Long Hours Pay Off for Browns’ Belichick

Bill Belichick’s hard blue eyes follow the kickoff and, as the tacklers are deftly rerouted by blockers, the scowl is replaced by a startling stream of criticism. It’s only early August at the Cleveland Browns’ training camp at Mentor, Ohio, but the rookie head coach is in postseason form.

“Listen,” Belichick said later, putting his arm around special teams coach Scott O’Brien. “I’ve seen enough of (Charles) Arbuckle and enough of (Derrick) Gainer. If we have to cover kicks with those guys, we might as well just kick it out of bounds at the 35.”

Arbuckle and Gainer were cut within days.

“We’re going to do it his way, or we’re going to do it over,” said running back Joe Morris, who followed Belichick to Cleveland from the New York Giants. “He goes about his work with a single objective: to win.

“This is something he always wanted. He says to us, ‘Look, I’ve worked 17 years to get this job. I’m not going to lose it because of you guys not giving me enough effort.’ ”

Effort, basically, is why the former Giants’ defensive coordinator is the NFL’s youngest head coach at 39. Since he was introduced in Cleveland seven months ago, Belichick has been working 18-hour days, trying to turn around a proud franchise in disrepair.

Belichick comes home to Giants Stadium Sunday under unusual circumstances. The Browns, 3-13 a year ago, are a surprising 2-1. The defending Super Bowl champion Giants are 1-2 after back-to-back losses.

After defeating Cincinnati on Matt Stover’s 45-yard field goal with 4 seconds left, Belichick was asked if he was looking forward to playing the Giants. “It’s just another game,” he said evenly. “No big deal.”

Clearly, though, this game means a lot to Belichick. The teams met in the exhibition season and the Browns were so fired up they actually won. They beat the Washington Redskins the next week and there has been a positive carryover into the season.

In Cleveland, a city with low self-esteem desperate for a winner, they have embraced the tightly wound coach.

“He’s got them in a frenzy,” said Ed Meyer, the usually cynical beat writer for the Akron Beacon-Journal.

“It’s Brownsmania,” said Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “Every move he makes seems to be the right one.”

Aren’t honeymoons a wonderful thing? For one thing, the two consecutive victories have come at the expense of the 1-2 New England Patriots and the 0-3 Cincinnati Bengals. For another, Cleveland doesn’t have many quality players. Realistically, the Browns should be thrilled with a six- or seven-victory season.

This is the kind of community support owner Art Modell envisioned when he gave Belichick a five-year contract. Last year’s three-victory season brought out the worst in the fans, whose team had been to the AFC Championship Game three of the previous four years. Sitting in his lofty owner’s box, Modell grew accustomed to seeing signs that read “Jump, Art, Jump.”

Modell once had a coach every bit as lean and hungry and defensively crafty as Belichick, but he lost Marty Schottenheimer after the 1988 season in a power struggle. Bud Carson, the former New York Jets’ defensive coordinator, was also a defensive wizard but he was far too disorganized to be a head coach. He was fired midway through the 1990 season.

“Last year we were ill-prepared to win,” said quarterback Bernie Kosar. “Belichick takes the time to get it right. There’s no question he’s a Type A personality, borderline workaholic, and it’s rubbed off on the team. He’s here at 5:30 in the morning, in the coaches’ meeting until past midnight. The players see that and work a little harder to keep up.”

Belichick interviewed more than 100 potential assistant coaches before settling on his staff, worked out dozens of Plan B free agents and college players, and still managed to work out for more than an hour each day on his stair machine. Belichick, who ran 3 miles each day at Giants Stadum, logs roughly 750 flights of stairs each session.

His attention to detail is sometimes frightening. Sept. 12, the Browns lost long snapper Randy Kirk to a hamstring pull. Belichick worked out several players before settling on free agent Brian Kinchen, who signed last Friday. After practice Belichick, a former special teams coach, watched over Kinchen, Stover and holder Brian Wagner as they practiced field goals. They were back at it Saturday. Sunday, Stover was the difference against the Bengals, making 4 of 5 field goals.

After Sunday’s dramatic victory, Belichick ran to the open end of Cleveland Stadium and, in front of the bleachers known as the “Dog Pound,” rotated his fist in the exuberant manner of Arsenio Hall. The fans in the stands roared.

Later, he chastised Cincinnati Coach Sam Wyche for predicting that the AFC Central Division would be a three-team race.

“Maybe he’s right, though,” said Belichick, aware the 0-3 Bengals trail the 3-0 Houston Oilers and 2-1 Cleveland and Pittsburgh. “Maybe it will still be a three-team race.”

Belichick, however, knows better than anyone what lies ahead.

“We kind of stumbled around out there before we won at New England,” he said. “There are still a lot of times when we don’t know what we’re doing.

“We’re not a very good football team right now, but we’re going to be a lot better at the end of the season. A lot better.”