Cleveland fans remember the former Browns defensive lineman as a flop. But former coach Terry Robiskie remembers a player with an 'unbelievable' passion for the game.
View full sizeNew England defensive lineman Gerard Warren was a Browns first-round pick in 2001. The No. 3 overall selection had 16.5 sacks in four seasons (60 games) with the Browns. INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Former Browns interim head coach Terry Robiskie watched Patriots and former Browns defensive tackle Gerard Warren drill Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco during the AFC Championship Game to help New England reach the Super Bowl, and it took Robiskie back.
It was during the 2004 season, when Robiskie tried to find Warren's heart under all his bling and attempted to convince the Browns and the fans that "Big Money" was worth more than a hill of beans.
"I discovered that season that Gerard Warren had an unbelievable passion for the game and a desire to win, and he just needed somebody to believe in him," said Robiskie, now an assistant with the Falcons.
Robiskie was named interim coach Nov. 29, the day Butch Davis resigned after the team stumbled to a 3-8 start. A day later, Robiskie summoned his supposed star defensive tackle -- the No. 3 overall pick in 2001 -- to his office.
"I said, 'Gerard, we're going to take all the gold and all the diamonds and put them in a safe until the end of the season,' " Robiskie recalled.
''Then I called his dad, a military man, and his brother, a Florida policeman, and asked them to come to Cleveland for the game that weekend. I offered to pay their way if they weren't already coming."
Warren's dad and brother were called to Robiskie's office on Friday afternoon, along with Warren and Browns Hall of Famer Jim Brown, then a player liaison.
View full sizeTerry Robiskie"I told them we needed him to change his mind-set for the next five weeks," Robiskie said. "I told them I wanted them to go to his house, take his pretty car and leave him a pickup truck. I told them to get his posse out of his house. I told them to take all of his diamonds to Florida with them until the end of the season."
Robiskie also told Warren to pull up his saggy pants, shave, comb his hair and come to work like a gentleman every day. Then he invited Warren's dad and brother to the team meeting Saturday night.
"I told Gerard, 'If you don't understand the importance of the name on your back, your grandfather ought to take it back. Your daddy and grandaddy didn't spend their whole life trying to bring dignity to the Warren name so you could come up here and half-ass it.' "
From the start, Robiskie had witnessed how things went downhill for Warren in Cleveland.
"We all wanted Gerard Warren to come in and be a dominant football player," Robiskie said. "The people in the building and the fans wanted him to come in and be our Warren Sapp, to be an animal, our own 'Refrigerator' [William] Perry."
When Warren didn't explode out of the gate, fans lost patience. To make matters worse, he was fined as a rookie for a cheap shot on quarterback Mark Brunell and was arrested for an unlicensed firearm after a party.
"When he wasn't the savior, the city turned on him," Robiskie said. "Everybody changed their minds, and suddenly, the fans and the organization didn't know if they wanted him."
For his part, Warren played the role of Big Money to the hilt.
"We didn't draft you to be out downtown with your entourage. We didn't draft you to wear gold and diamonds and Gucci glasses," Robiskie told him. "We drafted you to be a blue-collar worker, to take us to the playoffs and Super Bowls."
By the time Robiskie took over, Warren had lost favor with many of his teammates.
"Before that first game against New England, I had 60 T-shirts printed up that said on the back, 'I've got your back,' " Robiskie said. "They ranged from XL to XXXXL."
Robiskie hung a wrong-sized shirt in everyone's locker and told the players: "Go find somebody to give your shirt to. When you hand it to him, look him in the eye and say, 'I'm giving you this shirt from my heart, and I want you to know I've got your back for the next five weeks.' "
Nobody gave Big Money a shirt. Regardless, he went out and played his heart out -- in a 42-15 Patriots blowout.
"He exhausted himself," Robiskie said. "He played as hard as anybody could play. He had seven or eight tackles and four or five hits."
Still, there were whispers afterward that Warren had quit.
"I printed up one more T-shirt and called a team meeting on Monday," Robiskie said. "I made a [film] cutup of about 15 Warren plays from that game. I said, 'If anyone thinks Gerard Warren quit, go play as well as he did because he was one of the best players on the field.' "
Then Robiskie handed Warren the T-shirt he had printed that day and said: " 'I've got your back. If they make me the head coach, I promise you you're going to be here with me.' If the rest of them played like Gerard Warren that day, we'd win a lot of games in Cleveland."
The following week, in Buffalo, Robiskie looked out at Warren late in the game and noticed he had tears streaming down his face. The Browns were getting blown out again, and Warren was still in there fighting with two minutes left.
"I took him out of the game, gave him a hug and asked him why he was crying," Robiskie said. "He said, 'Coach, I wanted to win this game so badly for you that it's killing me. I'd literally stand in front of you and take a bullet for you.' "
That's when Robiskie knew he found the giant heart inside Warren.
"I knew the kid had a burning desire to win," Robiskie said.
Despite Robiskie's public plea for the Browns to keep him, he was traded to Denver the following March for a fourth-round pick. He spent two seasons in Denver and then three in Oakland, having solid, if unspectacular, campaigns. The Patriots signed him before the 2010 season, then re-signed him again at the end of September after cutting him in August.
A backup lineman, he's been a contributor for the Patriots, on and off the field.
"This was always my ultimate goal, to get to the Super Bowl," Warren said.
His original dream was to take the Browns there, and he felt he was on the right track when they made the playoffs in 2002.
"But then we ripped the team apart," he said. "It was sad because we had the foundation of something special there. Cleveland still has a special place in my heart."
Warren is now 33 and more subdued than he was in Cleveland, where he shouted rap lyrics through the locker room.
"I was misunderstood in Cleveland," Warren said. "All I ever wanted to do was win. I don't think everybody there was trying to win a Super Bowl. We had a lot of freeloaders. Some of my teammates didn't understand my desire, what was burning in my heart."
But at least one of his coaches did.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: mcabot@plaind.com, 216-999-4670
On Twitter: @marykaycabot
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2012/02/cleveland_browns_flop_gerard_w.html
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