​EDITOR’S NOTE: We are marking the 80th birthday of the Cleveland Browns with stories that define the franchise. Articles continue through the 2026 season. This first package of stories focuses on the return of the Browns in 1999. This is the third of four stories on the team’s return.Maybe Timmy could have been at least a little like Tommy. Not the GOAT, of course, not a quarterback who was Super Bowl MVP in his good years and a mere 12-4 in his bad ones. A Tom Brady comes along as infrequently as an Otto Graham.But maybe Tim Couch could have been the least of what is wanted from a No. 1 overall draft pick, a QB around whom a steady playoff contender is built. Bruce Arians, who called Couch “Timmy” when he was Cleveland’s offensive coordinator, thought so.Maybe Timmy could have been Bernie with a longer shelf life.The Browns were 39-23-1 in Bernie Kosar’s first five seasons, making the playoffs in each of them. Had the expansion era begun with an experienced head coach, perhaps Couch could have become a Kosar.Carmen Policy hoped he had the coach, Mike Holmgren, to develop a quarterback.Policy and Holmgren worked together in San Francisco when the 49ers won Super Bowls capping the 1988 and 1989 seasons. Holmgren’s work as a 49ers assistant got him the head coaching job in Green Bay, where he went to Super Bowls capping the 1997 and 1998 campaigns.Holmgren’s track record, contacts, physical presence and wit seemed suited for his next goal, being a head coach with final say on picking players. In Green Bay, General Manager Ron Wolf exercised final say.Holmgren’s accoutrements were perfect for cooking up a QB. He had been …A star high school QB … a 6-foot-5, 245-pound passer at USC … Steve Young’s college position coach … Joe Montana’s offensive coordinator … the head coach who took Brett Favre from project to legend.Holmgren’s wish to leave the Packers coincided with the new Cleveland team’s search for a head coach. Having left the 49ers, Policy was the Browns’ point man.Holmgren and Policy spent the 1990s crossing paths.Policy’s 49ers won the Super Bowl capping the 1994 season, then lost to Holmgren’s Packers in the next three postseasons.Holmgren won the Super Bowl capping the 1996 season, but Wolf regarded losing in the following year’s Super Bowl as an unacceptable failure. Holmgren got the Packers back to the 1998 playoffs, but when they fell to the 49ers in the first round, he and Wolf agreed to separate.Policy wanted Holmgren. Policy says the league told him to back off, even though Wolf was perfectly willing to let Holmgren out of the remaining year of his Packers contract.Wolf and Policy had their own history. In 1992, Policy was behind Wolf and the Packers having to fork over a second-round pick in exchange for releasing Holmgren from his 49ers offensive coordinator contract.Now it was 1999, but Cleveland was blocked from pursuing Holmgren. Seattle was not. The Packers agreed to release Holmgren to Seattle for that famili