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Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz 'greatly indebted to' Titans coach Mike Vrabel
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- Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz 'greatly indebted to' Titans coach Mike Vrabel
BEREA — There would be plenty of time to talk about defensive successes and slowing down Tennessee Titans All-Pro running back Derrick Henry . Before Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz got down to discussing football, he had to make sure he talked about life.
Specifically, he wanted to make sure he extended more than just a little bit of gratitude for the way several current and former Titans coaches or officials helped him out while he spent the previous two seasons working as a senior defensive assistant. That included Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk — "Miss Amy," as Schwartz called her — and former general manager Jon Robinson.
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However, most important of all, it included Tennessee coach Mike Vrabel , whose team plays at the Browns on Sunday.
"As a lot of you guys know, I was in a tough spot a couple years ago," the Browns defensive coordinator said Thursday. "I had to step away from the game. My thyroid had gone berserk and I needed a bunch of different operations and procedures, and Mike Vrabel called me, it seemed like every week for about four months, and he never once talked about football. He always just asked me how I was doing and everything else."
Schwartz's career had taken off with the Titans as first a linebackers coach and then defensive coordinator from 1999-08. It reached an obvious pinnacle in 2017 as the defensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles , who won the Super Bowl that season.
New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, left, Houston Texans defensive coordinator Mike Vrabel, center, and Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz talk during Florida's Pro Day in Gainesville, Fla., on March 28, 2017.
The thyroid that "had gone berserk" forced Schwartz away from coaching after the 2020 season. At that time, he lived in Nashville, where his kids went to school, and not too far from where the Vrabel family lived.
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The two had been acquaintances dating back to Vrabel's playing career with the Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots . They had their own share of interactions while Schwartz lived nearby, mostly while out walking the family pets.
That eventually led Vrabel to reach out to Schwartz to offer him a role in the Titans organization. The Akron native and Walsh Jesuit High School and Ohio State University product kept that role relatively secretive during the two years they were together.
"It had to be right for him. It had to be right for us," Vrabel told Tennessee reporters this week. "Make sure that it was in the role that he was looking for at that point in time in his career."
It turned out to be exactly what Schwartz needed at that point. There was no pressure to do a certain amount of work.
Tennessee Titans senior defensive assistant coach Jim Schwartz watches during practice in June 2021.
Instead, Schwartz was able to stay connected to the game he loves with an organization that has played a major role in his career.
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"I started feeling a little bit better, got my vision back and a bunch of different things and he invited me to start just like one day a week, and one day turned into two and turned into three and Vrabes never once made it anything about other than do what you feel that you can do," Schwartz said. "And pretty soon, about six months later, I was pretty much back to normal and pretty much working normal hours, but it was really an honor to be back in that organization. It was an honor to work with guys on the staff.
"I think I have some lifelong friends on that staff and I'm greatly indebted to Vrabes for what he did and for helping me out. I just hope that I gave as much as I received in those two years."
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on Twitter at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Browns' Jim Schwartz 'greatly indebted' to Titans coach Mike Vrabel
