Good Piece
Got this piece online. Good Stuff. I have trouble even writing about the organization at this point. I loathe them.
If one thing has become very clear during his
relatively short reign as owner of the Cleveland
Browns, it is that Randy Lerner is a man of action.
The Cleveland Browns, a once-storied franchise,
entered the seventh year of their new era with high
expectations. Perhaps fans were too enthusiastic after
the team's free agent spending spree, but the team did
little to discourage such excitement.
Other owners might have been happy with the
well-received off-season, but not Randy Lerner.
When the team began to show late in the exhibition
season that it was likely headed for another
disappointing season, and proved it by sinking quickly
to the bottom of the AFC North, Lerner leapt into
action...
...and bought a soccer team.
It's a smart move. The Aston Villa fans are used to
futility, and Lerner is now an owner in a league where
he can simply throw his family's money at a team and
purchase improvement.
Why put up with the irritation of dealing with unhappy
Cleveland Browns fans when one can be lionized in the
Isles?
* * *
The Cleveland Browns are rudderless, adrift. They are
wandering aimlessly in the world of football and in
the world of business.
The franchise started over in 1999 with incredible
assets. They had a motherlode of draft picks, no dead
money eating up their salary cap, the excitement of a
brand new stadium provided by taxpayers, and the good
will which goes with representing hundreds of
thousands of people who had been unfairly screwed in
1995.
They blew it all, save for one last thing.
The franchise also had in place a nationwide network
of the most loyal sports fans anywhere. Those people
are still there, but they're wavering.
These are fans who had been through forty years of
Super Bowl futility. They had been through Fumbles and
Drives. They had been through being stabbed in the
back, a force-fed hiatus, PSLs, high prices, sterile
stadiums, Big Money, Carmen Policy, Dwight Clark,
Quiet Storms, and still kept coming back for more.
Now, though, that asset is disappearing. The team's
owner needs to act, if only to sell tickets and
stadium loges to an increasingly skeptical market.
* * *
Randy Lerner seems like a decent enough guy.
He's done a couple of things I really like. Lerner
clearly wants the team to bind itself to its proud
tradition and has worked to bring alumni back into the
organization. These are two things I begged him to do
in an open letter a couple of years ago.
People who knew Lerner personally wrote me after that,
telling me that he truly cares about the organization
and the fans.
The Browns organization creates some good will by
supporting some genuinely good causes in the
community, which almost makes one forget the giant
sucking sound of dollars being vacuumed out of the
wallets of fans and taxpayers.
The question is whether or not Lerner will be an
effective leader for this franchise into the future,
and that seems to be very much in doubt. Browns fans
are already openly cynical of the value he provides,
labeling him "Jammies" due to the well-publicized
story of the Browns pajamas he wore as a child.
The fans' first serious look at Lerner as an executive
was last December. Hopefully it will not serve as a
defining moment in his tenure as owner.
Due to disagreements which have never truly been
spelled out, Team President John Collins apparently
convinced Lerner that the Browns needed to fire
general manager Phil Savage after only one year on the
job. Lerner reportedly agreed, and the organization
prepared itself to dispense with the person who
appears to be the first halfway-decent judge of talent
they've employed in over a decade.
Similar to his father's relationship with Carmen
Policy, the younger Lerner seemingly allowed a
smooth-talking executive to attach himself to the
owner like a Remora, and appeared to have bought into
Collins' attempt at a power play. Only the massive
outpouring of anger by Browns fans, a large number of
whom reside on this site, saved the organization from
shooting itself in the foot.
When it came time to replace Collins, Lerner appointed
himself.
And now we have a second time where we have to
question Lerner's decision-making.
One has to wonder who is running the organization
while the team's owner and president bones up on
soccer.
Either Collins didn't actually do any work, or Lerner
has delegated responsibility to unknown people in the
organization, or things simply aren't getting done.
Based on what I'm seeing, it's the latter.
* * *
Romeo Crennel doesn't believe in his players.
That sounds harsh, but it's evident in the way the
team plays.
Crennel plays to keep games close. The offensive
strategy is focused on not making mistakes. It's
careful, running between the tackles whether the back
is making yards or not. Potentially talented rookies
are left on the sideline or on the inactive list,
where they can't make mistakes and make things worse.
His defense rarely gambles, keeping the ball in front
of them and playing a lengthy game of "bend but don't
break". The cornerbacks play off the receivers,
allowing short reception after short reception.
It's sixty minutes of playing not to lose, but losing
anyway. It's what you do if you don't think you've got
enough talent to run someone over. The team doesn't
get blown out, but it never comes alive, either.
One can hardly blame the veteran defensive
coordinator. He comes from a team that had let him
develop a nice collection of jewelry. In New England,
Crennel worked with Tom Brady, Tedy Bruschi, Troy
Brown, and that whole gang. In Cleveland, Crennel had
Trent Dilfer, Ben Taylor, Frisman Jackson, and that
whole gang.
So, Crennel understandably plays it close to the vest,
but it's the wrong strategy for the Browns. He's the
wrong coach for a team with a decade-long record of
despair.
If we could rewind to 1999, he might have been the
perfect coach, a calm teacher who never gets too
upset. If we could allow him five years to patiently
change the environment, Crennel might be the right guy
for a young team. But this is Cleveland, and things
have decayed too far. The team needs a coach that will
allow those who can flourish to run free and suffer
the shocks of youthful inexperience. The lid needs to
be lifted off of the offense and defense.
There may be some games where we lose by three
touchdowns, but it will be worth it if we find ten
players who can lead the team in 2007 and beyond.
Travis Wilson needs to play. Jerome Harrison needs to
play. Leon Williams needs to play. Isaac Sowells needs
to play. Josh Cribbs needs to play.
If nothing else, the games themselves have to become
less of a stultifying exercise in dull football. That
needs to happen fast, because the Browns are losing a
generation of fans.
An experienced businessman should be able to see this.
Randy Lerner should be able to see this.
* * *
There are two things that Randy Lerner needs to do,
and neither of them involve firing Mo Carthon or Romeo
Crennel.
The first thing that Randy Lerner needs to do is hire
an experienced football executive. He needs some gray
hair and some vision on the football side of the
organization, and he needs it yesterday.
The Browns exist from week to week, month to month,
year to year, without anything but what seems to be
tactical planning.
Phil Savage is general manager of the team, but he
needs help. Savage is inexperienced in his current
role, and there have been whispers for the past two
years that there are holes in his game.
Savage loves the personnel side of the business. He
loves scouting and finding players, and he seems to be
pretty darn good at it.
A lead football executive needs to be more than that,
however. There needs to be a vision for what type of
team this will become, and that needs to be reflected
in both the personnel group and the coaching staff.
Savage and Crennel seem disconnected. Players are
acquired that the coach doesn't want to use, and the
general manager seems mystified at times by Crennel's
disinterest in upgrading parts of his roster. This is
most obvious in Crennel's lack of concern over the
backup quarterback situation and the way Savage spent
a valuable third-round pick on a receiver who is
spending every Sunday afternoon catching up on Sudoku.
If Crennel, Carthon, or Savage need to be fired, it is
that executive who needs to make that decision, not
Randy Lerner. Phil Savage needs to mature into taking
over that executives role within the next three to
five years, but he's not there now.
The second thing that Randy Lerner needs to do is step
down as the Browns team president.
The Browns are bleeding fans and appear to have not
the slightest clue in how to retain them and spark
interest in the franchise again. The business side of
the organization seems to have forgotten their
ultimate customers: fans.
Without fans, National City Bank doesn't care about
the Browns. Without fans, Dick's Sporting Goods is
looking for other ways to find people to buy
recreational gear. Fans are the ultimate currency in
professional sports, and the Browns are not alone in
forgetting their importance.
But it needs to change, and now.
If prices need to be cut to keep the seats filled, cut
them. If the gameday experience needs to be less
marketing and more partying, make it happen. If trying
to play media mogul is backfiring, get out of that
business. If the media despises the way the team
restricts information, loosen it up.
The Browns need a Team President with a willingness to
compromise in the long-term interest of the team and a
dedicated focus on customers.
This isn't rocket science. It's just business - the
entertainment business. Somewhere along the line,
that's been forgotten.
* * *
The most effective owners set up an organization,
establish guiding principles for that organization to
live by, get the best people to run the business, and
let them do their jobs. They make changes only when
the business isn't working.
Randy Lerner can either make the changes that need to
be made, or tinker around the edges, making permanent
what was supposed to be a temporary approach adopted
early in 2006.
Watch the newspapers. Keep an eye on the internet.
I think we're about to learn who Randy Lerner really
is.
If one thing has become very clear during his
relatively short reign as owner of the Cleveland
Browns, it is that Randy Lerner is a man of action.
The Cleveland Browns, a once-storied franchise,
entered the seventh year of their new era with high
expectations. Perhaps fans were too enthusiastic after
the team's free agent spending spree, but the team did
little to discourage such excitement.
Other owners might have been happy with the
well-received off-season, but not Randy Lerner.
When the team began to show late in the exhibition
season that it was likely headed for another
disappointing season, and proved it by sinking quickly
to the bottom of the AFC North, Lerner leapt into
action...
...and bought a soccer team.
It's a smart move. The Aston Villa fans are used to
futility, and Lerner is now an owner in a league where
he can simply throw his family's money at a team and
purchase improvement.
Why put up with the irritation of dealing with unhappy
Cleveland Browns fans when one can be lionized in the
Isles?
* * *
The Cleveland Browns are rudderless, adrift. They are
wandering aimlessly in the world of football and in
the world of business.
The franchise started over in 1999 with incredible
assets. They had a motherlode of draft picks, no dead
money eating up their salary cap, the excitement of a
brand new stadium provided by taxpayers, and the good
will which goes with representing hundreds of
thousands of people who had been unfairly screwed in
1995.
They blew it all, save for one last thing.
The franchise also had in place a nationwide network
of the most loyal sports fans anywhere. Those people
are still there, but they're wavering.
These are fans who had been through forty years of
Super Bowl futility. They had been through Fumbles and
Drives. They had been through being stabbed in the
back, a force-fed hiatus, PSLs, high prices, sterile
stadiums, Big Money, Carmen Policy, Dwight Clark,
Quiet Storms, and still kept coming back for more.
Now, though, that asset is disappearing. The team's
owner needs to act, if only to sell tickets and
stadium loges to an increasingly skeptical market.
* * *
Randy Lerner seems like a decent enough guy.
He's done a couple of things I really like. Lerner
clearly wants the team to bind itself to its proud
tradition and has worked to bring alumni back into the
organization. These are two things I begged him to do
in an open letter a couple of years ago.
People who knew Lerner personally wrote me after that,
telling me that he truly cares about the organization
and the fans.
The Browns organization creates some good will by
supporting some genuinely good causes in the
community, which almost makes one forget the giant
sucking sound of dollars being vacuumed out of the
wallets of fans and taxpayers.
The question is whether or not Lerner will be an
effective leader for this franchise into the future,
and that seems to be very much in doubt. Browns fans
are already openly cynical of the value he provides,
labeling him "Jammies" due to the well-publicized
story of the Browns pajamas he wore as a child.
The fans' first serious look at Lerner as an executive
was last December. Hopefully it will not serve as a
defining moment in his tenure as owner.
Due to disagreements which have never truly been
spelled out, Team President John Collins apparently
convinced Lerner that the Browns needed to fire
general manager Phil Savage after only one year on the
job. Lerner reportedly agreed, and the organization
prepared itself to dispense with the person who
appears to be the first halfway-decent judge of talent
they've employed in over a decade.
Similar to his father's relationship with Carmen
Policy, the younger Lerner seemingly allowed a
smooth-talking executive to attach himself to the
owner like a Remora, and appeared to have bought into
Collins' attempt at a power play. Only the massive
outpouring of anger by Browns fans, a large number of
whom reside on this site, saved the organization from
shooting itself in the foot.
When it came time to replace Collins, Lerner appointed
himself.
And now we have a second time where we have to
question Lerner's decision-making.
One has to wonder who is running the organization
while the team's owner and president bones up on
soccer.
Either Collins didn't actually do any work, or Lerner
has delegated responsibility to unknown people in the
organization, or things simply aren't getting done.
Based on what I'm seeing, it's the latter.
* * *
Romeo Crennel doesn't believe in his players.
That sounds harsh, but it's evident in the way the
team plays.
Crennel plays to keep games close. The offensive
strategy is focused on not making mistakes. It's
careful, running between the tackles whether the back
is making yards or not. Potentially talented rookies
are left on the sideline or on the inactive list,
where they can't make mistakes and make things worse.
His defense rarely gambles, keeping the ball in front
of them and playing a lengthy game of "bend but don't
break". The cornerbacks play off the receivers,
allowing short reception after short reception.
It's sixty minutes of playing not to lose, but losing
anyway. It's what you do if you don't think you've got
enough talent to run someone over. The team doesn't
get blown out, but it never comes alive, either.
One can hardly blame the veteran defensive
coordinator. He comes from a team that had let him
develop a nice collection of jewelry. In New England,
Crennel worked with Tom Brady, Tedy Bruschi, Troy
Brown, and that whole gang. In Cleveland, Crennel had
Trent Dilfer, Ben Taylor, Frisman Jackson, and that
whole gang.
So, Crennel understandably plays it close to the vest,
but it's the wrong strategy for the Browns. He's the
wrong coach for a team with a decade-long record of
despair.
If we could rewind to 1999, he might have been the
perfect coach, a calm teacher who never gets too
upset. If we could allow him five years to patiently
change the environment, Crennel might be the right guy
for a young team. But this is Cleveland, and things
have decayed too far. The team needs a coach that will
allow those who can flourish to run free and suffer
the shocks of youthful inexperience. The lid needs to
be lifted off of the offense and defense.
There may be some games where we lose by three
touchdowns, but it will be worth it if we find ten
players who can lead the team in 2007 and beyond.
Travis Wilson needs to play. Jerome Harrison needs to
play. Leon Williams needs to play. Isaac Sowells needs
to play. Josh Cribbs needs to play.
If nothing else, the games themselves have to become
less of a stultifying exercise in dull football. That
needs to happen fast, because the Browns are losing a
generation of fans.
An experienced businessman should be able to see this.
Randy Lerner should be able to see this.
* * *
There are two things that Randy Lerner needs to do,
and neither of them involve firing Mo Carthon or Romeo
Crennel.
The first thing that Randy Lerner needs to do is hire
an experienced football executive. He needs some gray
hair and some vision on the football side of the
organization, and he needs it yesterday.
The Browns exist from week to week, month to month,
year to year, without anything but what seems to be
tactical planning.
Phil Savage is general manager of the team, but he
needs help. Savage is inexperienced in his current
role, and there have been whispers for the past two
years that there are holes in his game.
Savage loves the personnel side of the business. He
loves scouting and finding players, and he seems to be
pretty darn good at it.
A lead football executive needs to be more than that,
however. There needs to be a vision for what type of
team this will become, and that needs to be reflected
in both the personnel group and the coaching staff.
Savage and Crennel seem disconnected. Players are
acquired that the coach doesn't want to use, and the
general manager seems mystified at times by Crennel's
disinterest in upgrading parts of his roster. This is
most obvious in Crennel's lack of concern over the
backup quarterback situation and the way Savage spent
a valuable third-round pick on a receiver who is
spending every Sunday afternoon catching up on Sudoku.
If Crennel, Carthon, or Savage need to be fired, it is
that executive who needs to make that decision, not
Randy Lerner. Phil Savage needs to mature into taking
over that executives role within the next three to
five years, but he's not there now.
The second thing that Randy Lerner needs to do is step
down as the Browns team president.
The Browns are bleeding fans and appear to have not
the slightest clue in how to retain them and spark
interest in the franchise again. The business side of
the organization seems to have forgotten their
ultimate customers: fans.
Without fans, National City Bank doesn't care about
the Browns. Without fans, Dick's Sporting Goods is
looking for other ways to find people to buy
recreational gear. Fans are the ultimate currency in
professional sports, and the Browns are not alone in
forgetting their importance.
But it needs to change, and now.
If prices need to be cut to keep the seats filled, cut
them. If the gameday experience needs to be less
marketing and more partying, make it happen. If trying
to play media mogul is backfiring, get out of that
business. If the media despises the way the team
restricts information, loosen it up.
The Browns need a Team President with a willingness to
compromise in the long-term interest of the team and a
dedicated focus on customers.
This isn't rocket science. It's just business - the
entertainment business. Somewhere along the line,
that's been forgotten.
* * *
The most effective owners set up an organization,
establish guiding principles for that organization to
live by, get the best people to run the business, and
let them do their jobs. They make changes only when
the business isn't working.
Randy Lerner can either make the changes that need to
be made, or tinker around the edges, making permanent
what was supposed to be a temporary approach adopted
early in 2006.
Watch the newspapers. Keep an eye on the internet.
I think we're about to learn who Randy Lerner really
is.
posted by Granola at 11:22 AM
7 comments
