Cleveland, OH (92.3 The Fan) – On Jan. 7 Freddie Kitchens interviewed to become the next head coach of the Cleveland Browns.
A week later, Kitchens was introduced as the ninth full-time head coach in the expansion era and 17th overall in the history of the franchise.
“We only have one goal here and that is to hoist the Lombardi Trophy,” Kitchens said Monday afternoon at his introductory press conference held at FirstEnergy Stadium.
To his point, Kitchens lamented the satisfaction he’s felt around town with the Browns going 7-8-1 this past season.
“It drives me crazy that people are happy with 7-8-1. It drives me literally crazy,” Kitchens said. “If I was in a different setting, my vocabulary would demonstrate that. That is not acceptable. Nobody here wants that. We all understand that it was an improvement, but under no circumstances is that ever going to be acceptable.”
There was a much different vibe as Kitchens sat next to general manager John Dorsey fielding questions from reporters.
Sure, the same unbridled optimism that accompanies these occasions was certainly there, but that optimism had significant substance behind it – starting with the importance of teamwork.
It is something the franchise has lacked consistently throughout the expansion era – especially recently – which has contributed to a tremendous amount of volatility and conflict behind the scenes resulting in a ton of losses on the field.
“The letter ‘I’ is a letter. It is not a word. When it is used as a word, you have problems,” Kitchens said. “That is the No. 1 thing that you will not ever hear. It is ‘we,’ ‘us,’ and ‘our,’ because we are all going to take ownership in this thing. You know what? It is going to make it that much more special when we get to the top.”
Like Dorsey, Kitchens believes there isn’t an employee that works for the Browns that isn’t just as important as he is.
“Everybody’s job is important, and you can’t ever lose sight that the guy cleaning up the locker room’s job is important,” Kitchens said. “If he didn’t have that job it’d be pretty important. Or if he didn’t do his job you would realize it was pretty important. So, everybody’s job, no matter how small or how big, it’s all equal.”
So, back to that winning thing. What does it take to win?
Kitchens believes two things are a must: trust and respect.
“The relationships that you build in this business have to earn trust and respect and we are going to always – everything that we do within this organization, is going to be trust and respect oriented,” Kitchens said. “Because, that allows you to understand that you can have tough conversations with that. You can understand that different people have different beliefs and if you spend time listening, instead of just hearing, then sometimes maybe you can learn some things.”
There have been few regimes that have survived those difficult conversations that Kitchens referred to here in Cleveland. Typically the parties involved would just stand their ground, dig in and pine for ownership’s approval and support.
That’s not how Kitchens plans to operate with Dorsey, or with his team.
“Everything I am about as a coach is building relationships,” Kitchens said. “I learned a long time ago that this is a people business. People tend to forget what goes on to get you to the field. Between the meeting rooms, the practice field and ultimately to the game field, there has to be conversation. It has to be real-life conversation, because a lot of times, football is not everyone’s life all of the time. So you better get to know the person.
“That will enable you to have tough decisions and tough questions, which will get that individual and that player better. I say individual and player because at the end of the day, we are teachers. As coaches, we are teachers. I am sure that you had a teacher at some point in your life that made you a better person. I am invested in people, not just players.”
Kitchens, who started three seasons at quarterback for Alabama, learned at a young age his most valuable lesson about the sport of football.
“We won a lot of games at the University of Alabama and we were very simple,” Kitchens said. “The game of football was not always the way it is now, and we were very simple. We won a lot of games and it was because of those relationships that those coaches built at that time under Gene Stallings, but Woody McCorvey and Homer Smith had a direct impact on my realization that it’s more than X's and O's.”
Kitchens climed the coaching ladder rapidly in the last year.
He went from running acks coach to offensive coordinator to head coach in the span of less than three months, but he doesn’t pretend to have everything figured out either.
“There are a lot of things about this job that are going to come up I have no idea,” Kitchens said. “But I have a great support staff and I told them in the interview, ‘I am not telling you I have it all figured out.’ Hell, I didn’t have it figured out as an offensive coordinator, but I had a supporting cast around me to get the answers and if I can’t get the answers in this building, then we have problems because we have experts in all areas.
“Sometimes as a coach, you are self-centered and you don’t want to ask for help, because that admits weakness. I am a curious person and by being curious, you have to have the guts to raise your hand and ask a question. And I will ask questions, because it benefits us all.”
That kind of humility is unique.
So is the respect and appreciation for those he works with, and that’s why Kitchens just might finally be the coach that is not only able to figure it out in Cleveland, but ultimately win too.
“We have the best support staff that I have ever seen anywhere I have been,” Kitchens said. “When you have a desire to win and everybody is willing to check their ego at the door to get it done, then you should be successful. We are going to be successful.”
