In the days before Bill Belichick was considered the world's greatest living football coach, he was the coach of the Cleveland Browns. Needless to say, his time in Cleveland hardly was a springboard for that current reputation.
Belichick's biggest issue in Cleveland was that he was a defensive minded coach, that was so concerned with not putting his defense in bad positions that he all but neutered his offensive units. Lacking any type of creativity, or truly any care of what his offense was doing Belichick quickly became a villain in Cleveland.
The benchmark of his offense seemed to be, "Metcalf up the middle." Which essentially meant if the first down would require a potentially intercepted forward pass, instead he sent his undersized running back Eric Metcalf slamming up the gut like a fullback. It didn't work very often.
The worst part is the fact that Belichick is always credited with being innovative with utilizing the players he has. A year after Metcalf got away from Belichick, he was converted to a wide receiver and had a 100 catch, 1000 yard season for the Atlanta Falcons. Way to utilize that talent Bill.
Regardless the Browns offense picked up right where it left off with Belichick when the team returned in 1999, and has looked about the same since. At least until this season, where the Brandon Weeden led first team offense has shown some spark. Hopefully it will carry on, and the offense's "Curse of the Belichick" will finally end.
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