Todd Monken's Wednesday news conference opened with Browns history in Pittsburgh, and he gave it three words. How much time had he spent on it with his players? "Not much." Did he see value in that? "No."
Would they be better off not knowing? That earned a full sentence: "Well, it has nothing to do with our team."
A few questions later, a reporter noted that he hasn't been around for the 22 straight regular-season losses in Pittsburgh. Monken shrugged that off, too. "I don't know the other 20-something years, whatever that is," he said.
He knows at least one of them
Small correction for the coach. Monken was Cleveland's offensive coordinator in 2019, and those Browns lost 20-13 in Pittsburgh on Dec. 1. He later spent three seasons running Baltimore's offense, so he has seen this division from both ends.
That's what makes the answer interesting. In his first year as Cleveland's head coach, Monken isn't ignorant of the rivalry. He has decided his roster doesn't get to carry it.
That's the right call. This team is full of young players who weren't around for any of those trips. The losses belong to other Browns teams, and nobody on those teams is blocking Sunday.
Respect for the building, none for the ledger
None of this makes him dismissive of the place. On Monday he called Pittsburgh "a fun place to go play" and said he wants it loud: "Means the game matters."
Ask him about the road and he goes straight to specifics. You have to "bring your own juice," he said Wednesday, and get through 60 plays "six seconds at a time."
He also won't sell the stakes. Asked what a win would mean for the idea of a different Browns culture, Monken said he doesn't get into it, then added, "I'm not trying to avoid the question." The game is "one of 17," he said, and "one-plus" because it's in the division. Compare that with Mike McCarthy, who named Cleveland and 6-2 out loud two days earlier.
Monday's trip back to the first meeting's penalties is about as far into the past as he'll go, and he said he doesn't love doing even that.
His quarterback is on the same page. Told about the drought, Deshaun Watson called it "another opportunity." Asked about warning the young guys, he said "we don't try to make one game bigger than the other."
Monken's best line on all of it came in that first long answer. "Rivalries are made up of good teams playing each other," he said, "and we're fighting like hell to be a really good team."
Image: AI-generated image.
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