The Browns went outside the football world to find someone to address the team before they faced the Broncos last Saturday night.
Kobe Bryant made his name on the basketball court, but shared some of what he learned over the course of his career with the team at their hotel on Friday night. Safety Jabrill Peppers said he got a “little extra oomph” from listening to Bryant before a game he ended with his first career sack and head coach Gregg Williams said at his Monday press conference the message was that “leadership comes from example first and voice second.”
“The big thing is that it is not easy to be special,” Williams said. “It is not easy to be looked at as one of the best of all time. One of the things and messages that we talk about all of the time is how can you be that person if you can’t be the best of who you are? Sometimes we accept things on a particular day. That is not how you be the best of all time. You have to be the best of who you are, who you are genetically blessed to be and then let everything fall where they fall. He did a great job of making sure in understanding that it does not make any difference if it is a pick-up game, if it is an argument or if it is a championship game, Kobe is going to win.”
The Browns won after listening to Bryant and they’ve done more winning in the last six weeks than they have in just about any year since Bryant went from high school to the NBA, so the right messages finally seem to be taking root in Cleveland.