Monday, December 28, 1998
Brown says meeting with Gregg not business
BY GEOFF HOBSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Forrest Gregg
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Former Bengals coach Forrest Gregg met with team President and General Manager Mike Brown Sunday for the second time in a month, but both insisted it was a social call not related to football.
Gregg, who led the franchise to its first Super Bowl in 1981, watched the Bengals' worst shutout loss ever Sunday from Brown's Cinergy Field box.
Bengal insiders say Brown has kicked around the idea of hiring a football consultant dur ing the club's third 3-13 season in the past six years. But if Brown has any such plans and if Gregg is his man, he wasn't saying as he looked out at an empty Cinergy moments after Sunday's final gun.
“Forrest was here for Christmas to see his daughter who lives (in Cincinnati), and I invited him to the game,” Brown said. “That's all there is to it. Forrest is a friend.”
Which is exactly why observers think Gregg, 65, is Brown's man for the job. He likes and trusts Gregg, a Pro Football Hall-of-Fame tackle who played against Paul Brown's Cleveland teams while anchoring Green Bay's line.
Asked whether he picked Gregg's brain Sunday, Brown said, “I don't think he has to tell me the kick returner couldn't hold on to the ball or the snapper didn't snap or the punter couldn't catch the snap or the quarterback threw it to the wrong jersey.”
Gregg, who dined with Brown when he visited his daughter at Thanksgiving, indicated he wasn't in the box on business. His son, Forrest, Jr., is the offensive line coach at Eastern Michigan and was able to join his family for the holiday.
Brown has said he doesn't expect any major announcements when he meets with coach Bruce Coslet this week.
Coslet isn't saying what he expects, only that it's like all end-of-season meetings in which he'll bring along his list of ideas and listen to Brown. All indications are Brown goes into the meeting prepared to ask back Coslet and his coaches. The only assistant not returning, sources say, is secondary coach Ray Horton and that's by his own choosing.
Horton had no comment Sunday. Linebackers coach Mark Duffner, a former head coach at Holy Cross and Maryland, said he was contacted about a college job last week but told the school he wanted to stay with the Bengals.
Horton's departure means the Bengals could add a wide receivers coach. During defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau's first Bengal tour, he served as secondary coach. Richard Williamson could be free if fired in Carolina.
Like Brown, Coslet was taking no questions about the future Sunday. But he liked the last thing about the past.
It was the reaction he got when he pulled from the game's final moments Artrell Hawkins, Michael Bankston, Clyde Simmons, Brian Simmons and Takeo Spikes.
“I told them that the game was almost over, that they tried hard. But I didn't want guys to get hurt at that stage,” Coslet said. “They were mad. They wanted to go back in. That says something about what kind of guys we have.”
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