Cleveland Browns assistant Callie Brownson to participate in NFL Coach Accelerator program
BEREA — A member of the Browns' coaching staff has been invited to a relatively-exclusive program by the NFL designed to help potential head-coaching candidates.
Callie Brownson, the Browns' assistant wide receivers coach, will be one of 40 assistant coaches around the league participating in a Coach Accelerator program next week in Minneapolis. It's the first time Brownson was chosen for the program, which is in its second year.
The program is designed to increase the amount of exposure diverse coaching talent with head-coaching potential have with owners and other executives around the league. The participants were nominated by individual both inside and outside of their current organizations.
The program also features sessions for the participants designed to "further engage" them "on the advancement of their executive leadership skills and business acumen," according to a league release. The program runs Sunday through Tuesday.
Brownson has worked for the Browns since 2020, when she was originally hired as head coach Kevin Stefanski's Chief of Staff. She added the assistant wide receiver coach's role last season, and dropped the Chief of Staff title this year.
In her first season with the Browns, Brownson became the first woman in the NFL to coach a position group in a game when she was the acting tight ends coach during a Week 12 win at the Jacksonville Jaguars. She served as the acting wide receivers coach during the 2020 regular-season finale against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the acting running backs coach in a 2021 Week 15 game against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Last August, Brownson was the head coach of the 2022 U.S. Women's Tackle National Team, which won gold at the 2022 International Federation of American Football Women's Tackle World Championship in Vantaa, Finland.
Cedric Tillman, Dorian Thompson-Robinson in NFLPA Rookie Premier
Browns rookies Cedric Tillman and Dorian Thompson-Robinson will be among 45 first-year players participating this weekend at the 29th NFL Players Association's Rookie Premier in Los Angeles.
The event, hosted by the NFLPA and NFL Players Inc., attempts to educate rookies about the business side of football and provide a jump-start to their endorsement careers. They will have their official jersey unveiled during the four-day event, which starts Thursday, while they will also go through an all-day live action and studio shoot on Saturday.
Tillman was the Browns' first pick in last month's draft. The wide receiver out of the University of Tennessee was taken in the third round, No. 74 overall.
Thompson-Robinson, Tillman's former high school teammate at Las Vegas' Bishop Gorman High School, was taken in the fifth round at pick No. 140. The quarterback from UCLA was drafted to eventually become Deshaun Watson's backup.
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on Twitter at @ceasterlingABJ.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Callie Brownson to represent Browns in NFL Coach Accelerator program
