Saturday, October 04, 2003

Like the rest of us, Serafino "Foge" Fazio wonders where the time has gone. In some ways, it seems like he started coaching yesterday. Now, his career apparently is finished. Although he said he would coach again for the right boss in the right situation, he doesn't expect that to happen. So, at 64, after 41 years in the business and 13 different stops from Ambridge High School to the NFL, he'll be in just about the last spot he could have imagined for the Steelers-Cleveland Browns game tomorrow night.

The Heinz Field stands.

"It beats staying up until midnight or 2 in the morning trying to figure out a way to stop The Bus on that off-tackle play," Fazio said.

Don't bet on that.

"I do miss the camaraderie with the players and the other coaches," Fazio said. "I miss the competition. That's the big thing. You compete all your life. It was fun trying to figure out ways to stuff [Mike] Mularkey and stick it to [Bill] Cowher."

There are those in Cleveland who believe Fazio still should have that chance. A year ago, he was the Browns' defensive coordinator. Early in the fourth quarter of their playoff game against the Steelers, his defense was stuffing Mularkey and sticking it to Cowher enough that the Browns led, 27-14.

Fazio wanted to keep attacking. He believed Tommy Maddox was an easy target. But Browns coach Butch Davis overruled him. He ordered Fazio to rush just three and play everyone else in prevent coverage. Maddox picked that defense apart and led the Steelers to a 36-33 win.

Instead of taking the blame afterward, Davis played the ultimate gutless game of pass-the-buck and forced Fazio's retirement.

"All I've ever said about that is, the players there know what happened," Fazio said.

Fazio insisted he's taken no joy from the Browns' weak 1-3 start or the fact their defense allowed the Baltimore Ravens' Jamal Lewis to run for an NFL-record 295 yards Sept. 14. He laughed when he said, "They wouldn't get 295 yards against my defense. Maybe 200, but not 295." Then, turning serious, he said, "I can't feel good about what's been happening there. I had too much respect for [Browns owner Al] Lerner before he died and then for his son, Randy, after he took over. I think [Browns president] Carmen Policy is a great guy ..."

No, there was no mention of Davis.

"You really feel bad for the players because you know they're trying so doggone hard," Fazio said. "A guy like Robert Griffith, I coached him in Minnesota. The Courtney Browns and the Kenard Langs. Even a young kid like Anthony Henry, I'd see him in the mall after the season and he'd hug me. You get close to those guys. You feel bad when they're not successful."

It's not in Fazio to be bitter, anyway. He has something good to say about each of the places he has worked. There were stops at Harvard and Notre Dame. There also were jobs with five NFL teams.

Fazio's only head coaching gig was at Pitt, his alma mater, from 1982-85. His time there was not successful and he was fired after the '85 team went 5-5-1 with a 31-0 loss to Penn State in its final game.

"It would have been nice to stay there forever and be another Joe Paterno," Fazio said. "But if I had done that, I never would have had the chance to coach at Notre Dame or in the NFL. I just can't complain. It's been a great life."

Fazio has few regrets. One is Pitt's 48-14 loss to Penn State in 1981 when he was Jackie Sherrill's defensive coordinator. A bigger one was the Minnesota Vikings' 30-27 overtime loss to the Atlanta Falcons in the 1998 NFC championship game when he was the Vikings' defensive coordinator. That's the game in which Gary Anderson missed a 38-yard field goal -- his only miss all season -- that would have given the Vikings a 30-20 lead with little more than two minutes left.

"That was supposed to be our year," Fazio said. "We were 16-1 to that point."

Last month, Fazio and his wife, Norma, moved back home, to a new house in Coraopolis, only a few miles from where he was raised. He's doing some scouting for the Washington Redskins -- "I'm just one more pair of eyes for them" -- and is dabbling in radio broadcasting as a college football color man for the Westwood One network. It might be the start of a new career.

"The worst thing I can do on radio is say the wrong thing," Fazio said. "I can't blow a defensive call and let the whole team down."

Fazio's next assignment is the Virginia Tech-West Virginia game Oct. 22.

He hasn't been back to Morgantown for a game since his final Pitt team played to a 10-10 tie there.

This trip figures to be a lot less stressful and, alas, for this life-long coach, a lot less fun.

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