CLEVELAND — After the Patriots wrapped up a comfortable win over the Browns on Sunday, head coach Bill Belichick instructed his players to walk back out to the FirstEnergy Stadium game field before boarding the team buses.
This wasn’t some sort of Herb Brooks-esque postgame punishment. It was a history lesson.
With the Patriots making their first visit to Cleveland since the 2016 season, Belichick wanted his players to take a look at the Browns’ ring of honor and appreciate what some of its honorees did for the game of football.
He spotlighted five names in particular: Jim Brown, Paul Brown, Ozzie Newsome, Bill Willis and Marion Motley
“As many know, our players are very active in social justice and inequality and things like that,” Belichick explained after New England’s 38-15 victory. “I told them how important five of those names are. All of them are great players up there and great people up there, so I’m not saying that. But there’s five that, to me, really, absolutely stand out on the Mount Rushmore of this conversation.
“Paul Brown for reintegrating the NFL. He came into the NFL through the All-American Conference with Bill Willis and Marion Motley. So those three. Then, of course, Ozzie Newsome being one of the first Black players at Alabama and one of the great ones. Great player, great general manager, great person. Then, of course, the great Jim Brown. He kind of stands above everybody with what he’s done for equality, what he stands for, what he was as a football player, what he is as a man.”
Belichick said he wanted his players to appreciate the “courage” those five Browns legends exhibited.
“Paul Brown took a lot of courage to do what he did,” he said. “Took a lot of courage to do what Willis and Motley did. Lot of courage to do what Ozzie did. It took a lot of courage for Jim Brown to do what he did. I told (the players) I thought they should go out there and just think for a minute about some of the sacrifices that those guys made. Not on the field, not just as players, but as people and what they stood for.”
Belichick also instructed the team buses to stop en route to the airport to allow players to view Jim Brown’s statue, which sits directly outside the stadium.
Belichick, who began his head-coaching career in Cleveland in the early 1990s, equaled a different NFL icon on Sunday, tying Hall of Famer George Halas for second on the NFL’s all-time wins list (including postseason) with 324. He’ll have a chance to take sole possession of second place behind Don Shula when the Patriots host Halas’ former team, the Chicago Bears, next Monday night.
