Cousineau stayed close to home

01.10.2005

Tom Cousineau was able to cash in on the football trifecta for a player with Northeast Ohio roots.

The former linebacker played his high school locally, at Lakewood St. Edward, then went on to Ohio State and, after a stint with the Canadian Football League's Montreal Alouettes, finally came to the Browns.

"I've been incredibly blessed. I don't know how else to put it," Cousineau, who played four seasons (1982-85) with the Browns, said the other day from his Akron home. "It's the dream of every youngster to play in the NFL, and to get it to do it with the Browns, considering where I grew up, is very special. It's almost surreal. I enjoyed it very much."

And the Eagles, Buckeyes and Browns enjoyed having him very much. He was a standout with all three teams.

Coming out of St. Edward, Cousineau was one of the most highly-recruited football players in the country, along with being a state finalist in wrestling in both his junior and senior seasons. He was a three-year starter at Ohio State and a two-time All-America selection, being MVP of the 1977 Orange Bowl and '79 Hula Bowl. He paced the Buckeyes in total tackles two seasons.

With the Browns, Cousineau led the team in total tackles his first three years here and missed by two of making it four in a row. The 1983 and '84 seasons were his best, as he was a first-team All-NFL pick the first year and a second-teamer the following campaign.

During that time, he joined with Clay Matthews, Chip Banks, Dick Ambrose and the late Eddie Johnson to give the Browns one of the best linebacker corps in the league.

But the story of how Cousineau got to the Browns is almost as interesting as his accomplishments here.

When he came out of Ohio State, Buffalo used the No. 1 overall pick in the 1979 draft to take him. It seemed like a good fit. The Bills were struggling and needed an infusion of talent. And playing in Buffalo, just three hours up I-90 from Cleveland, meant Cousineau would be close to home.

"I was incredibly flattered to have been drafted by the Bills and I looked forward to playing with them," the now 47-year-old Cousineau said. "Chuck Knox, the coach there at that time, was a great coach. He was what they call a players' coach. I just looked upon it as a great opportunity."

But that feeling lasted for only a few fleeting hours - if that.

"My relationship with the Bills got off into the weeds, and it happened almost immediately," he said.

When Cousineau went to fly on draft day from New York, where he had been for the draft, to Buffalo for a press conference with the local media, he found when he got to the airport that there was no seat for his agent, Jimmy Walsh. On top of that, the flight was sold out.

After that matter was finally cleared up and Cousineau and Walsh arrived in Buffalo, they were supposed to go to dinner that night with Bills owner Ralph Wilson and general manager Stew Barber.

"We waited down in the hotel lobby for them, but they never showed up. They didn't even call," Cousineau said. "I didn't need to have my rear end kissed by the Bills, but the way they treated me was about as rude as it gets. For whatever reason, the Bills were playing hardball with me right out of the gate.

"Barber had played with the Bills, and I found out later that he didn't treat any players very well. This was at a time when a lot of players were leaving Buffalo."

Feeling insulted and with his and his client's pride hurt, Walsh quickly called the Alouettes to see if they were interested in having Cousineau play for them. They did.

"By that evening, we had a deal," Cousineau said.

"Buffalo went ballistic when they heard that. They were very unhappy. They thought I was bluffing.

"I wanted to play in Buffalo. I really did. I didn't expect them to match the offer I got from Montreal, because it was very good. We told the Bills that if they were just close to that offer, I'd stay.

"But the Bills came back with an offer that was less than half that of Montreal's. I didn't wan to make it about money. I really didn't. Like I said, though, the thing just got off in the weeds right away and never came back out."

So Cousineau went to the CFL and, not surprisingly, was a star there, too. He played with the Alouettes from 1979-81 and was generally regarded as the best defensive player in the league in a decade.

"They were very good to me up there," he said.

But his heart was still in the NFL, and in April 1982, the Browns' AFC Central rivals, the Houston Oilers (now the Tennessee Titans), made him an offer sheet. The Bills still had NFL rights to Cousineau and could keep him by matching the Oilers' deal, and they did.

The Bills, however, had no intention of Cousineau ever playing for them. They quickly traded him to the Browns for Cleveland's No. 1 draft pick in 1983, a third-rounder in 1984 and a fifth-rounder in '85.

It was a steep price to pay, but the Browns, who were building a pretty good defense at the time, were convinced Cousineau was worth it. They thought Cousineau would be the player who could put their defense - and hopefully even their team overall - over the top.

The whole thing floored Cousineau.

"Coming to Cleveland was a total surprise to me," he said. "I didn't expect it."

It was such big news that Sports Illustrated pictured him on the cover in the early part of training camp and ran a big story on his returning home to Cleveland.

As much as the Browns were thrilled to get Cousineau, he was just as thrilled to be with them.

"I enjoyed playing in Canada, but Cleveland is where I always hoped I would play," he said in the Browns 1982 media guide. "Success, when you don't have anyone to share it with, is a pretty meaningless experience.

"Now I'll have people around me and at the game or watching on television who I care about, and that will help me play my best."

Cousineau was right. He did play very well and helped the Browns defense take some big strides forward.

The Browns made the playoffs when Cousineau was a rookie, in the strike-shortened 1982 season, and they barely missed going back the following year. After being picked to win the division in 1984, the team, because of offensive problems, struggled to a 5-11 finish. That caused coach Sam Rutigliano to be fired halfway through the season and replaced by Marty Schottenheimer.

That marked the beginning of the end for Cousineau's time with the Browns. Even though Rutigliano made it clear he was an offensive-minded coach, Cousineau got along very well with him.

"I think the world of Sam Rutigliano," he said. "We're still great friends to this day."

He likens Rutigliano to his college coach, the late Woody Hayes.

"I played all four years for Woody," Cousineau. "His last game at Ohio State (the 1978 Gator Bowl against Clemson, after which he was fired) was my last game there.

"He was fabulous. His special ability to get you to buy into the team concepts was like no one else I ever played for. Jim Tressel is doing a real good job of that now down there.

"And Woody could deliver a pre-game speech like no one else. He would get you so pumped up that when you ran out of the locker room and onto the field, your feet weren't even touching the ground.

"Sam was a little more subdued than Woody, but he was still a very powerful guy. He was very spiritual."

But despite the fact Schottenheimer had been Cousineau's defensive coordinator since the linebacker arrived in Cleveland, things didn't click as well between them. Cousineau lasted just a year a half with Schottenheimer, spending the last two seasons of his six-year NFL career, 1986 and '87, with the San Francisco 49ers.

Cousineau was a valuable reserve with the 49ers and got to play against his former team one time, in a 1987 Sunday night nationally televised game won by San Francisco 38-24. The 49ers captured the NFC West title both seasons.

Cousineau said he struggled with his emotions after retiring from football.

"I missed it," he said. "I got involved in real estate in South Florida where my dad (Tom Cousineau Sr., who coached high school football for 43 years, many of them at Lakewood) lived before passing away this past April. And I traveled a little bit."

Cousineau's life became much fuller again when, almost 15 years ago, he married the former Lisa Johnson of Akron, a physician who serves as an OBGYN in the Akron area. They have two girls, Kyle Michelle, 11, and Kacey Savannah, 8.

The money he earned playing football has allowed him to stay home a lot with the girls while his wife works. In Cousineau's spare time, he re-does houses.

"It's a hobby of mine," he said.

He has almost completed the renovation of the 68-year-old home in which he and his family have lived the last four years.

"It was the home of a former chairman of Goodyear," Cousineau said. "They were having an auction for the home and they were splitting up the land it was on into smaller lots. My wife and I went because we were interested in one of the lots. We had no intention of buying the house.

"But having done work on houses, I knew what this one was worth, and when the bids on the house came in ridiculously low, I said to my wife, ‘I'm in.' "

Cousineau coached linebackers for a season at Ohio State under John Cooper, and he is back in football again in two respects. He has been the color commentator for the last two seasons on the radio broadcasts of St. Edward football games, working with Jim Mueller, a former member of the Browns radio team with both Gib Shanley and the late Nev Chandler.

And he has also been working this season for the Browns on a very informal and part-time basis.

"It's a very subtle thing," he said. "I come in a couple days a week to watch film of personnel around the league and our personnel, and give input.

"I hope it evolves into more. I'd love to stay involved. There are obviously going to be a number of changes with the Browns in the offseason, so I'll have to see where - if anyplace - I might be able to fit in."

He's ready to become more involved with he Browns because the healthcare software company he started four years ago has developed to the point where it no longer demands so much of his attention.

Like everyone else who either roots for, or has played for the Browns, Cousineau is suffering through this season. But he sees much brighter days ahead for the team.

"I think the Browns have an awesome future. I really do," he said. "I believe that Randy Lerner, when it's all said and done, will be one of the great owners in this league. I'm so impressed with how he has approached this. This was dumped into his lap - literally - when his father passed away.

"Randy has got a tremendous enthusiasm for the game and an incredible heart for this team and its players."

That sounds, too, like a description of Cousineau, whether that team is St. Edward, Ohio State or the Browns.