THREE months after retiring from the game that has been his life, former NFL head coach SAM RUTIGLIANO is back in football as an offensive coach for the Barcelona Dragons of the NFL Europe League. Rutigliano, head coach of the Cleveland Browns from 1978-84, ended an 11-year tenure as head coach of Liberty University after the 1999 college season. But now he has been lured back to coach the Dragons’ offensive skill position players by his old friend JACK BICKNELL, Barcelona’s head coach. “I am here because of my love for the game,” said the 67-year-old as he took a break from practice in Orlando, Florida, where the NFLEL is staging training camp. “It has never mattered to me where I was or what I was doing or what my title was. “I had officially retired, but I knew Jack from when I was an assistant coach at the New England Patriots and he was head coach at Boston College. He asked me to help out and NFL Europe seemed very exciting to me. I have travelled to Europe before and taken part in coaching clinics over there and my wife Barbara’s family is from Dresden in Germany — she still has family over there and we hope to see them. “When I was in the NFL 18 years ago, people were talking constantly about ways of developing players and it has been interesting to see the league have success in that area. Obviously the big story at the moment is about Kurt Warner, but it is true in a lot of other positions. more.. “The single most important thing after you have become good enough – whether that means good enough to start, or be a backup or play on special teams – is having the opportunity to play. NFL Europe gives these guys the chance to be coached by professional coaches and to play in games.” Rutligliano, a former college player at Tennessee and Tulsa, began coaching 44 years ago in the high school ranks. After serving as a college assistant for three years, he was an assistant coach at the NFL’s Denver Broncos, New England Patriots, New York Jets and New Orleans Saints before being appointed head coach of the Browns in 1978. During seven seasons with the Browns he won one NFL Coach of the Year award and two AFC awards, leading the team to the AFC Central division championship in 1980. He worked an analyst for ESPN and ABC from 1985 to 1988 before serving as head coach at Liberty University from 1989 to 1999. Now he is unexpectedly back in pro football. “It is marvellous to come back to the NFL and to be involved in this level of competition. I look at these kids and I know there are a lot of Kurt Warners out there. The biggest gift you can give a player is the opportunity to fulfil his dream. “In football, and in life, at what point does a guy in a position like Warner before his success say: ‘I am tired of this – maybe I should do something else.’? Maybe some of us can help those kids hang in there. Most people are unsuccessful not because they don’t have the talent but because they quit too early.” Rutligliano knows that the players he is coaching now are very different to those he tutored 30 or 40 years ago, but does not feel the age difference is a barrier. “I don’t think chronology means a thing to players. I think my experience can help them. Besides, a new broom may sweep clean, but it takes an old one to get in the corners.” For further information please contact Mike Preston or David Tossel prestonm@nflp.co.uk or tosselld@globalnet.co.uk Tel: 44-(0)171 225 3070 / Fax: 44(0)171 376 5070 All releases and breaking news will be posted on www.NFLeurope.com