Condoleezza Rice Addresses Shocking Cleveland Browns Head Coaching Rumor: ‘I Would Never Call a Prevent Defense’

Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a lifelong Cleveland Browns fan, addressed the shocking rumor that the team she grew up rooting for showed interest in hiring her as their head coach.

Rice joined Peyton Manning and Eli Manning on their alternate broadcast of Monday Night Football for ESPN when she was asked about Adam Schefter’s 2018 report that stunned the sports world.

“I certainly don’t wanna be a head coach,” the 67-year-old Rice said Monday night.

“All I know is as a Browns fan I would never ever call a prevent defense. Other than that I’ll leave it to the coaches,” the former Secretary of State joked, referring to the Browns’ infamous 1986 AFC Championship Game collapse to John Elway and the Denver Broncos.

When Schefter reported the Browns interest in Rice three years ago, it was met with a lot of backlash. Rice is known to be a big NFL and college football fan, but her impressive career resume lacked coaching credentials for a professional football organization.

Others felt the Browns citing Rice as their only potential female candidate was a detriment to women in the NFL. For women who were working to blaze their own trail in the sport, it signaled that for a female to get head coaching interest, you needed to have a PHD and be the former Secretary of State.

Rice, however, has been a strong advocate for women in the NFL, noting Monday night that she’s proud of the sport’s recent progress with 12 female coaches currently working in the league.

“I’m really glad to see women in the front offices, and by the way in the front office of the NFL as well.” Rice said. “The next breakthrough is to see if women can find their way into position coaching jobs…You’re gonna have to have somebody who goes through that progression…You do not have to have played this game necessarily to understand it and coach it well.”

Watch above via ESPN2