Sam William Rutigliano (born July 1, 1931) is an American former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach who is a television football analyst for

WEWS WEWS-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with ABC. It has been owned by the E. W. Scripps Company since its inception in 1946, making it one of three stations that have been built and signed on ...

, the ABC affiliate in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

. He served as the head coach for the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. The Browns compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team is named after ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL) from 1978 to 1984, compiling a record of 47–50. Rutigliano was the head football coach at

Liberty University Liberty University (LU), known simply as Liberty, is a Private university, private Evangelicalism in the United States, evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Conservativ ...

from 1989 to 1999, tallying a mark of 67–53.

Early life

left, 175px, Rutigliano around 1979 at the Cleveland Browns practice facility Rutigliano, the son of Italian immigrants, played

high school football High school football, also known as prep football, is gridiron football played by High school (North America), high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular high school sports, interscholastic sports in both c ...

Erasmus Hall High School Erasmus Hall High School was a four-year public high school located at 899–925 Flatbush Avenue between Church and Snyder Avenues in the Flatbush, Brooklyn, Flatbush neighborhood of the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brookly ...

in Brooklyn. He played college football at East Central Junior College,

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

, where he roomed with future

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

star

Lou Albano Louis Vincent Albano (July 29, 1933 – October 14, 2009) was an Italian-American professional wrestler, manager and actor, who performed under the ring/stage name "Captain" Lou Albano. He was active as a professional wrestler from 1953 until 1 ...

, and

Tulsa Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...

. He coached at the high school level in New York and Connecticut, including Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, NY and

Greenwich High School Greenwich High School is a four-year public high school in Greenwich, Connecticut, United States. The school is part of the Greenwich Public Schools system and serves roughly 2,700 students. It offers over 295 courses and a wide variety of co-cu ...

Coaching career

He was then defensive backs coach at the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

from 1964 to 1965 and the wide receivers coach at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

in 1966. He became a professional football assistant with the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC West, West division. The team is headquartered in E ...

in 1967. He was an assistant with the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team p ...

, and

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. Since 1975, the team ...

over the next eleven years before being given the head coaching job for the

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

. Over the next six years, Rutigliano was the coach of the famed " Kardiac Kids" Browns. He led the

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

Browns to the AFC Central Division Championship. The final play of the Browns' playoff game with the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team based in Oakland, California, from its founding in 1960 to 1981, and again from 1995 to 2019 before Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas, relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan ...

would be the most memorable moment in Rutigliano's coaching career. Down 14–12 and within field goal range, Rutigliano decided to run one more play rather than kick a game-winning field goal. The play, called " Red Right 88", resulted in an end-zone interception with 41 seconds left that led to the Browns losing. Despite the early playoff exit, Rutigliano received

NFL Coach of the Year The NFL Coach of the Year Award is presented annually by various news and sports organizations to the National Football League (NFL) head coach who has done the most outstanding job of working with the talent he has at his disposal. Currently, the ...

honors for the 1980 season. The Browns returned to the playoffs in 1982 in the strike-shortened season that saw them go 4-5 and rally around Paul McDonald as the quarterback for the last three games due to an injury to Sipe. They trailed by three to the Raiders at halftime but gave up 14 unanswered points and lost 27–10. After a 9–7 season the following year, Sipe left the Browns for the

United States Football League The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

. McDonald was left as the starter for Cleveland for

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

. After a stretch where the team went 1–7, Rutigliano was fired. He was replaced by defensive coordinator

Marty Schottenheimer Martin Edward Schottenheimer (; September 23, 1943 – February 8, 2021) was an American professional football linebacker and coach who served as a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) for 21 seasons. He was the head coach of the Cl ...

, who went 4–4 as interim coach and was later retained. In his six and a half seasons with the Browns, Rutigliano compiled a 47–50 record. After being let go by the Browns, Rutigliano served as an analyst for

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division for NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, that is responsible for sports broadcasts on their broadcast network NBC, the Cable television, cable channels NBC owns, and on Peacock (streaming service) ...

and

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

for three years. He also held football camps in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and was a consultant for the Italian Football League. In 1988, he was given the head coaching job at

, with founder

Jerry Falwell Jerry Laymon Falwell Sr. (August 11, 1933 – May 15, 2007) was an American Baptist pastor, televangelist, and conservatism in the United States, conservative activist. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch ...

stating that Rutigliano seemed the man to help "establish a sports program for evangelical young people." He was hired to take over the program from

Morgan Hout Morgan Hout (born 1947 – November 1, 2023) was an American college football coach. He served as the football coach at Liberty University from 1984 to 1988, compiling a record of 20–29–1. Coaching career A graduate of Tennessee Temple Uni ...

. He had said no at first when approached but when invited to speak at the campus, he found the idea of being "part of this mission and use my God-given ability as a coach" compelling. In a program that followed Christian standards of no drugs, alcohol, tobacco, or co-ed rooms to go with having curfew and worship, Rutigliano saw it as an advantage for who he wanted in players rather than a disadvantage. The school was subject to creditors not long after he joined the program, but he got to work in raising money for the school utilizing his connections (which he later estimated was in the millions). Owing to their independent status in Division I-AA, the Flames were in a tough position in reaching the playoffs (which they did not end up doing in his tenure), although they did finish in the final rankings in 1995 and 1997. The 1989 season saw Liberty beat top-20 schools in James Madison and Eastern Illinois before their matchup against

Eastern Michigan Eastern Michigan University (EMU, EMich, Eastern Michigan or simply Eastern) is a public research university in Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1849 as the Michigan State Normal School, it was the fourth normal school (teachers' ...

. Playing on the road, the Flames pulled off the 25–24 upset for their first victory over a Division I-A opponent in school history. They won their first six games of the season, the best start for a first-year Liberty coach until 2023. The 1990 team won their first four games and reached 8th in the football rankings. The nine wins in the 1997 season were a season record for the team until

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

. He would serve as coach for eleven years until retiring in 2000. He still ranks as the winningest coach in Liberty football history. His jersey (under "HC") was retired alongside Eric Green, a player on his roster that became Liberty's first NFL draft pick in history, in 2008. He was later inducted into the Liberty Athletics Hall of Fame in 2015. Hours after leaving the Flames in what seemed like retirement, Rutigliano was hired as an assistant coach under Jack Bicknell with the Barcelona Dragons of the

NFL Europe NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa) was a professional American football league that functioned as the List of developmental and minor sports leagues, developmental minor league of the Nati ...

. He later served the same position for the Scottish Claymores of the

. Beginning in 2005, Rutigliano became a Browns analyst for

WKYC WKYC (channel 3) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. Its studios are located on Tom Beres Way (a section of Lakeside Avenue in Downtown Cleveland named after the station's lo ...

channel 3 in Cleveland and also for

SportsTime Ohio SportsTime Ohio was an American regional sports network which was last known as Bally Sports Great Lakes. At the time it left the air, the network was owned by Main Street Sports Group (formerly Diamond Sports Group) and operated as an affiliate ...

when it began operations in 2006. In 2011, he moved to

WEWS-TV WEWS-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with ABC. It has been owned by the E. W. Scripps Company since its inception in 1946, making it one of three stations that have been built and signed on ...

5 to become their Browns analyst.

Player addiction recovery program

Throughout the 1970s,

substance abuse Substance misuse, also known as drug misuse or, in older vernacular, substance abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods that are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder, differing definition ...

, particularly of

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

, was a rampant problem among NFL players. During Rutigliano's tenure with the Browns, he and Dr. Gregory Collins of the

Cleveland Clinic Cleveland Clinic is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Academic health science center, academic Medical centers in the United States, medical center based in Cleveland, Ohio. Owned and operated by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, an O ...

, with the support of team owner

Art Modell Arthur Bertram Modell (June 23, 1925 – September 6, 2012) was an American businessman, entrepreneur and National Football League (NFL) team owner. He owned the Cleveland Browns franchise for 35 years and established the Baltimore Ravens f ...

, founded an anonymous support group known as the "Inner Circle" to help players with substance abuse problems. In 2007, Rutigliano was given the

National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Recovered is a behavioral health organization focused on alcoholism, drug addiction and the consequences of alcohol (drug), alcohol and other drug use. Overview Recovered is an online platform for people seeking treatment for substance use dis ...

's Bronze Key Award by the NCADD's Northeast Ohio affiliate, Recovery Resources.

Head coaching record

NFL

College

References

External links

Sam Rutigliano
at Pro-Football-Reference.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Rutigliano, Sam 1931 births Living people American football ends College football announcers Barcelona Dragons (NFL Europe) coaches Cleveland Browns head coaches Denver Broncos coaches Hamburg Sea Devils coaches Liberty Flames football coaches Maryland Terrapins football coaches NFL announcers New England Patriots coaches New Orleans Saints coaches New York Jets coaches Scottish Claymores coaches Tennessee Volunteers football players Tulsa Golden Hurricane football players UConn Huskies football coaches High school football coaches in Connecticut High school football coaches in New York (state) Erasmus Hall High School alumni Sports coaches from Brooklyn Players of American football from New York City Coaches of American football from New York (state) American people of Italian descent American expatriate sportspeople in Spain American expatriate sportspeople in Scotland American expatriate sportspeople in Germany