Nomadic DeFilippo settles down with Browns

Nomadic offensive coordinator settles down with Browns

By TOM REED

Northeast Ohio Media Group

BEREA

John DeFilippo neededto set his father and the record straight.

During a family vacation five years ago, the new Browns offensive coordinator wanted his dad to understand the road more traveled hadn’t made their lives any less enriching. So what if the DeFilippo name had become as synonymous with moving as Ryder?

Gene DeFilippo, a longtime college football coach and athletic director, ably provided for his wife and three kids, but over the years became burdened by the guilt of their nomadic existence. His only son had lived in four states by the age of 8.

As Gene spilled regret in front of the family, John interrupted his father’s confession.

“Dad, you need to put it to rest,” Gene recalled his son saying. “It was hard for us when we moved around, but look at how our lives have turned out? Our lives have turned out fine.”

DeFilippo inherited his father’s passion for sports and a willingness to chase the next opportunity across state lines. Berea marks his 16th stop on a circuitous journey that includes time spent on two coasts, 10 college campuses and inside six NFL organizations.

The 37-year old arrives here greeted by skeptics wondering how a first-time NFL coordinator can spark an offense with a journeyman quarterback and few playmakers. He will rely on his people skills, knowledge of offense and an array of gridiron experiences that began at his father’s knee. Gene offered his boy access into a sports world most kids could never imagine.

“Dad and I got to do things together that a lot of fathers and sons don’t get to do,” DeFilippo said. “I got to see a ton of places and sporting events and meet great people.

“Growing up the son of a coach, you either really love it or you want something completely different for your life. I really loved it.”

DeFilippo has seen the game from the eyes of a Vanderbilt University ball boy, a third-generation college quarterback and a Colts’ intern watching Peyton Manning throw his first pro passes.

He’s apprenticed as a Notre Dame graduate assistant, a Giants quality-control coach and a San Jose State play caller. He’s learned from failures alongside JaMarcus Russell and successes with Derek Carr.

Through it all, football has acted as a surrogate best friend. It’s the one companion that’s always accompanied him and excited him and made starting over again in another city tolerable because of its promise.

DeFilippo is so wed to the game he didn’t marry until a year ago because as he says, without apology:

“I’m one of those guys who puts my job first. A lot of people will say that’s wrong, but I knew what I wanted to do and I knew how to get there and I had to do it the right way.”

Such unfettered ambition has reunited him with another coach’s son on the lakefront.

Two of a kind

On opening day of Browns training camp, as players and fellow coaches walked onto the practice fields, DeFilippo ran from the locker room as if introduced by a public-address announcer only he could hear.

Dressed in brown shorts and T-shirt, the energetic assistant got right to work. He understands the task is daunting. He represents the sixth Browns offensive coordinator in as many years. His starting quarterback, Josh McCown, went 1-10 a year ago in Tampa; and his backup, Johnny Manziel, spent 10 weeks in rehab following a disastrous rookie season.

Although he doesn’t listen to “the noise,” DeFilippo is aware of the perception some outsiders have on him. He is not a brand name. He lacks the play-calling pedigree of Norv Turner and Kyle Shanahan, the Browns’ previous two coordinators.

“I’m sure there was skepticism in this building when I got hired,” he said. “I think a lot of it has gone away once people got to know me and saw my preparation and work ethic and my knowledge of the game.

“From outside the building I can totally see it and that’s fair. I’ve never done this job at this level before . . . I can tell you this: We’re going to scratch, fight and claw to put the best product on the field. Our players are going to be prepared to play each week. They will play with a tremendous amount of energy and effort and we’re going to play with a great deal of swagger.”

Such verve is part of what drew coach Mike Pettine to DeFilippo when they worked together on the 2009 Jets staff. Pettine was a first-year defensive coordinator and DeFilippo an assistant to the quarterbacks coach.

The men kept the same late hours and hung out socially. They shared an Italian heritage, a taste for cigars and a childhood of growing up in a football household. Pettine’s father, Mike Sr., is a prep coaching legend in suburban Philadelphia.

While the Pettines were moored to the same geographical area, the DeFilippos were literally all over the map. Born in Youngstown, the Browns’ offensive coordinator lived in Nashville, Spartansburg, S.C., Lexington and Philadelphia by time he was 15. The endless relocation was difficult, but for a boy obsessed with sports, his dad’s work environment presented limitless perks.

He traveled on some team trips. He stood on the sidelines for SEC football games. He sat within earshot of Rick Pitino as he coached the Wildcats basketball team. He saw how to treat and how not to treat athletes.

“Some kids tell their parents they are going to grow up to be policemen or firemen,” said Gene, who retired from Boston College in 2012. “John used to tell me when he was 10 years old, ‘I’m going to be coaching in the NFL and you will be watching me on TV.’ ”

Gene didn’t allow his son to play organized football until his freshman year in high school. The father wanted DeFilippo’s love for the game to sprout organically and not have it forced on him.

The youngster brought home game tapes and broke them down. He worked summer football camps in part to network and tap into the minds of college coaches.

“When you’ve moved around as much as I have, you are looking for something constant in your life, and I was very fortunate that football and my father provided that,” he said.

‘Our type of guy’

Standing 10 yards behind the line of scrimmage, DeFilippo sensed the confusion. As Manziel barked out signals, several teammates seemed unsure of their assignments on the play.

It was the first day of camp and DeFilippo could have let the chaotic sequence unfold. Instead, he blew the play dead and ordered the offense to huddle up, marking one of the few times he raised his voice.

Browns offensive coordinator John DeFilippo on QBs Josh McCown and Johnny Manziel Cleveland Browns offensive coordinator John DeFilippo talked with the media before the last day of their three-day mandatory minicamp about the play of quarterbacks Josh McCown, the projected starter and Johnny Manziel. Dave Andersen, Northeast Ohio Media Group

“He’s a stickler for detail,” Pettine said. “It’s important to him. He desperately wants to win and wants things to be right. That’s what you love about John. He’s got a great way with the players. They sense his passion and that’s part of why he’s here.”

DeFilippo’s life has been shaped and consumed by quarterbacks. His grandfather, Gene Sr., 90, played the position at Holy Cross. His dad, 65, directed a wishbone attack at Springfield College in Massachusetts while he continued the family tradition at James Madison University in Virginia.

Whatever professional playing aspirations he harbored quickly evaporated after attending Panthers’ and Colts’ training camps as a summer intern. DeFilippo lacked the size and arm strength of NFL quarterbacks and returned to college determined to one day mentor them.

He accepted $5,000 to coach quarterbacks at Fordham University in 2000. Months before his start date, the ambitious college student took bus trips at his own expense from Virginia to New York to familiarize himself with coach Dave Clawson’s team and terminology.

Clawson knew the DeFilippos from his time as an offensive coordinator at Villanova. He wasn’t prepared, however, for the maturity and self-assurance of a 22-year-old who had no problem admonishing players.

“Sometimes, young coaches try to be friends with the players,” said Clawson, who coaches at Wake Forest. “John acted like a coach from Day 1. He arrived with an accelerated knowledge base. It was like I was getting a fourth-year coach.”

Colorado football coach Mike MacIntyre made similar observations when DeFilippo served as his quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator at San Jose State in 2010-11. The program climbed 32 spots in the national offensive rankings with him calling plays.

“John is very straightforward with players,” MacIntyre said. “He gets along with them, but he’s also not afraid to get after them. He is demanding in the right way.”

DeFilippo has toggled between the college and pro ranks. He’s seen the best and worst the game offers. He’s been on staffs that were fired. He was one of several coaching assistants released by the Jets after the 2009 season despite helping tutor quarterback Mark Sanchez, who led the franchise to the AFC title game as a rookie.

“There is a rainbow at the end of every cloud and the (Jets) experience allowed me to become a play caller for the first time (in San Jose),” he said. “It sucked at the time, but in the big picture it ended up helping me.”

DeFilippo interviewed for the Cleveland coordinator’s job in 2014, but didn’t get it. He remained as quarterbacks coach in Oakland and helped Carr enjoy a solid rookie season.

In January, the Browns were mired in controversy as Shanahan bolted amid rumors of front-office meddling in the play calling. Hiring a top-flight experienced coordinator was going to be tough given the circumstances. Pettine wanted to give DeFilippo another look.

The coach had all the play-calling candidates speak with the remaining offensive staff and sit in on a meeting with the defensive assistants.

“I’m big on chemistry,” Pettine said. “Do you want an all-star team or do you want guys who work well together? I remember talking to our defensive staffers after John left and they said, ‘This is our type of guy.’ “

DeFilippo is reacquainting himself with McCown and Terrelle Pryor, who played under him with the Raiders. The coordinator believes McCown is a good fit to run his offense.

“Josh has gotten so much better since our time in Oakland,” he said. “His arm strength is stronger now than in 2007 and I don’t think he’s lost anything athletically. His game has improved as he’s gotten older and not declined like a lot of guys.

“Josh is not going to make it all about Josh. He’s going to make it all about this offense and the team. He’s the most selfless player I’ve ever been around. He’ll do anything he can to make the team better.”

McCown sees an evolution in DeFilippo as a coach.

“He’s changed so much,” the quarterback said. “His knowledge of the game has grown . . . You can see the whole time he’s been preparing himself to be in this chair . . . and it’s going serve us well.”

Finding love and a best man

On a second date with his future wife, DeFilippo asked an audacious question: Would she be willing to move from California?

“When you’re older you want to find out fairly quickly about things or you’re wasting each others time in the dating process,” he said.

The football lifer met Kari, a schoolteacher, while coaching in San Jose. He liked her, but proceeded cautiously knowing how difficult life can be for coaches’ families. The long hours and threat of relocation have strained many relations and ended marriages. The Browns coordinator and his sisters, Mary and Christine, who lives in Akron, feel fortunate their parents, Anne and Gene, have been married for 43 years.

DeFilippo is a ghost around the house during football season. He’s explained it to previous girlfriends and told them he understood if they wanted to stop dating because of frequent absence.

“Kari has never complained about the time away,” said DeFilippo, whose family includes a French bulldog named Jameson after his favorite whiskey. “There were times in Oakland we’d barely see each other in a week.”

The couple got engaged in 2013, leading some to wonder who a groom with so few roots would pick as a best man?

The offensive coordinator went outside the playbook and made a creative call.

DeFilippo chose the person who taught him a love for golf, cigars and red wine. The person he phones all the time concerning important questions about coaching and life. The one who implanted so many desires and opened so many doors.

He asked his father.

“That’s the biggest compliment I’ve ever received,” Gene said. “I was honored.”

Dad plans to make multiple trips to Northeast Ohio, where two of his children now reside. Berea probably won’t be DeFilippo’s final stop given his age and the National Association of Realtors should present him a lifetime supply of Bubble Wrap for the business he’s generated.

But these are good days for a ramblin’ man ready to put down roots. The coach they call “Flip” has found an ideal partner and a challenging job. Everything has turned out fine. Just as he told his best man they would five years ago.