In a manner totally befitting the random, callous way that
the Cleveland Browns operate, Rod Chudzinski was fired after one inglorious
year.
They did it first by dropping the
rumor in the media a few hours before the Browns were scheduled to suffer their
annual year-end beat down at the hands of the Pittsburgh Steelers. They then left Chudzinski dangling at game’s
end by issuing a press release in which they deliberately refused to end the
speculation. They finished the job
sometime after the game, informing Chudzinski Sunday night telling him,
undoubtedly, that the organization was moving in a different direction.
The problem of course is that this organization never moves
in a different direction. If there is
one thing that’s clear, it’s that the Browns are committed to the same losing
path year after year. Occasionally they
change out the tour guide in the misguided hope that the previous one was the
problem. It hasn’t worked yet.
This organization has never been able to honestly look
itself in the mirror and the firing of Chudzinski simply continues that
disturbing pattern.
Chudzinski deserved better and had every reason to think that
when he was hired, he would receive better.
So did the fans.
The suggestion that somehow Jimmy Haslam, the new owner of
the Browns, was going to come in and do something different came with the
implication that different meant better.
Given how low this franchise had sunk, it was almost unthinkable that
different could mean worse. And yet it’s
exactly where things stand after still another miserable, lost season.
Given how many coaches have cycled through this franchise
without the benefit of a decent front office that could identify and secure
talent, Chudzinski’s fate doesn’t surprise.
Nor will it surprise in a year or two when still another coach is fired
and another is hired.
This is the essence of the numbing sameness of the Browns.
When he was vying for the necessary votes to become a NFL
owner, Haslam spent time cozying up with
NFL royalty like Bob Kraft to uncover
the secrets of doing things right. It
was apparently just for show or he just didn’t listen. His first hire, Joe Banner, brought with it
the illusion of credibility when in truth Banner carries himself with all the
personality and darkness of Dick Cheney, but with half the charm.
Banner then went ahead and brought in someone with even less
credibility, Mike Lombardi, to make personnel decisions. Lombardi has always been long on mouth and
short on accomplishment. At least he has
some self-awareness. Recognizing exactly
how little he’s thought of around these parts, Lombardi stayed off the radar
screen, confining his machinations behind the scenes. Just as incompetent, just
not as visible.
Together Banner and Lombardi went through a process, less
exhaustive apparently than advertised, to land on Chudzinski, a decent NFL
lifer waiting to take the next step in his career. Banner and Lombardi flirted with Bill O’Brien
and Chip Kelly but got nowhere. Kelly in
particular seemed to string the Browns along until he could secure a better
offer from a more stable franchise. That
led to Chudzinski’s hiring.
How exactly they went about making the decision to hire
Chudzinski deserves some significant scrutiny in retrospect. It’s hard to imagine why Lombardi and Banner
agreed to hire him in the first place.
What did they think they saw then that turned out to be so incredibly
wrong less than a year later? Maybe more
to the point, given how poorly they botched the last hire, why should anyone,
including Haslam, trust them with that kind of decision again?
This isn’t at all a knock at Chudzinski. Indeed it’s difficult to know exactly what he
does or does not bring to the table given how poorly Lombardi performed his job
this season.
It wasn’t Chudzinski that saddled this team with Brandon
Weeden for another season. It wasn’t
Chudzinski who left only two healthy quarterbacks on the roster once Brian
Hoyer went down. It wasn’t Chudzinski
who traded away Trent Richardson and then left the team without a NFL caliber
running back. Chudzinski didn’t draft Barkevious
Mingo or sign Paul Kruger. Chudzinski
didn’t deliberately decide not to upgrade the secondary, trade this year’s
second and third round picks or keep the team some $24 million under the salary
cap. These land squarely on Lombardi’s lap and, by proxy, Banner’s.
All of these decisions and non-decisions led directly to the
results on the field so naturally it makes sense that Chudzinski would lose his
job. It wouldn’t surprise if Banner and
Lombardi get a raise in the process.
In the context of Lombardi and Banner, the decision to fire
Chudzinski makes sense. It’s the best
way, really, to deflect from their own misdeeds, starting with the flimsy
hiring process they undertook and culminating with the firing they engineered.
What is harder to understand is why Haslam is letting all
this happen. Even Barak Obama thinks
Haslam is having a bad year.
Haslam vowed to be a full time owner and removed himself
from the CEO position of his little family
enterprise, Pilot Flying J truck
stops just to make that point. He bought
a house in Bratenahl. He was going to be
visible. Hardly. In what should now be considered
foreshadowing, Haslam almost immediately pushed aside his new CEO and took back
the reigns. He’s less visible in
Cleveland than LeBron James. Let’s just
say that loyalty isn’t his strong suit.
Then Haslam saw his business engulfed in a major legal
scandal that started with a FBI raid and has thus far resulted in a number of
convictions of former employees. Haslam
has denied any knowledge of the illegal skimming operation but unquestionably
his mostly family owned company benefited from it. Most of this season has been spent by Haslam
paying back customers who were victimized by the skims, navigating dozens of
lawsuits, and doing what he can to make sure he doesn’t end up in front of a
criminal court himself.
All in all, it’s been a pretty distracting year for a rookie
owner. Banner and Lombardi don’t lack
for savvy and the manner in which they’ve hung Chudzinski out to dry as if he’s
the problem shows exactly how they’ve been able to exploit Haslam’s situation to
bolster their own standing within the organization while continuing to keep the
Browns ensconced as the embodiment of franchise malpractice.
Everyone understands that as owner Haslam has every right to
hire and fire anyone he wants. It is
likewise his prerogative to put clowns like Banner and Lombardi in positions of
authority and defer to them. Similarly,
if said clowns have become convinced that Chudzinski isn’t ever going to be
successful as a head coach, then it’s there duty to stop a failed experiment as
soon as possible instead of fiddling for another year as Mike Holmgren did with
Eric Mangini. But it’s hard to fathom
exactly how Banner and Lombardi could become so convinced so quickly that
Chudzinski, the man they hired, was such a mistake just as it’s hard to fathom
how Haslam could so easily sign off on that without holding either of Banner or
Lombardi accountable for that mistake.
Chudzinski wasn’t able to eke out any better results than
any of the other Browns coaches who have come before him but the manner in
which Chudzinski fell out of favor so quickly still stuns. This Browns team was terrible. It lacked both talent and character. I suppose Chudzinski is being held
accountable for the lack of pride with which this team went about its business
this last month or so but, again, who drafted these players? Who constructed the final roster? Chudzinski’s fingerprints aren’t on either of
those.
I guess the Browns are rebooting again but the better
question is why they are even bothering to reboot. That suggests that the systems in place are
fine; they just need to be restarted to get rid of whatever bug was plaguing it
at the moment.
The truth is and has been that the systems are completely
broken and need to be eradicated and replaced.
This franchise doesn’t need a reboot, it needs a complete change. Haslam promised that when he stepped into
Randy Lerner’s ill-fitting shoes and simply hasn’t delivered. What he has delivered is warmed over misfits
like Banner and Lombardi who collectively have botched almost every decision
they’ve faced since they were hired.
This franchise will not be fixed with a new head coach. It won’t be fixed with another mediocre
draft. It won’t be fixed with a few free
agent signings. It won’t be fixed until
someone finally gets fed up and puts an end to the circus.
What we learned this Sunday are two things. First, don’t count on Banner or Lombardi to
save this franchise. They’ve more than
proven that their interests are purely parochial. Survival first, last and always.
Second, we learned today how much in common Browns fans
really do have with the trucking companies suing Pilot Flying J. At the roots of each group’s frustration is
that they put their faith in Jimmy Haslam and walked away feeling as if their
pockets were just picked clean.
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