1) The 2012 season is turning into Mangini Redux. Everyone remembers the story. It’s when a coach in town isn’t really popular, but he’s the coach as a new regime takes over. After a poor start, he starts winning late in the season. And it starts with a win over Pittsburgh and includea a win over Oakland. For Mangini, that win led to four wins in a row to end the season, four wins that saved his job for another year. This season, Pat Shurmur’s Browns beat Pittsburgh and that has led to three wins in a row, one over Oakland. With three games left -- three tough games -- Shurmur’s climb to entice new management to keep his job remains steep, but it’s there. He gets a break right off the bat as Robert Griffin III may not play for Washington on Sunday. It’s possible Denver and Pittsburgh may have nothing at stake in the final two games. If Shurmur pulls off these three wins and gets the Browns to an 8-8 finish after an 0-5 start, he’ll have made a far stronger statement to keep his job than Mangini ever made.
2) Shurmur has steadfastly refused to focus on his future, but there is no question it’s uncertain. New owner Jimmy Haslam and CEO Joe Banner will be more involved, and the word is that GM Tom Heckert is viewed a little more favorably than the coach. But if he wins two-of-three or three-of-three, and if the Browns end well after that miserable start, then Shurmur might pull a major Houdini and keep his job.
3) As for Heckert, keep this in mind: Joe Banner is not a football guy. He’s a business guy. Folks in Philadelphia seem to enjoy poking fun at the fact that Banner believes he is a football guy. He’s not. Mike Holmgren was a football guy hired to be a president. Banner is a CEO who wants to be involved in football. If Heckert stays, he will have to accept the fact that Banner will act like a football guy. He’ll ask about players, question decisions, wonder about play calls and be involved in the draft. Heckert will have to deal with that even if he gets final say over personnel. The question becomes this then: With other jobs available and open (Carolina, perhaps San Diego), will Heckert want to stay in Cleveland and work with an active CEO involving himself in football, or will he prefer to work elsewhere where he might have a little more autonomy?
4) I get the sense I’m in the minority on this one … but is nobody just a little bit surprised that the first major venture from the new ownership is a self-promotional TV show? I mean, the team has given its fans schlock for 13 years, a new guys comes and one of the first things Jimmy Haslam announces is to green-light a fluff TV show produced by his wife’s company. And the first guy in the first scene is the new owner. Now, Haslam has every right to do what he wants, and clearly he has fallen in with the NFL love affair about “inside access,” and how behind the scenes filming takes fans “inside” the team. It doesn’t of course. Because some of it staged, and the stuff that really matters will never be on camera. But rather than make an announcement about the team and discuss the future with the media, he’s hardly seen and instead announces this TV show. It just seems odd.
5) Some have offered that this show helps market the team. Build its “brand.” That kind of thing. Some even said it might convince a free agent to sign with the Browns because the player will see the team is “cool” because it has its TV show. How’s that again? A guy is going to sign with the Browns because the team is showing how footballs are rubbed down before games? Or because it shows how the grounds crew prepares the field? That is going to lure a free agent?
6) Here is what will lure a free agent: Wins. Here’s the second thing that will lure a free agent: Cold. Hard. Cash. The other stuff? Fluff.
7) It’s also a little … let’s say .. disingenuous for Haslam -- who promised to be transparent -- to make himself available for one-on-one interviews to promote this show while at the same time he generally has not spoken with the media about his plans. On the one hand, he has addressed plans by saying everyone will be evaluated after the season, but he’s not exactly been visible except for a postgame appearance following the win over Pittsburgh. Too, Banner has no-commented some reports about Tom Heckert and Michael Lombardi that had substantive news. Yet when it came to doing interviews to promote this show, the owner was readily available. Whether it’s true or not, it clearly looks and sounds like a Sinatra, in that he wants it his way.
8) In some ways there’s nothing wrong with this TV show. I mean, if a guy wants to put his team out there like that that’s up to him. But when it comes to this team it would be nice if they focused on the matter at hand first, and that’s winning games. If the team wins and wins consistently, publicity and shows and marketing will follow naturally. Look at the paid attendance against Kansas City, some 62,400. A TV show didn’t do a lot to fill those empty seats. But if the Browns win, tickets will be hard to come by. It’s just quirky -- a scratch-your-own-back TV show as the first major venture for the new owner.
9) Paul Tagliabue completely cleared Scott Fujita in his ruling on the appeal of the Saints bounty suspension. Which means he was suspended for doing nothing, which he maintained all along. Foolish me, a long time ago a wise individual advised me not to make too big a deal of the bounty suspensions and to ignore the league’s rhetoric. Goodell way over-reached on this one, the individual said. Fujita always said he never contributed to a bounty pool, and now Tagliabue says he didn’t. This does appear to be some serious over-reaching by Goodell. And it does appear I should have trusted the guy I knew I should trust in the first place.
10) The Browns have benefitted in this three-game win streak from facing Pittsburgh’s third-string quarterback and by playing Oakland and Kansas City, two really bad teams. There’s no question it helps. But when a team start 0-5 and then when a team goes 5-3 following, it is doing something right no matter who it’s playing. Shurmur pointed out the Browns have had 72 starts by rookies this season, a league high. Some of those rookies are coming on fast -- Josh Gordon and Mitchell Schwartz come to mind. Others are coming along at a steadier pace. All are gaining experience. It’s been said before but it’s worth repeating: Whoever coaches this team next season will benefit from the grunt work and groundwork laid this season.
