Cribbs out of the hospital, seems fine

By Sean McClelland | Tuesday, November 17, 2009, 01:35 PM

The only bit of good news to come out of Monday night’s embarrassing 16-0 loss to the Baltimore Ravens appears to be this, as released by the team just now:

“Browns wide receiver Josh Cribbs was taken to the Cleveland Clinic following last night’s game against the Baltimore Ravens for precautionary testing. Those tests were negative and Josh was subsequently released from the hospital early this morning.”

Cribbs was hurt on the last play of the game when the Browns foolishly tried a hook-and-ladder play in hopes of somehow averting a shutout. He was strapped to a backboard and wheeled off as players on both teams prayed.

The whole night was pretty much a disaster, highlighted by ESPN color commentator Ron Jaworski saying this is the worst offense he’s ever seen.

And why in the world was Cribbs, your best player, even on the field for that final snap? Maybe the subject will come up at Eric Mangini’s telephone press conference this afternoon.

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Just another reminder of the futility

By Sean McClelland | Wednesday, November 11, 2009, 05:27 PM

Brady Quinn (yawn) is the starting quarterback again for your favorite football team. He has this going for him: The offense can’t get any worse, and he can’t be any worse, statistically, than Derek Anderson.

Much more interesting today was the release of Don Cockroft’s book called “The 1980 Kardiac Kids — Our Untold Stories … A Season of Destiny … A Moment of Despair … A Lifetime of Memories.”

Cockroft was the placekicker on that team and it was his injury that led to quarterback Brian Sipe’s infamous decision to force a pass to Ozzie Newsome in the waning seconds of a playoff loss to Oakland rather than heave it “to the blonde in the first row,” as then-head coach Sam Rutigliano later would say.

Mike Davis intercepted the wobbly aerial, forever securing “Red Right 88” (the shortened name of the play) a place in Cleveland sports lore.

Ultimately, all the Browns won that year was an AFC Central Division title, and the fact that this warrants a book speaks volumes for how frustrating it’s been to be a Cleveland football fan, with rare exception, since about 1972.

Rutigliano is revered in Cleveland and still pops up on local TV and gets off a good one-liner now and then, but 1980, when the Browns went 11-5, was his only playoff season and the team crashed to earth the next season.

I’m sure Cockroft’s book is full of insights and maybe it will sell a few copies, but it’s not like they went to the Super Bowl, let’s remember. They won a lot of close games in miraculous fashion only to lose in the end when Sipe, the league MVP that season, made a bad decision.

Great season. Enjoyed every minute of it, and as I sat through “Red Right 88” in the sub-zero cold Jan. 4, 1981, I truly thought they would win that game. From my perspective of Row X in the lower deck, it was hard to tell right away if Davis had caught the ball. Eventually, there was no doubt and all that remained was the long, numb walk back to my friend Steve’s Gremlin (he had this annoying habit of parking very far away because he was morally opposed to paying for parking).

Some years ago, Pat McManamon of the Akron Beacon-Journal wrote at length about that play, that game.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t need any more reminders.

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Schottenheimer: Don’t call me

By Sean McClelland | Tuesday, November 3, 2009, 04:59 PM

Just in case you’re thinking how wonderful it would be if Marty “There’s a gleam, men” Schottenheimer stepped in to fix everything, let it be known he has no interest in getting anywhere near the situation. He said as much today on a Sirius NFL radio show.

Host: “We’re going to have some Cleveland Browns fans call and they are going to want pick your brain about whether or not you’d have interest in that sort of thing yourself simply because of the expertise that you have and all the years in the league and your ties with [the Browns] organization. Any interest whatsoever in possibly going to be a consultant for the Browns?”

Marty: “I don’t even see that kind of a role for me. I’m not familiar enough with what they have in terms of their front office. Let somebody else do that. It’s really a very unusual circumstance and it’s going to take some dramatic measures in my mind to be able to get the thing headed in the right direction.

“The bottom line for them right now is they don’t have a real good football team. They’re not playing even to the level that the talent is expressed and it’s going to be a very, very difficult circumstance. The important thing in my view is very simply this: You cannot lose your football team. And dashing around doing all these things that are on the periphery don’t serve any useful purpose at this point in time. You want to resolve issues like this? Let the thing play out, gather information as you go.

“We recognize the decision for them from the standpoint of a playoff berth is virtually impossible for them to achieve. You need to leave some sense of stability at least through this season because players that are there signed to long term contracts are thinking, ‘What in the world is going on here?’ You worry about the reaction of your players and, believe me, let’s not make any mistake about this: That feeling that a player has about his organization is an integral part of their ability to perform at the highest level.”

Earlier today, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported that former Browns GM Ernie Accorsi also said he hasn’t the slightest bit of interest in attempting to resurrect the franchise.

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Another GM crashes and burns

By Sean McClelland | Monday, November 2, 2009, 09:04 PM

The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer first reported early Monday evening that first-year GM George Kokinis had been fired and, in fact, escorted from team headquarters.

At about midnight, the team got around to confirming the reports, although the part about Kokinis being ushered from the building was denied.

So in record time, another front-office figure crashes and burns, joining the likes of Dwight Clark, Pete Garcia and Phil Savage since the Browns returned in 1999.

Team owner Randy Lerner has only himself to blame, of course. He hired Eric Mangini as head coach, thinking it was a coup, then had Mangini pick the general manager, who turned out to be his buddy.

It was a curious management model from the start, the coach essentially picking the GM.

In the end, Kokinis wasn’t here long enough for anyone to determine his worth as a personnel man. Lerner apparently was irked that Kokinis stayed in the background and that he rarely said anything for public consumption. This should hardly come as a surprise, however. When you hire an overbearing coach like Mangini, you can’t imagine his hand-picked personnel lackey thinking he belonged anywhere near the spotlight.

So Mangini’s power is being systematically stripped. The woman who was his “assistant” was recently told to vacate the premises and now Kokinis is sent packing. Meanwhile, the shadow of Bernie Kosar looms as the process of carving out some role for the iconic — and bankrupt — former quarterback apparently moves forward.

There’s even some speculation that Ernie Accorsi, who built the Browns into the team that went to three AFC Championship Games in the late 1980s, might emerge from retirement to keep the chair warm until Kosar is up to speed.

What you have is an organization in constant flux, an organization as dysfunctional as any in the NFL, including the Raiders (whose owner at least knows football even if he’s a bit out of touch with reality).

It all goes back to Lerner. Given a chance to hire a strong personality to run the personnel side, he instead opted to hire the coach, who picked his bobo. Lerner should have known this was a dubious model. Why? Because it didn’t work with Butch Davis, who arrived with the similarly inexperienced Garcia in tow.

At least Lerner appears to be on the case. We know he’s in town, anyway, because he has agreed to meet Tuesday with those two buffoons who are threatening to organize a protest at the Monday night game against the Ravens.

One of those guys, by the way, used to dress up as a container of French Fries during the brief heyday of quarterback Charlie Frye. Wonder if he’ll show up in costume today for the meeting with Lerner. That really would be appropriate given the clown act currently in progress.

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Savage comes out of hiding

By Sean McClelland | Thursday, October 29, 2009, 12:25 AM

Phil Savage apparently just couldn’t take it anymore.

And so the fired general manager of your favorite football team dropped a few morsels on his hometown boys about the sorry state of that football team and how most of the good work he did for four years has been driven asunder by the latest bunch to take up residence in the Berea facility.

In so many words, Savage (who might have violated the terms of the separation agreement that stood to pay him the $12 million remaining on his contract) told a Mobile, Ala., newspaper on Wednesday that the current regime has destroyed not one, but two, quarterbacks and that he takes no pleasure in watching the organization circle the drain.

Savage reportedly said, “You don’t take a lot of solace in watching a place you leave go downhill further. But they took what we did have going there and they just dismantled that even further.

“We left two quarterbacks behind that both seem ruined right now. They traded a lot of players out of there. I feel for the guys we brought in because they’re good players and good people and they’re stuck in a situation and can’t get out for at least the time being.”

Didn’t always agree with everything he did, but Savage does have a point here, I think. What he’s really saying is, “Why did you fire me instead of letting me make a coaching change, continue to build the organization and see where that leads us?”

Looking back, that’s probably what should have happened. Savage never actually got to pick his own head coach, if you’ll recall. Romeo Crennel, while hired a month later, essentially was forced on him by owner Randy Lerner, who desperately grasped for any limb of the Bill Belichick coaching tree he could get his hands on.

Savage, of course, had enough of his own lapses in judgment to bring his competence into question. Using profanily while trading e-mail barbs with a fan was probably the last straw. But when you consider he also put together a team in 2007 that came within a few intercepted Derek Anderson passes of going to the playoffs, maybe he should have been looked upon more as part of the solution than the problem.

A savvy owner might have been able to separate the coach from the general manager and make a better decision, because what’s currently in place obviously isn’t working.

Granted, some of the criticism of Eric Mangini has been over the top. Even a guy writing in Rolling Stone got into the act, calling him the “Hurricane Andrew of football mismanagement.” Then there’s the Akron columnist, who used to work for the Browns, calling for Mangini’s dismissal already.

The last thing this team needs is yet another change in direction. Unless, of course, it involves a new owner.

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‘Hurricane Andrew of … mismanagement’

By Sean McClelland | Tuesday, October 20, 2009, 09:16 PM

Poor Eric Mangini. You fine a guy $1,700 for taking a $3 bottle of water from a hotel without paying for it. You force rookies to take a bus to Connecticut and work your camp.

Your team is 1-5, sporting one of the NFL’s worst records. You just lost your leading tackler, linebacker D’Quell Jackson, for the season with a shoulder injury.

And now you’ve got a writer in Rolling Stone making fun of you.

Doesn’t seem like it could get any worse, but it probably can.

As the Associated Press reported today:

In its latest issue, the iconic music magazine stepped outside its usual arena with a harsh critique of Mangini, comparing him to Augustus Gloop, the fictional overeater in Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and calling his short coaching tenure in Cleveland “a sort of Hurricane Andrew of football mismanagement.”

Mangini, fired by the New York Jets in December, has become a target of abuse — much of it from outside Cleveland — for some of his decisions this season, most notably his handling of the Browns quarterbacks and excessive fines levied on players who break his rules.

The Browns are 1-5 with their only win a 6-3 decision over the Buffalo Bills on Oct. 11. Long before Rolling Stone piled on, Mangini was being slammed for some of his coaching methods. He has fined players for not adhering to his policies — like parking in the wrong spot — and he slapped one unidentified player a $1,701 fine for failing to pay for a $3 bottle of water during a hotel stay. …

Taibbi went as far as saying the Browns have quit on Mangini in lopsided defeats, a charge many of Cleveland’s players dismissed after road losses to Denver and Baltimore.

Taibbi wrote: “In the NFL, if you don’t show your players that you have a plan that works, the T-minus to an on-field player revolt is usually about a month. In Cleveland, we’re there.”

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At least they got something for Edwards

By Sean McClelland | Wednesday, October 7, 2009, 09:57 PM

Thought it was relatively shrewd of the Browns to get what they did from the Jets for receiver Braylon Edwards, especially since they weren’t exactly dealing from a position of strength after his recent off-field incident.

Most appealing is that the third-round draft choice obtained in the deal could become a second-rounder next year if Edwards reaches some performance standards with the Jets, who see him as their No. 1 receiver from the moment he puts on a green-and-white uniform.

Edwards might thrive in New York. He’s savvy enough to deal with the New York media, although for a bright guy he had a habit of saying and doing the wrong thing or, worse, hiding and saying nothing after games. That won’t sit well with the bloodhounds in the Big Apple.

Best advice for Braylon: Catch more than you drop. Whatever else goes on, the fans will love you if that happens.

ARE THE BROWNS better off without Edwards? It’s hard to make that case, at least for this season. WR Chansi Stuckey looks like he’ll have a career in the league and the other player obtained in the deal, LB Jason Trusnik, is a special teams demon.

But to think the Browns are better off without the third player chosen in the 2005 draft strikes me as a bit of a stretch.

Was Edwards a distraction at times? Sure. But the best reason to trade him is why Cleveland teams trade anyone: He didn’t want to be there and would have left on his own when his contract expired at the end of the season.

SO THE REBUILDING continues, and so does the shedding of Phil Savage-era draft picks. Here’s who’s left from Savage’s drafts:

2005: Brodney Pool (2nd round), starting safety.

2006: Kamerion Wimbley (1st round), starting outside linebacker/alleged pass rusher; D’Quell Jackson (2nd round), starting inside linebacker; Jerome Harrison (5th round), running back; Lawrence Vickers (6th round), fullback.

2007: Joe Thomas (1st round), left tackle; Brady Quinn (1st round), deposed quarterback; Eric Wright (2nd round), starting cornerback; Brandon McDonald (5th round), cornerback.

2008: Ahtyba Rubin (6th round), DT; Alex Hall (7th round), linebacker.

That’s about five solid starters from four drafts. Could be better. Could be worse. It’s just too bad Edwards, the one with the highest profile, could not have enjoyed his time in Cleveland more.

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