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| We could have been stardust, Randy. |
People often define organizational
failure as coming from the top down. The expression "shit rolls
downhill" isn't a part of the American vernacular just because, you know,
it sounds sporty or something.
The Cleveland Browns are more like
a tree - a tall, stout oak that has been standing for a century but over the last decade has shown
gradual signs of sickness, an irrevocable rot that's slowly killing the once-proud
sentinel. The illness is buried in the roots, and sometimes the
only cure is to rip the tree from the ground and plant anew.
Shaky metaphors aside, this is
pretty much how I feel about the Browns' impending sale to Tennessee businessman Jimmy Haslam. The
Browns are a franchise that has been steadily decaying for the last decade. The
root of that putrefaction has been Randy Lerner.
I don't have anything against the
man personally, but I have come to greatly dislike the organization as helmed
by Lerner since his father's death in 2002. A directionless, incompetently run,
darkly comic joke of a franchise that is the official laughingstock of the
NFL now that the Detroit Lions are a playoff team.
Granted, it's not like Lerner started the self-sustaining tire fire this is
the Browns. He did not hire Carmen Policy and Dwight Clark. However, most every
move Lerner has made during his tenure has thrown gas on the blaze, turning the
Browns into a conflagration of disorder and organizational chaos filled with
draft busts and off-the-field craziness.
It's not all Lerner's fault, of
course, but the lack of accountability surrounding the Browns is a weight that
has to fall squarely on the billionaire businessman's shoulders. It was evident
Lerner could not handle the day-to-day strain of helming an NFL franchise, and
was merely keeping the Browns out of respect to his father's legacy.
The Mike Holmgren hire was perhaps
the biggest signal that Lerner preferred to stay in the background. Drafts
appear to be better under Holmgren and new GM Tom Heckert, leaving Browns
faithful with worries that a new owner means another round of wholesale changes
for a team that has been anything but stable since 1999.
The timing of the sale, admittedly,
is not ideal. There's a very good chance that Holmgren and Coach Pat Shurmur could
be gone once Haslam gets here. The young Browns are going to be hard-pressed to
win six games this season. What will it take to keep Shurmur from getting
deep-sixed? If the Browns go 6-10 and yet show progress on offense, will that
be enough to keep him on the sidelines? Would a new team president and new
coach mean a new offensive philosophy shunting aside the one that was only just
implemented?
These are serious questions, but
they're also short-sighted. Some scant hope that the Browns are moving in the
right direction is far removed from actually seeing progress on the field. All
we have right now is hope for a regime that has won nine games over the past
couple of seasons. What exactly are we trying to save here if Haslam wants to
plug in a couple of his own people?
We all want the Browns to have the
stability the Steelers have enjoyed for decades. That was not going to happen
under Lerner's ownership. Holmgren would have been gone in two or three years
and, new owner or not, a bad season will end Shurmur's reign regardless of who
is signing the checks.
Little is known about how Haslam
will be as an owner. He may stalk the sidelines like Jerry Jones or take a page
from his minority ownership with the Steelers and offer a more conservative
approach. He's a 60-year-old man who calls himself "Jimmy" (which
reminds me of the foul-mouthed Houston Astros executives from "Seinfeld" every time I hear it) and seems
the type of blue-jeans clad, good old boy Southern multi-millionaire who flips
the burgers at BBQs himself and will match you beer for beer in the process. Haslam could be a great owner with pockets as
deep as Randy's but with a football acumen far greater than the reluctant
introvert we've seen flitting in and out of Berea over the last decade.
The Browns are an organization in
need of down-at-the-roots change. No more snipping branches here and there
praying something better will emerge. Ten seasons with 10 losses or more, not a
single playoff game at Cleveland Browns Stadium, constant instability and off-the-field
chaos: These are the unfortunate legacies left behind by the Lerners, Randy
included. It's past time for someone else to get a shot at growing a franchise
that was once so strong.