Imagine how different Cleveland Browns history could have been had the team hired Bill Cowher as the head coach instead of Eric Mangini. Based on what Cowher said recently, the Browns tried to make it happen.
Cowher dished on his Cleveland coaching history and potential for more of it in an interview with the Canton Repository, as reported by Steve Doerschuk.
Cowher confirmed that then-Browns owner Randy Lerner met with him to discuss the job opening after Lerner fired head coach Romeo Crennel following the 2008 season.
“You almost needed to go through the process of listening to someone and talking about what they wanted and talking about their football team. I just kept thinking, boy, if people have to talk me into something, that’s not the reason to come back.”
Cowher concluded to the Repository,
“So I really never came that close.”
The longtime Steelers coach also confirmed he has had discussions with other NFL teams since he left Pittsburgh in 2006 but has never had a formal offer or serious interest in returning to coaching. Cowher was recently named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Centennial Class for induction this summer in Canton.
He is a native of the Pittsburgh area but played for the Browns and got his coaching career started in Cleveland under Marty Schottenheimer in the 1980s, the franchise’s peak in the Super Bowl era. The Steelers are the only team he’s ever been a head coach for, despite the overtures from the Browns and others. Cowher has worked as an analyst for CBS since his departure from the coaching ranks.
