Paul Brown's Football Inventions vs Bill Belichick 's overall brilliance

Watching the first run of Paul Brown: A Football Life on NFLN got me thinking about a potentially interesting discussion topic related to BB and his ultimate legacy. I'm tossing out some of my ideas below and I'd love to hear the additions of this great community.

The documentary highlighted many aspects of Paul Brown that we know and love about BB--The incredible dominant winning record, championships, the control freak obsession with details, smart players, superb staff.

One really notable aspect of Paul Brown's legacy is his deserved credit for some many football innovations. In fact, it is justifiable to use the even stronger term "INVENTIONS" to describe these contributions. Among the highlights (for those who don't know) that Brown invented in football, and was the first to use: Full time coaching staff; a playbook; classroom instruction of players and tests; the taxi squad (precursor of practice squad etc); the "west coast offense" (invented by Brown and Bill Walsh in Cleveland, taken west by Walsh). In fact, in the documentary, BB himself talks about how amazing all these inventions by Brown are, how they are all still used today by everyone, and calls PB the father of modern football.

So that got me thinking: For Bill Belichick, with benefit of time, say 20-25 years from now, what truly important innovations, breakthroughs or even inventions might find themselves in his top 5-10 list? The ones where football experts and historians say BB figured something new out and implemented it way ahead of everybody else. And then others copied it and used it or tried to.

Clearly, he's a great "incremental innovator" whose built on all these earlier inventions by making them better, extending, tweaking, And obviously a big difference is he's doing all of it in an era of salary cap and free agency. I generally think BB doesn't get a lot of press or recognition for this aspect, even compared to some recent stuff credited to a guy like Chip Kelly--such as speed of plays, training/nutrition ideas, etc Here is a list of some of my candidates for BB's innovative/inventive brilliancy when the story is written down the road.

- Brilliantly simplifying all the data and noise of a complex match-up to the top 3 determinants of victory then relentlessly focusing and executing on those even at the cost of others.

- Innovative schemes an game plans that change dramatically game to game. Even if they seem wild, ballsy, crazy, unbalanced. Great examples are defensive game plans in the HoF where he was willing to let Thurman Thomas run for 100 yds for Buffalo in the SB to minimize the Kgun. Similar with Rams SB and keying on Marshall Faulk. Or winning by having TB and the Pats O purposefully throw the ball 5o times and run it 5 times, which nobody else intentionally does. Maybe being credited with inventing a new kid of two tight-end offense that led to new heights?

- Innovative brilliance in seeing how to use overlooked players in new, flexible ways

- Invented and innovated new ways to focus and tune out distractions--producing unprecedented consistency from week to week and year to year. I think BB will be recognized by football history for this superb gift. A lot of his famous BB sayings and almost platitudes will be part of it (Do Your Job, It Is what it is, We're on to Cincinnatti, We don't control that, we're only thinking about the next game, Ignore the Noise etc) but I think the brilliance of it is that while is all sounds trite it is all true, accurate, and it works so well.

- Probably history will also recognize some of BB's inventive brilliance as a GM--trading down/back to create more picks and value; trading or cutting seemingly very good players go early vs too late.

What are your thoughts on this topic? Again, winning is about a lot more than inventions or breakthrough innovations. Boring but consistent detailed execution, film study, etc all is critical. But the Paul Brown story got me thinking about breakthroughs.

It got me thinking too......


Art Modell fired the two greatest coaches in history and he's responsible for the existence of the Ravens. It simply doesn't get worse than that in terms of football legacy.

Ivan--true and good point. Even worse Modell got lucky and won championships the year after firing Brown and just 4 years after firing BB and moving to Baltimore

Ivan said:

It got me thinking too......


Art Modell fired the two greatest coaches in history and he's responsible for the existence of the Ravens. It simply doesn't get worse than that in terms of football legacy.

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He also fired Schottenheimer (though it was somewhat mutual) who is 6th all time in wins. I know he "never one the big one" but, a a Browns fan from 1980 to 1995 I can tell you that he was a damn good coach there, with 1980 and 1995 being the only decent years that Marty wasn't there; one more was 1989 but that was running on his fumes. He turned that place around immediately and they crashed when he left.

Modell fired Brown, Belichick and Schottenheimer.

Regarding the actual thread, Belichick is Paul Brown. Belichick wearing the Paul Brown hat was the best thing ever. While the classroom stuff is commonplace now, no-one does that like Belichick, with the changing game plans, etc. The attitude, demeanor, creativity, etc, is the same.

The main difference is the NFL and the world has changed. Imagine if Belichick hooked up a speaker in the QB helmet today, with no cutoff like they have now, and was the only one doing it. It's tough to be creative when anything different is cheating.

BelichickFan said:

He also fired Schottenheimer (though it was somewhat mutual) who is 6th all time in wins. I know he "never one the big one" but, a a Browns fan from 1980 to 1995 I can tell you that he was a damn good coach there, with 1980 and 1995 being the only decent years that Marty wasn't there; one more was 1989 but that was running on his fumes. He turned that place around immediately and they crashed when he left.

Modell fired Brown, Belichick and Schottenheimer.

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That's like a GM that gets rid of Brady, Montana, and and and ............ Ooh yeah, Payton Manning equals Marty Schottenheimer.

How about BB's emphasis on special teams?

I don't think any other coach emphasizes it's importance as much as the Pats do, to the point of drafting and signing guys, Slater, Ghost, and Cardona all relatively high for example.

So it turns out Modell was pissing on Cleveland fans long before he moved the team. No wonder that Browns fan pissed on Modell's grave.

It was an insightful documentary.

The Gr8est said:

How about BB's emphasis on special teams?

I don't think any other coach emphasizes it's importance as much as the Pats do, to the point of drafting and signing guys, Slater, Ghost, and Cardona all relatively high for example.

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There are an average of 6 punts in an NFL game.
There are an average of 8 kickoffs in an NFL game.
There are an average of 7 extra points every game.
There are average of 4 FGs every NFL game.

Even though it represents say 15% of all plays/game thats 25 plays a game. Field position, returns, blocks....all have a tremendous impact on a game.

I think in a presser a couple of weeks ago he talked about this as it relates to picking up 50-70 more yards a game in field position makes a huge difference for the offense and defense.

The logic and reasoning why he puts so much emphasis on it is totally justifiable.

BelichickFan said:

He also fired Schottenheimer (though it was somewhat mutual) who is 6th all time in wins. I know he "never one the big one" but, a a Browns fan from 1980 to 1995 I can tell you that he was a damn good coach there, with 1980 and 1995 being the only decent years that Marty wasn't there; one more was 1989 but that was running on his fumes. He turned that place around immediately and they crashed when he left.

Modell fired Brown, Belichick and Schottenheimer.

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Modell was is a freaking idiot.

BB takes over a crap 3-13 team and goes 6-10, 7-9, 7-9, 11-5 for the cheapest owner in the NFL with the worst stadium and quite frankly (no offense to the fine people of CLE) was not your glamorous destination spot for FAs.

I get the fact that BB wasn't exactly Mr. Congeniality but for god sakes....the man was doing the right things.

Modell made his money in advertising and marketing....what does that tell you?

I admire Paul Brown for what’s he done to help create modern professional football. But I’d argue that Belichick is just as much of an innovator as any other coach who has come before him. His ideas for managing rosters in the salary cap and free agency era are nothing short of astounding. Despite all the constraints that attempt to create parity, Belichick has built a culture of lasting success through personnel management, quality coaching and game planning, and meticulous execution. He is a football visionary who has inspired the owners, executives, coaches, and players of this team to thrive for over 15 years. And that is simply amazing.

A little humor for old time fans. Note, Clive Rush was in direct line of Paul Brown's coaching tree through Weeb Ewbank with the Jets.

Clive had a game against a legendary NFL coach- it was before my time, but I seem to think it was Paul Brown. Clive had no illusions of out-coaching Brown, so he decided to try to get into his head.

Just before the game, he called a benchwarmer over to him. "Paul Brown is a genius. He has visualized this game, play by play, and has strategies to counter any possible moves I will make. Therefore, I will make moves that he couldn't possibly have forseen.

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What this move turned out to be was having the benchwarmer run out to the huddle, stay for 10 seconds, then get back off the field before the play started. Rush had to be talked out of punting on second down. It was sort of like Bizarro football, with Clive doing everything wrong, on purpose. This strategy is credited with turning the betting line of a 14 point loss into an actual 13 point loss.

This benchwarmer later played for Paul Brown, and related the story to him. Brown recalled the game, and remarked, "I always wondered what the Hell he was doing over there." Rush, incidentally, was later institutionalized."

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http://journals.aol.com/monponsett/HighAboveCourtside/entries/2004/06/15/eccentricity/311

There are no "inventors" in football, at least not in the last 60 years. There have been those who have taken advantage of technology as it arose. There have been those who have build on what has come before. What made Paul Brown great. What makes Bill Bellichick great are all the things that make great coaches. The ability to lead, the ability to teach, the ability to utilize the tools available to you, the ability to recognize talent and to put that talent in a position to succeed, and finally, having the mental toughness to overcome adversity.

Like I said in another post, what BB has put together and we are witnessing in 2015 has been decades in the making. What makes the Pats great isn't great players. Every team in the league has its share of great players. What differentiates the Pats from their peers is the SYSTEM. It is a system that allows the Pats to change BOTH offensive and defensive game plans weekly depending on their opponents. No team in the league can to this, at least to the extent the Pats can, and it is the REAL reason for the Pats dominance. They don't need to cheat. In a league where the margin of victory is razor thin to begin with, this is all the advantage they need to tip the scale in their advantage

Now that didn't happen over night. It has evolved under the leadership of a HC, who had the patience and long term vision to build it. BB has so many great traits that add to his advantage. He probably has less of an ego than most of his peers. It has NEVER been about him. He constantly deflects the spotlight to his players and staff. He is probably one of the more open minded HC's in the league. I'm sure he has basic philosophies that he adheres to, but nothing is written in stone. BB will organize the talent he has on hand and create schemes that best utilizes it, regardless of what those schemes are.

There is an old football adage that was once used to describe how good a coach Bear Bryant was. "He can take his'n and beat your'n, then take your'n and beat his'n". No other HC personifies this old adage better, because he really could do it.

BTW- in this age of revolving door HC's , where this is talk that there will be over 10 HC'ing vacancies, it is unlikely that anyone will be able to build what the BB has built here, simply because no one has the time it takes to construct it. The time to build the language, support systems, and create the embedded culture.
So while it might no be as pervasive after Brady, the Pats are set up to continue to be an annual threat to win a championship.

Goodell would have fined Brown for all his inventions. There's really nothing any coach can do in the modern NFL to change the game like Brown.

What's interesting is that for all the Brown disciples, and his coaching tree, BB is not one of them. The guy most similar to Brown is a guy that came in from the outside. Which, in a way makes him even more like Brown, a guy making his own plan, not building on someone else's.

This is relevant. Excellent longford piece by Chris Wesselling on the development of the West Coast Offense or 'Ohio River Offense' as BB thinks it should be called.

The Ohio River Offense | NFL.com

New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, a bipedal pigskin encyclopedia believed to own the world's largest private library of football books, noted in 2013 that Walsh's scheme should be known as the Ohio River offense. Walsh, however, eventually conceded that the Ohio River designation was "probably not sexy enough." Among members of the Walsh coaching tree, there's an irritated sense that the use of the term "West Coast offense" is a telltale sign of laziness.

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I really enjoyed that documentary last night. One of Paul Brown's few mistakes was in letting Bill Walsh go, rather than promoting him to head coach. One can only imagine what the NFL would look like today had Walsh become HC then, instead of leaving for greener pastures out west.......

RayClay said:

A little humor for old time fans. Note, Clive Rush was in direct line of Paul Brown's coaching tree through Weeb Ewbank with the Jets.




http://journals.aol.com/monponsett/HighAboveCourtside/entries/2004/06/15/eccentricity/311

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So is this where the Punt Abortion was (still)born?

BB brings a unique take on building a roster in the age of the salary cap(remember his economics background). He has built a middle class like no other org and that along w/ Brady has brought a unique level of success during the salary cap issue.

The Gr8est said:

How about BB's emphasis on special teams?

I don't think any other coach emphasizes it's importance as much as the Pats do, to the point of drafting and signing guys, Slater, Ghost, and Cardona all relatively high for example.

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Did anyone put the emphasis on deferring the kick off before BB? The only times I can remember prior to BB is if a team had a dominant defense and wanted to set a tone. BB does it for strategic reasons. Tries to get the last drive in the half and the first drive in the next.

A lot of what people say BB had innovated such as the Hurry Up offense and the deferring if they win the coin toss came from college football. This is not a dig at BB, rather that's one of the best traits he has. He is not so egotistical to think that he has all the answers and is very much willing to continue learning from other coaches.

Another thing about inventions, while extremely important, the ability to understand the breakthrough and use the new information is also important. That's true in football or in life. While I'm certainly not one of those who thought or still thinks Steve Jobs was a God, one thing you can't take away from him was his ability to change how we use technology (the original IPhone as an example) that allows us to make good use of the benefits of the invention. He didn't invent the mobile phone nor the PC but he did make it more accessible and useful to most everyone.

The point of this is comparing a person who invents new things versus someone who understands how to make use of the invention is not necessarily an either/or type of situation to me. Both are important.