This guy is on the payroll, and that's part of the problem with the Browns

If you have a minute and you care deeply about the Cleveland Browns, read this.

If not, save yourself the time and point your browser in another direction.

Lately, whenever I think about my team - the Cleveland Browns - I get a splitting headache.  Usually it takes sleep to grapple away the pain.  Sometimes maybe some Jack.  Motrin does nothing.

Why is it that all the blue-collar fans always seem to know the simple answer to the problems, while the out-of-towners jump around the issues and point fingers at the coaches?  Art Modell (born in Brooklyn) blamed Bill Belichick, who is fast staking his claim as becoming one of the best coaches in NFL history, and Randy Lerner (also born in Brooklyn) is currently deflecting blame toward Romeo Crennel.

Why Crennel is under fire, I haven't the slightest idea.  Sources with inside information have in recent days told ESPN that the Browns need a miracle finish this season in order for Crennel's job as head coach to remain safe.  Otherwise ... he's gone.

What?

So basically the Browns would have to win out, finishing at 8-8.  They'd have to first beat the Titans (on the road), then beat the Eagles (on the road), then beat the Bengals and then somehow beat the Steelers (on the road) in order to achieve a .500 record.  Oh yeah, and they'd have to accomplish this eye-opening feat with third stringer Ken Dorsey under center.  This guy was only kept around on the team to help mentor Brady Quinn and he has thrown a whopping three of the team's 375 pass attempts all year.  Good luck on that one, Romeo.  Looks like the cards are stacked against you.

As much as I am not that big a fan of Crennel - and as much as I'd like to see Bill Cowher or Marty Schottenheimer coach this team - I have to sympathize with the guy on this one.

Sure, Crennel isn't too savvy when it comes to the offensive side of the ball, but isn't that Rob Chudzinski's job?  Crennel has made a living with his defensive mindset and his ability to manage people.  Even though the Browns pay Mel Tucker to manage the defense, you would be a fool to believe that Crennel doesn't have a strong hand in formulating defensive game plans.  The problem Crennel has run into with the Browns this year is the fact that he has several head-strong players who are difficult to lead, his team has been plagued with injuries, and his front office as of late (outside of Phil Savage) has all but alienated itself from him.

The Browns were considered a frontrunner coming into 2008 and because they have had a horrific season through 13 weeks, everybody is starting to point fingers.  Heck, even the players are pointing fingers at one another!

Since Cleveland's return to the NFL in 1999, the Browns have had four head coaches.  The first three combined for a record of 30-66.  That's a winning percentage of .313.  Since Crennel has been at the helm, the team's record has been 24-36.  That only six less total wins accomplished in 36 fewer games!  The Browns were so bad with their first three head coaches post-1999 that Crennel's Browns would have to go 6-30 starting this week against the Titans to match their combined shortcomings.  Mr. Grand Scheme of Things says that Crennel has done a better job of coaching the Browns than the previous coaches.

I believe the problem with this franchise is the owner, Randy Lerner.  This is a guy who has gone on the record stating that he hires people to "do their jobs," meaning all anyone should expect from him is a paycheck and (when the pressure is on) bad football decisions.

Seriously though, firing Crennel at the end of the season would be a horrible football move by Lerner, who has shown us all that he knows exactly how to run a team into the ground.

Going 10-22 in his first two seasons after inheriting a lackluster 4-12 team from Terry Robiskie, Crennel finally got things in order and jumpstarted the City of Cleveland with a 10-6 season a year ago.  Don't forget that!  Everyone was healthy and everyone was happy.  Maybe the Browns would have finished 12-4 had a couple bad calls gone the other way.  The team was good even though their schedule was one of the weakest in the league.  We had six All-Pros.  Yep, our quarterback, wide receiver, tight end, offensive tackle, return specialist and long snapper all went to Hawaii 10 months ago.

Since then it's been a long and bumpy road for the Browns, and it seems like all the blame has been placed onto Crennel's shoulders.  The defense played smash mouth football for the first half of the season while the offense sputtered.  The lack of offensive production can be attributed to Kellen Winslow who had a staph infection and Braylon Edwards who dropped more passes it seemed than he caught.  Those two guys were the key to success in 2007 and have been the key to the Browns' failure in 2008.  Donte Stallworth's, Josh Cribbs' and Joe Jurevicius' injuries at the start of the season didn't help matters.  The reason why Derek Anderson had such a horrible start to the year (other than the fact that he sucks) was due in large part to the gimp receiving corps the Browns put before him.  These things are beyond Crennel's control.  If the Patriots don't make the playoffs (and let's not kid ourselves, it would be because of the fact that Tom Brady was lost for the season) do you think Robert Kraft will fire Belichick?  Heck no!

So the team started out 0-3, losing to the Cowboys, Steelers and Ravens (all tougher-than-nails opponents).  After winning three of its next four games (the one loss a 14-11 defeat to a good Redskins team on the road), the Browns were 3-4 and on the rebound.  Not bad considering how difficult that schedule is, with Cincinnati being the only real pushover opponent.

But then the defense got tired.  They'd held the Steelers to 10 points, and the Giants and Redskins to 14 apiece.  Maybe they just couldn't shoulder the load for that long a period of time.  Because in the next two weeks the Browns surrendered 37 points to the Ravens and 34 points to the Broncos - losses that dropped our record back to three games under .500 at 3-6 ... right back where we started the season after the first three games.  You can't question Crennel's coaching for this collapse, which included dropping two of the next three games (we currently sit at 4-8).  His defensive playbook has been just as it was during the first half of the season - and it really is top notch.  His players have been tired.  How long can a defense win games for you over the course of a 16-game season if the offense never really shows up to play?  Even teams that have won championships with strong defenses have done so with their offenses coming around at least part of the time.  With the Browns this year, the offense has been too inconsistent for the entire team to be a factor.  And most of that inconsistency has to do with injuries to key players.  Nothing to do with Crennel.

The finger-pointing for the second half collapse should ultimately be directed toward the fact that the No. 1 and No. 2 quarterbacks were swapped and both ended up going down with season-ending injuries, thereby rendering the offense lost and without any rhythm.  A second finger can be stuck eye-gouge-style right into the face of Lerner.  Let me explain why.

Lerner has the power to hire and fire any one person employed by the Cleveland Browns.  He's the owner.  Because of that fact, Lerner is essentially responsible for positive and negative acquisitions, as he is the man who oversees the jobs carried out by Phil Savage (general manager) and T.J. McCreight (director, player personnel).  He also has the job of assessing those persons on the staff directly under these two particular individuals (their assistants, mostly).

Lerner has the power to determine if NFL-legend Jim Brown is an executive advisor (which he currently is) or if Bernie Kosar is an executive advisor (which he currently is not).  Let's look at this for a second.

Jim Brown's job is to advise executives in the Cleveland Browns front office.  But, in his job description he doesn't even do that.  He enhances relationships with Browns players and helps market the team.  So why throw the title "Executive Advisor" on him if he is not advising Browns executives?  I know Brown attended Syracuse University and I do believe he did, in fact, graduate with a bachelor of science degree.  How that applies to his current position with the Browns escapes me.  What Jim Brown needs to do is leave the Browns organization and devote more time to Amer-I-Can.  Even in that venture, which is a life management skills organization that operates in inner cities and prisons, Brown has more qualified people running the show while he sits back as the face of the operation.  But hey, memorize a few cookie-cutter slogans and quotes, and ... you are the man!

Bernie Kosar on the other hand is much more loved within the City of Cleveland.  Sure, Jim Brown may have been the best running back in NFL history, but he played in the 1960s and is outdated.  The bulk of Browns fans, when they think about the good 'ol days, think about the Browns of the 1980s.  And Kosar led those Browns.  The same Kosar who graduated early from the University of Miami (FL) with a dual degree in finance and economics.  The same Kosar who was born and raised in Youngstown.

So who is the better candidate for the job?  Hire the town favorite already!  It almost seems as if the Browns are paying Jim Brown because of some sort of strange obligation to the National Football League.  Like ... let's put this guy on our payroll, where he belongs, in orange and brown.  That's horsecrap and Drew Carey knows it!

Other laugh-out-loud wasted paychecks that are horrible "Jim Brown, Executive Advisor-type" positions are: Paul Warfield (special assignment scout/advisor to the general manager), Kevin Mack (assistant director, player development), Gregory Rush (director, finance), and Renia Hobbs (manager, fan relations).

I mean, c'mon!  Along with Jim Brown, having Warfield and Mack on the payroll is nothing more than a cheap publicity stunt.  Lerner would hire Clay Matthews if he could.

The only positives on the staff are the ones being made to look like the bad guys: Savage, Crennel and Chudzinski.  And that's probably because Lerner controls everything having to do with the Browns and his primary objective with this crap season is to redirect blame, so the marketing and public information/media relations departments are in his corner ... because, well ... they have to be.

So the current scapegoats are Savage (general manager), Crennel (head coach) and Chudzinski (offensive coordinator).  And the funny thing is, if you really take a minute of your own time and look deeper into all these individuals' resumes, Savage, Crennel and Chudzinski are the three most qualified people associated with the Browns who are not currently gameday players.  They are also perhaps some of the most qualified people at their respective positions in the entire NFL.  If canned, following the 2008 season, another team would immediately hire any one of them.

Let me ask a question before I wrap this up.  What is the difference between a Steelers team winning in Pittsburgh and a Browns team losing in Cleveland?  Both are blue-collar towns with increasing unemployment rates.  A mere 135 miles of road separate them.  Population in Cleveland is 478,403 (2000 U.S. census).  Population in Pittsburgh is 316,819.  So, technically, C-Town is the bigger market.  You want to know what the difference is?  The difference is Dan Rooney knows how to run a football team and Randy Lerner does not.  Rooney was brought up on Steelers football.  The fundamental approach to the Rooney's approach to managing the Steelers has been through patience and consistency, both of which the ownership is continuously given notoriety for.  In proof of the team's stability, there have been only three head coaches employed in Pittsburgh since 1969.  How many coaches do you think the Browns have employed since 1969?  Try 13 head coaches over those 29 years.  Holy cow!

The problem with the current state of the Cleveland Browns is obvious.  The problem is the person who owns the team.  And his name is Randolph D. Lerner, a man who has some mighty large shoes to fill (and some serious deep-thought, highly-focused personal assessment sessions) if he ever wants to be respected and loved by the City of Rock 'n Roll.

But then again, we'd all be much happier and the Cleveland Browns would be much better off if the team was sold to a group of local investors led by Kosar.  Wouldn't we?