In Peter King's MMQB, he had a long piece of Paul Brown's opening talk with the players in 1973.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...&sct=hp_t12_a0
And so you want to know what a coach says to his team before training camp ...
Paul Brown
Paul Brown was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Famein 1967.
Nate Fine/WireImage.com
My first job covering pro football was in 1984 in Cincinnati, for the Cincinnati Enquirer. I reported to Wilmington, Ohio, an hour northeast of Cincinnati, to cover training camp on the hot, dusty fields at Wilmington College. Many days, I'd spend an hour or so standing with owner Paul Brown watching practice. By this time, he was in the process of handing the team over to son Mike, who now runs the show 28 years later. Paul Brown is one of the great coaches who ever lived, and one of the most organized, detail-oriented people I've ever met in the game. Once, I recall dragging myself onto the field for the second two-hour practice of a 90-something-degree day, and after 90 minutes making some crack to the wide-brim-hatted Paul Brown about how, day after day, he could be so attentive and so eager to see every play of four hours of football practice. "Young man,'' he said with an urgent reverence (I can still hear him), "this is our lifeblood.''
I'm not sure how I got to be in possession of it, but when I moved from Cincinnati to New York, I had a cassette tape of the 1973 speech Brown made to his team at the start of training camp. I listened to it once, then misplaced it during one of our moves since. I've always thought of it as a treasure I'd share one day with readers, but when I searched for it this summer, I just couldn't find it. So I called Bengals PR czar Jack Brennan, who was on the beat with me back in 1984, and asked if he could scare up a copy of it -- which someone in the Bengal offices had. So I had it transcribed and present it to you -- in edited form, because it was about 14,000 words long -- so you'll be able to hear something classic, some good example of how a smart coach goes over everything with his team at the start of training camp.
I'd love to get your feedback on it. Boring? Compelling? Let me know.
So let's go back to July 1973, to Year Six of the newest team in pro football, the Cincinnati Bengals, to the team meeting room at Wilmington College, as Paul Brown steps to the podium to address the team he owns, general-manages, and, most importantly, coaches.
Says Brown:
"This lecture, or whatever you want to call it, that I do yearly is always our first point of business and to me, it's a very serious session. I consider it the most important meeting we have all year, so just settle yourself down here and listen carefully to what I say. I want you to know that I don't mean to be eloquent. It's just how I feel and how we operate.
"At the beginning, I want you to know that we're more than competitive. When we started out, I made the statement publicly that I wanted to be competitive in five years and I think we proved that last year. Nobody takes us lightly. We're considered a factor in this race. The next objective in our development has to be ... I want to win something. I'd like to win something big. I'm not just talking about getting there to have a shot at it. We can play anybody. We've had our giveaways and our fumbles, our mental lapses and the crucial last-minute failures. We've been through it. I no longer accept it. We can play and win from any team in this game. We're shooting for the big prize.
start quote When we happen to single you out, once in a while when I say something to you in an open meeting like this, it isn't done to hurt your feelings. I don't want you to start feeling sorry for yourself. Be a man about your errors. Do something about it. end quote
-- Paul Brown
"I'll talk about the coaches, the men you work for. I have selected them myself. They're my friends, partners. They represent different backgrounds of football. I think they're relatively young and knowledgeable. They demand things, are enthusiastic and you work for them, just as you work for me.
"Day to day in our staff meetings, we're going to be talking about you. That's our total topic of conversation when we're in session. Talking about you. Your strengths or your weaknesses, your effort. We spend hours in that office adjoining my bedroom and you are the total topic of conversation. I want you to know that I respect their judgment and they're the same to you as I am. Everything they know, I'll know. You're welcome to see the statistical study we have on you. It will be pointed out to you. Their criticisms will be constructive. When we happen to single you out, once in a while when I say something to you in an open meeting like this, it isn't done to hurt your feelings. I don't want you to start feeling sorry for yourself. Be a man about your errors. Do something about it. If you make a boo-boo, you're sorry about it, we all are. It hurts us all. Coaches won't be swearing at you. We're not this shouting, haranguing type. They'll treat you high class, but they aren't really working for a popularity contest either. Your respect we want. Other than that, we want to make sense to you. Don't misconstrue this kind of relationship as weakness. There has got to be mutual respect.
"When the game plan is finalized, everybody goes all out with it. Coaches, players, everybody. I make a point of trying to keep abreast of the offensive and defensive game plans. Don't be saying after the game, 'I personally would've had them do this but they preferred to do that.' That doesn't do anybody any good. The plan, once it's crystallized, we go with it all the way and we act like men about it. Besides, being disloyal with this kind of an approach, I also know you can't win with that kind of an approach. That's the thing that really bothers me most.
"I want to emphasize, particularly to our new men, that this is not college football. You're trying to make a pro team and the responsibility for doing so rests squarely with you. It's honest, but I'm going to say this to you, it takes a lot of man, really. Rookies are treated just like veterans here. There's no hazing. No differentiation whatsoever. A lot of our rookies are married men trying to make a living, same as the veterans. In a nutshell, it's just all-out open competition to be one of the 40 to make it. Man to man. There's no sugar-coating or pampering. Whenever you have a spoiled problem player, my experience has been almost without exception he's not very bright. That's where the trouble comes, from that type of person. But whether you're a veteran or a man fresh out of college, how big a name you might think you have, it just doesn't mean much when you get into football and pro football. You aren't going to impress anybody by how big you talk or how flashy you dress or how big a car you drive or what kind of a contract you think you have. The only thing that's going to count here is the dedication and performance on the field. No one will be exerting or pushing you; it comes from within you. Run on your own gas.
"The starting principle I want to be sure that you understand thoroughly is that there is no room here for anything that smacks of the social or political struggles that are a part of our world today. We're not a springboard for anything of this type. A football team is people. It's a delicate mechanism. Feelings, respect for your teammates, respect for the organization are vital. I really don't care what your political beliefs might be. Fortunately, this is not a year of politics; at least it probably won't be much of an issue. Even if it were, I don't want you bringing it into our football, our locker room and our sessions. When you're socializing, no political or social arguments are going to be tolerated. Frankly, I don't care whether you're a Republican or a Democrat or a Socialist. You can be a Communist, white or black or yellow or Catholic, Protestant, Jew, Irish, Italian or German, whatever else. Don't bring this into our football. I'm telling you. Don't let people or groups use you.
start quote I really think that how you handle your money as a player reflects and is indicative of the kind of person you are. Invariably the guy that can't handle his money is of low intelligence. end quote
-- Paul Brown
"There are no quotas here. I couldn't tell you how much of this or that we've got on this football team. I've never really bothered to think about it, so help me God, I never really checked, so I don't really know and couldn't care less. We're going to find the best 40 football players we've got. You've got to be in the spirit of our football. We certainly don't want anybody getting to think as a group or a block. You've got a grievance, come to see me. Just rap on the door or when you walk off the field in the morning just say, 'Can I see you for a few minutes?' Some of you have done this. You're welcome to do this. I will see you at any time. It's very easy to find a grievance or be sour or no fun to be around, but I can tell you this: When you're like this, people dislike being around you. You're painful to be around. They won't like you. You won't be successful in life if you're this way. You earn your respect by the way you conduct yourself. Words won't do it.
"The money each of you makes here in this less than five months puts you all in what is known as affluent status. You're wealthy by national standards. You're successful people and I say to you don't make any apologies for being successful. It's commendable. Handle your affluence, however, with some good sense. I really think that how you handle your money as a player reflects and is indicative of the kind of person you are. Invariably the guy that can't handle his money is of low intelligence. It's the same old story. A show of quick wealth doesn't say much for you mentally. The smart ones just don't blow it that way. Don't go around expecting something for nothing just because you're a football player. I'm talking about that guy that expects a special deal or a discount on everything he buys just because he's a pro player. People size you up. If they do nice things for you, that's beside the point. I'm talking about that guy who's really a pathetic person that always wants something for nothing because he's an athlete.
"Well, so much for that. At this point, I think I'll talk to you a little bit about how I feel about football. I came back into it five years ago because I really liked the life and the game fascinated me. It wasn't for financial reasons. I had to invest a chunk of money, along with the other investors, to get a franchise. It was a gamble. As I said to you, each year nobody is going to louse it up. I like the life. It's going to be pleasant for you and it's going to be pleasant for me. We're going to reflect this by the way we perform. To me, we're more than a business organization, we're a family. We operate that way and if there's anybody that wants to know for sure, I'm the father, the dad.
"I sure want you to understand this. I'm not saying these things to you to brainwash you or psych you or all that kind of stuff they talk about today. It's really how I feel about the game and how we're going to operate. You can call it my philosophy or approach to football or whatever you blooming well want to call it ... I came back into it under these conditions because I must control the factors that make or break me. I don't say this in the spirit of overpowering somebody or make a big man deal out of it. I really don't like to sound like a hard man, but you've got to know from the beginning that there's just no way to circumvent these principles we're standing on and the things I'm talking about. They've put us in that final championship game at the end of the year, 11 times in our lives.
"I want you to know that we're not interested in people that just want a job and our money, just want to make the final cut and then sit down on us. When you play here, we expect you to be all out and be in the spirit of it, be a high-class person, play with a full heart and have a fun time doing it. This leads to winning. I can tell you that we will be successful in proportion to the caliber of people you are. Invariably, if you looked back at great teams, I won't use our own, I could use the old Cleveland Browns, but in the same way I run into so many of the New York Giants when they were a great team. The Giffords and the guys of this nature that I see as life goes on. They become successful people. They're sound winners and competitors are a special breed.
start quote "We're not interested in developing radio or TV commentators or automobile insurance salesman while the season's in progress. In the offseason, we'll help you. It's a pleasure to see you get a job and see you make good. While football is in session, we're paying for you full time. end quote
-- Paul Brown
"I've learned over the years for every bar fly and every chaser and every trouble maker, for every self-centered player, a man who has a wife not in the spirit of the team, for every one of this type and people unwilling to pay the price, our whole organization will suffer in its efforts to be a winner. It will reduce the number of games we'll win. Don't ask me why, but that's the way it turns out year after year. I suppose I should explain to you what paying the price means to me. This is not a physical thing. I don't refer to you going out and getting a beating when I talk about you paying the price. I'm talking about the mental aspects. I think it means getting yourself ready to play week after week. Getting yourself prepared mentally is a mark of a real professional.
"We're not interested in developing radio or TV commentators or automobile insurance salesman while the season's in progress. In the offseason, we'll help you. It's a pleasure to see you get a job and see you make good. While football is in session, we're paying for you full time. We're paying you to practice, to know our plans, to pay strict attention in all meetings. Football careers are ended mentally, not physically. Most of the good ones I've known, they can't stay up to it mentally. You've got to enjoy the life that is pro football. You just don't fool anybody if you don't. If you aren't this style and if it doesn't mean this much to you, we'll just have to get rid of you and it'll probably shock you how well the sport will go on without you. As far as I'm concerned, the selfish fellow is the worst person of them all.
"If you hurt the image of the team, we'll have to deal with it. We're a young team. The newest one in football, but we're not an expansion team. As for smoking, I ask you not to do it for your own good. I know it's a difficult thing to stop. I've never smoked and I don't know like probably some of you know it, but I'd suggest you give it a try. People are dying of this thing. All of a sudden when you've got to have part of your lung removed or something of that sort, you'll give yourself a little talk. I'd like to see athletes, not guys who run out of gas after they run a little bit. I don't think anybody would deny it here that it's stupid to smoke. If you ask to do it, I ask not to do it where it will hurt your image with young boys or kids when you're walking out of dressing rooms and they're waiting to see what you look like. You're a big deal to these little fellows. There's no smoking in our dressing rooms, our meeting rooms, our locker rooms, or our dining room. You'll just get fined if it comes to my attention.
"You'll be all getting into homes or apartments to rent. Live with some class, especially if you're a single guy. If you're one of these love-nest people, it eventually comes back to me too. Live with some class. When we leave here and go back to Cincinnati and you may have made the team, get your wife and children there. Probably the worst kind are the kind that give speeches about their wife and their family and how wonderful they are. When you find out they've really got a girlfriend on the side, what a letdown. What really it comes to is this hurts a guy's performance because he's not right from within.
"You're going to be going along here dealing with the press. Our writer for the Enquirer came in late here. This is Dick Forbes. Stand up, Dick, so they all know who you are. Dick has written our football from the beginning for the morning paper. In dealing with these people, I want you to be friendly and cooperate with them. Use judgment. You know better than anybody when you're popping off or saying something that will estrange your teammate or your coach or yours truly. Consider the morale of your team when you talk. It's so vital because it helps us to become a winner if you talk in the spirit of things. I would warn you especially in your postgame comments. We have to play these guys again. Maybe not this year, but the next year. Some of them never get over it. Don't give them a chance to work you over. Use your head. You might even be trying to make that coach's team someday that you blasted. You might have to come back. It's just one of these things. Just use your head.
"Your contracts are all different. Once they're signed, chop it off. It's forgotten, fulfill it. As an organization, we hold nothing against you that took place during negotiations. I emphasize that you're paid to practice, to be on our special teams, to help us in any way you can. When you give up or sort of quit because you aren't starting, when you feel we have to cut or trade you because of this, you're just revealing the kind of person that you are. It's a character defect to give up.
"I want to emphasize this again. I'm not trying to con you. I'm at a stage of life where I have no reason to be doing that kind of thing. I mean what I'm saying to you sincerely.
start quote If you're late for practice or a conference session or a team meeting of any sort without arrangements with me, you are subject to fine and disciplinary action. Just as I said to you yesterday, the fines start at $50 for the first 15 minutes, $200 per hour there after. end quote
-- Paul Brown
"Now I want to talk to you about the rules, regulations and the general practices that we follow and the way we work. The rules, obviously, are made for everybody. There is no so-called star treatment here. You're to be dressed and in your seat in this room, the conference room, at 9:30 in the morning, 3 in the afternoon. In the evenings after dinner, there will always be a meeting right here at 7:30. Your own particular group will then go from here to an individual meeting place. You'll know where it is. Always be in the general vicinity of the place in case we have to call a meeting in a hurry. Rookies can just follow along with the veterans. You'll fall into the routine very quickly. If you're late for practice or a conference session or a team meeting of any sort without arrangements with me, you are subject to fine and disciplinary action. Just as I said to you yesterday, the fines start at $50 for the first 15 minutes, $200 per hour there after. This is done so you can't just say, 'I've lost a $50, I might as well just shoot the works for the whole day.' The plans and things that we do here are scheduled for the benefit of everybody. We can't afford to be hampered by somebody's carelessness. We'll practice twice a day until we feel we need less. Of course, this is a race against time. We play Miami down there in the third week. You dress in your full practice suit.
"All the players must be in the dorm and go to your room at 10:30. Same thing on the road. The lights are out. We go to bed at 11 o'clock -- $50 fine for not being in your room as indicated. In the past, not last year, but prior to that, occasionally we'd have a group of guys get in somebody's room after lights and talk and I don't know what. For that, if you aren't in your own room, the fine is $100. Coaches will make nightly bed check, sometimes more than one. If you sneak out after the bed check, it's $500. Don't try getting social around this little town. Occasionally, we get a married guy that wants to be a social lion and starts prowling around. It's out. We're here for football. It's our livelihood and our profession. On the road, we always get a master key to check your room, so leave it, don't chain it or whatnot. Allow our master key to work, so we don't have to wake you up.
"Here ... I'd suggest you keep your room cleaned up. Hang up your towels. Have a little discipline in the way you live. It will help you all your life. Now the house rules are made for everyone. It's like a war this game we're in. There must be discipline. Funny thing about it, you hear all these days about modern youth and all that kind of stuff, and this rebellion against discipline. Discipline, if it's got some sense to it and is a square deal for everybody, is good.
"Everybody's time and everybody's feelings are all equal. We go to breakfast between 7 and 8. If you can't eat breakfast or it bothers you, tell me. Lunch is 12 to 12:30. Dinner is 6 to 6:30. We have a contract with these food-service people. You might notice those little old gals over there, the same ones have been here every year we've been here. They're sweet, nice people, really. They grow to like you and I want you to keep on that kind of relationship. They really look forward to us being here. Eat the meals unless you're excused. Nobody is too big time to eat with the rest of us. The fine is $50 if you're not here. I'd suggest at noon you eat lightly. Most of the guys eat at noon and take a rest before they go out in the afternoon. Just don't overeat at noon.
start quote Don't try to see how quickly you can eat and run. Learn to enjoy eating with your teammates. Sit down at different places. Get to know all your guys. end quote
-- Paul Brown
"We're class people. Keep the meals pleasant. One thing I'm going to suggest to you. Don't try to see how quickly you can eat and run. Learn to enjoy eating with your teammates. Sit down at different places. Get to know all your guys. You know the tendency is to just get to know certain people. It isn't that you mean anything. My suggestion is to get to move around and know your guys. It's a fun thing to do. Take your time and be what we call, pleasant diners. Every once in a while, I'll walk through there. I can remember going through there last year, when we had one guy that would take three or four steaks and eat a nibble off of each one and they'd be stacked up there. That's ridiculous. Eat what you take. It's gross not to be able to eat the food you take.
"As for the Players Association, I want to keep it above table with us at all times. The only thing I insist upon is something of this nature does not ever drive a wedge between us. Between you and me. Between you and our coaches and hurt our team. Pat [McInally] is the player representative. Pat's free to talk to me at any time about anything because I said to him a year ago, if he wants a union meeting, he's welcome to do it. Just go hire yourself a hall and have it. It's not our responsibility here, but don't let it interfere with our football.
"May I suggest you protect that pension system you've got? It's the best that I know of. Protect it. It's nothing if the structure begins to fail and isn't sound. If the football doesn't make money for the investors, if it is not successful, it hurts the structure of it. Believe me, these people are not going to be like some of the people are in some sports today who just lose their shirt. I mean, I read about some of these other sports teams that are starting out new leagues that sounded like they were bragging about who lost the most. These kind of people are not in the football world because they don't have to be. It's been a sound thing. We're not about to go that route.
"There's a league rule about fraternizing on the field, before or after the game. When we go to a place to have a game with somebody, I don't want to see a whole bunch of guys meeting you there from the other team. I say this because so many times in my life, we go out the next day and try to knock your can off and kill you but the day before, they're buddy-buddy. You just tell them that I don't like it and you can see them after the game is over. When you get dressed, you'll meet them and talk with them then. The league frowns on it.
start quote Anything that could be misconstrued and link you up with a possible gambling interest, a scandal, could wreck your life and your family. As long as I live, and again this is not for the newspaper, I will never forget Lou Groza when his brother got involved down at the University of Kentucky. Just broke right down and cried. end quote
-- Paul Brown
"There will be a representative from the league office come here on the problem of the gambling things you must guard against. See, we're just trying to guard our sport to keep it sound. Anything that could be misconstrued and link you up with a possible gambling interest, a scandal, could wreck your life and your family. As long as I live, and again this is not for the newspaper, I will never forget Lou Groza when his brother got involved down at the University of Kentucky. Just broke right down and cried. It's a shame and these are mistakes that people can get involved in. It would hurt the franchise to boot. Be careful of people who try to do nice things for you and you can't understand why. Be wary of these strangers that want to give you something for nothing. All these so-called people want to do is be seen with you. Really the next step then is when the point spreads begin to fluctuate. If you are suspicious of somebody and you don't like somebody you see the way things are brought up to you, tell me and I'll call Pete Rozelle just like that and you will be in the clear because you have reported it. Protect yourself, your wife and your children because you might just be suckered and not know it was going on. It would be a disaster to you and your family.
"All right, now I am directed by the commissioner of football to talk to you about this drug thing that you've all been reading about. Dr. [George] Ballou will lecture to you later about the technical and medical side of it. I'm simply telling you how the National Football League is entering the picture and how we are cooperating. As an organization from this point onward, we must submit a duplicate of every invoice we have of anything we buy to the league office to a man hired as an arm of the league who studies what we buy as an organization. This doesn't bother us one iota because we've never dispensed illegal things to our football players. The league suggested that we as people involved here in protection of our own franchise have the police department come over to our office and demonstrate the smell of marijuana and show us what uppers and downers, the greens and blues and explain the problems that go with them, so we're going to recognize this kind of thing in so far as our players are concerned if we see it.
"I am not to go into the moral aspect of marijuana because I don't know anything about it. I really don't know. I'm talking about it in terms of our football. I do know this. The police showed us it is a felony in the state of Ohio. One year in prison and a $1,000 fine. This is then on your permanent record for the rest of your life. To the average American person, you are known as a drug user. It takes away any chance you might have of becoming a lawyer or a doctor if you're on the docket in this way. If you're guilty of selling marijuana, it's 20 to 40 years in prison in the state of Ohio. These are just simple facts that the police department brought out to us and I want you to know that it's a felony. Now as to our procedure with the league, if we have any suspicions, suppose we receive a letter about some guys that are having a pot party, it's our automatic duty, just like you have to report gambling possibilities to me, I have to report to the commissioner. You then are under surveillance as a suspect.
"On the night before games, be particularly careful that no visitors get into your hotel rooms. Gladhanders, relatives, gamblers, prostitutes, fairies, these people are predators. We go to a place to play football and it's the serious proposition. You'd be shocked if you were on the coaching staff and knew how we study you. It's easy to detect a hustler. I said to you before this isn't strictly a moral thing with us. Really it isn't a moral thing. We want our money's worth of your effort and we've got the right to it. Your dedication the night before a football game shows us a great deal about your sincerity.
"All right, now we're on the practice field. Nobody ever plays catch or talks to people along the sidelines, be it newspaper guys or anybody, you give strict attention to your coach and the group he's working with. Your group. You're never excused from learning. If you're injured, stay with that group. Mentally observe everything you can. The spirit of our game is to get back into shape as soon as you can. If you get the idea that you're taking the extra time because you might say to yourself, 'Well, here's another guy getting paid to do the same job I'm doing.' This guy, to the administrators of football, is what we call a dog. We don't have them. I don't think we've got any. I can guarantee we're not going to keep them. In the final analysis, by league rule, our team physician decides whether or not a player can play. I do not do this, as a coach, in the final analysis. It's a rule of our league.
"I'd like to suggest that you not get suckered into signing a contract with anybody to make speeches. There's no good reason for you to pay anybody a percentage of what you get just because they supposedly get you speeches. Tough part of that is that one guy always gets them all and the rest of you don't. It's harmful to our club. I told you this a year ago. We had a guy who was asking more money for a guy as a speaker than they were getting for Neil Armstrong or the governor. This is ridiculous. I don't respect the predators or the parasites who try to live off of somebody else's efforts.
"The thing I want you to see from each of your individual coaches is the way we grade you out and your performance of last year. We will be grading you during the preseason, as well as the regular season. It's easy to think that somebody's doing a heck of a job and then you get the pictures and you find some guy who you hadn't thought that much about is doing better than the guy you thought is doing a heck of a job. This is important to us. It's detailed, scientific, study the pictures, never lie.
"Really we base a lot of our contract thinking on not only how well the team does, but how you look in the statistical study. If you're a veteran, and you show up with some agent, some two-bit hustler who thinks he's going to make words to us about what we're going to pay, some of these guys don't know whether the ball is blown up or stuffed. We can take out the statistics, we can show you what you did and we can give you the reasons. We have to have you think we're a reasonable square deal. I go back to when I had a defensive end come in. He didn't do any talking. This guy [his agent] did all the talking, telling us what we're going to pay him and all this kind of stuff. Traded him. He didn't make it where he went. Barely eating today.
start quote I go back to when I had a defensive end come in. He didn't do any talking. This guy [his agent] did all the talking, telling us what we're going to pay him and all this kind of stuff. Traded him. He didn't make it where he went. Barely eating today. end quote
-- Paul Brown
"Your work on special teams is very important to us. There are people in here that I wouldn't give up, just because of that very thing. It's vital to us. That brings me to the plan of the squad. The league limit is 40 men for any given game. However, there are some changes now. We're again allowed to have seven men on the so-called cab contract or under cab contract or control. Here's the difference: We are now allowed, prior to the final cutdowns, to put three of you on what we can construe as injured. It comes down to one thing. We can keep three extra men to justify or make any written report or anything of the sort to the league office. Anybody that's got a sore toenail, I guess qualifies as one of the three. That's what it comes to.
"Don't look down your nose if you're on the so-called cab squad. I think the word there should be 'developmental.' If you're on this thing, it's because we think you have future potential. There's a lot of guys playing here right now who started out that way with us. We respect them.
"After you get cut, get packed and prepare to leave camp immediately. We'll have your transportation check. We'll try to help you to the airport. Before leaving, you have to go through a checklist with our camp manager or one of the coaches before you can get your transportation check. These are not only our rules, they come from the league. Waivers will be asked immediately on you and teams claiming you will be advised to contact you at your home address and the telephone number you leave with us as you go.
"Now let me tell you something, of all the things that are in football, the lousiest thing that any of us coaches have to do is tell you that we don't think you can make it. Could be that you can't make it here, but you can make it somewhere else. If we think your best interest would be served by somebody saying, 'We think you ought to go to work,' believe me, there's nothing wrong about that. That's just about what it comes to. That will probably just shock some people to death to think about going to work, but there's nothing wrong with it. We're not mad at you.
"Now, be sure you don't, as you get started here, get blisters or if you have a pulled muscle, I don't want you to run sprints this afternoon. I'm sure we get a guy or two that's halfway afraid to run that 40 for fear he won't look good enough to stay from a speed standpoint. This isn't everything. I've had great running backs that might even be 4.8 in the 40. I've had a lot of great lineman that could go maybe 10 yards or 15 for the part that really counts. They weren't distance runners. These are things that are all relative and we know this. Keep using your salt, pills and drinks. We don't want anyone having heat problems out there. If there are any medical problems unrelated to our football, you're on your own. When you come over here, do not wear your football shoes. There's a lady that keeps this area sparkling clean and we want to cooperate with her.
"As you can see, in conclusion, I've thought about everything I've said. A lot of these things I've talked over with the coaches, so I can back them up with you. I believe in everything I've said. I've learned that rules and regulations over a span of time help us win. As I said originally, I want to enjoy being with you. I can guarantee you this: I'm secure enough in my work. I'm not about to run myself off. I can demand the things I'm asking of you. But by the same token, I want you to enjoy being with us. I'd sort of like to have you be able to say if you're here in years to come, it was a pleasurable experience.
start quote If you're good enough, there will be a place found for you somewhere. Don't do our thinking for us. Just concentrate on the job and you'll never have any regrets. I wish us all well. end quote
-- Paul Brown
"Everything you do from now on will have a bearing on making it. It helps us make up our minds. Your general person, your conduct, your previous record, your attitude, how you take your warm-up routine, your calisthenics, how you take coaching, and above all, how you block and tackle. Enter into the tryout spirit. It will be tough, but be friends with the guys you're competing with. One kind of guy, we always get a certain number of, is the fellow who figures out, 'Oh boy, there's three people at this position, three people too many at this position, they can only keep this, I'm in this kind of a predicament.' Divorce this kind of thing from your mind. Just say to yourself, 'I'm going to do the best I can do,' and it will handle itself. If you're good enough, there will be a place found for you somewhere. Don't do our thinking for us. Just concentrate on the job and you'll never have any regrets. I wish us all well. Our next meeting will be here at 1:30, at which time you'll be in your football suits and we'll go on the field.
"You're dismissed."
---
Three thoughts:
1. Interesting how ahead of his time Brown was on hydration, cooperating with the media, smoking and statistical ranking of players. Can't you tell how much this man loved football, and how much he thought about it?
2. He apparently hated wasting food.
3. Great line about what it takes to make a Paul Brown team: "A lot of man.''
Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...#ixzz21TPEy9xv