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Freddie Kitchens: Browns are going to win...and have a damn good time doing it

New Cleveland Browns coach Freddie Kitchens says the fun is in winning, and we're going to have a damn good time doing it.
Credit: Matt Florjancic
New Cleveland Browns coach Freddie Kitchens says the fun is in winning, and we're going to have a damn good time doing it.

CLEVELAND — New Cleveland Browns coach Freddie Kitchens knows what it is like to coach in the final game of the season in the National Football League, and the first time around, it did not end well, as the Arizona Cardinals fell to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII on February 1, 2009.

From that moment on, Kitchens has worked tirelessly to ensure he never has that kind of feeling again.

“I went to the Super Bowl. I lost the Super Bowl,” Kitchens said during his introductory press conference at FirstEnergy Stadium Monday. “I never want to be in that position again. But every decision I have made since 2008 has been getting in position to do that.

“The fun is in the winning and we are going to have fun. So in an algebraic equation, if we are going to have fun and the fun is in the winning, we are going to win and we are going to have a damn good time doing it.”

Asking questions has been a big part of Kitchens’ development as a coach.

While admitting some in the coaching profession believe it is a sign of weakness to ask questions, Kitchens views every conversation as an opportunity to learn something new and sharpen his skills as a leader of men.

“I’m a curious person, and you have to have the guts to ask questions,” Kitchens said. “I will ask questions because it affects us all.

“I’m not a finished product. I haven’t made it, you haven’t made it, but I know how to continue to get better and have the resources to do that.”

Much like their new head coach, the Browns were anything but a finished product when Kitchens took over the play-calling duties on Monday, October 29, hours after former coach Hue Jackson and offensive coordinator Todd Haley were dismissed to clean up “internal discord.”

At 2-5-1 following a 33-18 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on October 28 and in the middle of the unprecedented midseason coaching upheaval with eight games left to play, the 2018 Browns did not look like a team capable of the greatest year-to-year turnaround in franchise history.

But a 5-3 record over the second half of the season and a three-game winning streak in December secured the Browns’ greatest turnaround in team history, as they finished plus-7.5 in wins over the winless 2017 campaign.

Although the Browns made the greatest year-to-year improvement in franchise history, Kitchens has a different kind of standard that he wants to set for the organization.

“It drives me crazy that people are happy with 7-8-1,” Kitchens said. “It drives me literally crazy. If I was in a different setting, my vocabulary would demonstrate that.

“That is not acceptable. Nobody here wants that. We all understand that it was an improvement, but under no circumstances is that ever going to be acceptable. We only have one goal here and that is to hoist the Lombardi Trophy. Everything we do moving forward, if it is going to benefit us moving in that direction, we will make that decision -- from a coaching staff perspective.”

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