Sunday, July 29, 2001
Training camp still fascinates Brown
Bengals owner fondly remembers days long past, spent with his dad
By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer
GEORGETOWN, Ky. — Mike Brown's memories of his first training camp are as refreshing as the iced tea he's drinking from a plastic cafeteria cup. It was 1946. The new Cleveland Browns, founded by Mike's dad, Paul Brown, were training at Bowling Green State University. Mike was 11.
In the evening, he'd be invited to players' rooms to play cards. Hearts was the game of choice. Marion Motley, Bill Willis and Horace Gillom were the other three players.
“The object of the game was always to stick the queen on Marion Motley, who would feign great unhappiness with that,” Brown said. “They were kind to me, and I have fond memories of that. It was a good time to be a hero worshiper.”
He's no longer a kid. He's the boss. He'll be 66 in a couple of weeks. And his dad will have been dead for 10 years next Sunday.
What hasn't changed in 55 years for Mike Brown is his love of training camp.
“Your focus is on football,” he said. “To me, football is more than a three-ring circus. There's always something going on, something to look at.”
There's also a simplicity to training camp days that provides a respite from the chaos of the football business.
Brown occupies the first townhouse on the Georgetown College conference/football complex. His silver Chevrolet Impala is parked a few steps from his door. His daughter, Katie Blackburn, the Bengals' executive vice president, lives in the adjacent townhome with her family. About 20 steps away is the main conference center, where he eats at the same training table as coaches and players and other team employees. Mike Brown often entertains visitors at his table. One day, it's former Bengals coach Tiger Johnson. Another day, it's Jack Clary, who wrote PB, the Paul Brown biography.
On 90-degree, 90-percent-humidity days, his is the only room with the windows open and the air conditioning off. His dislike of AC has nothing to do with a millionaire businessman trying to save a few bucks.
“Air conditioning is one of the unfortunate things that happened to our country,” Brown said. “It was just a better country without air conditioning. I remember when there was no air conditioning, and the world actually survived.”
Next door, Blackburn's place is cluttered with toys brought by her two school-age daughters. In the evening, when she's not on the phone negotiating with Jim Steiner, the agent for rookie holdout Justin Smith, Blackburn and her husband, Bengals director of business development Troy Blackburn, can be found hitting tennis balls on a nearby court.
In the evening, Mike Brown often takes his two granddaughters for a walk around the football complex.
“He's always loved training camp as long as I can remember,” Katie Blackburn said of her father. “You get to watch football after a long gap without it.”
It's raining Wednesday afternoon. He stands on the sidelines of Rawlings Stadium beneath an umbrella and watches his team practice. He holds a stopwatch. The girls, 8 and 6, are running sprints to a nearby bench and back. Grandpa is timing them like he would a rookie wide receiver.
“Twelve-one, twelve-two, good job, Elizabeth,” Mike Brown says.
While the Blackburns' place is stuffed with toys, Brown's Georgetown residence is bare-bones. He uses a mini-fridge that his son, Paul Brown, another Bengals executive, had to balance for him last year.
The living room contains a couch, armchair and television. A hat tree is dressed with a few Bengals baseball caps and a straw hat he'll wear outdoors to watch practice. Spread on a coffee table are depth charts and scouting reports on the team's 80-plus players.
Wearing dark blue shorts and a white Bengals golf shirt, which has a small hole in the back, Mike Brown sits in the armchair with his feet propped up on a kitchen chair.
On his left side, a copy of that day's Wall Street Journal is folded on the lip of a garbage can.
On his right is his summer reading. A thick, hard-bound edition about the history of ancient Persia sits on a small table.
“I don't want people to read the things I do,” he said.
There can't be a better-read team president-coach combination in the NFL. Dick LeBeau is an avid reader of Civil War histories. He recommends Winston Churchill's series, History of English Speaking Peoples,to anyone who asks.
“Dick's more of a current historian,” Brown said.
The Bengals' recent history is not a good read. It's a horror story. Since his father's death Aug. 5, 1991, the Bengals are 47-113 and have not had a winning season.
In many ways, Mike Brown still lives in his father's shadow.
“Well, I'm aware of it. But it's just a number,” Brown said. “I'm aware of my father's influence on the game and on me. That's something that's a part of me. Just because it has an anniversary and a certain amount of time has gone by, it makes others think about it. I tend to think about it on a more regular basis.”
PB is a Hall of Famer, one of the most influential people in pro football history. He has a place in Canton.
Mike Brown isn't concerned with his place in the game.
“I don't ever expect that I will attain the heights he did,” he said. “But my father was an extraordinary person. There aren't as many people who are going to achieve as much as he did. And the fact that I don't is nothing that bothers me. I just understand that's the way it is. I'm happy in my situation.
“I wish our team was winning more. That bothers me. I don't think of it in terms of my place in the game. I scarcely matter. I would like it to be better for all the people who are associated with the team — the players, the coaches, the fans. It's unfortunate that it hasn't been better. It should be, and I would like it to be.”
Hope, like oppressive heat and sweet memories of the past, is part of training camp.
“It hasn't changed much from how it was in the late '40s,” Mike Brown said. He wipes condensation from the side of his tea glass with his thumb.
“If you walked in the door from then in some sort of time warp, you wouldn't think there was much change. I don't stay here because I have to. I stay because I want to.”
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Training camp still fascinates Brown
