Cleveland Browns: Pro Football Disorganization
I listen to quite a bit of sports talk radio (AM 850 WKNR, if you're not familiar). I also read quite a bit about sports. Needless to say, something occurred in the last 24-48 hours that has lit up the sports radio talk shows and the sports blogs.
Basically, the Browns beat reporter for the Plain dealer, Tony Grossi, accidentally posted a tweet that that was meant to be a direct message. This tweet could have been interpreted as insulting to the Browns owner, Randy Lerner. The whole thing is just juvenile. Practically some D-grade, high school drama.
Whether you agree with the tweet Grossi sent or not (and I do), it is a perfect snapshot of how dysfunctional the Browns are anymore. Randy Lerner is a hands off owner. He only seems to hold people accountable when the Browns fans and local sports radio are so tired of whatever regime is in place that he feels like a change is needed. (That, by the way, is an entirely different problem. Whether or not an owner should "listen to the fans" like that is a topic for another post entirely.)
So what does a hands-off owner do? Well, he doesn't run the team himself, he hires someone else to do it. Maybe Mike Holmgren could be a fine team president or CEO - IF he had someone holding him accountable.
Instead, from what I hear on the radio, Holmgren spends most of his time in his current hometown of Seattle. When asked at a recent press conference exactly what his role was, he gave an answer that sounded a lot like "I hire the GM and coach then sit back and collect a paycheck."
So, we have a hands-off owner, and a hands-off team president. Surely that lends itself to a successful franchise. The head coach or the General Manager must be the person who really pulls the strings. Right?
Well, not exactly. Both GM Tom Heckert and Head Coach Pat Shurmur seem to answer to Holmgren, who as I've already stated, is apparently rarely around. Neither is apparently the most comfortable being the face of the franchise, either. Heckert came from Philadelphia, where it was no secret that coach Andy Reid called the shots there. Heckert is clearly not comfortable speaking to the media, as I heard him on the radio about a month ago and when Colt McCoy came up, the pace of his speech quickened noticeably as well as the pitch of his voice got considerably higher also.
Shurmur, also not the best speaker in the world, was a surprise candidate for the head coaching job, apparently landing the gig either because his Uncle worked for Holmgren in Green Bay or because Shurmur and Holmgren share the same agent, Bob LaMonte. Also, as Gregg Rosenthal of Profootballtalk.com pointed out on Twitter (side note: if you are on Twitter to follow sports-related things, follow Gregg - he knows his football, he's very bright, and looks at things from many different angles), Heckert is also represented by LaMonte, as are the two people the Browns are considering as their Offensive Coordinator next year (Brad Childress and Mike Sherman).
Man, just thinking about this whole circus frustrates me. Then I feel apathetic. Then I feel angry because I want to be a fan; I want to love the Browns. But the whole situation makes me want to not care, if that makes any sense.
I won't lie and act like this could be easy to fix. It likely won't be. But in my opinion, it can be easy to run like an actual PROFESSIONAL team.
First, Holmgren needs to go. Negotiate a buyout. Second, give Heckert the power to do what he wants with the draft and with the coaching situation. I feel like he has made enough draft picks that are starters-to-potential-Pro-Bowlers that he probably deserves to stay on (Haden, Ward, Taylor, and Sheard, then potential starters in Hardesty, Lauvao, Little, Skrine, and Pinkston).
I assume he'd probably want to hire his own coach. I'm not going to pretend like I know what the interview process is like when looking for a new head coach (I mean, I'm aware that interviews usually last at minimum a full day, sometimes more, and then another full day or more if you're called back for a second interview). I would think that Heckert would learn as much from a coaching search about himself as he would about the potential coaches.
Ideally, Heckert would interview many candidates, to get a feel for what he really wants in a coach and to obviously figure out who he'd likely work best with. And that's not to say what coach would be a pushover for him. Hopefully he'd pick a coach that is willing to give honest opinions and Heckert would value those opinions, even if he doesn't agree.
Guys I'd like to see interviewed: Mike Zimmer. Mel Tucker. Rob Chudzinski. Russ Grimm. And even a few more, just so there is a large pool for Heckert to choose from. Depending on the coach, you'd have different needs for Offensive and Defensive coordinators.
If you'd get Grimm or Chud, I'd prefer to keep Jauron on as the defensive coordinator, as both of them would be first-time head coaches with offensive backgrounds. They'd probably bring their own guy as an offensive coordinator, someone they've worked with before, even if one of them would want to call the offensive plays. (And yes, a first time coach should still have an offensive coordinator, unlike Shurmur this past year. There I go, getting angry again.)
If Tucker or Zimmer were selected as head coaches, they'd likely bring someone they are familiar with as defensive coordinator since they are also defensive coaches. I'd prefer them to have an experienced offensive coordinator, though. I can't think of any desirable, experienced offensive coordinator's right now (maybe Arians, but not that Sherman or Childress junk). So if I had to think of an "up-and-coming" guy to bring to the party, it would likely be someone from the Green Bay staff (Clements?) or the New Orleans staff (Carmichael?) if they were available, as I appreciate the creativity and the "willingness to do anything" traits those offenses possess.
There. Boom. Done. You have a (somewhat) competent front office-to-coach relationship. The GM picks the coach and the players (obviously with some input on what the coach is looking for). And the coach coaches the players and leans on his coordinators when necessary.
I understand this takes time to build up a good team, but do many people really have faith in the structure that we have now? I know that I sure don't.
Wow. That was longer than anticipated. And to answer any questions, yes, I'm a fan of parenthetical references. I use them a lot (as you can see).
After an hour of writing, fifteen minutes of finding and inserting links, and fifteen minutes of proofreading, I'm off to bed.
