Springsteen on Broadway

Sometimes it all just makes sense.  That’s the most dominant thought I’ve been contemplating for the last few days following the remarkable, stunning, beautiful show Bruce Springsteen performed at Broadway’s Walter Kerr Theater on Saturday night.  There was clarity achieved, a state of mind deeply contrasted with the usual unsettled mind that had invaded nearly a year ago. 

I can’t tell you exactly how the pieces all fell into place, can’t tell you if they’ll stay there and can’t really say it wasn’t all just a dream.  I do know that for those two plus hours on Saturday night and for the many hours since, life made sense for all the reasons life doesn’t seem to make much sense most of the time these days.  You can fall wherever you want on the political spectrum, I tilt decidedly left, but you can’t help but acknowledge how unsettled each day seems to be.  A candidate who promised to disrupt the Washington D.C. status quo if elected has instead disrupted much of the status quo of the nation.  Nothing seems safe, nothing seems sacred and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to understand who we are, what we’ll do and what we won’t. 

Yet somewhere around 8:15 p.m. on Saturday night, life gelled again and the feeling carried over and into the next day and then the next, dissipating some but resilient enough to keep comfort still.  I imagine with time the mostly jumbled mess will return.  For now, though, I’ll enjoy. 

To say that Springsteen’s performance was a revelation is far too much of an understatement.  It’s probably not even the right word.  Springsteen is a known commodity after all.  But there is still the power to amaze, to educate and, yes, to reveal greater truths, to shake you out of the stupor and haze that envelops. 

I’ll admit, I’m an uber fan, unquestionably.  Another writer once chastised others who tried to establish street cred by tossing out the number of Springsteen shows attended, so I won’t.  Let’s just say that this is a carnival I’ve followed many, many times from the late 1970s.  And while I’ve borne witness to every kind of Springsteen show imaginable, nothing before it and yet everything before it set me up for what’s taking place 5 times a week on Broadway. 

It’s not a spoiler alert to say that Springsteen on Broadway is no rock concert or greatest hits show.  It owes far more to the tradition of great Broadway musicals than one might suspect and yet it’s bent and twisted that typical construct in ways that could influence musical theater for years to come. 

The show is Springsteen’s recent autobiography, Born to Run, come alive in wholly unanticipated ways. In almost linear fashion it follows Springsteen’s rise from a young misfit in Freehold, NJ, molded mostly by the dynamic of a late-in-life discovered mentally ill father and preternaturally cheerful and optimistic mother.  It’s not the usual celebrity biopic arc of a talented kid driven off course by drugs or booze or evil management only to rehabilitate and rise again.  It’s the story that’s far more typical to most everyone’s existence.  You get the sense as he tells the story that Springsteen is as much mystified by not just its roots but its outcome as anyone. 

Threaded through the various soliloquies are roughly 14 or so songs chosen, in the tradition of great musical theater, specifically to advance the larger narrative.  This is not a concert. It’s a drama, it’s a comedy, it’s life and it’s punctuated with the best soundtrack imaginable.  “Growin’ Up,” the lead single from his first album provides the overview of the story but throughout the music, familiar to the hardcore fans but perhaps much less known to the more casual fans, perfectly captured the essence of life that remains mostly a mystery to Springsteen.  There were songs of life, love, sex, hope, dread and daily living.  Playing either his guitar or seated at the piano and accompanied by his wife, Patty Scialfa for two songs, Springsteen coaxed deceptively ornate arrangements from the simplified acoustic set up. 

There wasn’t necessarily any one moment when your jaw just dropped because, frankly, the jaw dropped from the opening words to the closing chords of Born to Run and didn’t fully engage until hours later.  It was a Halley’s Comet kind of night.  You knew you were witnessing something that occurs maybe once in a lifetime and it’s almost impossible to place it into historical context except as an outlier. 

But what is very clear is that this really isn’t a show that Springsteen could have performed at any other time in his life.  Springsteen’s story isn’t completed, certainly.  But the life that’s been lived is full and rich enough to inform whatever chapters remain without disrupting the overarching themes.  The sheer bravery of the performance is likely what I’ll remember most.  Springsteen spent some time talking about the masks one wears in life as a suggestion for a philosophy he adopted long ago, trust the art not the artist.  But the ability to honestly connect requires equal measures of bravery and honesty.  So much of what it takes to be a master performer is the ability to create that credible façade.  That ability is hard earned, indeed only earned, if you’re willing to lay your truth bare for others to see and contemplate for themselves. You wear the mask but sooner or later it just becomes your life. 

That Springsteen recognizes this inherent irony is evident from the outset.  Self-deprecating almost to a fault, he “jokes” at various points about being a person who has written extensively about the working man without ever having held an honest job; about writing about cars while not even having a driver’s license; about running and yearning to be free and now living about 10 minutes from where he grew up. 

The audience, of course, gets the joke while also giving him supreme credit for doing the incredibly hard work of being a gifted observer and journalist, finding the truth in every day life and communicating it in a way that resonates.  If his songs aren’t purely autobiographical, they are well informed by his life and the many that surround him.  To take the little truths and broaden them into something more universal for others to learn their own truths is every bit as honest and hard labor as those that dig the ditches. 

When it’s over, though, you’re left in the same place he is: contemplating the magic and mystery of life.  Why him and how?  Malcolm Gladwell, in his book “Blink,” writes about the ability to create seemingly out of thin air, about not letting your conscious self interfere too much with the internal computer that guides one’s ability to think, judge, and react.  It’s a difficult task for most but leaves you almost gasping for air when you see it in others.   

And that’s where it left me, two hours later, gasping for air.  There were any number of moments when I was left teary-eyed by not just the moment but the collection of moments from all the shows, all the music, all the time, really, that I had invested over the decades. It was life affirming and not because any greater truths were necessarily revealed but because all the truths on which I had relied were confirmed. 

In a particularly poignant moment in a night built on poignancy, Springsteen alludes to the current political strife without naming names.  While acknowledging how unsettling it all is, he sees it as just a dark chapter in a much larger book while then launching into perhaps both his greatest and most underrated song, “Long Walk Home.”  That was the moment I realized that it all made sense.  Days later, it still does.

High Hopes

I suppose one could make the claim that the out of reach theme of the Cleveland Browns, indeed Cleveland Sports, could be High Hopes.  I'm not sure any of the franchises in this town actually dare to reach so far with their dreams.  The Browns seem incompetent by design.  The Cavs were against their head coach before they were for him, again, and the Indians, well, just keep seeing the core of the team that surprised travel elsewhere for market-based wages. 

Then, of course, there's always Bruce Springsteen, not a native son by any means but adopted almost.  Much of his early success outside of New Jersey came in places like Cleveland that always seemed to embrace underdogs.  So in recognition of one consistently high level performer, here's the latest video from Springsteen as he readies his 18th studio album, "High Hopes."  Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving:

Another Masterpiece

Bruce Springsteen has just released his 17^th album and he can't seem to get much love. For reasons of both outsized expectations and abject misunderstanding, a number of critics and fans are at the least unenthusiastic about the release. It's not the first time so many will be on the wrong side of history. It's not as if the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was unopposed.

Wrecking Ball isn't an accomplishment on the level of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, certainly. But in the long and tortured history of art and artists, it's an epic accomplishment that history most assuredly will eventually hail as one of the key pillars in the career of one of America's most accomplished, most respected, most talented rock musician of all time.

I'm not so much interested in reviewing Wrecking Ball on its own merits. There are those better suited to that sort of thing then me. But I am interested in having a conversation about Wrecking Ball and its rightful place in contemporary music.

Given Springsteen's age and iconic status, I rather doubt that this album will receive airplay, if that's even a concept these days. My interaction with terrestrial radio mimics most of the rest of society these days, which is to say that it's not much. It's still the best place for news on the hour and traffic reports when you're stuck bmper to bumper on the interstate, but as an abiding outlet for the discovery of music, it's usefulness has long been supplanted by any number of other options. So airplay as a goal seems so 1982, doesn't it?

Where music is heard and experienced these days is far more a function of social media. But even at that, I don't see the majority of Facebook or Twitter users or whatever equivalent platform someone is using these days giving much buzz to the album. Whatever else Springsteen may be, he's not Adele.

It's way too late for Springsteen to be the next flavor of the month anyway, not that he ever made any effort in that regard. So the album will be experienced if at all by those who deliberately seek it out. And those who seek it out will be prodded often by the reviews they read about it. In that sense, getting the review correct carries a fair amount of responsibility.

Most of the negative reviews focus on the simple: The lyrics and themes seem too familiar, almost cliché. The melodies aren't interesting. The production is boring, strange, weird take your pick. And if I have to hear one more pennywhistle, just shoot me.

In some sense, the lyrics and themes may be familiar but that is because Springsteen, particularly in the last 10-15 years, has become much more familiar. Early in his career he was media shy. During the last two presidential elections, he was everywhere. He gives plenty of interviews where lazy reporters/journalists/entertainers ask the questions he's answered already. If you don't know where Springsteen stands then you deliberately aren't listening.

When Springsteen talks about the distance between the American Dream and the American Reality, we have heard it before. It's what's on his mind. That he would push his art in that direction shouldn't be a surprise. That's what artists should do. In that context it makes the “lyrics and themes” argument silly.

At the same time, what these reviewers consistently have missed is how Springsteen can take those familiar themes and personalize and localize them in a way that he hasn't quite done before. For example, the desperate two-bit criminal in Easy Money may at first blush not seem all that different from the desperate two-bit criminal in Highway 29 from The Ghost of Tom Joad album. But on further review they couldn't be more different.

In Highway 29, there's no sense of that criminal's motivation. In some sense he's a continuation of the theme first developed in Nebraska that there's just a meanness in this world. But you also get the sense that he robbed the bank not out of desperation as much as boredom. He was a thrill seeker who had picked up a girl in a shoe store and off they went.

The criminal in Easy Money is acting out of both desperation and defiance. He didn't just watch but lived the picking of his pockets at the hands of forces he couldn't control and decided to turn the paradigm on its head. He figures “why shouldn't I do what's been do to me?” “Why can't I grab what I need when a banker can gut the financial system and send the economy into a near death spiral and get away in plain sight?” It's a far different question that Springsteen is trying to pose even if the theme seems familiar. Can there be morality in a more honest, direct crime?

That's true, frankly, of every song on Wrecking Ball. I could listen to Jack of All Trades 10,000 times and have my heart broken each and every time. The melody is incredibly simple, yes, and amazingly effective. The narrator expresses the thoughts we've all had at one time or another. Who hasn't said that they would flip burgers if that's the only work left and you had a family to feed? Well, the narrator isn't just faced with the prospect in theory. He walks the street every day in search of work only to come home empty handed to a wife that's growing increasingly worried. What can he do but reassure her that everything will be all right? Can he? Will it?

Springsteen has said that this is his most direct album he's ever written but in typical Springsteen fashion, I suspect that statement has been misinterpreted. On many songs over many albums, Springsteen's point of view can be far more ambiguous. A song like 41 Shots, for example, if written for Wrecking Ball might have taken more of a position then it does. But it's just this gift for ambiguity, of understanding that there are more then just a few points to any story, that's made Springsteen such an effective songwriter for so many years.

While the points of view on each song on Wrecking Ball may be far more direct, they don't lack for nuance. Who exactly is the narrator of Rocky Ground? It could be any number of people—a priest, a parishioner, a man on death row-- and it still works. What about We Are Alive? Are those the ghosts of heroes past, who fought the other wars worth fighting, talking or are they just the thoughts that are in our heads?

I just don't buy the view that Springsteen is mining familiar ground instead of breaking new. Indeed, you don't have to look all that hard to see the new ground broken on this album. That's what makes this such an astonishing accomplishment for a songwriter as prolific as Springsteen. He still has something new to say and something worth saying despite a career that's spanned 45 or so years at this point.

Then there's the argument that as a soundtrack for the Occupy Wall Street movement, the album falls short of capturing the sentiment. This line of thought suffers from a faulty premise or, as we say in the legal business, from facts not in evidence.

On a basic level, three of the songs precede the Occupy Wall Street movement. From that standpoint alone it could hardly be said it's purpose was to give voice to the cacophony emanating from that movement. But I suspect it never occurred to Springsteen to try and give voice to that movement in the first place. Rather, this work is borne out of the same set of circumstances that gave rise to the movement. In that sense, it's at best intended as a companion piece and not a 5,000 foot observation.

Maybe the real problem for certain reviewers is that Springsteen didn't try to give voice to Occupy Wall Street like Dylan and others gave voice to the Viet Nam protest movement. God knows it could have used it. The Occupy Wall Streeters had a real opportunity to create a viable counterpoint to the Tea Party nabobs but blew it out of an abiding sense that there was more virtue in being disorganized. Their message got diffused and derided not because it wasn't valid but because it wasn't coherent. There's a real and palpable frustration still with an economy that is too slow in recovery and a government that is too cynical to act. It's a movement that should have a voice and here's hoping it finds one. But to blame Springsteen for not stepping forward to fill that void or, worse, to assume he has and then fell short, is an unfair burden and clouds the judgment.

At its core, Wrecking Ball is both a product of these times and of all times. When this album is still celebrated decades from now, some enterprising types will dig up some of these old reviews and shake their heads and laugh at the foolishness. Art is often best appreciated in retrospect so there is precedent.

But there's no reason not to enjoy the gift that's here and now, those opinions aside. Wrecking Ball is a gift that will keep on giving even if the jaded among us are too hip to notice.

Bring On Your Wrecking Ball

On Monday evening, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed live on the Jimmy Fallon show.  At age 62, Springsteen still has no idea how to just mail in a performance.  As vital and vibrant as ever, Springsteen showed everyone once again why he's the best that ever was.  The song "Wrecking Ball," which serves as the title track for his next album (available March 6th everywhere), seemed like a throwaway romp when he performed it on the last tour, ostensibly in honor of the tearing down of the Meadowlands.  And yet, with just a few word twists, it serves as an incredibly worthy anchor to what is going to be an epic album.  In context to the rest of the album, the protagonist stands defiant telling all the forces that serve to bring him, us, down to step to the line, take their best shot.  And even when you knock down the structure, the spirit always remains.  A powerful reminder, indeed.  I can't help but see this as the rest of the story to the wide-eyed teen that was running from anything and everything some 37 years ago. Now in his mid to late 50s, having survived the rattle and hum of every day life, he now knows that you can run but you can't hide. There are forces greater then us all that can take you down even when you've tried to do everything right.  And yet, and yet, not even the wrecking ball can tear us down.  Remain resolute, if you think you've got the balls.

Enjoy this video from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and please, please, please buy the album:

Land of the Living

As we approach another sad anniversary of 9/11, it is surely a moment to put aside whatever partisan beliefs you may have and come together, for however briefly, to remember the real heroes of this country, the firefighters, police officers and other first responders of that tragic day.

Here's a tribute to 9/11 as sung by Lucy Kaplansky, called "The Land of the Living":



Here's another great tribute, Bruce Springsteen's The Rising:



And finally, a prayer to our fallen brothers and sisters:



Do something nice for someone today.

The Big Man

The Daily Show - Moment of Zen - Remembering Clarence Clemons
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It was with incredible sadness that the news from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band came down on Saturday evening that Clarence Clemons, the blood brother of all blood brothers, the King of the Universe, had passed away at age 69. Clarence's death followed a week after he suffered a massive stroke.

The thoughts and prayers of millions upon millions have poured in along with every kind of tribute imaginable. But as much as we'd all like to capture the essence of Clarence and bottle it, the truth is that Clarence was never meant to be confined in such small ways.

Clarence never seemed of this Earth in the first place. He once explained that he had no idea where any of his famous sax solos and runs that have dotted so many Springsteen records came from. He'd simply wet the reed on his tenor sax and the moment would take him to a place that us mortals could never comprehend.

But what we could comprehend was the product, so sweet and soulful that it became an integral part of music that has been the soundtrack of our lives. Even as Springsteen toured solo, acoustic there were always calls for the Big Man. And as enjoyable as those solo Springsteen shows were and as memorable as those Seeger Session shows were, it always felt like something was missing. It was. Clarence. Even Springsteen seemed to recognize it, occasionally glancing to the right, perhaps out of sheer habit.

There are any number of Clarence moments to choose from but the two most famous are the soaring, searing solo from Jungleland and the incredible run that turned Born to Run from a great song to the masterpiece it became. The second that solo ended, everyone knew what was next: "one, two, three four..the highway's jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive."

Springsteen and Clarence were always twin sons from different mothers. Along with the late Danny Federici, Max Weinberg, Steven Van Zandt, Roy Bittan and later Nils Lofgren, Springsteen and Clarence formed the greatest rock band of our time. The Rolling Stones and the Beatles were seminal groups, the predecessors really of the E Street Band, but they were so much a product of their time.

The E Street Band, with Clarence as its emotional counterweight, was the essence of all that had come before them and all that would ever come again. The E Street Band will continue in some form but we all know it will never be the same.

It's unfortunate that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has not yet found the time to induct the entire band. It's a long overdue honor and it's sad to think that when it does happen Clarence won't be there to receive the just rewards of a professional life well lived.

In addition to every memorable moment with the E Street Band, Clarence kept active with every kind of guest appearance imaginable with as wide a variety of artists as is imaginable.

There's the latest Lady Gaga song Edge of Glory and the recently released video that was Clarence's last appearance ever. Take a listen and look for the Big Man:



On a more local level, I'll always remember his contributions to the Michael Stanley Band's single best album, Heartland, which was made that much better by Clarence's inclusion on several tracks, including Lover and Stanley's biggest single, He Can't Love You.

Embarrassingly, when MSB filmed the video for that song, some cheesy poser in '80s hair faked the Clarence solos. No one could ever match Clarence's signature sound. I'll post the video only because the sax solo is so good and it's laughable to watch a goofy white guy fake the solo as if he were Clarence:



A passing like this can never really be overcome. We'll accommodate, we'll adjust but we all know that it will never be the same. More's the pity.

So rest in peace, Big Man. You deserve it. And thank you for all the joy you've brought to us all. We could never adequately repay you.

One last moment and the one that is on permanent rotation in the radio in my head: Jungleland, from Hard Rock Calling, Hyde Park, London 2009:

London Calling

A little sports break to bring you some footage from Bruce Springsteen as the release of his new DVD, London Calling: Live in Hyde Park, comes out next week

Bruce Springsteen London Calling Trailer from Columbia Records on Vimeo.

Lingering Items--Born In the USA Edition

As still another off-season Camp Mangini winds it way down, there is a real sense of déjà vu all over again about this Cleveland Browns team.

Let’s see, the Browns haven’t yet landed on a starter at quarterback. That’s got a familiar ring to it. A new offense is being installed. Been there, seen that. A few veterans aren’t happy with their contacts. Yawn. Wake me when something actually happens that’s different.

Actually, despite the painfully familiar tone to the Browns at the moment, there really are fundamental changes taking place underneath. Mangini, for all the paranoia and insecurity he brings to his position, has quickly established himself as the face and voice of the Browns as he tries to deliver to the fans the relative glory days of the late 1980s. True, that may not be saying much given the rather low profile owner Randy Lerner has always taken, but in ways that former coach Romeo Crennel never did, Mangini has positioned himself as the voice of authority on a team that’s needed some solid parenting and not the extended visit it’s had for the last several years from the good time favorite uncle.

It may seem rather high schoolish to have professional ballplayers run laps when they forget the snap count or execute the wrong play. But one of the bigger problems on this team under Crennel was its rather casual approach to the fundamentals. Having eschewed any interest in them it wasn’t much of a surprise that they struggled executing more complex concepts.

A far more interesting development has been Mangini’s unwillingness to name a starting quarterback some 10 weeks before the first preseason game is played. Never having coached either Brady Quinn or Derek Anderson, it’s a pretty understandable posture. Mangini seems to have taken a measured approach to this, indicating over time the starter will essentially reveal himself. It will be based on amorphous concepts like huddle presence as well as the tangible results from the practice and preseason fields.

Nothing earth shattering in any of that, but the thing to keep in mind is that not all competitions are created equally. It’s simply far-fetched to believe that Mangini won’t have or doesn’t have a favorite, even if undeclared, going forward. While Mangini will no doubt keep both Quinn and Anderson dancing in the dark, mainly because Mangini likes others to share his own healthy sense of paranoia, the so-called competition isn’t likely to be evaluated simply on a bald comparison of the two’s results.

Whoever is Mangini’s undeclared favorite will be evaluated in the context of it being his job to lose. The underdog then gets evaluated in terms of whether or not he did enough to unseat the favorite. The distinction between that and an open competition may be subtle but it is significant. More to the point though, it isn’t a bad thing, particularly in the context of these two quarterbacks.

Fans clearly have their favorite so it shouldn’t be a surprise that the coach probably has one as well. Things may be rough, but they’ll just get rougher if a starter doesn’t emerge or if one performs better but the other is chosen starter.

If neither player is able to grab the reigns, then this team has a leadership problem and it will matter little who ultimately gets the start. That would be big trouble and it’s worth noting that the coaching staff seemed to think this could happen by at least floating rumors out there about acquiring another quarterback in the run up to the draft. Maybe that was just a way of making freight trains run through the middle of his quarterbacks heads, but, on the other hand you can’t start a fire without a few sparks.

If one plays better but the other is named starter, then there will be a credibility problem. Think back to the last two pre-seasons. No matter which quarterback you prefer, there’s no question that Quinn looked better in those games. But Rob Chudzinksi had a favorite, and that was the bigger arm of Anderson, and as a result Quinn sat.

That process worked well for one season and was a disaster the next. But beyond all that, it put the players into either a Quinn or an Anderson camp, just one of the dozens of unhealthy developments that emerged under the prior regime.

Mangini has done a decent job of asserting his authority. But that’s the easy part. The hard part will come in exercising it appropriately.

**

Never underestimate the value of public relations professionals within an organization. I can’t help but think, for example, that many of the Browns’ initial missteps in their rollout of the two-headed Mangini/Kokinis hydra could have been avoided had they not just gotten rid of their p.r. staff. Lesson learned, perhaps.

For pure spin, you’d have trouble finding anything more enticing then the announcement a few days ago that the Browns and the Indians were teaming up on a unique partnership to peddle unsold loges at each stadium.

According to various reports, the two teams are offering “fans” the chance to purchase a “Touchdown Package” for $15,000. For that they get the chance to watch the Tribe play St. Louis and Detroit and the Browns play Pittsburgh, both from the relative luxury of a suite. There’s also a more moderate package for $10,000 that includes tickets to watch the Indians play St. Louis and Cincinnati and the Browns play the Packers. It’s their lucky day, for sure, all right.

Having spent some time in the suites at both stadiums, I can definitively tell you that neither lacks for luxury or comfort. While some suite locations are better than others, that’s mostly quibbling. I’m trying to play salesman here, but the loges are a nice way to watch a game. The biggest selling point, perhaps, is that they have dedicated bathrooms. Maybe that was a bigger selling point in the days of Municipal Stadium, but it’s still a pretty good selling point nonetheless.

The question is whether or not you have a spare 10 or 15 grand floating around to take advantage of that privilege. Of course you don’t, even if you’re all day working on the highway laying down some blacktop. But don’t worry; you’re not the fans either team has in mind.

The back story in all of this is that a bad local economy has caused many businesses to feel like they’ve been working at a car wash where all it ever does is rain. It’s forced them to rethink how they spend their entertainment dollars, assuming they have any to spare. With both teams struggling on the field, a business trying to balance budgets against that backdrop makes the decision not to splurge on a loge a little easier. Many businesses right now don’t feel their missing out on entertainment opportunities by not purchasing a full season loge. In truth, if you really want to take a customer to a game, there’s plenty of tickets available right up to game time.

While the two teams are certainly to be applauded for being innovative, undoubtedly they both see this as a stop gap measure. For each team to be financially successful, they need full commitments on their loges before the seasons start. Right now it seems like there ain’t nobody that wants to come down there no more. The ability of the Indians to sell the 43 loges that are unsold this season may not have a direct line relationship to their ability to re-sign Cliff Lee, but it isn’t exactly an indirect line either. Both teams need this kind of revenue to remain competitive.

If there is any good news in this it’s that most other teams are struggling on the same streets with their lights growing dim and their access to ancillary revenue growing slim. It’s hard to get solid figures on where the Indians, for example, stand relative to their peers on this issue, but undoubtedly every team is sitting in that same lonely motel room with only a radio playing as they contemplate their dwindling luxury revenue at the moment. If this maneuver ends up giving both teams a competitive advantage, you can bet other teams in other cities will follow suit.

**

It was interesting that David Stern said earlier this week that he still needed to talk to LeBron James before deciding whether or not to fine him for not shaking hands with the Orlando Magic players after game 6 and for not attending the post-game press conference; interesting because a day later Stern announced he was fining James $25,000 for those transgression.

On the day that fine was announced, James was also named the 19th most powerful celebrity in the recent annual rankings by Forbes magazine. James is on the list not only for his money but his influence. He’s got the money. He can rock all night. In fact, the $25,000 fine represents about .000625% of James’ reported $40,000,000/year income. For perspective, it’s the equivalent of a $46 fine to someone making $75,000/year. In other words, it’s not even a parking ticket. More like a night at the Regal Cinema.

The fact that Stern fined James so quickly after saying he would take his time sure sounds like the amount and announcement was coordinated with James. Stern probably made the point to James that he had to be consistent in approach and James probably said “whatever.”

The question about James’ conduct after the game six loss has received roughly the same media play as President Obama’s speech in Egypt but has been far more passionately presented. Frankly, it’s only an issue because it’s James. Nobody much cares if Wally Szcerbiak does the same thing.

James is the face of the NBA, a position he’s courted through word and deed. It does come with responsibility and my sense is that he recognizes that as well. But after everything James did to will the team to victory, he undoubtedly felt like a dog that had been beaten too much and decided to just walk away.

In the grand scale of misdeeds, this isn’t worth the mention, so I’ll do what pretty much everyone else talking about it should have done and stop.

**

Twenty-five years ago this week, one of life’s seminal albums by life’s seminal artist was released, Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen This album more than any other solidified Springsteen as a cultural icon and treasure that he will forever remain and coincidentally launched the career of Courtney Cox. It leads to this week’s question to ponder: It’s 10 more years burning down the road, is Mangini still leading the Browns?

Lingering Items--Super Bowl Run-up Edition

For the near term, the Cleveland Browns’ next path forward is set. Arguing now about how owner Randy Lerner got there is as futile as trying to understand why Braylon Edwards is more concerned about the stadium’s jumbotron graphics than his pass catching technique. Yet, even with the path charted, it’s still difficult to shake the feeling that a little more deliberation on Lerner’s part may have paid greater dividends. It did for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Mike Tomlin, the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, is in his second year as the head coach. He inherited a good team from former coach Bill Cowher, but if anything that was a disadvantage. The last thing a veteran team that had just reached the pinnacle would seem to want is a wet behind the ears coach. It just reeks of starting over. Yet here the Steelers are, once again, in the Super Bowl.

Meanwhile, the Browns sit as far from the upper echelon of their league as ever. Four years burning down the road and about the only thing that’s changed is the stripe on the side of their game pants. They have a team that isn’t quite old and not quite young either. It is an odd mix of veterans and projects with the kind of unsettled issues that are typical of a 4-12 team. It just begs for starting over. Instead, Lerner decided now is the time for a veteran coach. The contrast couldn’t be more striking.

Lerner was determined from the outset that his next head coach would have NFL head coach experience. When Eric Mangini suddenly became available, he shot to the top of Lerner’s list. Short of throwing up on Lerner’s shoes during the interview, there was little else Mangini could have done to blow the chance to become re-employed quickly even if it was by a team with desperation written all over its face.

This is where it’s still worth while to step back and reconsider the what ifs. Recall that when Cowher retired, the Steelers already had two pretty good coaches-in-waiting within their ranks, Ken Whisenhut, the offensive coordinator, and Russ Grimm, the team’s assistant head coach. Either was the more logical choice. Both were already there, knew the players and had paid their dues. It’s difficult to plan that kind of continuity.

But something happened on the way to the quick coronation of one or the other—the Rooney Rule, so named for the Steelers’ owner, Dan Rooney. With the essentially self-imposed requirement to interview at least one minority, Rooney was forced to be more deliberate and Steelers’ history and reputation will be forever thankful for it.

As even Rooney has acknowledged, Tomlin was a long shot when the hiring process started. Even though Rooney’s interviewing of Ron Rivera, who was the Chicago Bears’ defensive coordinator, satisfied league requirements, Tomlin probably doesn’t get that interview by any team other than Pittsburgh. Rooney wasn’t just satisfying his own sense of fairness, he was doing what an owner with real vision does, measure twice and cut once.

As a result, Rooney discovered in Tomlin, a young coach with a pretty thin resume at the time, someone with that “it” factor. Given a chance to interview in a non-perfunctory setting, Tomlin took the opportunity to wow Rooney and ended up with the job he never thought possible. In the time it’s taken for the Browns to redesign their org chart again, the Steelers are back in the Super Bowl as favorites, again.

**

While we’re taking a measure of what ifs, let’s revisit Mel Tucker, the recently deposed defensive coordinator of the Browns. Sure, Lerner interviewed Tucker for the Browns’ top job, but only because he had to satisfy the Rooney Rule, but it hardly served as a speed bump to slow down the momentum Lerner had created for himself. Having already made up his mind, there was nothing Tucker could have done, , to change Lerner’s mind. Small wonder that Tucker’s interview lasted only about an hour, according to several reports. Contrast that with the all-day interview Lerner supposedly had with Mangini.

This isn’t to suggest that Tucker should have been hired, but rather to underscore how Browns’ fans were again short-changed by a near-sighted owner while that team to the east enjoys the spoils that come from having an owner with his eyes firmly fixed on the bigger picture. Lerner talks about wanting to emulate the great franchises of the league, like the Steelers, and then goes about doing so by violating nearly everything they are about.

Maybe Lerner figured he couldn’t take a risk in really considering someone like Tucker given the state of the franchise. But some would argue, like me for instance, that this was exactly the time he needed to be bold. By being dismissive of Tucker and perfunctory Lerner placed a much higher premium on being quick than on being right and in doing so made a mockery of the Rooney Rule for good measure.

What’s even more instructive about the Tomlin story is that once hired all he did was go about ensuring some level of continuity by making sure defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau stayed put. If nothing else that was Tomlin recognizing the limits of his own experience. All Mangni has done since he’s been hired is push a promising coordinator like Tucker aside and paint over the legends mural in the team’s headquarters. The contrast couldn’t be more striking.

Rooney certainly could have gone with a safe choice in Whisenhut, the coach his team will be facing on Sunday. By all accounts that would have worked out just fine. But what separates a franchise that’s going for its 6th Super Bowl ring from one that hasn’t even been to that dance is an owner that can read the room and one who can’t. When safety was called for, Rooney went bold. When boldness was called for, Lerner went safe.

The popular thought is that none of this will much matter if Mangini ends up being successful. That’s probably right. There isn’t a Browns’ fan around that isn’t already sick of the plethora of false promises and false starts. There isn’t a Browns’ fan around that isn’t aching, just aching, to be proud once again to wear his or her brown and orange jersey in public again. In fact, there isn’t a Browns’ fan around that doesn’t want to see Eric Mangini transform from The Ball Boy to the Mangenius and lift a Super Bowl trophy in the middle of Public Square. And while it’s easy to by cynical about virtually everything Browns’ related these days, somehow it doesn’t feel cynical anymore to think that long before Mangini lifts a Super Bowl trophy to an adoring crowd in Cleveland, Tucker will be doing so on behalf of some other franchise.

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It’s early but there’s already a candidate for my favorite quote of the year and it comes from the imaginative lips of former general manager Phil Savage.

According to a report by Tony Grossi in Thursday’s Plain Dealer, Savage was doing his usual milling about at the Super Bowl saying little and confirming nothing. But what little he did say was exquisite. Without discussing the circumstances of his firing, Savage said: “Nothing surprises anybody in this league. I think I was more surprised that we trade for Shaun Rogers, he has the year that he had and we go 4-12. That’s more surprising to me.”

Talk about Phil being Phil. In just two short sentences he pats himself on the back and again throws his handpicked former head coach under the bus. The other thing it tells me is that Savage never did understand the fan base of the team he oversaw. I feel relatively confident in saying that the fans’ reaction to the 4-12 season was well beyond mere surprise. But then again, neither empathy nor insight were ever traits that Savage much demonstrated anyway.

For those teams out there looking to hire Savage, watch out. Under that “aw shucks” persona resides a closet narcissist with an outsized ego and a strong self-preservation instinct. If anyone could gain perspective from sitting out a year or two, it would be Savage. Fortunately for him he’s in a position to do just that given how much of Lerner’s money that now resides in his bank account.

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With Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band scheduled to appear at halftime of Sunday’s Super Bowl, this week’s question to ponder: “Why isn’t a Cleveland date on Springsteen’s newly announced tour?”