Bill Belichick’s team, citing salary cap constraints, bids good-bye to its star linebacker, who had been with the team since it drafted him in the first round out of USC well over a decade ago.
It sounds like a specific sentence, but — remarkably — it now applies to two different players. This year, it’s Willie McGinest, whom we’re glad to bid hello. Back in 1994, it was Clay Matthews, whom we were sad to see go.
Funny, the spin moves of history.
Belichick, sporting Super Bowl rings as the former New York Giant defensive coordinator, was the Browns’ head coach back then. Among the many former Giants he brought to Cleveland were linebackers Pepper Johnson in 1993 and Carl Banks in 1994, when another long-time Brown, Mike Johnson, was not even offered a contract after leading the team in tackles.
Romeo Crennel, of course, also has multiple Super Bowl rings, and they’re also from his time as a defensive coordinator. Whereas Crennel worked on Belichick’s staff in New England, Belichick had worked under Bill Parcells.
Adding to the irony, back in 1994, it was Parcells’ Patriots who made Willie McGinest the fourth overall pick. The rookie’s season ended with a playoff loss to Belichick’s Browns. McGinest had a fine game — eight tackles, one sack, and three passes broken up — in the losing effort.
A dozen years later, it’s Crennel’s turn to bring in one of his old defensive stars to bolster the team he now leads.
In the wild cycles of history, no one can say exactly how this will end up, but a playoff appearance this very season wouldn’t be unprecedented. And neither would a win over Parcells. In such a glorious best case, McGinest could register his sack on Drew Bledsoe, who started that 1994 playoff game in Cleveland. And thus the resurrection of the Browns, which began with a 1999 exhibition win over the Cowboys, would at long, long last be complete.
