While we’re jumping on the Browns pile, Mike Silver of Yahoo rates Randy Lerner the fifth-worst owner in the NFL. On the flip side, that makes him 28th best. Owners of the Raiders, Bengals, Bears and Lions rank 29 through 32. Writes Silver: “Checked out much of the time while tending to his true passion, English Premier League side Aston Villa, Lerner is even more of a liability when he gets involved.” Silver also writes: “Sources say Lerner, who fashions himself an intellect, was won over by (Eric) Mangini’s sophisticated conversational style and passion for various pursuits outside of football.”
These rankings are pretty subjective, and are included not to advocate a point of view, but to further the discussion. Me, I think Randy Lerner hired Eric Mangini because Mangini sold him he could win and impressed the owner with his football intelligence. That intelligence now has to translate to the field. Anyone can disagree with the hire, but I really don't think Mangini's interest in Clausewitz or Camus had much to do with it.
Can we play some games that count please?
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Silver is a jerk, and a lot of his ratings make absolutely no sense. The McCaskeys– who are 45-35 in the last five years, with a trip to the Super Bowl– are rated 30th of 32, because he thinks they underachieve, given their market. But Woody Johnson, who's 37-43, ranks 10 spots higher. Yeah, right.
Any ranking of owners that does not have Bill Ford at the bottom is patently ridiculous. Silver has never had the Lions ranked lower than third.
Dan Rooney has never, I don't think, ranked first– usually he's behind Jerry Jones and often Dan Snyder. Jim Irsay finishes ridiculously low, given his track record. And Wayne Weaver– not great shakes, but not terrible– is always near the bottom because Silver hates him.
But, except for the Bears, he nailed the pits this time. Make a list of the guys who have had the worst records, behaved irrationally things, done the most to embarass the franchise and the lest to reward the fans and the worst in the league are Al Davis, Mike Brown, Bill Ford, Randy Lerner and the Rosenblooms. One guy who's gone senile; four who've inherited their dough, and might be asking "Would you like fires with that, sir?" if they hadn't.
I'll give Randy credit on two small counts. I'm convinced that he doesn't care about the NFL at all– that he's just holding onto the team because he thinks its what his dad would have wanted him to do. But he has done a really good job with the sport he cares about, so he has some skill.
And he does hold down prices (for an NFL team, the Browns are a bargain) and he does spend money to the degree it is allowed.
It's a shame that he and Larry Dolan can't trade franchises– give the guy who's got a limited budget and good intentions the structure of the salary cap and revenue sharing, and the one with megabucks the team in the sport where money can buy happiness.
Do that and you might have three championship-quality teams, rather than one.
To borrow liberally from Geoff's phrasing, any ranking of owners that has the Glazer family above the Rooney family is patently ridiculous.