[Cleveland Browns News]

BEREA, Ohio — When the Cleveland Browns’ general manager, Phil Savage, visited Notre Dame to watch a football practice last August, he was offered a special vantage point: Charlie Weis’s guest-of-honor chair.

Weis — Notre Dame’s head coach and a former assistant with the Giants, the Jets and the Patriots — regularly invites former associates for chats. With a laugh, Savage described it as “The World According to Charlie.” On that day, Weis had a pointed sales pitch for his old friend about quarterback Brady Quinn.

“He said: ‘This kid has a chance to be really good in the N.F.L. He’ll be one of the top such-and-such quarterbacks within three years. He’s smart. He’s got intangibles. We’d be a .500 team or less without him,’ ” Savage recalled. “I said, ‘Charlie, if we have a chance to get him, that’s going to mean we’ve lost a lot of games.’ ”

The troubled Browns did lose a lot of games, finishing 4-12 last season. And Quinn passed for more than 3,000 yards for the second consecutive season.

Savage had known of Quinn before Weis arrived at Notre Dame. But Quinn’s selection by Cleveland with the 22nd overall pick in the N.F.L. draft in April culminated a two-year conversation between Weis and the Browns. It was based on longtime relationships between Weis, Savage and Browns Coach Romeo Crennel, who had been an important assistant with Weis on Coach Bill Belichick’s Super Bowl-winning teams in New England. Quinn grew up rooting for Cleveland.

Weis’s N.F.L. Friendships Led Browns to Quinn - New York Times

[Lefty Noob]

No real surprise, here. I'm sure all of us thought that the connections between Weis, Savage and Crennel would play some role in Quinn's getting drafted by Cleveland. Makes me wonder how many other NFL teams have pipelines like this, though, where former colleges share information about and try to sell pro clubs on their collegiate athletes.

[azrael492]

I am sure if it gets too much press the NCAA will pass a rule against being able to visit old friends if they are a coach.