After a weeks-long search, the Cleveland Browns have named a new head coach. Mike Pettine will lead the team in the upcoming season.
Pettine was defensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills in the 2013 season, and spent several seasons before that with the New York Jets. At a news conference announcing his hiring, Pettine said he planned to instill "mental toughness" in the team.
"To think through things when they aren't going well, to hang tough when they're going bad, that the heads don't drop and it's 'same old Browns' and teams talk themselves into losing," Pettine said. "That to me is the culture that needs to be changed here."
He said the Browns have young talent and the ability to retain it. Still, he acknowledged that the biggest tests of his leadership ahead of him.
“I don’t think anything I can say or do today, or for that matter up to the beginning of September, I think will matter," he said. "I think that this is a bottom-line business, and it’s all about winning. So again, I’m not into winning press conferences. I just want the Cleveland fans to know that we’re going to put a team out on the field that they can be proud of.”
Last month the Browns fired head coach Rob Chudzinski after only one season on the job.
