Coach Sam

From 2003 through 2008, I was truly blessed in getting to meet and know over 100 former and current Cleveland Browns and/or Ohio State Buckeyes football players. Most of these were when I would bring in former players to sign autographs to raise money for different Central Ohio children's charities. I was recently asked which player made the biggest impact on me personally. After thinking about that question for several days, I must say there were several. One of them wasn't actually a player per se, but former Cleveland Browns coach Sam Rutigiliano is a man that I still deeply admire. 

"Coach Sam" is a man of God who has a very powerful testimony. His life was permanently changed during his college career when he was moving from one college to another, driving his VW Bug, when he fell asleep at the wheel, rolled down an embankment and his three year old daughter was killed as a result. It was then that he began his search for answers from God as to "WHY?" It wasn't long after that He accepted the Lord as his Saviour, and has been a Christian ever since. 

 He was the first coach in the NFL (before league wide rules were established in the matter) to develop an anti drug policy. If a player tested positive for a drug, he would give the player two choices. Either get rehabilitation (at team expense), or get cut from the team. If the same player tested positive a second time, he was then cut from the team period. Coach Sam called this his "tough love" policy.

Coach Sam also has an incredible memory.  I had been in phone contact with him through several calls, and spent the afternoon with him for just one Sunday afternoon during football season of the 2005 season.  Several years later, in 2008, my friend Ricky Perk and I were in Canton, OH at the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  We were walking down one of the many halls, when a door opened from an office, and just as we walked past, Coach Sam walked into a hallway directly behind us.  I hear someone call out, "Mark Beavers!"  I turned around and saw Coach Sam.  I was speechless at first, amazed that he actually remembered my name.  He was apparently at the Hall of Fame to speak to a group in attendance that day.

I introduced him to Ricky that day, and he looked Ricky straight in his eyes and told him, "No matter what you do, do your very best!  If you don't know Him already, get to know Jesus!"

I've run into Coach Sam a couple of times since then.  It's usually been at Cleveland Browns Stadium, where he remains a faithful fan (despite the way the former owner treated him.)  And each time I see him, he greets me with a hearty handshake and tells me how glad he is to see me again.  And each time, he remembers my name.