No trophy for this Lombardi

Lombardi
A certain magic still lingers in the very name.
It speaks of duels in the snow and November mud...
He remains for many the heart of pro football, pumping hard right now.
-- Steve Sabol

Steve Sabol's poem, read famously by the "Voice of God" John Facenda as a narration on an NFL Films special, is not about the guy who's being rumored to become the new general manager of the Cleveland Browns, Michael Lombardi.

No, this poem was about the late, great Vince Lombardi -- one of Fordman's legendary "Five Blocks of Granite" offensive line, the defensive coordinator of the New York Giants in the 1950s (while Tom Landry served as the offensive coordinator) and the head coach of the Green Bay Packers during that teams' ascension to glory during the 1960s.

Lombardi's teams won the first two Super Bowls, and the winner of the Super Bowl is annually awarded the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

The only link to Vince Lombardi and Mike Lombardi is that they just so happen to share a remarkable last name. The fact that I just linked these two in the same sentence will probably make Vince roll over in his grave and have his ghost haunt me.

Mike Lombardi was here in Cleveland, from 1987 to 1996. He was the team's Pro Personnel Director in 1987 after serving as a scout for Bill Walsh's 49ers teams from 1984-87. He was promoted to Director of Player Personnel in 1992 when Bill Belichick was hired as the head coach and Ernie Accorsi took that as his cue to depart.

Lombardi was essentially the general manager during Belichick's final four years as the head coach of the Browns before the Dead Judas decided to move the franchise to Baltimore in a selfish act of greed. During that time, the Browns went 7-9 (1992), 7-9 (1993), 12-6 (1994) and 5-11 (1995). The ''94 team went 11-5 in the regular season and reached the playoffs as a Wild Card team. The 20-13 home victory over the Patriots on New Year's Day 1995 is still the last playoff victory for the Cleveland Browns -- home or overall.

In that time period, the Browns drafted such "luminaries" as Tommy Vardell, Patrick Rowe, Gerald Dixon, Dan Footman, Mike Caldwell, Romeo Bandison, Issac Booth, Craig Powell, Eric Zeier, Mike Frederick and Tau Pupua. To be fair, he also drafted Steve Everitt, Derrick Alexander and Antonio Langham, but overall, this guy was a freaking disaster. Even then, I may be generous about Alexander and Langham -- Alexander was a bust in his two seasons with the Browns, while Langham had an injury prone career and didn't play beyond 1999 after being drafted in the first round in 1994. I can remember seeing Langham getting torched repeatedly when he came back to the Browns during the expansion season.

Remember the 1995 draft, the last Belichick/Lombardi draft? Lombardi had Belichick convinced that a big tight end named Kyle Brady was the answer to his prayers. When the Jets selected Brady ninth, both guys blew their stacks and made a trade with the 49ers. San Francisco moved up to the 10th spot and selected receiver J.J. Stokes, who had a decent career. The Browns moved all the way to the bottom of the first round and took Powell, an Ohio State linebacker who couldn't get off special teams duties.

The Dead Judas gave the ax to both Lombardi and Belichick when the move was officially approved. He then served as an advisor for the St. Louis Rams in 1996, a consultant to the Philadelphia Eagles in 1997, the Director of Pro Personnel in Philly in 1998, and the Senior Football Executive for the Oakland Raiders from 1999-2007.

In his last draft with the Raiders, Lombardi selected one of the biggest draft busts of all-time, LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell, with the first overall pick. Russell only played three years in the NFL and hasn't even gotten a tryout since the Raiders washed their hands of him in 2009.

In 1996-97, Lombardi got a TV gig as the "insider" on CBS's pregame show, The NFL Today. He had his own segment and eventually became a regular on the desk toward the end of his tenure. That was just a small taste of what he's done since 2007.

In 2008, both the NFL Network and HBO hired him to be an on-air "insider." He worked on the Emmy-award winning Inside the NFL show while also serving as a studio analyst on NFL Network's Total Access show. From 2008-10, he started writing columns for Sports Illustrated's Web site, NationalFootballPost.com (which he helped found) and NFL.com.

He's also been a very outspoken critic of all things related to the Browns since the team returned in 1999. He gave Tom Heckert's 2012 draft a 'C,' and was critical of the trade to move up to select Trent Richardson and the selections of Brandon Weeden, Mitchell Schwartz and John Hughes.

And, THIS is the guy Joe Banner wants to turn the keys to the castle over to? REALLY?!?!?

I can remember Lombardi being a swarmy asshole during his tenure in Cleveland. He was supposedly the main imputus behind Bernie Kosar's outright release during the 1993 season, to the point where he had a tape made of nothing but Kosar lowlights and showed it to the Dead Judas as the reason why they had to get rid of him, even though Vinny Testaverde was injured and they were let with a non-descript third-stringer named Todd Philcox.

I also find it interesting that, of all the people associated with Belichick during his Browns years, Lombardi was the only one who never was re-hired by Belichick when the latter got back into head coaching five years later with New England and was never publicly vouched for by Belichick.

Nick Saban, Jim Schwartz, Eric Mangini, Scott Pioli, Kirk Ferentz, Tom Dimitroff, Ozzie Newsome, Phil Savage ... all got the Belichick seal of approval. All (except Ozzie and Saban) have failed without being around Belichick, but you get the picture.

According to a recent story in the Boston Globe that claims that Lombardi is a "serious candidate" to be Banner's hand-picked GM to replace Tom Heckert, Lombardi is serving as an unofficial consultant to Belichick this season and helping him by providing scouting reports on their opponents. Whether that's true or not remains to be seen -- Belichick still hasn't acknowledged Lombardi publicly.

The story in the Globe, and that has been reported on other "insider" NFL Web sites, says that, if Lombardi gets hired in Cleveland, he will likely hire Saban, Chip Kelly or Patriots offensive coordinator and former Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels as the new head coach. That's an awful big promise list there. Funny that, at one point, three different reports linked Lombardi to the three different candidates before it's been merged to being one of the three.

Lombardi has not publically commented on the possibility of coming back to Cleveland, or as to how (and if) he can deliver on his head coaching wish list. However, these news outlets are getting their info from somewhere.

Banner gave a veiled denial a few weeks back, and some Cleveland sources are saying that reports chasing Heckert out of town are very premature. One thing, though, is that Heckert's job description has changed -- Banner now has the final say over everything football related, including over the roster, whereas Heckert had that say when he left Philly to become the Browns' new GM in 2010 under Mike Holmgren.

Perhaps the source of all of this Lombardi talk is Lombardi himself.

Being a so-called "NFL insider" and working as a bit of a rumor monger himself for different Web sites, I'm sure he's met a lot of reporters and sided up to them over the years. Perhaps he's been promoting himself as this candidate with these visions of grandeur of hiring a new head coach while doing so "anonymously" and "off the record."

Does Lombardi have a tie to Saban still? Who knows? Saban, who is preparing his Alabama team to take on Notre Dame for the BCS National Championship in a few weeks, hasn't commented on anything not related to the game and his quest for his second-straight national championshp, his third since taking over Alabama, and his fourth overall as a college football head coach.

Saban had one forgettable stretch as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, where he went 15-17 from 2005-06. That was right after he won the national championship at LSU and before he took the Alabama job. His only other NFL job was when Belichick plucked him from being the head coach at Toledo to becoming his defensive coordinator for the Browns from 1991-94.

That 1994 team had one of the best defenses Cleveland had ever seen. I believe they finished ranked second overall when that season was concluded. But, after that season, Saban accepted the head coaching gig at Michigan State, and just one season later, the Browns were no more.

Saban was already a candidate to replace Pat Shurmur (if Jimmy Haslam III decides to make a coaching change) because of those Cleveland ties, along with his being from West Virginia and a former player, graduate and assistant coach at Kent State. Many people believe that if he wins his second-straight national title and third in the last four years at Alabama, he would be inclined to test the waters in the NFL again.

The reporter for the Boston Globe, in that story, blamed Saban's coaching shortcomings in Miami to working with Randy Mueller as the GM. The two had never worked with each other before and didn't seem to grasp each other's systems. As for the real reason, who knows.

Of the three on Lombardi's so-called "wish list," McDaniels seems the least desirable, even though he grew up in Canton and played football for John Carroll. McDaniels got off to a 6-0 start with the Denver Broncos in his first season, even though he ran off Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall and Peyton Hillis, among others, before he even got started. But, that team slumped to 8-8, and he didn't even last his full second season before being shown the door by new team president John Elway.

While this talk continues to swirl about, the Browns have suddenly become one of the hottest teams in the NFL. Since Haslam officially took over as the team's owner, the Browns have gone 4-3, with close road losses to Indianapolis and Dallas and a close home loss to Baltimore staining that record. The Browns have won their last three games in a row and have looked better and better with each win.

The defense has emerged as one of the best defenses in the league under Dick Jauron. They've improved on their run defense and have forced a lot of turnovers. The eight turnover game against the Steelers has kick-started this win streak, which has kept the Browns alive for the postseason with three games left in the regular season.

PLAYOFFS!! PLAYOFFS??

In order for that to happen, the Browns would have to turn that three-game win streak into a six-game win streak -- a tall order, indeed. But, they'll be facing a Redskins team with a gimpy Robert Griffin III at home this Sunday, a Broncos team that, despite having Peyton Manning, has already clinched their division just before Christmas, and a suddenly very-beatable Steelers team at the big ketchup bottle in the season finale on Dec. 30.

Could that Steeler game suddenly have playoff implications for BOTH teams?

Could the Browns go into that game with a five-game winning streak?

Could the Browns pull off the rare season sweep of the Steelers -- something that hasn't happened since 1988? In fact, the last time the Browns won consecutive games against the Steelers was back in 1999-2000.

And, when it's all said and done, could Shurmur and Heckert retain their jobs?

Of the two, Heckert should be the safest. However, you hear more rumors about replacing Heckert than you do about Shurmur (I still believe it's because of Lombardi's behind-the-scenes self-promotion). Many people believe that a change at coach would lean to a change at GM as well.

The Browns have many people in this town finally believing that something is there. The offense has improved under Weeden and Richardson, and Josh Gordon (who Lombardi ripped the Browns for picking in the second round of the supplemental draft, by the way) has emerged to become a legitimate deep threat. Greg Little, who many fans (Joe Cleveland included) were ready to run out of town earlier this year with his bout of dropped passes and self-promotions, has become a fantastic receiver over the second half of the season.

Tight ends Ben Watson and Jordan Cameron have become reliable receivers, and Montario Hardesty -- who came into this season as the one glaring blemish on Heckert's resume -- has emerged to become a legimate change-of-pace back to the pounding Richardson and has looked very good. Even fourth-rounder Travis Benjamin showed glimpes of being a playmaker this past Sunday with that 93-yard punt return touchdown.

Could a proven head coach, like a Saban or an Andy Reid or a Jon Gruden, come in and take what this team has done and get them to the next level? Or, does it make sense to stick with Shurmur one more season and see if he can continue to build off of what he's accomplished.

The 4-3 defense should be here to stay. The Browns are playing the best defense we've seen, arguably since Saban's 1994 unit. That defense was also a 4-3 defense. Or, Bud Carson's attacking 1989 unit, which was also a 4-3. Most of the current Belichick disciples are rooted to the 3-4 (just ask Mangini and Romeo Crennel how well that worked out for them). Like the Steelers did with Dick LeBeau when they replaced Bill Cowher with Mike Tomlin, the Browns should insist the new coach retains Jauron and his philosophies or else take a hike.

The West Coast offense could use some tweaking. Perhaps trying to go to more of a spread-style would work with the weapons the Browns have. Weeden excelled in a spread at Oklahoma State, and his receivers played in it at the college level. While Richardson did not play in a spread at Alabama, I'm sure he'd do just fine in it. Perhaps a guy like Chip Kelly, whose innovative offensive schemes at Oregon have gotten some kudos, could make the spread work at the NFL level. Or, perhaps a hybrid WC scheme, like the ones used by the Eagles, the Packers or the Saints, would work better.

As a Browns fan, it's good to be excited about games in late December -- it's been a while since that happened. And, it's good to be legitimately excited about what the future holds for this franchise.

Joe Banner and Jimmy Haslam, don't drink the Lombardi Kool-Aid. Don't let him destroy the process that has taken place. Don't let his promises of Saban and Kelly persuade you to bring him in. He's a bullshitting blowhard -- always has, always will.

You've done nothing but ooze goodwill since you've taken over this franchise from Absantee Randy. Hiring a clown like Lombardi would deflate that balloon really quickly.

Instead of his Lombardi's name reminding of "duels in the snow" and "November mud," it speaks of wasted draft picks and bad PR.

This will be an intriguing offseason, indeed, in many, many ways. Hopefully, it's for all the right reasons.

Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!