Meadowdale H.S. graduation 2012
Middletown H.S. graduation 2012
Dunbar H.S. graduation 2012
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Another ex-Brown makes good
Highlights tend to happen for players, coaches and even franchises when they leave Cleveland.
Running back Greg Pruitt went to the Super Bowl with the Raiders, receiver Paul Warfield with the Dolphins, center Shaun O’Hara with the Giants, defensive tackle Israel Idonije with the Bears, defensive end Nick Eason with the Steelers. All played for the Browns.
Offensive coordinator Bruce Arians went to the Super Bowl with the Steelers after parting ways with Cleveland. Former Browns head coach Forrest Gregg was fired, then took the Bengals to the Super Bowl as their head coach. And, of course, Bill Belichick, who coached the Browns in the early 1990s, is back in the Super Bowl looking for his fourth ring since leaving town.
The Browns, one of four teams never to appear in a Super Bowl (Detroit, Jacksonville, Houston), became the Baltimore Ravens in 1996 and magically went to the Super Bowl and won it a few years later.
And now defensive tackle Gerard Warren is going to the Super Bowl with the New England Patriots, who face the New York Giants on Feb. 5 in Indianapolis.
Good for him.
“Big Money,” as he was called when the Browns drafted him third overall in 2001 (immediately ahead of future hall-of-famer LaDainian Tomlinson and possible future hall-of-famer Richard Seymour, not to mention Justin Smith), was always entertaining, especially when he talked about his drinking and womanizing. It’s kind of shocking, given his partying image early in his career, that he’s lasted in the league this long, but this is his 11th season.
My favorite “Money” moment was when he turned out the lights in the locker room while safety Earl Little verbally throttled a Cleveland gossip columnist for writing something he found objectionable.
Warren’s been a decent pro, but certainly far from the impact player the Browns thought they were drafting.
I remember that draft well, especially how then-Browns coach Butch Davis extolled the virtues of Warren, a player he had liked for years, dating to his days as head coach at the University of Miami, where he tried and failed to recruit him.
Finally, Warren couldn’t say no to Butch, or so went the draft-day narrative.
For as high as he went in the draft, Warren should have had an Ndamukong Sue impact. Instead, he became more of a workmanlike journeyman, and Browns history relegates him to bust status, following in the footsteps of No. 1 overall picks Tim Couch (1999) and Courtney Brown (2000).
And there was, of course, that high-profile incident when Warren was arrested for having a gun in his car while attending a party hosted by Plaxico Burress, then of the Steelers. Burress, of course, later would shoot himself in the leg after bringing a gun to a New York nightclub and spend about two years in prison. Of course they were friends.
But now, after all that, after bouncing from the Browns to the Broncos to the Raiders to the Patriots, Warren has an excellent shot at a Super Bowl ring.
The lesson here? It pays to hang around the league as long as possible. And, yes, it pays to get away from the Browns if you want to get to a Super Bowl.
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