ON TO CLEVELAND : For Bud Carson, Life as an NFL Head Coach Begins at 58

Bud Carson, new coach of the Cleveland Browns, paused as he was fielding questions at his first press conference.

After a reporter had repeated his question five times, Carson reached into his pocket and inserted a hearing aid into his left ear.

“I’ve had it a long time,” Carson said. “I told Art (Modell, the Browns’ owner) that I thought I could fake it one time. But I guess I can’t.”

At an age when his peers are nearing retirement, Carson, 58, got his first National Football League head coaching job after 33 years of coaching, the last 16 as an NFL assistant. He spent the past four seasons with the New York Jets.

Did Carson doubt that he’d become an NFL head coach?

“Yes,” he said with a laugh. “I had a lot of doubts. I never thought I would get it. The last five years I quit worrying about it. I wasn’t even thinking about it. I thought it was over. I thought it was too late.”

Although he has the security of a three-year contract reportedly worth $400,000 per year, Carson knows that unless he wins immediately, his lifelong dream will be just a bad dream.

“I know I have to win,” Carson said. “I’ve had (team executives) come in here and say, ‘Don’t put a lot of pressure on yourself.’ They’ll be the same guys that fire me. We’ve got to win.”

But just winning may not be enough.

Although the Browns were the only AFC team to make the playoffs for the last four seasons, Coach Marty Schottenheimer was ousted after a dispute with Modell over coaching control.

Carson accepted the job even though he wouldn’t have final say over the draft or trades, and he also accepted an offensive coordinator hired by Modell.

Haunted by watching his team lose back-to-back AFC championship games to the Denver Broncos, Modell said he hired Carson because he wants to win a Super Bowl.

“My hope is that Bud will the last coach I’ll ever have,” Modell said. “Given my own age (64) and my long years here, I wouldn’t like to go through another (coaching) change. We’ve only had eight coaches in the history of the franchise. I think Bud’s a winner, but only time will tell.”

Modell also said he hired Carson because he’s similar to Blanton Collier, who coached the Browns to their last NFL title in 1964.

“Bud has a striking resemblance in many ways to Blanton Collier, who was my coach from 1963-70,” Modell said. “Bud and Blanton were the same age when they were hired. They were both fired from major schools, Bud from Georgia Tech and Blanton from Kentucky. They even both had hearing aids.”

Carson has good credentials.

Carson has been to the Super Bowl three times. The architect of Pittsburgh’s Steel Curtain defense, Carson wears a Super Bowl ring and watch from the Steelers’ 1974 and 1975 Super Bowl victories. After leaving Pittsburgh, he was the defensive coordinator for the Rams when they lost to the Steelers in the 1980 Super Bowl.

But Carson’s Browns must overcome adversity to become a Super Bowl-caliber team.

If things keep going like they have during the first six weeks of Carson’s tenure, his silver and black hair may turn white and the lines on his wrinkled face will be deeper.

“I’m 58, but I feel even older now,” Carson sighed.

--The Browns will open the season without fullback Kevin Mack, suspended for 30 days by NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle last week for violating the league drug policy.

Mack was arrested after police found 11 $50 bags of crack cocaine in his car last June and he entered a drug rehabilitation center. He later admitted that he’d had a cocaine dependency since he began his pro football career with the Los Angeles Express.

After agreeing to a plea-bargain last week, Mack pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of drug abuse and is expected to be placed on probation.

Mack will miss the first three regular season games before he’s eligible to return on Oct. 1 against Denver.

“The fact that it happened now is probably best for us because one of the four games he misses is an exhibition game,” Carson said. “Once we have him back we’ll have him back for good.

“Kevin’s a great football talent, but great football teams that win have to survive a lot of things. In our case we’re going to take the high road and make plans to go without him.”

--The Browns’ offense was impotent in exhibition play, scoring just two touchdowns with quarterback Bernie Kosar on the field.

After slipping to a 10-6 record last season, Cleveland retooled the offense, trading tailback Earnest Byner to the Washington Redskins. Carson says he objected to the trade. “Do I look like an idiot?”

Perceived as a link to Schottenheimer regime, Byner, infamous for his fumble in Cleveland’s loss to Denver in the 1986 AFC final, was traded because of his lack of speed. Byner’s replacement is Keith Jones, the Rams’ third-string tailback before signing with the Browns as a Plan B free agent.

The Browns drafted for speed to improve their outside running game to take the pressure off Kosar, who was at the mercy of defenses last season because of an inept running game. He missed nine games due to injury.

Eric Metcalf, a speedy tailback from Texas who was the Browns’ top draft pick, is projected as the Browns’ tailback of the future. But Metcalf is behind after reporting late due to a holdout. Wide receiver Lawyer Tillman of Auburn, Cleveland’s No. 2 draft pick, remains unsigned.

Naturally, the Brown offense has taken some time to adjust to the changes--as has the defense, which has undergone changes.

--All-Pro cornerback Hanford Dixon was moved to safety after Carson told reporters that Dixon had slowed down. Although Dixon was beaten like a rug last season, he demanded a trade.

The move wasn’t popular with Cleveland fans, who consider Dixon the top dog of the Dawg defense. The fans barked in protest.

When Dixon arrived at a restaurant to do his radio show, he was met by picketers carrying signs. One read: “Fire Bud, Not Dixon.”

“When I saw all the picketing I thought that all the waitresses and cooks had quit,” Dixon said. “And then I saw that they were picketing for me. I said ‘Damn!’ Man it was unbelievable. It was a good feeling. It let me know that I was wanted.”

Dixon and Carson have made peace and Carson said he shouldn’t have criticized Dixon in public. Candid to a fault, Carson is trying to control his mouth.

“What I said about Dixon wasn’t very smart and it wasn’t very accurate,” Carson said. “I hadn’t learned to be a head coach. That was my fifth or sixth press conference and I hadn’t realized that you can talk all you want as an assistant but you can’t do that as a head coach.”

It wasn’t the first time that Carson’s mouth has gotten him in trouble.

The Pittsburgh Steelers were playing the Oakland Raiders in the 1974 AFC final and Bud Carson was livid.

After watching Raider flanker Cliff Branch beat Steeler cornerback Mel Blount for 186 yards in the first half, Carson removed Blount at halftime and inserted Jimmy Allen, a rookie from UCLA.

“That’s one of the dumbest things I ever did,” Carson said.

During Super Bowl week, Blount criticized Carson to anyone who would listen. It was a sensational story for the horde of reporters on hand.

Carson said Steeler Coach Chuck Noll told him he was prepared to trade Blount.

Carson reinserted Blount into the lineup for the Super Bowl and Blount went on to become an extraordinary defensive back. Inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer, Blount praised Carson.

“I learned more about football from Bud than anybody,” Blount told the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Leon H. (Bud) Carson had big dreams.

After serving five years as defensive coordinator for the Steelers, Carson dreamed of becoming an NFL head coach.

Carroll Rosenbloom, late owner of the Rams, promised to make Carson a head coach if he came to the Rams as an assistant.

Carson jumped at the chance and moved to the Rams, where he became an assistant to Coach George Allen in 1978.

After Allen was fired two games into the exhibition schedule, Ray Malavasi, offensive coordinator, succeeded Allen.

With Carson running the defense, the Rams reached the Super Bowl for the only time in their history.

It was all downhill from there.

After the Rams failed to make the playoffs in 1981, Malavasi fired Carson and five other assistant coaches in an effort to retain his job.

Carson began an eight-year odyssey after leaving Los Angeles.

The only defensive coordinator position available to Carson was with the woeful Baltimore Colts.

Although the Colts went 0-8-1 in a strike-shortened season, something good came out of the debacle.

It was in Baltimore that he met Brown Executive Vice President Ernie Accorsi, who was then the Colts’ general manager. It was Accorsi who convinced Modell to hire Carson.

“I’ve met a lot of people I thought I might have impressed but I didn’t know Ernie was one of them because the Colts were lousy,” Carson said.

Accorsi said Carson impressed him.

“Bud reminds me of (former Baltimore Orioles manager) Earl Weaver but without that real explosive temper,” Accorsi said. “But baseball lends itself to (arguments). If Bud had one argument with an official like Earl had with an umpire he’d probably be suspended.

“Both Earl and Bud are deadly honest. Sometimes that honesty with the media backfires a bit. And both Bud and Earl are incapable of holding a grudge.”

After leaving the Colts, Carson moved to Kansas City, where he was defensive coordinator under John Mackovic in 1983.

Mackovic fired Carson during the 1984 exhibition season because of a personality conflict and Carson took a job as a volunteer assistant at the University of Kansas.

Asked about Mackovic, Carson’s Irish temper rises.

“John just wasn’t a good guy,” Carson said. “I’ve said so much about that there’s nothing more to say. John’s doing well now at Illinois (where he’s the head coach). I know him pretty well and he knows me pretty well. But I’m not going to call him up on the telephone or write him any letters.”

Carson returned to the NFL in 1985, as defensive coordinator of the Jets.

“Bud was it,” said Joe Klecko, a former Jet nose guard. “What Bud did for our defense was fantastic.”

Carson rejuvenated the Jets defense and it enhanced his reputation, helping him land the Browns job.

“When I heard that Bud got (the Brown) job I was so excited for him because he’s the type of guy who deserves it,” Klecko said. “He’s the type of guy a veteran would like to play for.”

Bud Carson was 35 when he succeeded Bobby Dodd as head coach at Georgia Tech.

“I was no more ready to be a head coach than I was to fly,” Carson said. “I made a lot of mistakes.”

After going 4-6 in each of his first three seasons, Carson guided Georgia Tech to a 9-3 record in 1971. He was fired the following year after the team finished with a 6-6 record.

Carson said his biggest mistake was not delegating authority to his assistant coaches.

He won’t make the same mistake with the Browns.

Carson has assembled a staff of experienced assistants, including former Ram coaches Lionel Taylor, Paul Lanham and Dan Radakovich.

“It’s like a reunion of Rams coaches in Cleveland,” Lanham said. “But Bud didn’t hire us because we’re friends. We can all coach.”

The Browns relate well to the veteran coaching staff.

“They’ve seen everything and they’ve dealt with every type of player so it’s easier for the players to relate to them and for them to relate to the guys,” said tight end Ozzie Newsome.

Bud Carson is different from other coaches who are as concerned about their images as their records.

After a recent practice, Carson lit a cigarette as he sat down at his desk, ignoring a no-smoking sign. He flicked the ashes into a soft drink can, but he has been seen grinding cigarettes into the carpet.

“Marty (Schottenheimer) used to sneak cigarettes,” said a beat reporter who covers the Browns. “It was like he was above smoking. Bud would smoke on the sidelines at a scrimmage.”