Browns: Jim McMahon upset with time with team despite no one remembering his tenure

If this is the first you’ve heard about Jim McMahon, famed Chicago Bears quarterback, once being part of the Cleveland Browns; don’t worry, you’re not alone. McMahon spoke to ESPN 850 here in Cleveland and recounted his entire time with the organization and his experience under Bill Belichick.

Apparently, McMahon was brought in by the Browns for the 1995 season but due to injuries on the roster, he was cut in training camp so the Browns could get replacements at other positions. This was year two with Vinny Testerverde as a quarterback, and Eric Zeier served as backup. With a lack of a third quarterback, famed do-it-all-punter, Tom Tupa, served as the emergency quarterback.

According to McMahon, Belichick claimed that he would take care of McMahon if he moved to Cleveland despite being cut. McMahon claims that Belichick promised to pay him regardless of not being on the team and to wait because he’d be brought on board eventually.

(From NBC Sports’ Mike Florio)

"After training camp [Belichick] called me in and says, ‘Hey we’re gonna have to release you. We’ve got a lot of guys hurt. We need some roster spots. Then he said, ‘Hey no. But we really want you, we need you here.’ I said what are you telling me, Bill? He goes, ‘I want you to move here.’ If I’m gonna be here. I move my family here. They’re gonna be here for six months with me. I gotta find a hockey team for my sons. They were big into hockey at the time. So don’t screw me around. And he said ‘We’re gonna take care of you. . . . We’ll pay you to sit out.’… So I called in the first week on a Friday to get my check and get the runaround. I’m thinking first week jitters. The second week I called in for my check, got the runaround again. I sat here for seven weeks doing nothing in Cleveland. . . . They finally signed me back Week Seven or Eight."

Despite being signed, McMahon’s tenure never saw him take a snap and a violent confrontation with then-GM Mike Lombardi was the final straw.

"I dressed three games — the eight, nine and ten weeks — and I got those checks. I confronted the G.M. at the time, what the hell was his name, Lombardi? He’s coming down the hallway and I said, ‘Hey man, I need my money. My wife was just in a wreck and I don’t want to deal with insurance.’ He looks at me and says, ‘Well, maybe we’ll pay you, maybe we wont.’ And I lost it. I just snapped. I grabbed him by the neck and threw his head against the wall and said, ‘You’re gonna pay me my money.” Then I started realizing what I was doing and I’m looking around the hallway to see if there were any cameras. I stopped hitting him and he slid down the wall."

McMahon then left the way only he could.

"I walked into the training room and called my attorney and said, ‘Hey get me cut right now.’ He called me back within two minutes and said they’ll release you if that’s what you want. So I had just walked out of the QB meeting to go to the rest room and all this had just happened in ten minutes. So I walk back into the QB meeting — it was Vinny Testaverde, myself and Eric Zeier and just said ‘Hey boys, I’ll see you all later. I’m outta here’ The coach said, ‘Have you talked Bill?’ I said, “You can tell Bill to kiss my ass. He’s a lying piece of shit.’ Then I was gone. The very next day I was up in Green Bay."

Talk about a tenure.

Now if you think any of this is a tall tale, it’s not. There are articles that support his signing and his subsequent release at his behest. Jim McMahon was a Cleveland Brown, who knew? You’d have to have been a fan back then to remember this. It’s kind of crazy to think about one of the most famous quarterbacks of his era having a very forgettable stint with the Browns in their final year of operation in Cleveland.

The story is also mad. Choking out Lombardi? That’s a big play by McMahon. Who knows if McMahon is telling the truth about attacking Lombardi or if he’s being honest that his release was his idea. Some of this could be taken with a grain of salt, as unfortunately, McMahon announced in 2012 that he had symptoms of early dementia.

Even if half of what McMahon says is true, that is still one of the most mind-blowing stories of the Browns and McMahon that’s ever been told.