When Art Modell fled for Baltimore with his Cleveland Browns, the NFL's consolation prize was the new Browns, complete with colors, history and Dawg Pound.If the NFL had known what it had created, it might have forced Modell to stay. Because a decade after the Browns were reborn, they remain one of the two or three worst franchises in the NFL, a status reaffirmed on Monday when George Kokinis, the newly hired general manager, was asked to leave 10 months after he was hired.
Why? He hadn't done anything anyway, other than stand by and watch as Eric Mangini, who failed as the New York Jets' coach, traded away impact players or guys with potential for a bundle of mediocre ex-Jets.
But the record speaks for itself.
Since leaving Cleveland, the Baltimore Ravens, formerly the Browns, are 118-107-1 with a Super Bowl title after the 2000 season and four other playoff appearances. Since returning in 1999, Cleveland is 55-112 with two winning seasons out of 10 (soon to be 11) and one playoff appearance.
A lot of this has to do with hiring by reputation.
The late Al Lerner, who was awarded the new Cleveland franchise, got things off on the wrong foot by hiring Carmen Policy to run the team based on his "success'' as president of the 49ers. Policy brought along Dwight Clark, who made "The Catch'' on the receiving end of Joe Montana's throw, as his general manager.
There were a few problems.
Policy, whose roots are in Ohio, is a lawyer turned vintner -- he now has his own winery in California's Napa Valley. His considerable acumen was as an administrator and organizer -- not a football man. Clark was an excellent player whose expertise was NOT running a personnel operation -- call him the Matt Millen of his day without the skill as a broadcaster. They took Tim Couch with their first pick and he proved NOT to be a franchise quarterback, the first of a long line of failures at that position.
Since the Policy/Clark regime, Lerner and now his son Randy have gone for guys who worked for other guys -- Chris Palmer, the first coach, was a Bill Belichick disciple; Butch Davis was a Jimmy Johnson guy and, most recently, they have gone for members of the Belichick and Ozzie Newsome trees (Romeo Crennel and Mangini in the first case, GMs Phil Savage and Kokinis in the second.). The worst part of that is that the originals were both Browns -- Belichick as a (not very good) apprentice coach; Newsome as a Hall of Fame tight end, and later as one of the game's most astute personnel men.
But it's become clear that Lerner doesn't get it -- the principal job as an owner is to find someone good to run the operation and get out of the way. Ernie Accorsi, who was the Browns' GM in the '80s and early '90s and ran the Giants from 1998-2006, is trying to help him.
But Accorsi is not a Mangini guy, and right now, Mangini seems intent on getting rid of playmakers and rebuilding his team with former Jets backups. And Accorsi is happily retired, likes living in New York City and working as a consultant to the league, and wants no part of a full-time GMs job.
In any case, the Browns get No. 32 this week for a 1-7 team.
The others, from the bottom.
Bottom 6
32. Cleveland (1-7)
31. Tampa Bay (0-7)
30. Detroit (1-6): Edging back toward its accustomed spot.
29. St. Louis (1-7): James Butler tried to emulate Dan Orlovsky '08 with a self-inflicted safety. It actually helped the Rams get a win -- the safety saved at least a field goal..
28. Oakland (2-6): Tom Cable has more to worry about than his team.
27. New York Giants (5-3): Every year, someone who started in the top six makes a cameo (they hope) appearance at the bottom. This really should be Kansas City, but off three straight losses ...
Top 6
6 (tie). Dallas (5-2), Philadelphia (5-2): Sometimes teams luck into a Miles Austin, as Dallas has done.
5. Denver (6-1): The loss was coming. The secret is the bounceback. Not easy with Pittsburgh coming in.
4. New England (5-2): Seems like old times.
3. Minnesota (7-1): There's a lot more to this team than that Favre guy. But without him it's maybe 5-3 or 4-4.
2. Indianapolis (7-0): This is why teams don't go unbeaten -- Payton Manning, no TD passes; Joseph Addai, one in a home win over the 49ers. There's a loss or two coming, but Jim Sorgi will get his customary workout the last couple of weeks.
1. New Orleans (7-0): Win the next three: Carolina, at Tampa Bay and at St. Louis. Will finish 14-2. How's that for a limb to climb out on?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
11-05-2009 @ 12:51AM
herb7947 said...
It appears that the Browns can't even get ahead of Tampa Bay in the race for a #1 first round draft pic next spring.
A soon to be former 4 seat PSL season ticket holder.
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11-05-2009 @ 3:40AM
Dvdfrnzwbr said...
Nobody wants to play hard for Cleveland. They can't wait to be traded away. Lets face it this city is depressing.
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11-05-2009 @ 4:32AM
vince said...
I dont think you have to be a football guy to build or run a team. But you do have to recognize talent and put frienships aside. What it appears Mangini is doing from what I read in the story is getting rid of people and installing people he feels would be loyal to him. I've seen this done many times in business and most times it does not work. This is still a relatively new franchise at 10 years. I remember the Tampa Bay when they started in 76 they were terrible for a long time. I dont believe they won a game the first year and really did not gel until well after 10 years. just because this team is named the Browns this is not the Browns with the past history this is a newly formed team with an old name.
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11-05-2009 @ 5:17AM
JERRY said...
Sometimes it is not the front offices fault that a team is terrible. Although I am not siding with the Brown's front office you must look at the problem another way. Most new coaches are taken from other teams where they were coordinators. The team they were once with is winning both on defense and offense. What most people forget is that their is also a head coach who wrote the playbook. So owners think that these coordinators are the people that make the team. These guys are just following a playbook and have the guidance of the head coach to over rule them in play calling. Look at the Dolphans, do you think that coach is smarter than Parcells? The Broncos coach installed the Patriots system. Some men are just good coordinators and others are great coaches. Some men know how to treat the players on a team so they play for the coach. Others are egomaniacs and are just thirsty for power.
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11-05-2009 @ 7:45AM
Mike said...
Warms my heart. I was born and raised in Annapolis, and remember vividly waking up and reading the paper the morning the Colts had snuck out of town. Grew up watching them in the old Memorial Stadium. They were terrible, but they were "our" team. Now, their worse than the original Colts. What goes around, comes around.
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11-05-2009 @ 3:08PM
eddiscgolfer said...
The big difference is the Colts left Baltimore beacause the city didn't support the team. The Browns ALWAYS sold out games, whether in good years or bad. Look at Cleveland, they are STILL selling out the stadium. The only reason Modell's team didn't become the Baltimore Browns, (which is what Modell planned to do), is because of the fans of Cleveland threw such a huge protest that the NFL had no choice but to give us OUR team OUR colors.
11-05-2009 @ 8:08AM
Ken Siemers Sr. said...
Cleveland has always been a big pro football town. As a kid, my Dad took me to the games and the stadium was always filled to the max in spite of the freezing wind that came in off the lake. Now, money and people who have no idea about how the game works are destroying the Browns. Where's the league when you need them to save the Cleveland fans? Or, is it too politically incorrect to step up to the plate and do somthing that helps the entire NFL?
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11-05-2009 @ 8:39AM
HICK said...
Never thought Mangini was a good coach, nor Romeo...but You've hit the nail on the head with the front office/ownership issue.
I would seriously consider removing the lions long before the browns though...At least cleveland spent a few years without a team...Detroit, lets face it; If they haven't done it by now...THEY WILL NEVER GET IT RIGHT.
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11-05-2009 @ 9:52AM
Dennis C. said...
i really feel for the fan's.such a storied franchise has to be subjected to these growing pain's almost continually.the fan's in cleveland are some of the most loyal fan's in the nfl, but are getting sick and tired of constantly having to rebuild the team all of the time.I think that it stem's from the owner not putting the right FOOTBALL PEOPLE in place all the way from the top to the bottom.personally i don't think Mangenious is the answer.Lerner need's to get someone who know's football inside and out, or just sell the team..
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11-05-2009 @ 9:24AM
bundies said...
Randy lerner just proves again, that inheriting daddy's money doesn't instantly make you bright. He more then proved that in the MBNA mess. Charley Crawley had been the founder and CEO. The elder Mr. Lerner provided the money. After 30 years of unstopable growth to become the number 2 issuer of credit cards, the elder Lerner died. Up until this point his policy was I don't care what you do as long as you make money. The new owner "Randy" decided he needed to supervise Cawley's operation and sell the corporate planes. Crawley of course retired, Lerner was forced to sell MBNA to Bank of America after having driven it into the ground. Proof money doesn't make you smart...
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11-05-2009 @ 9:54AM
rlau290541 said...
I still can't figure why the Browns chose Eric Mancini after he couldn't make it with the jets. I guess Richard Kotite was unavailable.
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11-05-2009 @ 10:26AM
papam11 said...
The "Great Mangini", huh? Yeah---right!
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11-05-2009 @ 10:41AM
wlh1923 said...
From accounts I've read it seems like the Coach had hired the GM and was responsible for his firing. Huh? Did I read that right? Coach hiring the GM? That can't be right. Probably explains why everything there is upside down, inside out and backwards in Cleveland. Oh yeah, would the last person to evacuate/flee Cleveland and the state of Ohio shut off the lights?
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11-05-2009 @ 12:27PM
George said...
Mangia-Weenie continues to work his magic. Ha, ha, ha!
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11-05-2009 @ 1:22PM
paulsmic5 said...
A moment of silence for the late Cleveland Browns...........................................Thank you.
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11-05-2009 @ 1:39PM
siglock1 said...
As we have said at work"last one out, turn off the
lights".
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11-05-2009 @ 1:42PM
terrygibb said...
Everyone wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die.....Bad front office management is rampent in the NFL.... we got Danny Boy in DC....what a peach....and everybody was upset about Rush trying to buy the Rams.....hell he would have been a great owner compared with some of these S.O.B.'s that own teams..... and the comish maybe worse than Bud Selig, and he is pretty bad!!!
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11-05-2009 @ 2:28PM
albert said...
This is wrong, as bad as the Browns are, the Redskins are 10 times worse ! MY team the Washington Redskins at # 32 , with no objections.
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11-05-2009 @ 2:42PM
Rick said...
As a fan of the Cleveland Clowns, I agree this team has hit rock bottom. Where are the Three Stooges when you need 'em?
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11-05-2009 @ 4:04PM
grifcon said...
I have been a Cleveland Browns fan my whole life, 42 years, I live in Cincinnati for last 10 and thought they were one of the worst franchises forever, I am ready to convert! Never thought I would say that.
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