Browns' Mike Pettine has remedy to overcome 'Johnny Football' drama and team in-fighting

BEREA, Ohio – It was probably naïve that Mike Pettine thought he could get away from football, but there he was in the summer of 1988, trying to do just that.

He'd literally grown up around the game. His father, Mike Sr., was a legendary coach of Central Bucks West, the high school powerhouse in Pennsylvania, where he won 326 games and four state titles. Son played for dad, then eventually at the University of Virginia but the goal was to use a business degree to avoid the family business.

A job underwriting life insurance for Prudential near the Pettine's hometown of Doylestown came along right after graduation and that's where things were headed – until late summer hit.

"I was going through withdrawal, like something was missing," Pettine said. "Whether it was the smell of cut grass in August or the warm nights under the lights, all of that stuff just flows back to you. It was just something I was drawn back to."

Pettine signed up for a flex shift that sprung him from work at 3 p.m. and became a volunteer assistant for his father. There was no avoiding it now; real jobs in the real world were done.

"I was hooked immediately," Pettine said with a laugh.

Twenty-seven years later and Pettine, 48, was standing here at the Cleveland Browns' facility in front of a group of offensive linemen, looking very much like a high school coach. He was working on stances and schemes, while keeping an eye out for various other position groups he would soon dart over and help.

As much as fans look at organized team activities and minicamps as mostly pointless exercises, for Pettine, and his fellow 31 other NFL head coaches, it can be the most rewarding time of the year.

"It's the one time you get to teach," Pettine said. "It's so sped up, the season starts you are always trying to work on specific game plans. But the true teaching of football, where you can focus on things and hit the pause button and go at a slower speed.

"That to me is when you see guys make strides," he continued. "The spring is really a time for us to settle in on fundamentals."

This has been a spring to settle on fundamentals for the entire Browns organization, a reboot in Pettine's second year. The first season didn't go as planned, a 7-9 record with plenty of off-field drama and in-team fighting.

The team's two first-round draft picks, defensive back Justin Gilbert and quarterback Johnny Manziel, created a soap opera. Manziel was most notable, failing to live up to expectations and eventually checking himself into a rehab clinic after the season. Gilbert also struggled with adjusting to the pro game and, as he put it last week, needed to deal with something "similar" to Manziel off the field. He wound up suspended for the season finale.

Then there was general discord within the club, most notably a toxic running backs room where injured veteran Ben Tate and rookie Terrance West battled relentlessly.

"It was bad," said running backs coach Wilbert Montgomery. "They would get into it in the locker room, just having words, and in the meeting room. It takes away from what you are doing out on the field. It becomes a distraction. It's a serious thing. It's a hard thing."

So now it's about the basics. The Browns' draft this year again featured two first-rounders but they went to the trenches, grabbing defensive lineman Danny Shelton out of Washington at No. 12 and versatile offensive lineman Cameron Erving out of Florida State at 19. Both are considered mature and solid off the field.

"Maybe it wasn't the sexiest draft in the world," Pettine said.

No, but it might be a little more Cleveland-like than reaching for a wild child Heisman winner quarterback. The big debate about Erving, for example, isn't whether he can be a starter, but at which spot along the line.

"[General Manager] Ray [Farmer] and I are very much on the same page that you build your team through the lines," Pettine said. "Everything else mysteriously looks pretty good when you have great line play on both sides."

For their part, the sexier picks from a year ago are vowing a commitment to core values also. Gilbert said heart-to-heart talks with Pettine and others, not to mention the embarrassment of his one-game suspension, have changed his outlook on everything. Manziel meanwhile has done a stint in rehab, admits the "Johnny Football" persona negatively took over his life and is even retiring his signature money hand gesture.

None of that might mean the Browns will enjoy great quarterback play, still a major concern, but comity could produce quality team-wide. If nothing else, this is what Pettine wanted out of his clubs, the kind of stuff his father always preached.

"I've been around such great coaches [Brian Billick, Rex Ryan, Mike Smith, Mike Nolan, Johnny Major, etc.] and been very fortunate," Pettine said, "but for me, my core football beliefs came from my dad.

"For us it still comes back to the toughness part," he continued. "We play in a very physical division, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati. We feel you have to be the toughest team on the field to beat those teams.

"I don't worry so much about our physical toughness. I think we have some tough guys. It's the mental aspect, dealing with adversity, all of it. Something gets taken away from you or something bad happens to you, how do you respond? To me that's the true test."

So Pettine zeroed in on looking back on all of the oldest of football adages. Discipline. Togetherness. Commitment.

So there was Mike Pettine, running around that practice field in the middle of June, pointing at this, prodding at that, trying to build a team and a culture the way it's supposed to be done. This is why he chose this profession. This is what made staying away and dealing insurance impossible.

There are still a million questions about the Browns, especially at quarterback, but there is also a sense of quiet confidence that at least the culture has shifted, at least these guys have a fighting chance.

"This is a people business," Pettine said. "It's all about getting to know your guys and building relationships and the psychology of it. [This year] I just feel so much more prepared as a leader."

This year, it at least appears he'll be able to succeed, or fail, his way, the Pettine way.