown and kicked the extra point. Hilliard Davidson then scored a touchdown and instead of playing it safe, kicking the point and going into a third overtime, Hilliard Davidson put the game on the line right then. They went for two points and got it, to beat Mentor by one point.

The philosophy is solid. How often do you get down to the three-yard line? When you get there, go for the touchdown.
However, I would advocate that for only one team -- the one that just beat Glenville, 16-15.

For everbody else, don't get greedy. Take your points one at a time. St. Ed's lost the 1975 state championship game to Moeller, 14-12, when the Eagles went for two twice and failed. Moeller kicked its points.
That's my lecture for today.

As I've said before, Notre Dame will spend eternity looking for another Ara Parseghian. They won't find him. There is only one Ara. But with luck, they might come close. The guy might be Brian Kelly of Cincinnati, not just because he's Irish. His resume is solid, a winner at two previous colleges. His players seem to believe in him. He's not a phony. Players see right through that. He's charming, decent and polite. Those last three qualities count for something after Notre Dame's experience with the last guy.

The Cincinnati Bengals hired the local Wolfhounds Rugby Club for sideline security during this past Sunday's game, which is a real paradox. Usually, extra security is hired for protection AGAINST rugby teams. Paradox #2, how about a pro football team hiring rugby players as bodyguards? It reminds me of Muhammad Ali hiring Gene Kilroy, a big sloppy Irishman, as his bodyguard during his boxing days.

Anyway, my son John, who plays for the Wolfhounds, explained that the Bengals have a nice relationship with the rugby team. The Bengals are very supportive. They make a donation to the Wolfhounds for security and the players volunteer their services. It's a fundraiser for the rugby team.

The rugby players wore yellow windbreakers along the sidelines and they faced the stands, looking for trouble. There is a $500 bonus for any rugby player who intercepts a fan who comes out of the stands and makes a break for the field.

The sun has now disappeared until May, which reminds me about John Hambrick, the old WEWS Channel 5 newscaster who owned this town back in the '60s. When we worked together in Miami in 1989-90, he said he made a lot of money in the TV business. He went from Cleveland to New York and Los Angeles and wound up in Miami.

"But I only had one success," he said, referring to Cleveland.

"Why did you leave?" I asked him.

"The sun," he said. "Everyday I would drive down Chester Ave. from the East Side to work and it was gray, nothing but gray. We didn't see the sun for months."

He was a terrific guy. I didn't know him in Cleveland, but I liked him a lot in Miami. What a work ethic. He learned to speak Spanish, which helped him a lot in Miami.