Remember when Jimmy Haslam came riding into town from Tennessee in the summer of 2012? Fans were excited that this truck-stop magnate billionaire with a passion for sports, that was endorsed by the likes of the Rooney family, Robert Kraft and Jerry Jones, would give the Cleveland Browns someone who would be more accountable, reputable and visible as an owner than Randy Lerner ever was.
Sure, Haslam has been way more visible than Lerner, albeit for less flattering things like ripping off his trucker customers on their rebates and getting hauled into federal court. But, it appears that the one thing Haslam has in common as Lerner and his father, Al, and even going back to Art "Judas" Modell, is the propensity for running a dysfunctional NFL franchise.
As the Browns prepared to kick off this past Sunday at Heinz Field for their season finale against the hated Steelers, rumors perpetuated the Twitter-verse that Haslam and his top deputies, CEO Joe Banner and the general manager-in-hiding Mike Lombardi, were prepared to fire head coach Rob Chudzinski after just one season coaching the team he grew up rooting for in nearby Toledo. Browns fans were aghast, especially when there were no signs that "Chud" was even in danger.
But, after a disappointing 20-7 loss to the Steelers, and just a few hours after arriving back at Berea, the Browns announced that they were, in fact, firing their first hand-picked head coach less than one year after hiring him.
Browns players, interviewed following the loss in the locker room, were incredulous that the questions about Chud's survival were even brought up. D'Qwell Jackson and Joe Thomas, in particular, were very vocal in their defense of their embattled head coach, even though the team slumped to a 4-12 season after seven consecutive losses and 10 losses in their final 11 games. By the time they arrived in Berea to clean out their lockers for the offseason, they had to be shocked.
Haslam, Banner and Lombardi, in firing Chudzinski, did something that neither of the Lerners, Modell or any other Browns owner in this franchise's storied history had ever done -- fire a coach after just one season. Sure, if Chudzinski's Browns would have gone 0-16 or 1-15 or even 2-14, perhaps you can justify the move. But 4-12?
And after he had to juggle three different starting quarterbacks at various times this season, due to injuries or overall inadequacy? And knowing that he had to give Brandon Weeden not two, but THREE different chances as the starting quarterback after backups Brian Hoyer and Jason Campbell got injured while looking and performing considerably better than the opening day starter?
And after the starting running back and the 2012 No. 3 overall pick in Trent Richardson -- the team's only viable running threat -- was traded for a 2014 first-round pick by the Indianapolis Colts after just two games? And not finding an adequate replacement for Richardson (who struggled considerably in Indy, making the trade look genius) until there were three games left in the season, when an unknown Edwin Baker scored as many rushing TDs as the aging Willis McGahee did all season long?
And having a rotating field at the guard position due to injuries and inadequacy, as John Greco, Oniel Cousins, Shaun Lavauo, Jason Pinkston and Garrett Gilkey all got starts on the interior of the offensive line? And that line couldn't open up holes for a running game all season long and gave up a ton of sacks -- and that's even with two Pro Bowlers (Thomas and center Alex Mack) starting on that line?
And realizing that the rookies Lombardi handed you were underwhelming, to say the least? Barkevious Mingo looked like a playmaker at times, finishing with five sacks on the year, but had a quiet end to his season. Leon McFadden, other than his phantom pass interference penalty at the end of the New England debacle, couldn't get off the bench and then didn't play well when he was finally pressed into service. Gilkey only started the season finale and was taken to school by aging veteran Brett Keisel. Armonty Bryant, the one draft pick that everyone was against due to his checkered past, actually played the best out of all of them, and even he was a situational player.
And opening the year with the NFL's eventual leader in receiving yards, Josh Gordon, suspended for two games and allowing trade rumors to swirl about him until the deadline came and went? And also signing a possession receiver in Davone Bess who suddenly forgot how to catch a football and then was excused from the team for the final two games due to some off-the-field issues? And having to start Greg Little all season long?
Haslam was disgusted by Pat Shurmur for being too conservative and too predictable in his playcalling, and deservedly so. Chud was the antithesis of Shurmur -- he went for it on fourth down a lot (three times in the Steeler game inside of scoring position). He called for fake punts and fake field goals. He allowed his quarterbacks to throw deep (at least when they weren't getting killed or throwing horrible interceptions). But, in the end, in two seasons of Haslam's stewardship, the Browns have fired two head coaches, a team president and a GM.
According to longtime Browns beat reporter Tony Grossi, the decision was made to fire Chud prior to the Steeler game, and not even a win over the team's biggest rival would have saved him. This, despite Banner speaking as late as November in effusive praise of his young head coach.
Part of the problem may have been the disastrous seven-game losing streak. The Browns were 3-2 and 4-5 at various points this season. Coming off their bye week, believe it or not, the team controlled its own playoff destiny and seemed to have the inside track at the AFC North crown. But a 30-point second-quarter monsoon due to special teams breakdowns in Cincinnati led to a 41-20 loss to the eventual division champs (and lone playoff team from the North), and it spiraled from there.
The Browns had a propensity to break down either late in the first half, or in the fourth quarter, or even both. The Browns made two hapless offensive teams in Jacksonville and the New York Jets look almost unstoppable at times in two late-season losses. There was the debacle in New England, in which referee's questionable penalties and decisions allowed Tom Brady to score 13 unanswered points in the final two minutes to pull off an improbable 27-26 win. And there was another fourth quarter meltdown in the home season finale against Chicago that allowed the Bears to come away with a 38-31 victory. Oh, and let's not forget another season sweep by the Steelers after it appeared Pittsburgh was a team on the decline after an 0-4 start.
Another part of the problem may have been the NFL awarding the Browns five Pro Bowl players -- the most out of any other team in the AFC North -- and the opportunity for a sixth in safety T.J. Ward. It's never a good sign when a team has more Pro Bowlers than wins. It shows that there is talent in the building, but coaching isn't getting the most out of said talent.
Grossi goes even further by saying there was a dischord between Chud and Lombardi. Remember that Lombardi wasn't officially hired until AFTER Chud was named head coach, even though most insiders proclaimed that Lombardi was heavily involved with the process. The two butted heads over players receiving playing time all season long.
One of the biggest problems was with the quarterback position. Chudzinski and offensive coordinator Norv Turner seemingly ignored Hoyer during training camp until Hoyer was pressed into service in the preseason finale against Chicago and played very well. Turner, at one point, said that the player of Hoyer "surprised" him and the coaching staff. As Weeden and Campbell combined to win only one game the rest of the season and underwhelm at times, you had to believe that Lombardi was throwing Hoyer's emergence and Turner's "surprised" comment around liberally to Haslam and Banner.
At one point, Banner urged Chud to "shake things up" and release disappointing players such as Little and Lavauo. Chud argued against such moves and stood up for his players. In Banner's eyes, it seemed that Chud wasn't holding the Browns players accountable for their mistakes, which led to the regression in the second half of the season.
The fact that every other new coaching hire had a better record than Chud's Browns -- while the Jaguars under Gus Bradley also finished 4-12, they improved in the second half of the season and also came to Cleveland and won 32-28 -- did not sit well with Haslam, Banner and Lombardi.
Also, keep in mind that Carolina (where Chudzinski was offensive coordinator), San Diego (where Turner was head coach) and Arizona (where Ray Horton was defensive coordinator) all improved in 2013 after those men left to coach the Browns. It may not be a coincidence.
So, while Haslam had many reasons to make the decision that he made, it opened things up for the Browns organization to look like a giant joke on the national sake.
It's another cycle of wash-rinse-repeat -- new coach, new system, new quarterback. This after Chud's predecessors Eric Mangini and Shurmur were only given two seasons before they were sent packing, partly due to the team's incompetence but also due to impending regime changes (Mike Holmgren with Mangini; Haslam and Banner with Shurmur). The Browns have now gone through Chris Palmer (1999-2000), Butch Davis (2001-04), Romeo Crennel (2005-08), Mangini (2009-10), Shurmur (2011-12) and now Chudzinski (2012) -- that's six full-time head coaches and one interim coach in Terry Robiskie (2004) -- that have coached the Browns since the franchise returned in 1999. Meanwhile, the Steelers have only had three different head coaches since 1969 and the Patriots have had just one -- Belichick, who was run out of Cleveland after the move to Baltimore -- since 2000.
Keep in mind that from 1946-70, the Browns only had two full-time head coaches in the legendary Paul Brown (46-62) and Blanton Collier (63-70). Not coincidentally, the Browns won eight world championships during that span and were a legitimate contender throughout. That's what continuity will get you, and this Browns organization has none. However, from 1971-95, Modell ran through six different head coaches. He ran two of them out -- Forrest Gregg and Bud Carson -- fairly quickly, with Carson only lasting a season-and-a-half.
Before the Browns moved away, the franchise had eight full-time head coaches -- Brown, Collier, Nick Skorich, Gregg, Sam Rutigliano, Marty Schottenheimer, Carson and Belichick. The "new" Browns are already dangerously close to eclipsing that number in far less time. Other than Schottenheimer and Belichick, none of the head coaches hired within the last 25 years have gone on to any type of success anywhere else in the NFL as head coaches. And Belichick is the only one who has won a Super Bowl after leaving -- not even Paul Brown won a championship after he was unceremoniously fired by Modell following the 1962 season.
What was also concerning about Monday's press conference was the lack of the third member of the Browns' triumverate -- Lombardi. Since his introductory press conference (and the disaster that it was), Lombardi has been kept under wraps by Banner and Haslam. Other than briefly during the 2013 draft, Lombardi has been the "ghost of Berea." You know he's there, but you don't see him or don't hear from him. Fans were already uncomfortable with Lombardi's return due to his handling of the Bernie Kosar situation and his status as one of Modell's chief lieutenants leading up to The Move. While he deserves credit for pushing for Brian Hoyer's arrival (although only nine quarters isn't that large of an example), most of his other moves have not panned out. His silence on the subject has only fanned the fires among a very frustrated fanbase.
A local TV reporter became a folk-hero of sorts when he, reading off fans comments from his station's Facebook page, gave Haslam and Banner an earful during Monday's press conference. At one point, he asked Haslam what would he say to calm down fans who believe that "The Three Stooges" were running this organization. Suddenly, hashtags mentioning The Three Stooges and YouTube videos of the comic trio were being linked to on-line accounts everywhere. Whether Haslam and Banner like it or not (and it appears they don't, judging by their facial expressions and responses during the presser), that moniker is here to stay.
The only way it changes is if the Browns hit a home run with their coaching hire (they need a Terry Francona-esque hire, seriously), spend their $30 million of salary cap space wisely to improve the team with more talent, use those 10 draft picks and two first-rounders on players that will make not only an immediate impact, but an impact for seasons to come, and -- bottom line -- WIN. Browns fans are sick and tired of the 5-11/4-12 dance that has permeated this franchise every year since 2008. Browns fans are sick of only one playoff berth since they've returned (2002) and only two winning seasons during that span. Browns fans are tired of coaching carousels, quarterback carousels, running back carousels, etc.
A fancy, schmancy scoreboard and restructured seating are nice, but the best way to improve the "game-day experience" is by putting a winning product on the field. You can gloss over those things at Quicken Loans Arena or Progressive Field with fire-breathing scoreboards and fun fan activities during the downtime. But Browns fans are a different animal. They'll even put up with a drumline over a cheerleading squad if it means the team will go 10-6, 11-5, 12-4 or even (gasp) better next season and in the seasons that follow. Browns fans are fiercely loyal to their team, but the constant losing is starting to test that loyalty. The botching of last season's head coaching search and the need for another new one is another loyalty test.
Already, Canton native Josh McDaniels, a former head coach of the Denver Broncos and long-time Bill Belichick disciple, is being mentioned as the leading candidate for the job. This is the same McDaniels who squandered a 6-0 start to his career by never making the playoffs and drafting Tim Tebow in the first round. He also ran off Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall and Peyton Hillis in one fell sweep (although Hillis wound up proving McDaniels right in the end), depleting his offense. McDaniels tries too hard to be another Belichick. And, like most Belichick disciples (such as Mangini, Crennel, Jim Schwartz, Scott Pioli and Charlie Weis, among others), people have come to realize that there is only one Bill Belichick and the rest should give it up.
Like Belichick, who struggled in his first coaching stop in Cleveland before succeeding in New England, Browns fans can only hope history will repeat itself with McDaniels. It didn't with Mangini, as we remember, so the bar is set pretty low.
Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn is suddenly on the radar, after Chip Kelly (who turned down the Browns) recovered from a slow start to go 10-6 with the Philadelphia Eagles and reach the playoffs -- another offensive genius/guru from college and no NFL experience. Can lighting strike twice, especially after another college coach (Greg Schiano) gets run out of the NFL after two seasons?
Joe Cleveland will likely give up his Browns season tickets this season, but he'll still remain a Browns fan. A very frustrated and angry Browns fan, but a Browns fan nonetheless.
Here's wishing all of you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year. Hopefully 2014 is much better than 2013 was, not just in sports, but in overall life.
Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!
Showing posts with label Pat Shurmur. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pat Shurmur. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Friday, March 15, 2013
The forgotten man
Not many people would respond to this job opening:
"NFL team with new ownership group of a formerly storied franchise seeking new general manager/personnel director that will be hired after the head coach and will report directly to the CEO. If you've had a disasterous tenure with this franchise before, so be it. You will likely be blamed when/if things fail and just be considered 'part of the process' when/if things succeed. Please contact Jimmy Haslam III and Joe Banner with your interest at 76 Lou Groza Blvd., Berea, OH."
In fact, only two known candidates did emerge. One wound up being hired to be the assistant general manager -- Ray Farmer. The other got the job -- Mike Lombardi.
Lombardi must have been desperate for any NFL job after five years of exile, being relegated to a talking head on television, serving as an "NFL insider" of sorts.
He must have been desperate to know that that job opening was in Cleveland, where he worked in the early 1990s with Bill Belichick and managed to anger media members and fans so bad, that 17 years after the franchise moved to Baltimore and he was told to not come along for the ride, they still held anger and resentment whenever his name came up or he appeared on the radio or television.
He must have been desperate to go to a team that he did nothing but trash from his perch on TV, questioning the moves to acquire several players that are still on the team and that he'll have to look in the eye at team headquarters -- if he ever appears.
He must have been desperate to know that he'll never get credit for anything that goes right with the Browns, but if things go wrong, Banner would not hesitate to hold his carcass in front of him so it can be riddled with bullets from the media, season ticket holders, fans and his own boss, Haslam.
Lombardi is in such a no-win situation that, even when it gets announced that his job title changes from Vice President of Player Personnel to General Manager, he doesn't get to answer questions about it and only a hastily called conference call by Banner would address it.
Lombardi had to feel good to beat out Farmer for the job, but then had to recoil when Farmer was added to the front office and given the title of his assistant. Looks like the Browns have already lined up his replacement, and he's only been on the job for a few months.
Since his disasterous introductary press conference, where the press came out firing with 17 years of pent up ammunition at him, Banner and Haslam, Lombardi has not made a public appearance with his new team.
When the Browns went to the NFL Combine, the only personnel made available to the media were Banner and new head coach Rob Chudzinski. No Lombardi.
When the Browns made their first free agent signings this week -- Ravens linebacker Paul Kruger, Raiders defensive lineman Desmond Bryant and Cardinals linebacker Quinton Groves -- Banner and Chudzinski sat in front of the press with the players and discussed the signings. The general manager? Nowhere to be found.
This week, the Browns sent out their forms to season ticket holders seeking their renewal. On the first page of the pamphlet was a photo of Haslam and Banner together. Below it were photos of Chudzinski, offensive coordinator Norv Turner and defensive coordinator Ray Horton.
Guess who's photo wasn't included? Guess who's name wasn't even mentioned?
Yep, Lombardi.
Perhaps Haslam and Banner didn't realize the deep resentment attached to Lombardi in this region until they actually hired him. But it seems pretty certain that Haslam and Banner have gone out of their way to deemphsize his role within the organization, even with an upgraded title to GM.
The hiring of Farmer didn't come until AFTER Lombardi's grilling by the press. The only way they could hire him was to give him a "promotion," so they had to give him the title of assistant GM. However, there was no official GM, so Lombardi was given the title. So, it seems they begrudgingly gave Lombardi a title only so Farmer could join their front office.
How's that for a ringing vote of confidence?
Lombardi appears to be on a very short leash. The media is just waiting, like dogs salivating over a piece of steak, for Lombardi to screw up so they can tear him apart.
Perhaps Lombardi was brought on as nothing more than a glorified fall guy for Banner and Chudzinski. Think about it.
Banner's dour personality (some say he resembles the Dr. No character from the James Bond movies) did not sit well with Eagles fans, and it was starting to rub some Browns fans the wrong way. Perhaps Banner needed someone who was reviled even worse to make him look better, the Ugly Duckling Theory, if you will.
Browns fans have also been notoriously unkind to head coaches, especially those who came in without any head coaching experience. The last two head coaches -- Eric Mangini and Pat Shurmur -- each barely last two seasons in Cleveland, with the buzzards circling their carcasses even before that second year began.
The only coach to take the Browns to the playoffs during the expansion era -- Butch Davis -- didn't even last four full seasons, resigning with five games left in 2004 due to "panic attacks." Terry Robiskie only won his final game as the interim head coach that year and was so lightly regarded around the NFL, he took a demotion to wide receivers coach when Romeo Crennel was hired.
Crennel lasted four full seasons, but always seemed to be dodging bullets. Only an out-of-nowhere 10-6 2007 season bought him an extension, but when his team slumped to 4-12 the following year and the general manager who hired him, Phil Savage, became an embarassment, he was shown the door.
Some Browns fans were ready to jump on Chudzinski when he was hired, especially when Haslam and Banner talked a lot about seeking a "dynamic leader" to be the head coach. This, despite Chudzinski being a native Ohioan who not only grew up a diehard Browns fan, but was moderately successful in his two previous stints as a Browns assistant coach.
With a figure so reviled like Lombardi in the building, suddenly fan sentiment has softened on Chud. Sure, his hiring of proven commodoties like Turner and Horton to run his offense and defense didn't hurt one bit. But, with the human shield in the building, Chud may not take as many bullets. If his team doesn't get off to a great start, unlike Mangini, Shurmur and every other head coach that preceeded them, Chud won't have to be the fall guy or the target.
I have a feeling that, win or lose, Lombardi won't last very long with the Browns organization. As someone with a large ego, I'm sure it has to bother him to be used as somewhat of a foil in this organization. Even if the Browns do very well this season, Lombardi could leave with his reputation somewhat intact and say that he was only here "to help this regime get off the ground" and go back to the comforts of TV or to another team that will let him be the dominant voice of the organization.
Sure, even though most fans and media know that Banner is the lead voice in the football organization, you don't think they'll pass up the opportunity to rip Lombardi a new one if any of the free agent signings fail to pan out or they have a bad draft? There are some members of the media (one rhymes with Bony Schmossi) who would take personal delight in running Lombardi out of town for the second time, even knowingly overlooking the Banner factor.
This is the hell that is Lombardi's second tenure as the Browns' general manager/director of personnel. He asked for it, and he's going to get it. And, Joe Cleveland certainly doesn't feel sorry for him.
This is what you get when you compile a video list of lowlights and embarassing plays on company time just so you can run a beloved quarterback and ambassador to the town out of it. Joe Cleveland ddn't forget, and neither did a lot of Browns fans and media, apparently.
Happy hunting!
Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!
"NFL team with new ownership group of a formerly storied franchise seeking new general manager/personnel director that will be hired after the head coach and will report directly to the CEO. If you've had a disasterous tenure with this franchise before, so be it. You will likely be blamed when/if things fail and just be considered 'part of the process' when/if things succeed. Please contact Jimmy Haslam III and Joe Banner with your interest at 76 Lou Groza Blvd., Berea, OH."
In fact, only two known candidates did emerge. One wound up being hired to be the assistant general manager -- Ray Farmer. The other got the job -- Mike Lombardi.
Lombardi must have been desperate for any NFL job after five years of exile, being relegated to a talking head on television, serving as an "NFL insider" of sorts.
He must have been desperate to know that that job opening was in Cleveland, where he worked in the early 1990s with Bill Belichick and managed to anger media members and fans so bad, that 17 years after the franchise moved to Baltimore and he was told to not come along for the ride, they still held anger and resentment whenever his name came up or he appeared on the radio or television.
He must have been desperate to go to a team that he did nothing but trash from his perch on TV, questioning the moves to acquire several players that are still on the team and that he'll have to look in the eye at team headquarters -- if he ever appears.
He must have been desperate to know that he'll never get credit for anything that goes right with the Browns, but if things go wrong, Banner would not hesitate to hold his carcass in front of him so it can be riddled with bullets from the media, season ticket holders, fans and his own boss, Haslam.
Lombardi is in such a no-win situation that, even when it gets announced that his job title changes from Vice President of Player Personnel to General Manager, he doesn't get to answer questions about it and only a hastily called conference call by Banner would address it.
Lombardi had to feel good to beat out Farmer for the job, but then had to recoil when Farmer was added to the front office and given the title of his assistant. Looks like the Browns have already lined up his replacement, and he's only been on the job for a few months.
Since his disasterous introductary press conference, where the press came out firing with 17 years of pent up ammunition at him, Banner and Haslam, Lombardi has not made a public appearance with his new team.
When the Browns went to the NFL Combine, the only personnel made available to the media were Banner and new head coach Rob Chudzinski. No Lombardi.
When the Browns made their first free agent signings this week -- Ravens linebacker Paul Kruger, Raiders defensive lineman Desmond Bryant and Cardinals linebacker Quinton Groves -- Banner and Chudzinski sat in front of the press with the players and discussed the signings. The general manager? Nowhere to be found.
This week, the Browns sent out their forms to season ticket holders seeking their renewal. On the first page of the pamphlet was a photo of Haslam and Banner together. Below it were photos of Chudzinski, offensive coordinator Norv Turner and defensive coordinator Ray Horton.
Guess who's photo wasn't included? Guess who's name wasn't even mentioned?
Yep, Lombardi.
Perhaps Haslam and Banner didn't realize the deep resentment attached to Lombardi in this region until they actually hired him. But it seems pretty certain that Haslam and Banner have gone out of their way to deemphsize his role within the organization, even with an upgraded title to GM.
The hiring of Farmer didn't come until AFTER Lombardi's grilling by the press. The only way they could hire him was to give him a "promotion," so they had to give him the title of assistant GM. However, there was no official GM, so Lombardi was given the title. So, it seems they begrudgingly gave Lombardi a title only so Farmer could join their front office.
How's that for a ringing vote of confidence?
Lombardi appears to be on a very short leash. The media is just waiting, like dogs salivating over a piece of steak, for Lombardi to screw up so they can tear him apart.
Perhaps Lombardi was brought on as nothing more than a glorified fall guy for Banner and Chudzinski. Think about it.
Banner's dour personality (some say he resembles the Dr. No character from the James Bond movies) did not sit well with Eagles fans, and it was starting to rub some Browns fans the wrong way. Perhaps Banner needed someone who was reviled even worse to make him look better, the Ugly Duckling Theory, if you will.
Browns fans have also been notoriously unkind to head coaches, especially those who came in without any head coaching experience. The last two head coaches -- Eric Mangini and Pat Shurmur -- each barely last two seasons in Cleveland, with the buzzards circling their carcasses even before that second year began.
The only coach to take the Browns to the playoffs during the expansion era -- Butch Davis -- didn't even last four full seasons, resigning with five games left in 2004 due to "panic attacks." Terry Robiskie only won his final game as the interim head coach that year and was so lightly regarded around the NFL, he took a demotion to wide receivers coach when Romeo Crennel was hired.
Crennel lasted four full seasons, but always seemed to be dodging bullets. Only an out-of-nowhere 10-6 2007 season bought him an extension, but when his team slumped to 4-12 the following year and the general manager who hired him, Phil Savage, became an embarassment, he was shown the door.
Some Browns fans were ready to jump on Chudzinski when he was hired, especially when Haslam and Banner talked a lot about seeking a "dynamic leader" to be the head coach. This, despite Chudzinski being a native Ohioan who not only grew up a diehard Browns fan, but was moderately successful in his two previous stints as a Browns assistant coach.
With a figure so reviled like Lombardi in the building, suddenly fan sentiment has softened on Chud. Sure, his hiring of proven commodoties like Turner and Horton to run his offense and defense didn't hurt one bit. But, with the human shield in the building, Chud may not take as many bullets. If his team doesn't get off to a great start, unlike Mangini, Shurmur and every other head coach that preceeded them, Chud won't have to be the fall guy or the target.
I have a feeling that, win or lose, Lombardi won't last very long with the Browns organization. As someone with a large ego, I'm sure it has to bother him to be used as somewhat of a foil in this organization. Even if the Browns do very well this season, Lombardi could leave with his reputation somewhat intact and say that he was only here "to help this regime get off the ground" and go back to the comforts of TV or to another team that will let him be the dominant voice of the organization.
Sure, even though most fans and media know that Banner is the lead voice in the football organization, you don't think they'll pass up the opportunity to rip Lombardi a new one if any of the free agent signings fail to pan out or they have a bad draft? There are some members of the media (one rhymes with Bony Schmossi) who would take personal delight in running Lombardi out of town for the second time, even knowingly overlooking the Banner factor.
This is the hell that is Lombardi's second tenure as the Browns' general manager/director of personnel. He asked for it, and he's going to get it. And, Joe Cleveland certainly doesn't feel sorry for him.
This is what you get when you compile a video list of lowlights and embarassing plays on company time just so you can run a beloved quarterback and ambassador to the town out of it. Joe Cleveland ddn't forget, and neither did a lot of Browns fans and media, apparently.
Happy hunting!
Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Chud hiring not a 'dud'
Joe Cleveland will admit that when he found out that the Cleveland Browns hired a new head football coach and his name was Rob Chudzinski, my first thought was, "Chud? Really?"
Chudzinski's choice seemed totally out of left field. In fact, when the local and national media reported that Chudzinski was in town a few days ago for an interview, I made a joke about how it's become "The ghosts of Browns offensive coordinators past."
With Montreal Alouetttes head coach Marc Trestman (quarterbacks coach 1988, offensive coordinator 1989) already in for an interview and Colts offensive coordinator/interim head coach Bruce Arians (offensive coordinator 2001-03) supposedly coming in for an interview, the Chud addition (tight ends coach/interim OC 2004, offensive coordinator 2007-08) seemed pretty crazy.
Who would be next, Lindy Infante? Jim Shofner? Jeff Davidson? Brian Daboll?
However, it appeared Chudzinski, who had spent the last two seasons as the offensive coordinator of the Carolina Panthers, helping turn Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton into one of the most dynamic offensive performers in the NFL, showed enough of the virtues that Browns owner Jimmy Haslam III and CEO Joe Banner were seeking in their first head coaching hire (and 14th full-time head coach in Browns history -- sixth since the franchise returned in 1999).
And, as the hiring ruminated around my mind, the more I really liked it.
When the Chip Kelly infatuation went away, either because Haslam and Banner didn't feel he was fully committed to becoming an NFL coach or Kelly didn't want to come to Cleveland (or a combination of the two -- he wound up taking a pay raise to stay in Oregon after talking with the Browns, the Eagles and the Bills), and the Nick Saban ship sailed with Saban wanting to stay in Alabama, the Browns turned to coaches who had been in the NFL.
Haslam wouldn't confirm who he interviewed, but judging by media reports, you could say they talked to the following: Chudzinski, Kelly, Syracuse head coach Doug Marrone (took the Bills job), ex-Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt, Trestman, Bengals defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer and Cardinals defensive coordinator Ray Horton. Arians was on the radar, but his recent hospitalization may have soured the Browns on him. They also reportedly contacted ex-Steeler head coach and current CBS analyst Bill Cowher when Cowher told Newsday was interested in returning to coach, but Cowher told the Browns (and the four other teams that were looking) that he didn't mean he'd return "this year."
It was clear that Haslam and Banner wanted an offensive-minded NFL head coach, even though they did talk to Zimmer and Horton. Zimmer, Trestman and Whisenhunt would have to be considered finalists for the Browns job, especially since Whisenhunt was brought back for a second interview after they talked to him last week in Arizona.
Banner boasted a lot about how, when he was with the Eagles, they unearthed Andy Reid and made him their head coach in 1999. Reid, a Green Bay quarterbacks coach who had never called offensive plays, was on nobody's radar as a legitimate coaching candidate. He wound up staying there 14 years and would likely still be there if his team didn't slump to 8-8 and 4-12 finishes the last two seasons.
When Haslam joined the Steelers, they were in the midst of replacing Cowher, who "retired" to the comforts of being an analyst. The three choices were Whisenhunt (the team's offensive coordinator), Russ Grimm (the team's offensive line coach) and Mike Tomlin (the Vikings' defensive coordinator). Tomlin, who had never been on anybody's radar as a legitimate head coaching candidate, was surprisingly given the job over the two in-house candidates. Tomlin has since taken the Steelers to two Super Bowls in his first four years of coaching, winning one of them.
Chudzinski was a hot candidate last season after Newton's emergence. He interviewed for the Jaguars', Rams' and Buccaneers' openings, but was passed over for all three. This season, the only team out of the seven that were seeking a head coach to contact him was the Browns.
Chud, a Toledo native who grew up a die-hard Browns fan, seemed to fit the profile of the type of guy that Banner and Haslam were looking for -- an off-the-radar guy that they felt would be the next diamond in the rough.
There's no denying Chud's status as one of the NFL's up-and-coming offensive minds. Look no further than the job he did here in Cleveland in 2007.
Chudzinski, who was brought to the NFL by Butch Davis in 2004 after a successful playing and coaching career at the University of Miami, didn't survive the regime change from Davis to GM Phil Savage and Romeo Crennel. He spent the next two seasons coaching tight ends in San Diego, overseeing Antonio Gates' emergence into on of the NFL's best tight ends ever.
After Crennel's hand-picked offensive coordinator, Maurice Carthon, was a colossal failure and run out of town midway through his second season, the Browns needed a new offensive mind. They turned to Chudzinski.
The result was, arguably, the best offense this town has seen during the expansion era. In fact, you could say that it was the best offense since the Bernie Kosar heydays of 1986-89.
The Browns were eighth in the NFL in total offense that year. The offense sent four players to the Pro Bowl -- quarterback Derek Anderson, wide receiver Braylon Edwards, tight end Kellen Winslow and rookie left tackle Joe Thomas. Anderson came out of nowhere to throw for 29 touchdowns and 3,500 yards. Edwards and Winslow gave the Browns a pair of 1,000-yard receivers for the first time in team history. Also, Jamal Lewis rushed for 1,300 yards, so the Browns had a 3,000-yard passer, a 1,000-yard rusher and two 1,000-yard receivers all in the same year.
And, that team won 10 games, the only time since 1999 the Browns have reached double-digits in wins and the most wins the Browns have had since they won 11 (12 overall) in 1994. They were denied a playoff berth due to tiebreakers with the Tennessee Titans.
The following season, the Browns slumped to 31st in total offense and to a 4-12 record. The Browns went through four starting quarterbacks that season -- Anderson, Brady Quinn, Ken Dorsey and Bruce Gradkowski. Lewis barely rushed for over 1,000 yards, but was clearly not the same runner. Edwards regressed and became a liability due to his butterfingers and antics on the sideline, and Winslow ended the season not only injured, but bickering with the team's GM.
Savage and Crennel were shown the door following that dismal season. New head coach Eric Mangini elected not to retain Chudzinski, despite his being under contract through 2011, and decided to go with his hand-picked OC, Brian Daboll. Great choice, Mangini!
Chudzinski went back to San Diego, where he was named the assistant head coach behind Norv Turner in 2009 and 2010, before joining Ron Rivera's staff as the offensive coordinator in Carolina in 2011.
History will show that Chudzinski got the absolute most of his offensive personnel in 2007. Anderson's career has flamed out since that miracle season, to the point where he's been nothing more than a clipboard holder in Carolina the last two seasons. Edwards got to back-to-back AFC Championship Games with the Jets, but never made the Pro Bowl again and has spent the last two seasons as a journeyman. Winslow battled injuries in Tampa Bay and was released by both Seattle and New England this past season, only playing in one regular season game. Lewis' career ended in 2009 on injured reserve, while Joe Jurevicus (who caught 50 balls for 800 yards in 2007) was out of the NFL following the 2008 season.
You could make a case that the best Brady Quinn has ever looked as an NFL quarterback occurred while Chudzinski was the offensive coordinator in Cleveland. He put up 30 points against Denver in his first professional start in 2008, but was injured the following week and missed the rest of the regular season. He regressed in 2009 under Daboll and didn't take another NFL regular season snap until this past season with the Kansas City Chiefs.
After hearing all the talk about Chip Kelly and how his gimmicky offense would be a poor fit for Brandon Weeden and Colt McCoy, you've got to think that Weeden fits Chud's offense like a glove. His vertical-based passing attack should play into Weeden's strengths, which is a strong arm that can make all the throws. Weeden was really reined in with Pat Shurmur's and Brad Childress' West Coast Offense, rarely getting the chance to throw deep. Chud wouldn't comment on Weeden or any of the Browns' personnel, but I'm sure Weeden isn't worried about his status for next year anymore.
Same goes for Trent Richardson. Chud's offenses can get the most out of their running backs. In Carolina, he split things pretty evenly around DeAngelo Williams, Jonathan Stewart, Newton and Mike Tolbert. But, as we've seen with the Browns, a powerful runner can excel. Jamal Lewis rushed for the most yards in a single season by a Browns running back not named Jim Brown or Leroy Kelly (both Hall of Famers) in 2007. I'd expect the same for T-Rich, if he stays healthy.
Joe Thomas has already proclaimed this to be a great hire. Winslow has chimed in via Twitter and Cleveland radio to say that Browns fans won't regret it and that Chud was the most innovative offensive mind he'd ever been around. Of course, Bernie Kosar gave his 100 percent endorsement, considering both are from "The U."
Above all else -- his offensive prowess, his age (44), who he's bringing with him (Norv Turner) -- probably the one thing that sold me the most on Chud was this one intangible -- he gets it.
Chudzinski talked about how coaching the Cleveland Browns was his "dream job," and how he grew up pretending to be Ozzie Newsome and Brian Sipe in his backyard. He talked about how he and his family always wanted to sit in the Dawg Pound but never got a chance to, so, during cold-weather games, they'd face the TV out the window and they'd all sit outside watching the game. He says he's eaten a few dog biscuits back in the day.
Obviously, you won't have to twist his arm to have him watch "Cleveland 95: A Football Life" like the media did with Pat Shurmur. Hell, he probably doesn't have to watch it because he LIVED IT.
He doesn't have to be schooled about why the Steeler games mean so much to this fan base, or why there is still a deep-seeded hatred for the Ravens because of what the Dead Judas did to this town, or why the Battle of Ohio still means something around here. He suffered through The Drive and The Fumble and Red Right 88 like we all did. He remembers the Kardiac Kids and Bernie's Bunch.
You don't think a guy who spent his childhood living and dying with every Browns game wouldn't be totally motivated to turn this franchise into a winner so the next generation of children will have the same love affair with this team as he did, as you and I did?
I'll use Ohio State as an analogy. We all remember how miserable it was under John Cooper's tenure as Buckeyes' coach. His 2-10-1 record as Michigan speaks for itself, because he never understood the rivalry and what it meant to Buckeyes fans. Ohio State replaced him with a Division I-AA head coach named Jim Tressel -- a life-long Ohio resident who spent a few seasons as an assistant under Earle Bruce. The first thing he tells the fan base is that they'll be proud of his teams "in the classroom, in the community and especially in 310 days in Ann Arbor, Mich., on the football field," and everyone went nuts!
Tressel went 9-1 against Michigan in his 10 years. He GOT IT! And that's why a lot of Buckeyes fans have forgiven his transgressions that caused him to be fired and place the school on probation.
They replaced him with Urban Meyer, another native Ohioan who had an impeccable college coaching resume who grew up bleeding Scarlet and Gray. He said Ohio State was his "dream job."
Despite a bowl ban, his Buckeyes went 12-0, the only undefeated team in the country. Oh yeah, and they beat Michigan, who Meyer refers to as "That Team Up North."
Most everyone wanted Jon Gruden to come here because he grew up in Ohio and was a die-hard Browns fan growing up. Saban was attractive because he spent time in Ohio while in college and coached the Browns from 1991-94. Both those guys appeared to GET IT.
Chudzinski doesn't have the resume that Gruden or Saban have, but there's no denying that the man GETS IT.
All the Browns fans lamenting about what a "letdown" this hiring is now I believe will be singing a different tune in about a year or two. It's funny how some fans proclaim they really wanted Trestman to be the head coach (really? Marc Trestman?). In reality, those fans would be crying about hiring a Canadian retread who failed as the Browns' offensive coordinator in 1989. Hearing fans say they wanted Whisenhunt makes me believe those same fans would be crying about why the Browns would hire a retread who couldn't develop a QB and suffered through some dismal seasons in Arizona the last 2-3 seasons. Listening to fans pine for Arians like he's the second coming of Tom Landry makes me laugh.
Honestly, the only coach the Browns could have hired that would have been universally accepted is Bill Cowher. Not even Gruden or Saban would have been universally accepted. No matter who the Browns hired, a large segment of the fan base was going to bitch and moan.
I don't agree with it, but I get it. We're all tired of losing and we want to see a winner. We want to see a champion. We want to see our team bring in the big-name head coach, but it doesn't always work that way. And, I'll remind everyone again -- Andy Reid, John Harbaugh and Mike Tomlin weren't "sexy" big names when the Eagles, Ravens and Steelers hired them as their head coaches.
Yes, Chud's lack of head coaching experience ANYWHERE is concerning. But, I'll say it again -- would you have rather had an unproven NFL commodity and career college coach in Chip Kelly come here? Would you have rather had an NFL head coach that flamed out in his previous job with back-to-back losing seasons like Ken Whisenhunt come here? How about a college coach that went 25-25 in the Big East like Doug Marrone? Sure, there would be a segment that would have been on board with these hires, but there would still be a lot of naysayers.
People complain about not hiring Zimmer, but there's a reason why so many teams bring him in to get interviewed and he gets passed over year after year after year after year. The man's been on the head coaching radar for a long as I can remember. Yet, he doesn't get any jobs. Perhaps because he says what's on his mind without a filter. Fans may love it, but it could alienate his own players, his opponents, his bosses, even some of his fans. Just look at Rex Ryan and what a buffoon he's turned out to be, and realize that Rob Ryan was nothing more than a windbag during his two years as the Browns' defensive coordinator and is out of job once again.
Some fans are concerned that Chud may switch defenses from a base 4-3 to a base 3-4. We all remember how Crennel tried to force feed a 3-4 to the Browns and how it failed for four years and then another two under Mangini's watch. We saw how the defense immediately got better when Mike Holmgren, Tom Heckert and Shurmur switched to a 4-3 with Dick Jauron as defensive coordinator, and fear that a switch would set the team back a few years. Calm down.
Chudzinski said he'd leave the choice of schemes to whoever he hires as his defensive coordinator and favored a "hybrid" scheme that featured multiple mix-and-match defensive fronts. Yes, they'd need immediate help at linebacker if they go to a 3-4, but then again, they need immediate help at linebacker if they stay with a 4-3. D'Qwell Jackson is the only legitimate starter this team has, and keep in mind he began his career as an inside linebacker in Crennel's 3-4.
Some fans may see Chud as not a legitimate upgrade from Shurmur, and I can see your point. Both guys were unproven head coaching commodoties. Both were off-the-radar hires. However, Shurmur got his job because Mike Holmgren wanted to hire everyone that his agent represented and felt like he could manipulate Shurmur into becoming a legitimate head coach (he failed, which is why he's in Arizona sipping umbrella drinks begging teams to bring him in for interviews). Chudzinski got his job because Haslam and Banner believe he's the best candidate.
Haslam and Banner may have "settled" for Chud after losing out on the grand college coach sweepstakes last week. However, if the other choice was bringing in Chip "Don't call me Steve Spurrier" Kelly, than I'll take this type of "settling" any day of the week.
Go Browns!
Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!
Chudzinski's choice seemed totally out of left field. In fact, when the local and national media reported that Chudzinski was in town a few days ago for an interview, I made a joke about how it's become "The ghosts of Browns offensive coordinators past."
With Montreal Alouetttes head coach Marc Trestman (quarterbacks coach 1988, offensive coordinator 1989) already in for an interview and Colts offensive coordinator/interim head coach Bruce Arians (offensive coordinator 2001-03) supposedly coming in for an interview, the Chud addition (tight ends coach/interim OC 2004, offensive coordinator 2007-08) seemed pretty crazy.
Who would be next, Lindy Infante? Jim Shofner? Jeff Davidson? Brian Daboll?
However, it appeared Chudzinski, who had spent the last two seasons as the offensive coordinator of the Carolina Panthers, helping turn Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton into one of the most dynamic offensive performers in the NFL, showed enough of the virtues that Browns owner Jimmy Haslam III and CEO Joe Banner were seeking in their first head coaching hire (and 14th full-time head coach in Browns history -- sixth since the franchise returned in 1999).
And, as the hiring ruminated around my mind, the more I really liked it.
When the Chip Kelly infatuation went away, either because Haslam and Banner didn't feel he was fully committed to becoming an NFL coach or Kelly didn't want to come to Cleveland (or a combination of the two -- he wound up taking a pay raise to stay in Oregon after talking with the Browns, the Eagles and the Bills), and the Nick Saban ship sailed with Saban wanting to stay in Alabama, the Browns turned to coaches who had been in the NFL.
Haslam wouldn't confirm who he interviewed, but judging by media reports, you could say they talked to the following: Chudzinski, Kelly, Syracuse head coach Doug Marrone (took the Bills job), ex-Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt, Trestman, Bengals defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer and Cardinals defensive coordinator Ray Horton. Arians was on the radar, but his recent hospitalization may have soured the Browns on him. They also reportedly contacted ex-Steeler head coach and current CBS analyst Bill Cowher when Cowher told Newsday was interested in returning to coach, but Cowher told the Browns (and the four other teams that were looking) that he didn't mean he'd return "this year."
It was clear that Haslam and Banner wanted an offensive-minded NFL head coach, even though they did talk to Zimmer and Horton. Zimmer, Trestman and Whisenhunt would have to be considered finalists for the Browns job, especially since Whisenhunt was brought back for a second interview after they talked to him last week in Arizona.
Banner boasted a lot about how, when he was with the Eagles, they unearthed Andy Reid and made him their head coach in 1999. Reid, a Green Bay quarterbacks coach who had never called offensive plays, was on nobody's radar as a legitimate coaching candidate. He wound up staying there 14 years and would likely still be there if his team didn't slump to 8-8 and 4-12 finishes the last two seasons.
When Haslam joined the Steelers, they were in the midst of replacing Cowher, who "retired" to the comforts of being an analyst. The three choices were Whisenhunt (the team's offensive coordinator), Russ Grimm (the team's offensive line coach) and Mike Tomlin (the Vikings' defensive coordinator). Tomlin, who had never been on anybody's radar as a legitimate head coaching candidate, was surprisingly given the job over the two in-house candidates. Tomlin has since taken the Steelers to two Super Bowls in his first four years of coaching, winning one of them.
Chudzinski was a hot candidate last season after Newton's emergence. He interviewed for the Jaguars', Rams' and Buccaneers' openings, but was passed over for all three. This season, the only team out of the seven that were seeking a head coach to contact him was the Browns.
Chud, a Toledo native who grew up a die-hard Browns fan, seemed to fit the profile of the type of guy that Banner and Haslam were looking for -- an off-the-radar guy that they felt would be the next diamond in the rough.
There's no denying Chud's status as one of the NFL's up-and-coming offensive minds. Look no further than the job he did here in Cleveland in 2007.
Chudzinski, who was brought to the NFL by Butch Davis in 2004 after a successful playing and coaching career at the University of Miami, didn't survive the regime change from Davis to GM Phil Savage and Romeo Crennel. He spent the next two seasons coaching tight ends in San Diego, overseeing Antonio Gates' emergence into on of the NFL's best tight ends ever.
After Crennel's hand-picked offensive coordinator, Maurice Carthon, was a colossal failure and run out of town midway through his second season, the Browns needed a new offensive mind. They turned to Chudzinski.
The result was, arguably, the best offense this town has seen during the expansion era. In fact, you could say that it was the best offense since the Bernie Kosar heydays of 1986-89.
The Browns were eighth in the NFL in total offense that year. The offense sent four players to the Pro Bowl -- quarterback Derek Anderson, wide receiver Braylon Edwards, tight end Kellen Winslow and rookie left tackle Joe Thomas. Anderson came out of nowhere to throw for 29 touchdowns and 3,500 yards. Edwards and Winslow gave the Browns a pair of 1,000-yard receivers for the first time in team history. Also, Jamal Lewis rushed for 1,300 yards, so the Browns had a 3,000-yard passer, a 1,000-yard rusher and two 1,000-yard receivers all in the same year.
And, that team won 10 games, the only time since 1999 the Browns have reached double-digits in wins and the most wins the Browns have had since they won 11 (12 overall) in 1994. They were denied a playoff berth due to tiebreakers with the Tennessee Titans.
The following season, the Browns slumped to 31st in total offense and to a 4-12 record. The Browns went through four starting quarterbacks that season -- Anderson, Brady Quinn, Ken Dorsey and Bruce Gradkowski. Lewis barely rushed for over 1,000 yards, but was clearly not the same runner. Edwards regressed and became a liability due to his butterfingers and antics on the sideline, and Winslow ended the season not only injured, but bickering with the team's GM.
Savage and Crennel were shown the door following that dismal season. New head coach Eric Mangini elected not to retain Chudzinski, despite his being under contract through 2011, and decided to go with his hand-picked OC, Brian Daboll. Great choice, Mangini!
Chudzinski went back to San Diego, where he was named the assistant head coach behind Norv Turner in 2009 and 2010, before joining Ron Rivera's staff as the offensive coordinator in Carolina in 2011.
History will show that Chudzinski got the absolute most of his offensive personnel in 2007. Anderson's career has flamed out since that miracle season, to the point where he's been nothing more than a clipboard holder in Carolina the last two seasons. Edwards got to back-to-back AFC Championship Games with the Jets, but never made the Pro Bowl again and has spent the last two seasons as a journeyman. Winslow battled injuries in Tampa Bay and was released by both Seattle and New England this past season, only playing in one regular season game. Lewis' career ended in 2009 on injured reserve, while Joe Jurevicus (who caught 50 balls for 800 yards in 2007) was out of the NFL following the 2008 season.
You could make a case that the best Brady Quinn has ever looked as an NFL quarterback occurred while Chudzinski was the offensive coordinator in Cleveland. He put up 30 points against Denver in his first professional start in 2008, but was injured the following week and missed the rest of the regular season. He regressed in 2009 under Daboll and didn't take another NFL regular season snap until this past season with the Kansas City Chiefs.
After hearing all the talk about Chip Kelly and how his gimmicky offense would be a poor fit for Brandon Weeden and Colt McCoy, you've got to think that Weeden fits Chud's offense like a glove. His vertical-based passing attack should play into Weeden's strengths, which is a strong arm that can make all the throws. Weeden was really reined in with Pat Shurmur's and Brad Childress' West Coast Offense, rarely getting the chance to throw deep. Chud wouldn't comment on Weeden or any of the Browns' personnel, but I'm sure Weeden isn't worried about his status for next year anymore.
Same goes for Trent Richardson. Chud's offenses can get the most out of their running backs. In Carolina, he split things pretty evenly around DeAngelo Williams, Jonathan Stewart, Newton and Mike Tolbert. But, as we've seen with the Browns, a powerful runner can excel. Jamal Lewis rushed for the most yards in a single season by a Browns running back not named Jim Brown or Leroy Kelly (both Hall of Famers) in 2007. I'd expect the same for T-Rich, if he stays healthy.
Joe Thomas has already proclaimed this to be a great hire. Winslow has chimed in via Twitter and Cleveland radio to say that Browns fans won't regret it and that Chud was the most innovative offensive mind he'd ever been around. Of course, Bernie Kosar gave his 100 percent endorsement, considering both are from "The U."
Above all else -- his offensive prowess, his age (44), who he's bringing with him (Norv Turner) -- probably the one thing that sold me the most on Chud was this one intangible -- he gets it.
Chudzinski talked about how coaching the Cleveland Browns was his "dream job," and how he grew up pretending to be Ozzie Newsome and Brian Sipe in his backyard. He talked about how he and his family always wanted to sit in the Dawg Pound but never got a chance to, so, during cold-weather games, they'd face the TV out the window and they'd all sit outside watching the game. He says he's eaten a few dog biscuits back in the day.
Obviously, you won't have to twist his arm to have him watch "Cleveland 95: A Football Life" like the media did with Pat Shurmur. Hell, he probably doesn't have to watch it because he LIVED IT.
He doesn't have to be schooled about why the Steeler games mean so much to this fan base, or why there is still a deep-seeded hatred for the Ravens because of what the Dead Judas did to this town, or why the Battle of Ohio still means something around here. He suffered through The Drive and The Fumble and Red Right 88 like we all did. He remembers the Kardiac Kids and Bernie's Bunch.
You don't think a guy who spent his childhood living and dying with every Browns game wouldn't be totally motivated to turn this franchise into a winner so the next generation of children will have the same love affair with this team as he did, as you and I did?
I'll use Ohio State as an analogy. We all remember how miserable it was under John Cooper's tenure as Buckeyes' coach. His 2-10-1 record as Michigan speaks for itself, because he never understood the rivalry and what it meant to Buckeyes fans. Ohio State replaced him with a Division I-AA head coach named Jim Tressel -- a life-long Ohio resident who spent a few seasons as an assistant under Earle Bruce. The first thing he tells the fan base is that they'll be proud of his teams "in the classroom, in the community and especially in 310 days in Ann Arbor, Mich., on the football field," and everyone went nuts!
Tressel went 9-1 against Michigan in his 10 years. He GOT IT! And that's why a lot of Buckeyes fans have forgiven his transgressions that caused him to be fired and place the school on probation.
They replaced him with Urban Meyer, another native Ohioan who had an impeccable college coaching resume who grew up bleeding Scarlet and Gray. He said Ohio State was his "dream job."
Despite a bowl ban, his Buckeyes went 12-0, the only undefeated team in the country. Oh yeah, and they beat Michigan, who Meyer refers to as "That Team Up North."
Most everyone wanted Jon Gruden to come here because he grew up in Ohio and was a die-hard Browns fan growing up. Saban was attractive because he spent time in Ohio while in college and coached the Browns from 1991-94. Both those guys appeared to GET IT.
Chudzinski doesn't have the resume that Gruden or Saban have, but there's no denying that the man GETS IT.
All the Browns fans lamenting about what a "letdown" this hiring is now I believe will be singing a different tune in about a year or two. It's funny how some fans proclaim they really wanted Trestman to be the head coach (really? Marc Trestman?). In reality, those fans would be crying about hiring a Canadian retread who failed as the Browns' offensive coordinator in 1989. Hearing fans say they wanted Whisenhunt makes me believe those same fans would be crying about why the Browns would hire a retread who couldn't develop a QB and suffered through some dismal seasons in Arizona the last 2-3 seasons. Listening to fans pine for Arians like he's the second coming of Tom Landry makes me laugh.
Honestly, the only coach the Browns could have hired that would have been universally accepted is Bill Cowher. Not even Gruden or Saban would have been universally accepted. No matter who the Browns hired, a large segment of the fan base was going to bitch and moan.
I don't agree with it, but I get it. We're all tired of losing and we want to see a winner. We want to see a champion. We want to see our team bring in the big-name head coach, but it doesn't always work that way. And, I'll remind everyone again -- Andy Reid, John Harbaugh and Mike Tomlin weren't "sexy" big names when the Eagles, Ravens and Steelers hired them as their head coaches.
Yes, Chud's lack of head coaching experience ANYWHERE is concerning. But, I'll say it again -- would you have rather had an unproven NFL commodity and career college coach in Chip Kelly come here? Would you have rather had an NFL head coach that flamed out in his previous job with back-to-back losing seasons like Ken Whisenhunt come here? How about a college coach that went 25-25 in the Big East like Doug Marrone? Sure, there would be a segment that would have been on board with these hires, but there would still be a lot of naysayers.
People complain about not hiring Zimmer, but there's a reason why so many teams bring him in to get interviewed and he gets passed over year after year after year after year. The man's been on the head coaching radar for a long as I can remember. Yet, he doesn't get any jobs. Perhaps because he says what's on his mind without a filter. Fans may love it, but it could alienate his own players, his opponents, his bosses, even some of his fans. Just look at Rex Ryan and what a buffoon he's turned out to be, and realize that Rob Ryan was nothing more than a windbag during his two years as the Browns' defensive coordinator and is out of job once again.
Some fans are concerned that Chud may switch defenses from a base 4-3 to a base 3-4. We all remember how Crennel tried to force feed a 3-4 to the Browns and how it failed for four years and then another two under Mangini's watch. We saw how the defense immediately got better when Mike Holmgren, Tom Heckert and Shurmur switched to a 4-3 with Dick Jauron as defensive coordinator, and fear that a switch would set the team back a few years. Calm down.
Chudzinski said he'd leave the choice of schemes to whoever he hires as his defensive coordinator and favored a "hybrid" scheme that featured multiple mix-and-match defensive fronts. Yes, they'd need immediate help at linebacker if they go to a 3-4, but then again, they need immediate help at linebacker if they stay with a 4-3. D'Qwell Jackson is the only legitimate starter this team has, and keep in mind he began his career as an inside linebacker in Crennel's 3-4.
Some fans may see Chud as not a legitimate upgrade from Shurmur, and I can see your point. Both guys were unproven head coaching commodoties. Both were off-the-radar hires. However, Shurmur got his job because Mike Holmgren wanted to hire everyone that his agent represented and felt like he could manipulate Shurmur into becoming a legitimate head coach (he failed, which is why he's in Arizona sipping umbrella drinks begging teams to bring him in for interviews). Chudzinski got his job because Haslam and Banner believe he's the best candidate.
Haslam and Banner may have "settled" for Chud after losing out on the grand college coach sweepstakes last week. However, if the other choice was bringing in Chip "Don't call me Steve Spurrier" Kelly, than I'll take this type of "settling" any day of the week.
Go Browns!
Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
A Banner New Year?
First of all, here's wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year. Hopefully 2013 is a better year for you than 2012 was.
Joe Cleveland wants to thank all of you for taking the time to visit this blog whenever I update it. I got a lot more readers in 2012 than in 2011, so hopefully, things can keep taking off for Joe Cleveland in 2013.
The new year is only a few hours old, but I felt it was worth doing my first update of the year about what transpired just 24 hours ago and what could transpire during this week for the Cleveland Browns.
Shortly after a 24-10 loss to the hated Steelers at Heinz Field, in a game that was started by practice squad quarterback Thaddeus Lewis and where the leading rusher was a guy who was only active in one other game during his two-year stint with the Browns -- Brandon Jackson -- and where the longest run from scrimmage was by a backup safety. Despite all of that, the Browns were competitive until the bitter end and didn't back down when the Steelers tried to intimidate them with some extracurricular activities as plays ended.
It was fitting that the final offensive play of the Pat Shurmur era came when a quarterback named Josh Johnson -- who had been on his couch the entire season before the Browns placed a desperate call to him last Monday -- was leveled on a blitz by Lawrence Timmons past a rookie guard, Ryan Miller, who had never even played a single snap before that possession started, and Johnson fumbled. So ended the tumultuious two-year tenure of Pat Shurmur as the head coach of your Cleveland Browns.
The ax came swiftly and decisively on New Year's Eve morning. New owner Jimmy Haslam III and Joe Banner, as expected, fired both Shurmur and general manager Tom Heckert. Both were hired by departed president Mike Holmgren under the guise of absantee owner Randy Lerner -- Heckert a year earlier than Shurmur.
Joe Cleveland believes that both firings were the right choice. However, I've got to give Shurmur (begrudgingly) a bit of credit.
Shurmur's two seasons were held under difficult circumstances. Shurmur was a surprising choice by Holmgren in 2011 to replace Eric Mangini, and just a month after his hiring, the NFL locked out its players. That deprived Shurmur of an offseason, in which he was going to impliment a new offensive scheme (the West Coast offense). Believe it or not, the Browns had records of 2-1 and 3-3 under Shurmur before the bottom fell out in a disappointing 4-12 2011 season.
On the eve of training camp, news broke that Lerner had sold the team to Haslam. Suddenly, the "5-year plan" net and the security of having the Big Show in the building was going to be gone, with the impetus on winning if people wanted to retain their jobs. Despite that, Shurmur and Heckert trotted out a roster that was heavy on rookies and 1st-year players that were competitive in most games, but wound up a disappointing 5-11. The season ended on a 3-game losing streak, in which the Browns were outscored 96-43.
I still blame Holmgren for these last three years of 5-11, 4-12 and 5-11 ball. Holmgren was given a Brinks truck worth of money by an exasperated Lerner after the Browns stumbled to a 1-11 start under Mangini. It was expected that Holmgren would fire Mangini after the season and name himself as the head coach. However, Holmgren held on to Mangini for one more 5-11 season, despite a clash of overall philosophies, then "discorvered" the unknown Shurmur to be his hand-picked head coach one season later.
Halfway through the season, Holmgren was gone. By that point, Heckert and Shurmur were fresh out of friends, and only a miraculous finish to the regular season could save them.
It almost happened. A three-game win streak put the Browns at 5-8 and on the outer cusp of playoff contention. However, a dismal 38-21 loss to the Washington Redskins, led by fourth-round rookie backup QB Kirk Cousins, virtually sealed Shurmur's fate.
There was a mild push to retain Heckert because of some of the draft picks he had made in his three seasons. However, 14 wins in three seasons is difficult to ignore. When the teams in last year's NFL draft that picked first (Colts), second (Redskins) and fourth (Vikings) are all in the postseason while you, who picked third, are not, it's pretty indiciaitive of the job Heckert and Shurmur had done.
The trade of Julio Jones to the Falcons, the non-trade to obtain Robert Griffin III and the drafting of 28-year-old Brandon Weeden with the 22nd overall pick are the most heavily scrutinized moves, and Joe Cleveland actually supported all three of those maneuvers.
Essentially, Haslam and Banner had to do this to remake this once-proud franchise in their image. They want a "strong personality" at head coach, which is why they are hiring the coach first and the GM/personnel director second. You can say the Browns did that twice before and it failed both times when they hired Butch Davis and Mangini. However, the common denomonator in both of those hiring were the hand's-off, no-accountability Lerner family ownership.
Haslam is about as hand's on an owner as you want without him becoming meddling. Banner is a proven football executive that oversaw the rebirth of a Philadelphia Eagles organization that had fallen on hard times. I think they know what they're doing.
College coaches like Alabama's Nick Saban, Oregon's Chip Kelly, Penn State's Bill O'Brien and Syracuses's Doug Marrone are on the radar, as are NFL coordinators such as the 49ers' Greg Roman, the Falcons' Dirk Koetter, the Bengals' Jay Gruden and the Colts' Bruce Arians (who was once the Browns' offensive coordinator and may wind up winning the NFL Coach of the Year Award for the job he did helping Indy reach the playoffs in the stead of regular head coach Chuck Pagano). Ex-Bears head coach Lovie Smith is rumored to have been contacted by the Browns, and they may be interested in Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett if Jerry Jones fires him tomorrow or the next day.
All of the current assistants are under contract and can be retained by the new coach. They will be granted permission to interview for other jobs. There still is a chance that defensive coordinator Dick Jauron is retained by the new head coach.
Both the new coach and the new GM/personnel director will report directly to Banner, who will report directly to Haslam. Haslam and Banner want a coach who will command respect by the players, the media and the fanbase that will help mold this team into a winner. They will give the new coach equal say in the final roster, and he will be expected to work in concert with the new GM. Since Banner is the de-facto poobah and he and Haslam are conducting the searches, both decided it was imperitive to hire a head coach first.
If you think about, NONE of the models have worked for the Browns. Carmen Policy hired Dwight Clark as his GM, who then hired Chris Palmer as the team's first expansion head coach. Five wins and two seasons later, Palmer was out and Clark's authority was ursupped by the incoming Butch Davis.
Davis brought along his former University of Miami cronie Pete Garcia to be his Director of Player Personnel. Three-and-half seasons later, despite a 9-7 playoff season in 2002, Davis resigned and Garcia followed him out the door.
Next, Lerner hired Phil Savage to be his new GM, and Savage tapped Romeo Crennel, the Patriots' DC during their three Super Bowl wins in a four-year span, to be his new head coach. Savage barely lasted the first season due to a power struggle with then-team President John Collins. Four seasons later, Savage and Crennel were fired in one-fell swoop by Lerner.
Lerner was heavily rumored to hire former Patriots GM Scott Pioli as his GM. However, his love affair with fired Jets' coach Eric Mangini changed all that. Lerner quickly hired Mangini without hiring a GM, and most of the experienced GM candidates that were available (such as Pioli and Tom Dimitroff) passed on the job. Mangini reccommended George Kokinis to be his new GM, and one failed draft later, Kokins was fired and Lerner was willing to give ANYONE a boatload of cash to help save him from the mess his franchise was becoming.
I believe that if Nick Saban wants to leave Alabama, the job is his. I don't think he'd leave Alabama, but there are some sources that say that Saban could leave if his Crimson Tide win the national championship later this week. The only job on his radar is the Browns job, where he once served as the defensive coordinator with great success.
Chip Kelly has become the darling coach prospect. However, he runs a gimmicky offense with Oregon that I don't think can succeed in the NFL. Let the Eagles and Chargers fall over themselves to try to hire him. I'd rather have Bill O'Brien if you're going the college-coach route.
Josh McDaniels, the former Patriots offensive coordinator, already took himself out of the equation for any head coach openings (not many Browns fans were unhappy to hear that), and it looks like Jon Gruden and Bill Cowher aren't in any hurry to resume their coaching careers. If either them got hired by the Browns, I'd be surprised.
I'm anxious to see what happens these next few days. I'm willing to show Haslam and Banner my confidence as a Browns fan on what they can do. I really have no other choice.
Until next time, Happy New Year to you all, and remember that Cleveland Rocks!
Joe Cleveland wants to thank all of you for taking the time to visit this blog whenever I update it. I got a lot more readers in 2012 than in 2011, so hopefully, things can keep taking off for Joe Cleveland in 2013.
The new year is only a few hours old, but I felt it was worth doing my first update of the year about what transpired just 24 hours ago and what could transpire during this week for the Cleveland Browns.
Shortly after a 24-10 loss to the hated Steelers at Heinz Field, in a game that was started by practice squad quarterback Thaddeus Lewis and where the leading rusher was a guy who was only active in one other game during his two-year stint with the Browns -- Brandon Jackson -- and where the longest run from scrimmage was by a backup safety. Despite all of that, the Browns were competitive until the bitter end and didn't back down when the Steelers tried to intimidate them with some extracurricular activities as plays ended.
It was fitting that the final offensive play of the Pat Shurmur era came when a quarterback named Josh Johnson -- who had been on his couch the entire season before the Browns placed a desperate call to him last Monday -- was leveled on a blitz by Lawrence Timmons past a rookie guard, Ryan Miller, who had never even played a single snap before that possession started, and Johnson fumbled. So ended the tumultuious two-year tenure of Pat Shurmur as the head coach of your Cleveland Browns.
The ax came swiftly and decisively on New Year's Eve morning. New owner Jimmy Haslam III and Joe Banner, as expected, fired both Shurmur and general manager Tom Heckert. Both were hired by departed president Mike Holmgren under the guise of absantee owner Randy Lerner -- Heckert a year earlier than Shurmur.
Joe Cleveland believes that both firings were the right choice. However, I've got to give Shurmur (begrudgingly) a bit of credit.
Shurmur's two seasons were held under difficult circumstances. Shurmur was a surprising choice by Holmgren in 2011 to replace Eric Mangini, and just a month after his hiring, the NFL locked out its players. That deprived Shurmur of an offseason, in which he was going to impliment a new offensive scheme (the West Coast offense). Believe it or not, the Browns had records of 2-1 and 3-3 under Shurmur before the bottom fell out in a disappointing 4-12 2011 season.
On the eve of training camp, news broke that Lerner had sold the team to Haslam. Suddenly, the "5-year plan" net and the security of having the Big Show in the building was going to be gone, with the impetus on winning if people wanted to retain their jobs. Despite that, Shurmur and Heckert trotted out a roster that was heavy on rookies and 1st-year players that were competitive in most games, but wound up a disappointing 5-11. The season ended on a 3-game losing streak, in which the Browns were outscored 96-43.
I still blame Holmgren for these last three years of 5-11, 4-12 and 5-11 ball. Holmgren was given a Brinks truck worth of money by an exasperated Lerner after the Browns stumbled to a 1-11 start under Mangini. It was expected that Holmgren would fire Mangini after the season and name himself as the head coach. However, Holmgren held on to Mangini for one more 5-11 season, despite a clash of overall philosophies, then "discorvered" the unknown Shurmur to be his hand-picked head coach one season later.
Halfway through the season, Holmgren was gone. By that point, Heckert and Shurmur were fresh out of friends, and only a miraculous finish to the regular season could save them.
It almost happened. A three-game win streak put the Browns at 5-8 and on the outer cusp of playoff contention. However, a dismal 38-21 loss to the Washington Redskins, led by fourth-round rookie backup QB Kirk Cousins, virtually sealed Shurmur's fate.
There was a mild push to retain Heckert because of some of the draft picks he had made in his three seasons. However, 14 wins in three seasons is difficult to ignore. When the teams in last year's NFL draft that picked first (Colts), second (Redskins) and fourth (Vikings) are all in the postseason while you, who picked third, are not, it's pretty indiciaitive of the job Heckert and Shurmur had done.
The trade of Julio Jones to the Falcons, the non-trade to obtain Robert Griffin III and the drafting of 28-year-old Brandon Weeden with the 22nd overall pick are the most heavily scrutinized moves, and Joe Cleveland actually supported all three of those maneuvers.
Essentially, Haslam and Banner had to do this to remake this once-proud franchise in their image. They want a "strong personality" at head coach, which is why they are hiring the coach first and the GM/personnel director second. You can say the Browns did that twice before and it failed both times when they hired Butch Davis and Mangini. However, the common denomonator in both of those hiring were the hand's-off, no-accountability Lerner family ownership.
Haslam is about as hand's on an owner as you want without him becoming meddling. Banner is a proven football executive that oversaw the rebirth of a Philadelphia Eagles organization that had fallen on hard times. I think they know what they're doing.
College coaches like Alabama's Nick Saban, Oregon's Chip Kelly, Penn State's Bill O'Brien and Syracuses's Doug Marrone are on the radar, as are NFL coordinators such as the 49ers' Greg Roman, the Falcons' Dirk Koetter, the Bengals' Jay Gruden and the Colts' Bruce Arians (who was once the Browns' offensive coordinator and may wind up winning the NFL Coach of the Year Award for the job he did helping Indy reach the playoffs in the stead of regular head coach Chuck Pagano). Ex-Bears head coach Lovie Smith is rumored to have been contacted by the Browns, and they may be interested in Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett if Jerry Jones fires him tomorrow or the next day.
All of the current assistants are under contract and can be retained by the new coach. They will be granted permission to interview for other jobs. There still is a chance that defensive coordinator Dick Jauron is retained by the new head coach.
Both the new coach and the new GM/personnel director will report directly to Banner, who will report directly to Haslam. Haslam and Banner want a coach who will command respect by the players, the media and the fanbase that will help mold this team into a winner. They will give the new coach equal say in the final roster, and he will be expected to work in concert with the new GM. Since Banner is the de-facto poobah and he and Haslam are conducting the searches, both decided it was imperitive to hire a head coach first.
If you think about, NONE of the models have worked for the Browns. Carmen Policy hired Dwight Clark as his GM, who then hired Chris Palmer as the team's first expansion head coach. Five wins and two seasons later, Palmer was out and Clark's authority was ursupped by the incoming Butch Davis.
Davis brought along his former University of Miami cronie Pete Garcia to be his Director of Player Personnel. Three-and-half seasons later, despite a 9-7 playoff season in 2002, Davis resigned and Garcia followed him out the door.
Next, Lerner hired Phil Savage to be his new GM, and Savage tapped Romeo Crennel, the Patriots' DC during their three Super Bowl wins in a four-year span, to be his new head coach. Savage barely lasted the first season due to a power struggle with then-team President John Collins. Four seasons later, Savage and Crennel were fired in one-fell swoop by Lerner.
Lerner was heavily rumored to hire former Patriots GM Scott Pioli as his GM. However, his love affair with fired Jets' coach Eric Mangini changed all that. Lerner quickly hired Mangini without hiring a GM, and most of the experienced GM candidates that were available (such as Pioli and Tom Dimitroff) passed on the job. Mangini reccommended George Kokinis to be his new GM, and one failed draft later, Kokins was fired and Lerner was willing to give ANYONE a boatload of cash to help save him from the mess his franchise was becoming.
I believe that if Nick Saban wants to leave Alabama, the job is his. I don't think he'd leave Alabama, but there are some sources that say that Saban could leave if his Crimson Tide win the national championship later this week. The only job on his radar is the Browns job, where he once served as the defensive coordinator with great success.
Chip Kelly has become the darling coach prospect. However, he runs a gimmicky offense with Oregon that I don't think can succeed in the NFL. Let the Eagles and Chargers fall over themselves to try to hire him. I'd rather have Bill O'Brien if you're going the college-coach route.
Josh McDaniels, the former Patriots offensive coordinator, already took himself out of the equation for any head coach openings (not many Browns fans were unhappy to hear that), and it looks like Jon Gruden and Bill Cowher aren't in any hurry to resume their coaching careers. If either them got hired by the Browns, I'd be surprised.
I'm anxious to see what happens these next few days. I'm willing to show Haslam and Banner my confidence as a Browns fan on what they can do. I really have no other choice.
Until next time, Happy New Year to you all, and remember that Cleveland Rocks!
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Change is a comin'
The 38-21 loss to a Washington Redskins team led by a fourth-round, second-string rookie quarterback named Kirk Cousins all assured it, and last week's lackluster 34-12 drubbing by Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos all but cemented it.
By this time next week, Pat Shurmur will be gone, and Tom Heckert may as well be gone, too.
That's even if the Browns can somehow knock off the Pittsburgh Steelers on the road this Sunday, clinching the first season-sweep of our hated rivals since 1988 and first since the team returned in 1999. In fact, it would only be the four season-sweep of the Steelers since 1970 (the Browns went 0-16 in their first 16 years playing at Three Rivers Stadium and wound up only winning there five times before it was mercifully imploded following the 2000 season).
The Browns will go into that game potentially with their third-string quarterback under center -- Thaddeus Lewis, who has never taken a regular season snap and was on the practice squad for most of this season. Josh Johnson, a former Tampa Bay quarterback who had been out of the league since the 49ers cut him in training camp, was brought in as the emergency quarterback in case starter Brandon Weeden or backup Colt McCoy (both shoulder injuries) can't go.
It's eerily reminisent of the last act of the Romeo Crennel/Phil Savage era. The Browns couldn't keep a healthy quarterback as the 2008 season wore down, losing Brady Quinn, Derek Anderson and third-stringer Ken Dorsey to injuries heading into the season finale at Pittsburgh. Bruce Gradkowski, who had just been signed two weeks earlier, was thrust into action and went a dismal 5-of-18 in a 31-0 drubbing by the Steelers.
That Steelers team wound up winning the Super Bowl, even though Ben Roethlisberger was carted off the field during that loss. This Steeler team is lugging a three-game losing streak into this season finale and have only won one game since the Browns beat them, 20-14, at home. All three losses have come with Roethlisberger at the helm, and the last two have directly been his fault with late interceptions directly leading to the game-winning points.
Oh, and did I mention the Steelers will miss the playoffs? Beauty.
Joe Banner has promised to make speedy decisions on both Shurmur and Heckert, which means that, by 10 a.m. New Years Eve, you can expect to get a press release saying both parties have been fired, followed by a press conference held by both Banner and owner Jimmy Haslam III defending their decision to make the change and talking about potential candidates.
Those candidates include Alabama head coach Nick Saban, Oregon head coach Chip Kelly, Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, soon-to-be fired Eagles head coach Andy Reid, ESPN football commentator Jon Gruden, Redskins offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, Broncos offensive coordinator Mike McCoy and the possibly fired Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett.
The Browns will have competition as they look for a new head coach. There could be at least 11 teams making a change at head coach this season. Along with the Browns, the Chiefs, the Chargers, the Eagles and (if they miss the playoffs) the Cowboys are assured of seeking a new head coach. The axe could be falling in Buffalo, New York (Jets), Jacksonville, Carolina, Arizona and Tennessee this offseason as well. So, they'll need to act fast if they want to hire the best person for the job.
Reportedly, if Saban wants the Browns job, it's his. Haslam is prepared to offer him a 10-year contract to come to Cleveland, reportedly, and that's regardless of who they hire at GM. Kelly has also been linked to taking Romeo Crennel's job in Kansas City, while Reid has been linked to Norv Turner's job in San Diego.
The new coach and GM's first major decision will be made at quarterback, with 30-year-old Weeden entering his second-year in the NFL. If he doesn't take another snap, Weeden will finish with 14 touchdown passes and 17 interceptions and 3,385 yards. Those are the most yards in a single-season since Derek Anderson threw for 3,787 yards, 29 touchdowns and 19 interceptions for the Browns in 2007. That year, the team went 10-6, but missed the playoffs by tiebreakers.
Tim Couch, the last Browns quarterback to start all 16 games in a regular season, threw for 3,040 yards with 17 touchdowns and 21 interceptions in 2001 for a Browns team that went 7-9.
Weeden's yardage total is the second-highest for the Browns since they've returned in 1999. In fact, it's the third-highest single-season total by a Browns quarterback since Bernie Kosar threw for 3,487 yards, 18 touchdowns and 9 interceptions for a 6-10 Browns team in 1991. That was also the last time a Browns quarterback started all 16 games until Couch did it in 2001.
It's pretty apparent that Weeden is a ill-fit for the West Coast offense operated by Pat Shurmur. Weeden has had a ton of passes batted down at the line of scrimmage because of the slant and short crossing routes -- defensive linemen who are blocked just follow his eyes and reach up as Weeden tries to thread the needle. That offense will be history next season.
Weeden has the arm strength to succeed in the NFL, especially in a cold-weather climate like Cleveland. He has displayed poise and has a bit of a gunslinger's attitude. That has led to some interceptions. However, Shurmur and Brad Childress have tried to rein him in, and that has only hindered Weeden's progress.
Unlike last season, there is not a deep quarterback draft to find an heir apparent. Matt Barkley and Geno Smith are the two best options, and both have fallen off the radar after dismal seasons.
In trades or free agency, the choices aren't all that great, either. The 49ers' Alex Smith, the Jets' Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow, the Jaguars' Blaine Gabbert, the Seahawks' Matt Flynn, the Patriots' Ryan Mallett and the Eagles' Michael Vick are the most intriguing options that could be obtained, and all of them don't necessarily ooze "franchise-changer" at QB.
Joe Cleveland is inclined to give Weeden another season with an offense more tailored to his strengths and the strengths of running back Trent Richardson. Joe Cleveland does not want to see Colt McCoy return as the starter -- we've seen enough. Also, Bears backup QB Jason Campbell, Chiefs' deposed starting QB Matt Cassel or Raiders starting QB Carson Palmer aren't attractive options, either.
Let the speculation go in full force a week from now. But for now, this edition of the Browns have one more game to play and it's against the hated Steelers.
***
Before Joe Cleveland goes, congrats to Browns' left tackle Joe Thomas on his sixth Pro Bowl berth of his six-year NFL career. Thomas was Phil Savage's lone great choice (yeah, he passed on Adrian Peterson for him, but I think Thomas will have a longer career) and is well on the way to a Hall of Fame career.
Also, a hearty congratulations to long-time kicker Phil Dawson on his long-awaited, well-overdue first Pro Bowl berth. Dawson certainly deserves it after a long and successful career as the Browns' primary kicker since they returned in 1999, and his 2012 season has been fantastic. He's only missed one field goal, and that kick was blocked. Hopefully, Haslam and Banner ensure that Dawson ends his career in the Brown and Orange, because he certainly deserves to.
With Josh Cribbs (kick returner and special teamer), D'Qwell Jackson (inside linebacker) and Alex Mack (center) as first alternates, there could very well be five Browns playing in Hawaii the week before the Super Bowl. Joe Cleveland may have to actually watch the game now.
Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!
By this time next week, Pat Shurmur will be gone, and Tom Heckert may as well be gone, too.
That's even if the Browns can somehow knock off the Pittsburgh Steelers on the road this Sunday, clinching the first season-sweep of our hated rivals since 1988 and first since the team returned in 1999. In fact, it would only be the four season-sweep of the Steelers since 1970 (the Browns went 0-16 in their first 16 years playing at Three Rivers Stadium and wound up only winning there five times before it was mercifully imploded following the 2000 season).
The Browns will go into that game potentially with their third-string quarterback under center -- Thaddeus Lewis, who has never taken a regular season snap and was on the practice squad for most of this season. Josh Johnson, a former Tampa Bay quarterback who had been out of the league since the 49ers cut him in training camp, was brought in as the emergency quarterback in case starter Brandon Weeden or backup Colt McCoy (both shoulder injuries) can't go.
It's eerily reminisent of the last act of the Romeo Crennel/Phil Savage era. The Browns couldn't keep a healthy quarterback as the 2008 season wore down, losing Brady Quinn, Derek Anderson and third-stringer Ken Dorsey to injuries heading into the season finale at Pittsburgh. Bruce Gradkowski, who had just been signed two weeks earlier, was thrust into action and went a dismal 5-of-18 in a 31-0 drubbing by the Steelers.
That Steelers team wound up winning the Super Bowl, even though Ben Roethlisberger was carted off the field during that loss. This Steeler team is lugging a three-game losing streak into this season finale and have only won one game since the Browns beat them, 20-14, at home. All three losses have come with Roethlisberger at the helm, and the last two have directly been his fault with late interceptions directly leading to the game-winning points.
Oh, and did I mention the Steelers will miss the playoffs? Beauty.
Joe Banner has promised to make speedy decisions on both Shurmur and Heckert, which means that, by 10 a.m. New Years Eve, you can expect to get a press release saying both parties have been fired, followed by a press conference held by both Banner and owner Jimmy Haslam III defending their decision to make the change and talking about potential candidates.
Those candidates include Alabama head coach Nick Saban, Oregon head coach Chip Kelly, Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, soon-to-be fired Eagles head coach Andy Reid, ESPN football commentator Jon Gruden, Redskins offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, Broncos offensive coordinator Mike McCoy and the possibly fired Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett.
The Browns will have competition as they look for a new head coach. There could be at least 11 teams making a change at head coach this season. Along with the Browns, the Chiefs, the Chargers, the Eagles and (if they miss the playoffs) the Cowboys are assured of seeking a new head coach. The axe could be falling in Buffalo, New York (Jets), Jacksonville, Carolina, Arizona and Tennessee this offseason as well. So, they'll need to act fast if they want to hire the best person for the job.
Reportedly, if Saban wants the Browns job, it's his. Haslam is prepared to offer him a 10-year contract to come to Cleveland, reportedly, and that's regardless of who they hire at GM. Kelly has also been linked to taking Romeo Crennel's job in Kansas City, while Reid has been linked to Norv Turner's job in San Diego.
The new coach and GM's first major decision will be made at quarterback, with 30-year-old Weeden entering his second-year in the NFL. If he doesn't take another snap, Weeden will finish with 14 touchdown passes and 17 interceptions and 3,385 yards. Those are the most yards in a single-season since Derek Anderson threw for 3,787 yards, 29 touchdowns and 19 interceptions for the Browns in 2007. That year, the team went 10-6, but missed the playoffs by tiebreakers.
Tim Couch, the last Browns quarterback to start all 16 games in a regular season, threw for 3,040 yards with 17 touchdowns and 21 interceptions in 2001 for a Browns team that went 7-9.
Weeden's yardage total is the second-highest for the Browns since they've returned in 1999. In fact, it's the third-highest single-season total by a Browns quarterback since Bernie Kosar threw for 3,487 yards, 18 touchdowns and 9 interceptions for a 6-10 Browns team in 1991. That was also the last time a Browns quarterback started all 16 games until Couch did it in 2001.
It's pretty apparent that Weeden is a ill-fit for the West Coast offense operated by Pat Shurmur. Weeden has had a ton of passes batted down at the line of scrimmage because of the slant and short crossing routes -- defensive linemen who are blocked just follow his eyes and reach up as Weeden tries to thread the needle. That offense will be history next season.
Weeden has the arm strength to succeed in the NFL, especially in a cold-weather climate like Cleveland. He has displayed poise and has a bit of a gunslinger's attitude. That has led to some interceptions. However, Shurmur and Brad Childress have tried to rein him in, and that has only hindered Weeden's progress.
Unlike last season, there is not a deep quarterback draft to find an heir apparent. Matt Barkley and Geno Smith are the two best options, and both have fallen off the radar after dismal seasons.
In trades or free agency, the choices aren't all that great, either. The 49ers' Alex Smith, the Jets' Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow, the Jaguars' Blaine Gabbert, the Seahawks' Matt Flynn, the Patriots' Ryan Mallett and the Eagles' Michael Vick are the most intriguing options that could be obtained, and all of them don't necessarily ooze "franchise-changer" at QB.
Joe Cleveland is inclined to give Weeden another season with an offense more tailored to his strengths and the strengths of running back Trent Richardson. Joe Cleveland does not want to see Colt McCoy return as the starter -- we've seen enough. Also, Bears backup QB Jason Campbell, Chiefs' deposed starting QB Matt Cassel or Raiders starting QB Carson Palmer aren't attractive options, either.
Let the speculation go in full force a week from now. But for now, this edition of the Browns have one more game to play and it's against the hated Steelers.
***
Before Joe Cleveland goes, congrats to Browns' left tackle Joe Thomas on his sixth Pro Bowl berth of his six-year NFL career. Thomas was Phil Savage's lone great choice (yeah, he passed on Adrian Peterson for him, but I think Thomas will have a longer career) and is well on the way to a Hall of Fame career.
Also, a hearty congratulations to long-time kicker Phil Dawson on his long-awaited, well-overdue first Pro Bowl berth. Dawson certainly deserves it after a long and successful career as the Browns' primary kicker since they returned in 1999, and his 2012 season has been fantastic. He's only missed one field goal, and that kick was blocked. Hopefully, Haslam and Banner ensure that Dawson ends his career in the Brown and Orange, because he certainly deserves to.
With Josh Cribbs (kick returner and special teamer), D'Qwell Jackson (inside linebacker) and Alex Mack (center) as first alternates, there could very well be five Browns playing in Hawaii the week before the Super Bowl. Joe Cleveland may have to actually watch the game now.
Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!
Monday, December 10, 2012
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!
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!
Sunday, November 25, 2012
How sweet it is!
The week hasn't officially started yet, and Joe Cleveland is already chalking it up to being the greatest week ever.
This is what happens when Ohio State can take out Michigan and the Cleveland Browns can do the same to the Pittsburgh Steelers in back-to-back home games on back-to-back afternoons.
Joe Cleveland was fortunate enough to witness the latter in person. I was also at the 2009 Thursday night game in which the Browns sacked Ben Roethlisberger eight times and stunned the Squeelers, 13-6. This one might have been a bit better.
Sure, Consentlessberger wasn't in uniform for this one. He sat on the sidelines nursing broken ribs. Also, Troy Polamalu wasn't in uniform, but then again, he hasn't been in uniform very much this season and yet the Steelers defense came into Sunday's game ranked No. 1.
It doesn't matter.
As Pat Shurmur told the team after their 20-14 victory that was more dominating than the score actually indicated, "You rookies are now 1-0 against the Steelers."
Jimmy Haslam, who was in the other owners box for several Browns-Steelers games that went the way of the Yinzer, is now 1-0 as the Browns' owner against the team he was once affiliated with.
Shurmur is now one of just three Browns coaches since the team returned in 1999 to beat the Steelers. The other two -- Eric Mangini (2009) and Chris Palmer (1999 and 2000). Coincidentally, both Mangini and Palmer were fired after just two years on the job, and -- a win Sunday regardless -- Shurmur is still expected to be fired after this season, his second year on the job.
Brandon Weeden becomes the third Browns starting quarterback to win a game against the Steelers. Tim Couch was the starter for the wins in 1999, 2000 and 2003, while Brady Quinn started the 2009 game. Weeden also becomes just the second rookie quarterback to beat a Dick LeBeau defense while LeBeau headed up the Steeler D.
The eight turnovers forced by the Browns were the most a Steeler team committed since 1989. It was also the most the Browns forced since 1989. Coincidentally, the last time it happened for either team, they played each other in a very memorable 51-0 season-opening victory at Three Rivers Stadium (Bud Carson's finest hour).
Sure, the starting quarterback may have a 37-year-old third-stringer and one of the wideouts may have been a 35-year-old guy who was sitting on his couch this season and had missed most of the last four seasons after shooting himself in the leg at a nighclub. And, it may have only been a six-point win.
But, in the end, it was a Browns victory ... OVER THE STEELERS!!!
Hallalujah!
Last season, you could sense the Browns were right there, as far as being physical with the ever-intimidating Steelers. The Steelers won both games, 14-3 and 13-9, but the Browns made the Steelers work for both games.
The Browns injured Roethlisberger in that first game, and forced him to play the entire game in the season finale when they had hoped to jump out to a commanding lead in that season finale to prepare for the playoffs. They also took out Polamalu and running back Rashard Mendenhall during that season finale, and without them, Pittsburgh lost a Tim Tebow-led Broncos team in the first round of the playoffs.
This year, it was the Browns that were the physical team. It was the guys in brown jerseys who were intimidating. It was the Browns that delivered solid hits that forced six fumbles -- five recovered by the Browns.
Don't look now, folks, but the the balance of power in the AFC North is shifting. The Steelers are getting older and more beat up, while the Browns are younger and hungrier.
The Ravens continue to win, but they, too, are also getting older and beat up. Meanwhile, the younger Bengals made the playoffs last season and are sneaking back into the hunt after being written off by many following a 34-24 loss to Browns a few weeks ago.
Could the road to the AFC North championship be going through Cleveland and Cincinnati the next few seasons? What does this Sunday tell you?
The Browns dominated the Steelers. The Bengals dominated the Raiders. The Ravens had to rally to beat the rudderless Chargers in overtime -- a team that lost to the Browns a few weeks ago.
Haslam wisely stepped in and pulled the plug on the disasterous "white flag" promotion. They should have put those palates outside the Steelers locker room so they could take them as they left. Or, handed them out after the game to anyone wearing black and yellow and crying in their little yellow towels.
Probably the only thing better than watching the Browns beat the Steelers was watching all of those stunned Steeler fans, who so gleefully twirled their towels and tried to make Cleveland Browns Stadium Heinz Field West just a few hours earlier, walk out into the chilly Cleveland afternoon zombie-faced, like the famine just hit their village or something.
It was a beautiful thing.
Now, the Browns improve to 5-23 against those Stillers since 1999. Not a fantastic stat, but keep this one in mind.
In the years Cleveland beat Pittsburgh (1999, 2000, 2003 and 2009), the Steelers were denied a playoff berth. Sitting at 6-5 with another game with the Ravens on tap next week and not getting any healthier, 2012 could be another notch in that chain.
This week, Browns fans don't have to hear it from those front-running losers at their workplaces or in their circle of friends. Now, WE can be the ones who let them have it.
Like I said before, we haven't seen the Buckeyes and Browns score wins over their archrivals in the same weekend since 1962, so this one was a long time coming. Just imagine if the Cavs could have held on against LeQuitter's Heat Saturday night?
Speaking of the Buckeyes, you've got to congratulate them on a 12-0 season -- a season that nobody expected. Sure, some true Buckeye homers probably thought Urban Meyer would have Ohio State in the national title game in his first year, but most would have been happy with a winning record and another win over That Team Up North.
Who would have thunk it that, if not for a bowl ban, Meyer could have very well had the Buckeyes playing for a national championship in January, and against Notre Dame, even? Take that, ESPN and SEC!
Last season, this team finished a dismal 6-7 under Luke Fickell. With Meyer, that got transformed to 12-0. This is not a coincidence.
Meyer's spread offense fits Braxton Miller like a glove. Unlike Rich Rodriguez, who came to Michigan as an unpopular choice and then proceeded to force his spread down his school's throat despite not having the proper personnel (and was fired after just three seasons), Meyer knew that the Buckeyes had the pieces in place to make the transtion to the spread pretty seemless.
He was able to convince the seniors, whom he didn't recruit, to stay, even though they had the right to transfer penalty-free to another university when the NCAA sanctions were handed down.
They didn't blow the doors off their opponents, which some critics have brought up. However, the fact remains that they played in 12 games and won them all.
If Ohio State is not the preseason No. 1 next season, then something is definitely wrong.
Meyer got the rivalry back to Ohio State's side after Jim Tressel owned Michigan during his 10-year career (9-1) and the hiccup last season under Fickell. It looks like it will be there to stay for the time being.
Ohio State beating Michigan and the Browns beating the Steelers. Yes, Thanksgiving DOES mean something, after all!
***
Don't look now, but this Browns team could use the Steeler win to springboard themselves to a fanstastic finish.
The 2009 team responded from that 13-6 Steeler win to rip off four consecutive victories to end the season. The winning streak saved Mangini's job for a season under incoming team president Mike Holmgren, who was rumored to have been hired just before that Steeler game.
This season, the Browns follow up with games against Oakland on the road (3-7), Kansas City (1-10) and Washington (5-6) at home, and Denver (7-3) and the Steelers (6-5) on the road. Only the Bronco game appears to be totally unwinnable, and that could be interesting if they clinch prior to that and rest Peyton Manning and some of the starters.
The Redskins under Robert Griffin III are playing well lately, but it should be cold on Dec. 16. RG3's idea of cold growing up in Texas was 55 degrees.
The Browns could very well be 8-8 (if all the planets and stars align properly) or, at least, 6-10 when this season is all said and done.
6-10 isn't great, but it is progress from 4-12 and 5-11 over the last four seasons. If two of those six wins are against Pittsburgh, you can make a case for Shurmur to stick around for another season.
Some idiots are complaining about draft position ... ENOUGH ALREADY!! If we perennially play for the damn draft, we'll always rebuild. You need to win games, that's the bottom line. And, is there any lock-down player that you need to get in the top three or four this year? Matt Barkley, Geno Smith and Collin Klein aren't looking likc locks to be future QB studs in the NFL, and most of the high prospects appear to be on the defensive side.
So, quit bellyaching about how the Browns won or why they won. The bottom line is, THEY BEAT THE DAMN STEELERS!!! Be a true damn Browns fan and ENJOY IT for once!!!
I will say, though, that anything less than that 6-10 projection, and Shurmur is gone ... even if they can beat the Steelers again at Heinz Field in the season finale.
The Browns aren't a great team, but anyone with any knowledge of the NFL can see that this team has some interesting and intriguing pieces in place. This team has talent, and that talent was on display. That talent will only get better with more experience and with better coaching.
Football fortunes are on the rise in Ohio. Just you wait and see.
Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!
And, PITTSBURGH SUCKS!
This is what happens when Ohio State can take out Michigan and the Cleveland Browns can do the same to the Pittsburgh Steelers in back-to-back home games on back-to-back afternoons.
Joe Cleveland was fortunate enough to witness the latter in person. I was also at the 2009 Thursday night game in which the Browns sacked Ben Roethlisberger eight times and stunned the Squeelers, 13-6. This one might have been a bit better.
Sure, Consentlessberger wasn't in uniform for this one. He sat on the sidelines nursing broken ribs. Also, Troy Polamalu wasn't in uniform, but then again, he hasn't been in uniform very much this season and yet the Steelers defense came into Sunday's game ranked No. 1.
It doesn't matter.
As Pat Shurmur told the team after their 20-14 victory that was more dominating than the score actually indicated, "You rookies are now 1-0 against the Steelers."
Jimmy Haslam, who was in the other owners box for several Browns-Steelers games that went the way of the Yinzer, is now 1-0 as the Browns' owner against the team he was once affiliated with.
Shurmur is now one of just three Browns coaches since the team returned in 1999 to beat the Steelers. The other two -- Eric Mangini (2009) and Chris Palmer (1999 and 2000). Coincidentally, both Mangini and Palmer were fired after just two years on the job, and -- a win Sunday regardless -- Shurmur is still expected to be fired after this season, his second year on the job.
Brandon Weeden becomes the third Browns starting quarterback to win a game against the Steelers. Tim Couch was the starter for the wins in 1999, 2000 and 2003, while Brady Quinn started the 2009 game. Weeden also becomes just the second rookie quarterback to beat a Dick LeBeau defense while LeBeau headed up the Steeler D.
The eight turnovers forced by the Browns were the most a Steeler team committed since 1989. It was also the most the Browns forced since 1989. Coincidentally, the last time it happened for either team, they played each other in a very memorable 51-0 season-opening victory at Three Rivers Stadium (Bud Carson's finest hour).
Sure, the starting quarterback may have a 37-year-old third-stringer and one of the wideouts may have been a 35-year-old guy who was sitting on his couch this season and had missed most of the last four seasons after shooting himself in the leg at a nighclub. And, it may have only been a six-point win.
But, in the end, it was a Browns victory ... OVER THE STEELERS!!!
Hallalujah!
Last season, you could sense the Browns were right there, as far as being physical with the ever-intimidating Steelers. The Steelers won both games, 14-3 and 13-9, but the Browns made the Steelers work for both games.
The Browns injured Roethlisberger in that first game, and forced him to play the entire game in the season finale when they had hoped to jump out to a commanding lead in that season finale to prepare for the playoffs. They also took out Polamalu and running back Rashard Mendenhall during that season finale, and without them, Pittsburgh lost a Tim Tebow-led Broncos team in the first round of the playoffs.
This year, it was the Browns that were the physical team. It was the guys in brown jerseys who were intimidating. It was the Browns that delivered solid hits that forced six fumbles -- five recovered by the Browns.
Don't look now, folks, but the the balance of power in the AFC North is shifting. The Steelers are getting older and more beat up, while the Browns are younger and hungrier.
The Ravens continue to win, but they, too, are also getting older and beat up. Meanwhile, the younger Bengals made the playoffs last season and are sneaking back into the hunt after being written off by many following a 34-24 loss to Browns a few weeks ago.
Could the road to the AFC North championship be going through Cleveland and Cincinnati the next few seasons? What does this Sunday tell you?
The Browns dominated the Steelers. The Bengals dominated the Raiders. The Ravens had to rally to beat the rudderless Chargers in overtime -- a team that lost to the Browns a few weeks ago.
Haslam wisely stepped in and pulled the plug on the disasterous "white flag" promotion. They should have put those palates outside the Steelers locker room so they could take them as they left. Or, handed them out after the game to anyone wearing black and yellow and crying in their little yellow towels.
Probably the only thing better than watching the Browns beat the Steelers was watching all of those stunned Steeler fans, who so gleefully twirled their towels and tried to make Cleveland Browns Stadium Heinz Field West just a few hours earlier, walk out into the chilly Cleveland afternoon zombie-faced, like the famine just hit their village or something.
It was a beautiful thing.
Now, the Browns improve to 5-23 against those Stillers since 1999. Not a fantastic stat, but keep this one in mind.
In the years Cleveland beat Pittsburgh (1999, 2000, 2003 and 2009), the Steelers were denied a playoff berth. Sitting at 6-5 with another game with the Ravens on tap next week and not getting any healthier, 2012 could be another notch in that chain.
This week, Browns fans don't have to hear it from those front-running losers at their workplaces or in their circle of friends. Now, WE can be the ones who let them have it.
Like I said before, we haven't seen the Buckeyes and Browns score wins over their archrivals in the same weekend since 1962, so this one was a long time coming. Just imagine if the Cavs could have held on against LeQuitter's Heat Saturday night?
Speaking of the Buckeyes, you've got to congratulate them on a 12-0 season -- a season that nobody expected. Sure, some true Buckeye homers probably thought Urban Meyer would have Ohio State in the national title game in his first year, but most would have been happy with a winning record and another win over That Team Up North.
Who would have thunk it that, if not for a bowl ban, Meyer could have very well had the Buckeyes playing for a national championship in January, and against Notre Dame, even? Take that, ESPN and SEC!
Last season, this team finished a dismal 6-7 under Luke Fickell. With Meyer, that got transformed to 12-0. This is not a coincidence.
Meyer's spread offense fits Braxton Miller like a glove. Unlike Rich Rodriguez, who came to Michigan as an unpopular choice and then proceeded to force his spread down his school's throat despite not having the proper personnel (and was fired after just three seasons), Meyer knew that the Buckeyes had the pieces in place to make the transtion to the spread pretty seemless.
He was able to convince the seniors, whom he didn't recruit, to stay, even though they had the right to transfer penalty-free to another university when the NCAA sanctions were handed down.
They didn't blow the doors off their opponents, which some critics have brought up. However, the fact remains that they played in 12 games and won them all.
If Ohio State is not the preseason No. 1 next season, then something is definitely wrong.
Meyer got the rivalry back to Ohio State's side after Jim Tressel owned Michigan during his 10-year career (9-1) and the hiccup last season under Fickell. It looks like it will be there to stay for the time being.
Ohio State beating Michigan and the Browns beating the Steelers. Yes, Thanksgiving DOES mean something, after all!
***
Don't look now, but this Browns team could use the Steeler win to springboard themselves to a fanstastic finish.
The 2009 team responded from that 13-6 Steeler win to rip off four consecutive victories to end the season. The winning streak saved Mangini's job for a season under incoming team president Mike Holmgren, who was rumored to have been hired just before that Steeler game.
This season, the Browns follow up with games against Oakland on the road (3-7), Kansas City (1-10) and Washington (5-6) at home, and Denver (7-3) and the Steelers (6-5) on the road. Only the Bronco game appears to be totally unwinnable, and that could be interesting if they clinch prior to that and rest Peyton Manning and some of the starters.
The Redskins under Robert Griffin III are playing well lately, but it should be cold on Dec. 16. RG3's idea of cold growing up in Texas was 55 degrees.
The Browns could very well be 8-8 (if all the planets and stars align properly) or, at least, 6-10 when this season is all said and done.
6-10 isn't great, but it is progress from 4-12 and 5-11 over the last four seasons. If two of those six wins are against Pittsburgh, you can make a case for Shurmur to stick around for another season.
Some idiots are complaining about draft position ... ENOUGH ALREADY!! If we perennially play for the damn draft, we'll always rebuild. You need to win games, that's the bottom line. And, is there any lock-down player that you need to get in the top three or four this year? Matt Barkley, Geno Smith and Collin Klein aren't looking likc locks to be future QB studs in the NFL, and most of the high prospects appear to be on the defensive side.
So, quit bellyaching about how the Browns won or why they won. The bottom line is, THEY BEAT THE DAMN STEELERS!!! Be a true damn Browns fan and ENJOY IT for once!!!
I will say, though, that anything less than that 6-10 projection, and Shurmur is gone ... even if they can beat the Steelers again at Heinz Field in the season finale.
The Browns aren't a great team, but anyone with any knowledge of the NFL can see that this team has some interesting and intriguing pieces in place. This team has talent, and that talent was on display. That talent will only get better with more experience and with better coaching.
Football fortunes are on the rise in Ohio. Just you wait and see.
Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!
And, PITTSBURGH SUCKS!
Friday, November 23, 2012
Raising the White Flag
Sometimes, Joe Cleveland wonders why he so steadfastly roots for the sports teams in this city when so many of them do dumb things.
The Indians organization, for example, it a walking nightmare. It would not surprise me to see them hand out white flags to the 8,000 fans who show up to watch a game against the Tigers or the White Sox. You would hope, however, that they would be smart enough to not do it.
Unfortunately, sometimes the Browns organization IS that dumb. Like this Sunday, for instance.
The national media and some comedians (and I'm sure Steeler fans) are having a field day over the morons in the Browns' marketing department's latest decision -- to hand out inflatable white flags to all the fans who walk into Browns Stadium Sunday morning for their huge game with the hated Stillers.
As a Browns fan, I can't even try to defend this decision. It's moronic. It's stupid.
I can only imagine how this went down:
(Browns Marketing Department meeting, late August, discussing promotions)
"Well, we need a promotion for the game on Nov. 25. Who are they playing again?"
"Ummm, that would be Pittsburgh."
"Yeah, Pittsburgh. Don't their fans bring in little yellow towels to wave whenever that does something?"
"Yeah. I think they call them 'Terrible Towels.'"
"You're darn right those things are terrible. They terribly clash with our orange seats. They're terrible to watch. We need something that will clash with that."
"How about a flag?"
"Perfect. A flag is better than a towel. What color should that flag be?"
(The closet Steeler fan working in the department, silently taking it all in, seizes his opportunity)
"Well, how about a WHITE flag? You know, because white should blind out the yellow."
"A white flag ..."
(The Steeler fan, who barely suppressed his or her laughter while saying that last word, holds his or her breath as that person's sure the suggestion will be laughed out of the room)
"... BRILLIANT! I like it. How about you, Johnson?"
"White flag sounds good. Anyone else?"
(unanimous grumbling about how a white flag sounds perfect)
"I'm sure Mr. Lerner and Mr. Holmgren will be pleased. Next game ..."
Well, unfortunately for the nincompoops that make up the Browns marketing department, Mr. Lerner and Mr. Holmgren aren't around anymore. Mr. Lerner was barely around to begin with, and Mr. Holmgren didn't seem too concerned about any matters that weren't football related.
Now, it's Mr. Haslam and Mr. Banner. And if Mr. Haslam and Mr. Banner had any decency, even though 50,000 of these ridiculous white flags have already been ordered, they would keep those things locked away on palates and not hand out anything.
Because NOTHING is better than a national joke.
This is my third year of being a Browns season ticket holder. If someone tries to hand me one of those ridiculous things, I either throw it on the ground in front of them, or I keep walking.
Because when I think of finally beating the hated Steelers, I think of 50,000 fans waving white flags in the crow to combat the sea of yellow from the black jersey-clad Yinzers and Northeast Ohio frontrunners.
The craxy part is, this may not be an isolated incident when it comes to the Browns marketing department, and why the man who made his fortune creating multipurpose truck stops needs to run these idiots all out of town and hire his own people.
He'll be hiring all his own people to run the football team next year from the head coach on down, why stop there?
According to ESPNCleveland.com, a story has been circulating about why the marketing department didn't sell any game-day programs to the season-opening game against the Eagles.
The Browns marketing department is in charge of the editing and printing of the game day programs. A source told the radio station that just hours before kickoff, someone in the communications department noticed that on the main roster centerfold, the first page everyone opens to in the program, the head coach’s name was spelled “Pat Schurmur.”
Yes, the head coaches name was spelled wrong.
As the team was scrambling to figure out an easy fix, the marketing department had a brilliant idea. They decided they would add a separate one page insert with a corrected roster. At the top of that insert, in bold letters it said, “Please disregard the misspelling of Pat Shurmur’s name on the original roster."
You can’t make this stuff up folks. The marketing department misspelled the most important person on the roster’s name and then, to cover it up, drew more attention to the mistake.
According to the article, the communications department pushed hard and finally got all programs pulled from the game before fans arrived. If you somehow got a hold of one of those, it might be worth some money someday.
Browns players are hoping the white flags idea doesn't come to fruition.
“I try to focus on the Steelers but I’m not a fan of the white flags,” middle linebacker D’Qwell Jackson said. “That’s the simplest way I can put it. I’m not a fan of it whatsoever knowing that we’ll see the terrible towels flying and it’s just not a message I like and I’m sure other guys don’t approve of.”
“I think I’m going to let D’Qwell speak for all of us,” added long-time kicker Phil Dawson, who has (literally) seen it all when it comes to the Browns. “When your mom told you growing up if you don’t have anything good to say, probably better not to say it, I think I am going to follow those words.”
If there is one positive to that story, it's that it is never too late to pull a mistake. Let's hope Haslam (or anybody for that matter) pulls the plug on this one, too.
The Browns were able to avoid one embarassment when they were able to convince the NFL to exempt them from the league-wide mandate to have a moment of silence for Dead Judas the Theiving One prior to that Eagles game. Hopefully, they can avoid another.
***
Speaking of waving the white flag, that's exactly what Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith and president Gordon Gee decided to do when they decided to accept a berth to the Gator Bowl so their 6-6 Buckeyes with the lame-duck head coach could play Florida.
Taking that bowl game (and losing to suffer the very rare under-.500 season) allowed the NCAA to hand down a bowl ban for this season when they officially announced their sanctions agaisnt Ohio State for Tattoo-Gate.
So, a 6-6 team with a meaningless head coach and meaningless lame-duck coaching staff played in a meaningless bowl and lost, so that a potential 12-0 team with a fantastic head coach and fantastic coaching staff (except for the defense) can stay home instead of accepting a potential berth in the BCS National Championship Game.
Take a bow, Gene Smith! Take a bow!
Smith incredulously refused to believe that, had he self-imposed a bowl ban last year, the NCAA would not have given them one this year. He still maintains he did the right thing.
How this man has a high-profile job at a Division I university is one of life's great mysteries. How he didn't get run out of town along with Lord Tressel in the wake of Tattoo-Gate has baffled me ever since the scandal broke.
Then again, we have a guy working for the Cleveland Indians who traded back-to-back AL Cy Young award winners and not only got bubkiss for them, but wound up with a promotion. We have a head coach for the Cleveland Browns who was only an offensive coordinator for one season, and it was for a mediocre team. We have a marketing department that believes it is a great idea to hand out white flags to wave for a game against your most hated and bitter rival.
This is why Joe Cleveland should have his head examined for rooting for these teams. Apparently, shit does flow upstream in Ohio.
Please, for the love of God, can the Buckeyes and the Browns just do right on the field Saturday and Sunday against the teams this fanbase loves to hate? All of the above will go away, even if for just one day, week or month.
Here's hoping for some great news on ALL fronts come Monday.
O-H ... I-O!!!
Here we go, Brownies! Here we go! WOOF-WOOF!
And remember ...
We don't give a damn about the whole state of Michigan, cuz we're from Oh-Hi-O!
Finally ...
Only bitches wave little yellow towels! Beat Pittsburgh and the Three River Rednecks they brought with them!
Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!
The Indians organization, for example, it a walking nightmare. It would not surprise me to see them hand out white flags to the 8,000 fans who show up to watch a game against the Tigers or the White Sox. You would hope, however, that they would be smart enough to not do it.
Unfortunately, sometimes the Browns organization IS that dumb. Like this Sunday, for instance.
The national media and some comedians (and I'm sure Steeler fans) are having a field day over the morons in the Browns' marketing department's latest decision -- to hand out inflatable white flags to all the fans who walk into Browns Stadium Sunday morning for their huge game with the hated Stillers.
As a Browns fan, I can't even try to defend this decision. It's moronic. It's stupid.
I can only imagine how this went down:
(Browns Marketing Department meeting, late August, discussing promotions)
"Well, we need a promotion for the game on Nov. 25. Who are they playing again?"
"Ummm, that would be Pittsburgh."
"Yeah, Pittsburgh. Don't their fans bring in little yellow towels to wave whenever that does something?"
"Yeah. I think they call them 'Terrible Towels.'"
"You're darn right those things are terrible. They terribly clash with our orange seats. They're terrible to watch. We need something that will clash with that."
"How about a flag?"
"Perfect. A flag is better than a towel. What color should that flag be?"
(The closet Steeler fan working in the department, silently taking it all in, seizes his opportunity)
"Well, how about a WHITE flag? You know, because white should blind out the yellow."
"A white flag ..."
(The Steeler fan, who barely suppressed his or her laughter while saying that last word, holds his or her breath as that person's sure the suggestion will be laughed out of the room)
"... BRILLIANT! I like it. How about you, Johnson?"
"White flag sounds good. Anyone else?"
(unanimous grumbling about how a white flag sounds perfect)
"I'm sure Mr. Lerner and Mr. Holmgren will be pleased. Next game ..."
Well, unfortunately for the nincompoops that make up the Browns marketing department, Mr. Lerner and Mr. Holmgren aren't around anymore. Mr. Lerner was barely around to begin with, and Mr. Holmgren didn't seem too concerned about any matters that weren't football related.
Now, it's Mr. Haslam and Mr. Banner. And if Mr. Haslam and Mr. Banner had any decency, even though 50,000 of these ridiculous white flags have already been ordered, they would keep those things locked away on palates and not hand out anything.
Because NOTHING is better than a national joke.
This is my third year of being a Browns season ticket holder. If someone tries to hand me one of those ridiculous things, I either throw it on the ground in front of them, or I keep walking.
Because when I think of finally beating the hated Steelers, I think of 50,000 fans waving white flags in the crow to combat the sea of yellow from the black jersey-clad Yinzers and Northeast Ohio frontrunners.
The craxy part is, this may not be an isolated incident when it comes to the Browns marketing department, and why the man who made his fortune creating multipurpose truck stops needs to run these idiots all out of town and hire his own people.
He'll be hiring all his own people to run the football team next year from the head coach on down, why stop there?
According to ESPNCleveland.com, a story has been circulating about why the marketing department didn't sell any game-day programs to the season-opening game against the Eagles.
The Browns marketing department is in charge of the editing and printing of the game day programs. A source told the radio station that just hours before kickoff, someone in the communications department noticed that on the main roster centerfold, the first page everyone opens to in the program, the head coach’s name was spelled “Pat Schurmur.”
Yes, the head coaches name was spelled wrong.
As the team was scrambling to figure out an easy fix, the marketing department had a brilliant idea. They decided they would add a separate one page insert with a corrected roster. At the top of that insert, in bold letters it said, “Please disregard the misspelling of Pat Shurmur’s name on the original roster."
You can’t make this stuff up folks. The marketing department misspelled the most important person on the roster’s name and then, to cover it up, drew more attention to the mistake.
According to the article, the communications department pushed hard and finally got all programs pulled from the game before fans arrived. If you somehow got a hold of one of those, it might be worth some money someday.
Browns players are hoping the white flags idea doesn't come to fruition.
“I try to focus on the Steelers but I’m not a fan of the white flags,” middle linebacker D’Qwell Jackson said. “That’s the simplest way I can put it. I’m not a fan of it whatsoever knowing that we’ll see the terrible towels flying and it’s just not a message I like and I’m sure other guys don’t approve of.”
“I think I’m going to let D’Qwell speak for all of us,” added long-time kicker Phil Dawson, who has (literally) seen it all when it comes to the Browns. “When your mom told you growing up if you don’t have anything good to say, probably better not to say it, I think I am going to follow those words.”
If there is one positive to that story, it's that it is never too late to pull a mistake. Let's hope Haslam (or anybody for that matter) pulls the plug on this one, too.
The Browns were able to avoid one embarassment when they were able to convince the NFL to exempt them from the league-wide mandate to have a moment of silence for Dead Judas the Theiving One prior to that Eagles game. Hopefully, they can avoid another.
***
Speaking of waving the white flag, that's exactly what Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith and president Gordon Gee decided to do when they decided to accept a berth to the Gator Bowl so their 6-6 Buckeyes with the lame-duck head coach could play Florida.
Taking that bowl game (and losing to suffer the very rare under-.500 season) allowed the NCAA to hand down a bowl ban for this season when they officially announced their sanctions agaisnt Ohio State for Tattoo-Gate.
So, a 6-6 team with a meaningless head coach and meaningless lame-duck coaching staff played in a meaningless bowl and lost, so that a potential 12-0 team with a fantastic head coach and fantastic coaching staff (except for the defense) can stay home instead of accepting a potential berth in the BCS National Championship Game.
Take a bow, Gene Smith! Take a bow!
Smith incredulously refused to believe that, had he self-imposed a bowl ban last year, the NCAA would not have given them one this year. He still maintains he did the right thing.
How this man has a high-profile job at a Division I university is one of life's great mysteries. How he didn't get run out of town along with Lord Tressel in the wake of Tattoo-Gate has baffled me ever since the scandal broke.
Then again, we have a guy working for the Cleveland Indians who traded back-to-back AL Cy Young award winners and not only got bubkiss for them, but wound up with a promotion. We have a head coach for the Cleveland Browns who was only an offensive coordinator for one season, and it was for a mediocre team. We have a marketing department that believes it is a great idea to hand out white flags to wave for a game against your most hated and bitter rival.
This is why Joe Cleveland should have his head examined for rooting for these teams. Apparently, shit does flow upstream in Ohio.
Please, for the love of God, can the Buckeyes and the Browns just do right on the field Saturday and Sunday against the teams this fanbase loves to hate? All of the above will go away, even if for just one day, week or month.
Here's hoping for some great news on ALL fronts come Monday.
O-H ... I-O!!!
Here we go, Brownies! Here we go! WOOF-WOOF!
And remember ...
We don't give a damn about the whole state of Michigan, cuz we're from Oh-Hi-O!
Finally ...
Only bitches wave little yellow towels! Beat Pittsburgh and the Three River Rednecks they brought with them!
Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
An easy choice
Every couple of years, the planets and schedule-makers align to where, in back-to-back days on the same weekend, Ohio State is playing Michigan and the Browns are playing the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Throw in the Cavs travelling to Miami to take on LeQuit and his Heat on Saturday night, and you have the makings of a very intense weekend for a Cleveland sports fan.
One notable time you had OSU-Michgan and Browns-Steelers on the same weekend was in 2006.
No. 1 Ohio State hosted No. 2 Michigan in a game for the ages, where Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith improved to 3-0 against That Team Up North with a 316-yard, 4-touchdown performance in a 42-39 victory at Ohio Stadium on Nov. 18.
The following day, the Browns squandered leads of 10-0, 13-3 and 20-10 (in the fourth quarter), as the Steelers scored 21 fourth-quarter points and won, 24-20, at Browns Stadium.
I'm sure it's happened quite a few times in history. And I can't remember when the last time both the Buckeyes and the Browns happened to beat their archrivals in the same weekend (although I'm sure it's happened before). It surely hasn't happened within the last 35 years. On Nov. 25, 1973, the Browns beat the Steelers, 21-16, and Ohio State and Michigan tied 10-10 the day before.
Actually, according to some Joe Cleveland research just now, I did find the last time the Browns and Buckeyes won on the same weekend. On Nov. 24, 1962, Ohio State blanked Michigan, 28-0, at the Horseshoe. The following day, at the old Cleveland Stadium, the Browns handled the Steelers, 35-14, behind a big day from the great Jim Brown. So, it's been a while.
Saturday is the 109th meeting between the two flagship schools in the Big Ten. Michigan leads the series, 58-43-6, although Ohio State has won 9 of the last 11 matchups against That Team Up North (8, if you want to factor in the 2010 game was officially vacated due to NCAA sanctions against the Buckeyes).
Sunday is the 121st meeting between the two oldest franchises in the AFC, including playoffs. The Steelers lead the series, 64-56, and have won 18 of the last 19 games against our beloved Brownies.
I can remember back in 2006, someone asked me if I had to pick one team beating their rival -- Ohio State or the Browns -- which one would it be. I easily answered the Browns. Folks were shocked. Keep in mind, the Buckeyes were the No. 1 team in the country and playing for a berth in the BCS Championship Game, while the Browns were on their way to another non-descript 4-12 season.
My answer was the Browns in 2006, and my answer in 2012 remains the Browns, even though the Buckeyes are playing for an undefeated 12-0 season (their first unbeaten season since the 2002 National Championship team) and an unofficial Big Ten championship (NCAA sanctions prevent Ohio State from playing in either the Big Ten Championship Game or a bowl game this season), while the Browns are heading for another 4-12 season.
My first reason -- my name is "Joe Cleveland," not "Joe Columbus."
Sure, I love the Buckeyes and I hate That Team Up North with every fiber of my being. However, I didn't go to Ohio State. I never lived in the Columbus-area. I have a cousin that goes to Ohio State, but that's about the extent of my family ties to that great university.
Meanwhile, I've lived in Northeast Ohio my entire life. I've loved the Browns since before I could walk. And as much as I love the Browns passionately, I hate the Steelers even more passionately. I used to have a second-favorite NFL team (growing up, it was the 49ers). Now, my second-favorite NFL team is the team that happens to be playing the Steelers. And yes, that even includes those Theiving Modells from Colt-ville.
You don't see many Michigan fans around these parts anymore (most of them donated their Maize and Blue after Jim Tressel came to town and turned the rivalry on its ear. Translation -- most local Michigan fans are frontrunners, and quietly switched sides when Ohio State started winning). Meanwhile, there are Steeler fans all over the place around here (like the local Michigan fans, local Steeler fans are nothing but frontrunners who all were Browns fans during the Bernie Kosar years but switched when the Steelers started winning Super Bowls again and started dominating the Browns).
Local Steeler fans are the most annoying group of fans I've ever witnessed. They talk about the six rings. They sing praises about their rapist quarterback. They wear their Steeler gear everywhere or plaster it on their cars. You usually see them gather at a local sports bar because the Steeler game is blacked out for the Browns game. This is why I quit going to local sports bars to watch the games every Sunday -- it got too damn annoying and I really didn't want to get into any fights.
If the Steelers beat the Browns again, those front-running idiots will be out in full force, waving their little yellow towels and talking about how much their hometown team sucks and how us Browns fans are all idiots. Meanwhile, if Michigan beats the Buckeyes, sure, a couple of frontrunners will suddenly find that Desmond Howard Heisman Trophy shirt from the early 1990s up their attic in mothballs and put it on, but it's on a lesser scale.
My final reason -- Ohio State fans EXPECT to beat Michigan this Saturday. Browns fans HOPE to beat the Steelers this Sunday. There is a difference.
Sure, an Ohio State win and a Browns loss will be a nice consolation prize. There would be nothing worse than both of these teams losing to their most hated rivals within days of each other, so I'll take one over nothing. But, locally, a Browns win would trump a Buckeyes win.
On sports talk, all you'd hear during the week would be Browns fans finally talking trash to their Steeler counterparts. People would wonder if Pat Shurmur was finally turning the corner.
Eric Mangini saved his job in 2009 when his Browns upset the Steelers on a brutally cold Thursday night in Cleveland. A win over the Steelers this Sunday may not be enough for Shurmur. However, that 2009 kicked off four consecutive wins to end the season and propel some optimism (that went away late in 2010 when Mangini's team lost their last four games and he was fired). A win over a Steeler team -- even one that is down to starting their third-string quarterback -- 37-year-old Charlie Batch -- and is so banged up, they brought a 35-year-old Plaxico Burress out of quasi-retirement to play receiver -- would boost the civic pride and may propel this Browns team on a similar streak to end the season.
So, in a perfect world, Joe Cleveland wants to party like it's 1962 -- celebrating a Buckeyes win over Michigan and a Browns win over the Steelers. But, if I had to have just one, I'd choose the Browns 10 times out of 10 times.
And, if an injury-depleted Cavs team can beat LeQuit and the Heat, I'd be a very happy Joe Cleveland on this Thanksgiving weekend. But, let's not get too carried away.
Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!
Throw in the Cavs travelling to Miami to take on LeQuit and his Heat on Saturday night, and you have the makings of a very intense weekend for a Cleveland sports fan.
One notable time you had OSU-Michgan and Browns-Steelers on the same weekend was in 2006.
No. 1 Ohio State hosted No. 2 Michigan in a game for the ages, where Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith improved to 3-0 against That Team Up North with a 316-yard, 4-touchdown performance in a 42-39 victory at Ohio Stadium on Nov. 18.
The following day, the Browns squandered leads of 10-0, 13-3 and 20-10 (in the fourth quarter), as the Steelers scored 21 fourth-quarter points and won, 24-20, at Browns Stadium.
I'm sure it's happened quite a few times in history. And I can't remember when the last time both the Buckeyes and the Browns happened to beat their archrivals in the same weekend (although I'm sure it's happened before). It surely hasn't happened within the last 35 years. On Nov. 25, 1973, the Browns beat the Steelers, 21-16, and Ohio State and Michigan tied 10-10 the day before.
Actually, according to some Joe Cleveland research just now, I did find the last time the Browns and Buckeyes won on the same weekend. On Nov. 24, 1962, Ohio State blanked Michigan, 28-0, at the Horseshoe. The following day, at the old Cleveland Stadium, the Browns handled the Steelers, 35-14, behind a big day from the great Jim Brown. So, it's been a while.
Saturday is the 109th meeting between the two flagship schools in the Big Ten. Michigan leads the series, 58-43-6, although Ohio State has won 9 of the last 11 matchups against That Team Up North (8, if you want to factor in the 2010 game was officially vacated due to NCAA sanctions against the Buckeyes).
Sunday is the 121st meeting between the two oldest franchises in the AFC, including playoffs. The Steelers lead the series, 64-56, and have won 18 of the last 19 games against our beloved Brownies.
I can remember back in 2006, someone asked me if I had to pick one team beating their rival -- Ohio State or the Browns -- which one would it be. I easily answered the Browns. Folks were shocked. Keep in mind, the Buckeyes were the No. 1 team in the country and playing for a berth in the BCS Championship Game, while the Browns were on their way to another non-descript 4-12 season.
My answer was the Browns in 2006, and my answer in 2012 remains the Browns, even though the Buckeyes are playing for an undefeated 12-0 season (their first unbeaten season since the 2002 National Championship team) and an unofficial Big Ten championship (NCAA sanctions prevent Ohio State from playing in either the Big Ten Championship Game or a bowl game this season), while the Browns are heading for another 4-12 season.
My first reason -- my name is "Joe Cleveland," not "Joe Columbus."
Sure, I love the Buckeyes and I hate That Team Up North with every fiber of my being. However, I didn't go to Ohio State. I never lived in the Columbus-area. I have a cousin that goes to Ohio State, but that's about the extent of my family ties to that great university.
Meanwhile, I've lived in Northeast Ohio my entire life. I've loved the Browns since before I could walk. And as much as I love the Browns passionately, I hate the Steelers even more passionately. I used to have a second-favorite NFL team (growing up, it was the 49ers). Now, my second-favorite NFL team is the team that happens to be playing the Steelers. And yes, that even includes those Theiving Modells from Colt-ville.
You don't see many Michigan fans around these parts anymore (most of them donated their Maize and Blue after Jim Tressel came to town and turned the rivalry on its ear. Translation -- most local Michigan fans are frontrunners, and quietly switched sides when Ohio State started winning). Meanwhile, there are Steeler fans all over the place around here (like the local Michigan fans, local Steeler fans are nothing but frontrunners who all were Browns fans during the Bernie Kosar years but switched when the Steelers started winning Super Bowls again and started dominating the Browns).
Local Steeler fans are the most annoying group of fans I've ever witnessed. They talk about the six rings. They sing praises about their rapist quarterback. They wear their Steeler gear everywhere or plaster it on their cars. You usually see them gather at a local sports bar because the Steeler game is blacked out for the Browns game. This is why I quit going to local sports bars to watch the games every Sunday -- it got too damn annoying and I really didn't want to get into any fights.
If the Steelers beat the Browns again, those front-running idiots will be out in full force, waving their little yellow towels and talking about how much their hometown team sucks and how us Browns fans are all idiots. Meanwhile, if Michigan beats the Buckeyes, sure, a couple of frontrunners will suddenly find that Desmond Howard Heisman Trophy shirt from the early 1990s up their attic in mothballs and put it on, but it's on a lesser scale.
My final reason -- Ohio State fans EXPECT to beat Michigan this Saturday. Browns fans HOPE to beat the Steelers this Sunday. There is a difference.
Sure, an Ohio State win and a Browns loss will be a nice consolation prize. There would be nothing worse than both of these teams losing to their most hated rivals within days of each other, so I'll take one over nothing. But, locally, a Browns win would trump a Buckeyes win.
On sports talk, all you'd hear during the week would be Browns fans finally talking trash to their Steeler counterparts. People would wonder if Pat Shurmur was finally turning the corner.
Eric Mangini saved his job in 2009 when his Browns upset the Steelers on a brutally cold Thursday night in Cleveland. A win over the Steelers this Sunday may not be enough for Shurmur. However, that 2009 kicked off four consecutive wins to end the season and propel some optimism (that went away late in 2010 when Mangini's team lost their last four games and he was fired). A win over a Steeler team -- even one that is down to starting their third-string quarterback -- 37-year-old Charlie Batch -- and is so banged up, they brought a 35-year-old Plaxico Burress out of quasi-retirement to play receiver -- would boost the civic pride and may propel this Browns team on a similar streak to end the season.
So, in a perfect world, Joe Cleveland wants to party like it's 1962 -- celebrating a Buckeyes win over Michigan and a Browns win over the Steelers. But, if I had to have just one, I'd choose the Browns 10 times out of 10 times.
And, if an injury-depleted Cavs team can beat LeQuit and the Heat, I'd be a very happy Joe Cleveland on this Thanksgiving weekend. But, let's not get too carried away.
Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!
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