25 questions with a defensive force
who owns two Super Bowl rings
By Barry Shuck May
11, 2024, 7:23am EDT
Defensive lineman Anthony
Pleasant #98 and linebacker Mike Johnson #59 Photo by George Gojkovich/Getty Images
In 1989, the Cleveland
Browns went 9-6-1 under new head coach Bud Carson who had
taken over for Marty Schottenheimer. The franchise had never had a losing
season under Shotts and most had the impression that Carson’s roster was simply
Schottenheimer’s team thus the winning win-loss record.
The defense under
Schotts and DC Dave Adolph played the 3-4. Carson was also a defensive mind and
his scheme was the 4-3 which meant the roster had to have more defensive ends.
Cleveland’s
defensive front was beginning to age with Al Baker and Carl Hairston well into
their 30s, but Michael Dean Perry was a much-heralded defensive tackle from
Clemson who was named First Team All-Pro and selected to his first Pro
Bowl. Robert Banks manned one of the defensive end positions and
was just 26 years old.
1990 Topps Anthony Pleasant rookie
football card #14T
In 1990, then-GM
Ernie Accorsi traded out of the first round and then drafted FB Leroy Hoard in
the second round. In Round 3, Accorsi selected DE Anthony Pleasant out of
Tennessee State.
On the night before
the draft, Pleasant was in a hotel in Dallas with his agent.
Pleasant (6’-5”, 280
pounds) played quite a bit as a rookie with 50 total tackles, a forced fumble,
and 3.5 sacks. He became the starting right defensive end in just his second
season at age 23. He played alongside Perry and James Jones in the middle,
while Rob Burnett became the left defensive end.
This was a time when
Perry terrorized offensive lines and was named to the Pro Bowl three years in a
row with linebacker help from Clay Matthews and Mike Johnson.
Cleveland Browns head coach Bill
Belichick Set Number: X45018
In 1991, something
occurred with the Browns that changed just about everything associated with the
franchise, especially the defense: Owner Art Modell hired New York Football
Giants’ defensive coordinator Bill Belichick as the new head coach.
The Giants had just
won Super Bowl 25 over the
high-flying Buffalo Bills (13-3-0) who had won
the AFC Championship Game 51-3 and
destroyed every offensive category during the season. The strategy that held
the Bills to just 19 points was all Belichick.
By the 1992 season,
this Cleveland defensive unit was ranked the #4 defense being sixth against the
run (1,605 yards), fourth best per carry average (3.3 yards), second-fewest
rushing touchdowns (5), and sixth fewest rushes for first downs (86).
Pleasant’s best
season was 1993 when he had 66 total tackles, 11 sacks, and one forced fumble.
He moved to Baltimore when the franchise relocated for the 1996 season.
Belichick is known
for being a very loyal person. He had “his guys” and wanted them around him.
For Belichick, one of the aspects to be grouped into this category was one
thing: integrity, which describes Pleasant to a tee. In Cleveland, Belichick
brought in linebackers Pepper Johnson and Carl Banks, former Giants defenders
as well as S Everson Walls who were all “his guys.”
In 1998, Belichick
was the DC of the New York Jets and brought Pleasant to
play for his defense once again. When Belichick was hired as the new head coach
of the New
England Patriots in 2001, he again brought Pleasant with
him where he played his final three seasons. The Pats won Super Bowls 36 and
38.
Pleasant was skilled
at sacking the quarterback.
For his NFL career,
Pleasant played in 202 games with 157 starts, had 534 total tackles, 58 sacks,
13 forced fumbles, two interceptions, and three fumble recoveries. While with
Cleveland from 1990-1995, he played in 94 games with 71 starts, had 297 total
tackles, 33.5 sacks, nine forced fumbles, and one fumble recoveries. He also
started seven career playoff games. In 1995 Pleasant was the NFL forced fumbles
co-leader.
In 1994, Pleasant
was part of a Belichick-led Browns defense that helped Cleveland earn its last
playoff victory for 26 seasons.
Defensive line coach Anthony Pleasant
of the Kansas City Chiefs Photo by George Gojkovich/Getty Images
Pleasant did go into
coaching briefly after hanging up his cleats. He was the assistant defensive
coach for the Kansas City Chiefs from 2010-2012
under head coach Todd Haley and then Romeo Crennel. Pleasant became the
assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Houston
Texans in 2014 who then elevated him to assistant defensive
coach in 2015.
He grew up in
Northwest Florida in Century just north of Pensacola and went to Century High
School. When he was just two years old, his father passed away. He was
essentially raised by his mother Betty who worked in a school cafeteria and
taught him character and Christianity.
In 1986 when he was
a senior, there were 542 households in Century, out of which 29.0% had children
under the age of 18 living with them. Pleasant was an all-state performer as a
defensive lineman and helped Century High School win the North Florida championship.
Being a small community school, players had to play both sides of the ball and
be mentally tough where they ran every day and practiced over three hours a
day. Pleasant also played basketball and baseball.
Football was not
Pleasant’s favorite sport nor his dream. He loved basketball and his focus was
on shooting hoops, not playing on the gridiron. But at some point, his high
school basketball coach told him candidly that even though he was a very good
basketball player, he was outstanding on the football field and he should
probably shift his emphasis to that sport if he had any intention of going to
college and play sports beyond his hometown.
He listened.
Everybody has at least one person who could alter one’s future. For Pleasant,
that one man who changed his life forever was basketball coach Lorenzo Jones.
At Tennessee State,
he had 12 sacks in 1988 which tied a record for the fourth-most in a single
season. He also led the squad with 14 tackles for loss. At the end of this
season, he was named First Team All-Ohio Valley Conference.
In his final year,
he was again named First Team All-Ohio Valley Conference.
After his
career was over, the Town of Century honored Pleasant by naming a 22-acre park
“Anthony Pleasant Park”, a sports complex. The civic playground includes a
full-size football field with other amenities. The recreational area lies
adjacent to “Showalter Park” which is a baseball park that honors fellow
Centurion Four-Time Major League Baseball Manager of the Year Bucky Showalter.
Pleasant, now 56
years old, lives in the State of Kansas with his wife of 33 years.
Dawgs By Nature’s Barry Shuck caught up with
Pleasant to discuss how the NFL is different today, why he went to martial arts
school, and what Bill Belichick is really like.
DBN: You grew up in Century, Florida
in Northwest Florida. While at Century High School, you played football,
basketball and baseball. At what point did you decide to pursue football over
the other two sports?
Pleasant: I continued to play each sport all
the way through high school. I had a phenomenal year in my junior year in
baseball and went to a basketball camp where I was co-MVP. I had decided to
pursue basketball. My high school coach and I played some 1-on-1 at the school
gym and he told me I was a much better football player than a basketball player
and that I should pursue that sport. I was playing tight end, receiver,
defensive end, and running back. Today I think back about what if I hadn’t
listened to him. What would I be today? Just a knucklehead stuck in my own
ways?
DBN: Ainsworth Sports ranked football
players from the State of Florida with you included in the list. These are guys
like Emmitt Smith, Harold Carmichael, Ray Lewis, Jack Youngblood, Deion
Sanders, Deacon Jones, and Joey Bosa. Your thoughts?
Pleasant: I never thought about it. I don’t
usually think about what people say about me. The same people who pump you up
are the ones who later try to bring you down. Don’t let them dictate how you
think you are. You can get big and complacent, and then a player can suddenly
be out of a job or not doing so well, and where are those same people? Keep
your confidence.
DBN: How did you end up at Tennessee
State?
Pleasant: My high school coach knew
a guy named Mark Orlando at Tennessee State who then came down to see me. We
talked and he watched film on me and asked me to go and play football at their
school.
Editor’s note: Mark Orlando is currently the offensive
coordinator at Grambling State
Tennessee State 75th Anniversary
Team: #50 Anthony Pleasant (upper right)
DBN: Tennessee State is known for
some great defensive ends that made it big in the NFL such as Richard Dent, Ed
“Too Tall” Jones, Claude Humphrey, and Joe “Turkey” Jones. Is it something in
the water at your school?
Pleasant: Yeah, it must what it is. When I went
there, I started out at outside linebacker because I ran well. Then I was sent
to practice with the defensive ends. They finally made me stay there. That is
another situation of what if I had said, no, I am going to stay with the
linebackers? Again, I had people who saw things in me that I didn’t see myself.
Being a pass rusher came natural to me.
DBN: In 1988 you had 12 sacks and the following year you were named
All-American. How did you find out you were selected with this prestigious
honor, and who was the first person you told?
Pleasant: I got a trophy that was sent to me is
how I found out. Sent out by AP (Associated Press). Back then you didn’t get
many phone calls. Before cell phones. I didn’t tell anyone about the honor, had
too little time to do anything with trying to study and practice all the time.
When I got home I put the trophy on the shelf at my mom’s house and that was
the end of it.
DBN: Back in 1990 when you were
drafted, the NFL draft wasn’t the big event it is now with Primetime coverage.
How did you find out you have been taken in the third round by the Browns?
Pleasant: A couple of my teammates had an agent
named Steve Weinberg out of Dallas. He invited us to come down
and got us a hotel. That night, the day before the draft I prayed, “Please God,
don’t let me go to Cleveland.” In my senior year, we played against Central
State in old Cleveland stadium and won by one point. It was cold, cloudy,
rainy. That was my experience with Cleveland. The wind coming off that lake. We
were watching the draft and the phone rang and they said on the line, “Son,
welcome to the Cleveland Browns.” But I was happy. I called my mom and told her
I had made it. Again, God knowing something more than me.
Pinnacle
football card
DBN: You went to a southern
university. You grew up a southern kid eating cheese grits, freshly picked
vegetables from the garden, all meats are fried, drinking sweet tea while
eating boiled peanuts grown right down the road. Now, you are told you are going
to make a living playing pro football in Cleveland. That’s Ohio. In the cold.
What was your first reaction to this news of playing up north?
Pleasant: The Browns had worked me out several
times, so I knew they had an interest. But when I heard I had been taken in the
third round, I went, “Wow, man.” I was the Browns second pick of the draft
because they took Leroy Hoard in the second round and didn’t have a first-round
pick that year. I thought they must have seen something in me to have drafted
me that high. It’s all in what people see in you. The weather was good when I
first got to the area, but when it got cold it was a different cold that what I
experienced while growing up. There were a lot of things that I missed eating,
but the food is good everywhere you go. And my mom cooked my favorites anyways.
DBN: What was your first training
camp like?
Pleasant: Training camp is like mini-camp with pads on. I
came into camp with a chip on my shoulder coming from a smaller school. I had
to really prove I could play at this level. It was a hard camp but I was
determined.
DBN: Your first head coach was Bud
Carson who was fired then replaced by Jim Shofner. Your second season, Bill
Belichick was now the head coach. What are the differences in coaching styles
between the three coaches?
Pleasant: Bud Carson was a defensive coach and
was more up to speed on pass rush and didn’t play the run. The defensive
linemen rushed the passer and the linebackers played the run. That was our job.
There wasn’t any technique involved in the run game. We played a 4-3 and every
play it was just up the field. Shofner was just the interim coach and didn’t
change anything with the defense. When Bill came in we still played an
over/under defense but it was a two-gap. That means I now had responsibility of
two gaps. I didn’t use my hands very well so that was a big transition. Bill
brought in bigger guys at linebacker and defensive tackles who had girth on
them. The Browns had me and Burnett who were athletic defensive ends and had to
learn his system. I struggled that first year.
DE Anthony Pleasant celebrates sack
of Cowboys QB Troy Aikman Photo
credit should read TIM ROBERTS/AFP via Getty Images
My
defensive coach John Mitchell told me martial arts would show me how to use my
hands, so in the off-season that is what I did. I found a school to teach me
which helped me with hand placement and hand fighting. When I came back the
next year it was night and day. That helped me hold onto my position and had 11
sacks that second year under Bill.
DBN: It has been said that being on a
Bill Belichick team is hard work. Your thoughts?
Pleasant: I had always played under hard-nosed
coaches who practiced you hard and made you run a lot of sprints. So hard work
never bothered me and is what I was used to. Some high school practices were
harder than NFL training camp. Belichick’s camps were hard, but I have gone
through that. Tennessee State practiced us hard. Bill’s practices were just a
different kind of hard, and if a player did not know how to work, they
struggled to keep up.
DBN: In 1993 you had an 11 sack
season and your highest number of tackles with 66 whereas you had just 10 sacks
in your first three seasons. Was this a difference with Belichick’s defense,
your martial arts training, or that you had finally found your groove being the
league now four seasons?
Pleasant: It was me coming into my own finally
and developing my skillset. Bill once told me that other players that came from
big schools had weight rooms and training facilities that I did not have in
college and that I would naturally be behind in development. He directed me
into proper training and had the highest standards. He had expectations on me
which made me determined to prove I could play in his system.
DBN: Where in Ohio did you live while playing for the Browns, and
where was your favorite places to go out to eat?
Pleasant: I lived in North Ridgeville. On
Fridays my wife and some friends would all go out to TGIFriday’s. We really
liked the Glass Garden in Westlake.
DBN: Everything came together in 1994
with the Browns with a playoff berth plus a playoff win over the New England
Patriots. How different is playing in an NFL playoff game versus a regular
season game?
Pleasant: The intensity, focus, and speed are
ramped up more. Each step during a season just gets harder with more on the
line from mini-camp to training camp, from training camp to preseason, then
from preseason to the regular season. It is all more important than what you
just went through. The playoffs just become another level that it gets ramped
up to. Everyone seems to elevate their game. You end up getting the best plays
out of everyone because we have all worked all season for this one game. And
then for the next just one game. There is a sense of pride that sits there.
It’s an honor to be playing in the playoffs and only a select few get to do it.
DBN: In 1995 you led the league in
forced fumbles with six. What was your secret?
Photo by George Gojkovich/Getty
Images
Pleasant: Work hard, work ethic. Sometimes see
opportunities for the ball instead of trying to get the sack. A fumble can
damage an offense a lot more than a sack even if it means you don’t get the
stat, but it can turn a game around. My move was to come down on the
quarterback’s arm and then drop all the way to the ball in his hand.
DBN: Tell us something about old
Municipal Stadium.
Pleasant: It was old, but I loved that stadium.
It was nothing like coming down that tunnel. They had these speakers that would
be crackling. You would go down the tunnel from the Indians locker room and you
could hear the crowd getting louder as you got closer to the dugout. And then
you go up the steps of the dugout and would run out and it was just so loud as
you got out with that speaker going, “ske....ee” then some words then back to
the crackling sounds then it would hum “ummm” then more words. And the crowd
would just be loud.
DBN: How did you find out that the
Browns were moving to Baltimore?
Pleasant: We kept hearing rumors about it. I
remember Art (Modell) had told Bill he was going to be our coach when we moved
to Baltimore. That was a really big distraction from about the fifth game to
the end of the season. A lot of people forget we started 3-1 and went downhill
from there.
DBN: Selling your home, finding a new
house, schools, where to live, changing doctors. That move to a new city had to
be difficult. And going from one old stadium to another old stadium. Please
explain.
Pleasant: Basically I had to leave all the grunt
work to my wife. She had to travel to Baltimore and see what the schools were
like, and what houses she wanted. This was during the season and I didn’t have
2-3 days to fly to Baltimore to look around. So a lot of the weight was on the
spouses. It was the unknown of going to a different environment. I had made
Cleveland my home and was now rooted there. I had grown to love the state. I
love Cleveland. That is all I knew was Cleveland. The fans were genuine and
loved their Browns. Baltimore got the same winters and was more of a political
place. The fans were welcoming despite having to play in a worse stadium than
the one we left before the new stadium was built.
DBN: Your entire NFL career you were
known for being able to get to the quarterback with good sack numbers. Was this
because of technique, film study, or coaching?
Pleasant: All of the above. There are some
things that you can’t teach - you either have it or you don’t. But you can
learn to be better. Some guys don’t have that edge to be able to rush the
passer but can stay home and be good run-stoppers. No matter how much you try
to teach them, they still won’t have what it takes to be a good pass rusher.
All of that you mentioned all goes together and add in hard work.
DBN: For the 1998-1999 seasons you
were re-united with Belichick with the New York Jets. You played in 31 of 32
games and had two great seasons. Belichick is known as a very loyal guy. Were
you considered one of “his guys”?
Photo credit should read WAYNE
SCARBERRY/AFP via Getty Images
Pleasant: In looking back, I think he came to
respect me as a person and as a player. He saw my journey and where I came from
going from “A” to “B” as far as my technique and how I learn. I excelled under
him. I gave him my hard work and commitment. If you know Bill those are two
things he is all about.
DBN: Your first season now in New
England under head coach Belichick the Patriots played the St. Louis Rams in
Super Bowl 36. The Rams were lights-out on offense going 14-2. This game was
also coming off the 9/11 tragedy and security was strong. That was Tom Brady’s
first year as the starter. How did your team handle the pressure of playing the
NFL’s biggest scoring team, the 9/11 situation, plus an unproven quarterback?
Pleasant: We had played the Rams on a Thursday
Night game and they beat us 24-17 and we said if we meet again we will win.
Bill was good at keeping the distraction out of the locker room. Keep the
focus. So he turned off all the TVs in the building so that the outside noise
about 9/11 would not affect us. This was before the Patriots had accomplished
anything yet. It was perfect that our colors represented the United States in
that game. It was also David against Goliath. The Rams were the “Best Show on
Turf” and when they had beaten us we were 5-5. No one expected us to win the
Super Bowl. And Bill told us the only people who expect a Patriots win was the
people in our locker room. That was his mentality. The night before the game we
changed our hotel and drove somewhere way out. All the pressure was now gone.
Bill had a great gameplan and in the team meeting he showed us how we were
going to win. The Rams had been winning big by making big plays, so our DBs
just played deep and let them have all the short stuff. Brady showed he had a
presence about him, we had a great defense, and their short completions did
nothing.
(L-R) Anthony Pleasant, Tebucky
Jones, Ty Law and Tedy Bruschi douse head coach Bill Belichick (C) Photo by DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images
DBN: The Patriots won Super Bowl 38,
your last season. Which is more difficult: get to the Super Bowl or get back?
Pleasant: Getting back. When you are the
champs, teams play you a lot harder because beating you makes them feel better
about themselves. And no surprises. You get the best from every player and
every member of their coaching staff. Their game plan is to beat you the
defending champs. Every regular season game is a Super Bowl to your opponents.
DBN: You became the DL coach with the
Chiefs. What was it about coaching that you liked? Are the new breed of players
different than from you played?
Pleasant: Teaching. Showing guys how to play
the game and techniques. Taking a guy from “A” to “B” which is how they taught
me. Teaching life to them and making them better at what their talents are. I
think the system has allowed players to be different than when I played. We had
to grind in training camp. These guys take regular breaks. You can’t be in camp
but for so many days. We used to be there for six weeks without our families.
Back before my time they took all players way off to some small college and
left them there. They have taken the mindset of the toughest out of the game.
We weren’t entitled that anyone owed us something. The system has allowed
players to have a different mentality about the game. It’s a lot easier for
players today because they don’t have the wear and tear on their bodies.
DBN: Anthony, out of all the former
Browns, only Joe Thomas and Paul Brown have a stadium named after them. There
is a stadium and park named after you in your hometown of Century. When did
they contact you about this being a possibility, and when you go to games do
you get free nachos?
Pleasant: I was surprised and could not believe
it. I was honored. It was in 2010 when I was with the Chiefs. The hot dogs are
good there.
DBN: Besides money, how is the NFL
different than when you played?
Pleasant: You have all these females coaching
now. And referees. In practices there are certain things you can’t do. Like
hitting. We hit somebody every day and it was our way to show what type of
player we were. There is a lot more consciousness of protecting the players
which is a good thing. They did away with a lot of things like chop blocking
and taking out legs. They have made the game safer overall for the players, but
at the same time have taken out the aggressiveness. And the physicality of the
game.
DBN: What is your fondest moment of
being a Cleveland Brown?
Pleasant: Every thought comes to walking in the
tunnel of that old stadium, and walking out of the dugout. Then as the loudness
of the crowd grows, running out onto the field. You knew you were going to play
football today. And I loved the old Dawg Pound. Not the one they have today.
Those fans were like no other in the stadium and the other team’s players hated
going down into that end zone. Those fans embraced the Browns. It was an honor
to be a Brown.
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