According to Hanford Dixon, then a cornerback with the Browns, Dixon himself gave his defensive teammates the name "Dawgs" to inspire them before the 1985 season. The Dawg Pound started during the 1985 Training Camp at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, Ohio. Dixon and fellow cornerback Frank Minnifield started the idea of the pound by using the dog-versus-cat relationship between the quarterback and the defense. "We had the idea of the quarterback being the cat, and the defensive line being the dog," Dixon said. "Whenever the defense would get a regular sack or a coverage sack the defensive linemen and linebackers would bark." This attitude carried into the stands at the training camp, where fans started barking along with the players. Dixon and Minnifield then put up the first "Dawg
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