Three and Out

There were too many letters to include in First and 10 this week, so I put a bunch of them here and I let the readers take over.  And I honor your efforts by using these goofy green boxes.

Dear Pat,

I’d say I sympathize with you for covering this sorry excuse for a professional football team, if I wasn’t driving back from Philly to attend my 16^th year as a season ticket holder (in addition to 16 from Columbus). 

Is Randy Lerner at all involved with this team?  What role does he play?  It seemed strange that after Mangini was fired by the Jets, the Browns hired him within 72 hours, then went out and hired Mangini’s chosen GM.

Ken Ciolli

Dear Ken,

I neither want nor deserve sympathy. You people who pay your hard-earned money deserve it, not me.

As for Lerner … yes he made the decision. And if things do not improve he will have to be the one to stand up and explain it and take the heat for it.

I did not agree with the decision when it was made, I was surprised at the hiring of Kokinis, though I hear good things about him and right now who knows how much influence he has. And I was very surprised at the way it all came about. It’s my opinion there are better ways to do this – and if a change is made this season I think it would behoove Lerner to hire a strong voice at the top, a football voice, to make the hire of the next head coach.

Lerner owns the team, and needs to approve the coach. But its' my feeling he doesn’t have enough of the right kind of help to make this kind of hire on his own.

As for being engaged … yes he is involved. But he bends over backward not to interfere – to the point that I believe it is a detriment because he lets things go that should not go.

Lerner is a bright, engaging guy. I like him and wish he’d present himself more to the public, because when he does he usually explains things well.

This decision will be tough to explain if things don’t change, though.

But there also is a balance between not interfering and staying involved. Lerner needs to find that balance.

Dear Pat,

You were too kind. Eric Mangini is an embarrassment! His discipline tactics are repulsive. The worst teams in the prior-to-‘99 era were never this bad.

Larry Falcone

Dear Larry,

The teams of the post ’99 era were never this bad either.

Dear Pat,

Eric Mangini has us crying "Romeo. Romeo. Where fore art thou Romeo?"!

Dave Jingo

Dear Dave,

Me, I’d take Crennel and a GM to work with him in a heartbeat over the present structure.

Dear Pat,

Though I agree with you and share your frustration at what looks like a severe decline for the 2009 Browns from what was already a pretty lousy situation, some perspective.

In 2000, Bob Kraft fired Pete Carroll as head coach and hired Bill Belichick.  Here is the headline in the Boston Globe at the end of his first season running the Pats:

'Football; All pain, no gain; For Patriots, Belichick hiring turns out to be change for the worse'

That year they went 5-11 and were more or less a disaster, even losing to the 2nd year Browns!

The rest, as they say, is history.  Hey, I'm just sayin …

Dan H

Dear Dan,

This is a valid point.

But … let’s be honest about Belichick. He’d not be what he is had he not hit the jackpot on a sixth-round draft pick named Brady. Belichick has proven to be an excellent coach, but without Tom Brady where is he? Yes, he had to do something with Brady, but he also had him.

And his “tree” has been living off that reality ever since.

Including the present leader, who was in fact fired by the Jets.

Dear Pat,

Having demonstrated that neither Derek Anderson nor Brady Quinn are starting NFL quarterbacks, are we with Washington and Detroit in the Tim Tebow Derby?

Claude Gaebelein

Dear Claude,

Yes, they are in that derby. But as fast as I wrote that, agents and parents of draft-eligible quarterbacks wrote letters to the Browns begging them not to put their quarterback in this quarterback graveyard in 2010.

Dear Pat,

Just who does Eric Mangini report to and who is he accountable to in this organization? Please don't say Randy Lerner.

Does this mean that the entire Browns organization has been entrusted totally and without reporting accountability to one Eric Mangini?

Is there another NFL organization with such a travesty?

Is it akin to the Pittsburgh Steelers organization, processes, and methodology??

Regards,

Randy from Lyndhurst

Dear Randy,

Randy is a regular e-mailer who often makes good points.

He asked me not to say Randy Lerner is the guy Eric Mangini reports to, so I’ll say it’s the woman who serves the lunches.

Of course he reports to Lerner. That’s the structure. Mangini has near total control of all football and decorating operations. It’s why the team spent almost $2 million putting up wallboard over perfectly good cinder block – because Mangini didn’t like the way it looked.

In this structure, there do not appear to be many checks and balances. Mangini decorates, hires people, decides on players and then coaches them – while still paying attention to parking spots in the lot.

As for being like Pittsburgh … umm … no.

Dear Pat,

Get ready for the perfect season – oh-and-16.

By the way, could you give me one good reason to come to Cleveland from Toronto to watch this crud?

Dave Keith

Dear Dave,

No, I really can’t.

Dear Pat,

I've been a Browns fan since ‘63, and I'm not normally a 'gunman on the grassy knoll' kinda guy, but when I step back and look at the big picture and try to make sense of this disaster that is our team, a troubling theory emerges. Hang with me a minute. 

Al Lerner was born in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Dodgers were an All American Football Conference team from 1946 to 1948 and became a laughingstock of the league, unable to draw fans or compete, and they were finally absorbed by the equally sad sack New York Yankees of the AAFC in 1949 (apparently, folks in NY/NJ area were not very creative when it came to naming their football teams). 

Of course, the Browns dominated the AAFC, and since the Dodgers were such a lousy team, they kicked the Dodgers butts regularly. Perhaps Al, scarred by the trauma of the Browns beating his beloved Dodgers into non-existence vowed to one day get revenge. He thought he was successful when he convinced Modell to move the Browns to Baltimore, but that plan was foiled when the NFL promised Cleveland an expansion team. Undeterred, Lerner paid whatever it took to secure the new Browns, and continue his lifelong plan of revenge against the hated Browns. Of course his son Randy (also born in Brooklyn BTW), shared his Father's obsession and vowed to carry on his Dad's evil plan. 

And as we all see, their diabolical plan has worked to perfection. The once proud Cleveland Browns are now reduced to being the Brooklyn Dodgers of the modern pro football world; a laughingstock. Impossible you say (cue theme from Twilight Zone)?

Dan Hough

Dear Dan,

I prefer the conspiracy theory that I did not eat my carrots in third grade and instead hid them on the windowsill behind my chair.

That’s as good a conspiracy theory as any, including this Brooklyn one.

Dear Pat,

I would like to say something clever and witty but I am flat-out disgusted. Comparing this team to the team of 1999 is an insult to the '99 team. They at least tried to compete!

Ed Miller

New Waterford, OH

Dear Ed,

You get no argument from me.

Dear Pat,

I would love to see somebody write an article about where Randy Lerner fits into the accountability of this mess. Everyone wants to blame the Dolans but Randy gets a pass.

Todd Edwards

Dear Todd,

I don’t think Randy Lerner gets a pass and I think he understands this.

The next couple months could be very, very difficult for him.

Dear Pat,

(Editor’s note: Written before Sunday’s loss in Baltimore): All of what you are saying might be true about Eric Mangini, but let's be honest. If the Browns were 2-0 and looking good, would you really have written this story?  With that chosen tone?  I doubt it.

You'd probably be praising his level of discipline and attention to even the minute details.  Rome wasn't built in a day and if he is so terrible to play for, why did so many Jets follow him here?

Cliff Bonner

Athens, Ohio

Dear Cliff,

In reverse order:

The ex-Jets followed him here because they could get a job and a paycheck. There weren’t a lot of teams clamoring for those ex-Jets. It was kind of like the hiring of Mangini … no other team was poised to hire him. Mangini gave the ex-Jets a place to land.

As for writing differently if Mangini were 2-0 … well of course. But that misses the point.

The point is that the Browns were not 2-0 and were 0-2 because of the way Mangini coached and treated the team. His ways contributed to the atmosphere that contributed to the losses. You can’t separate them.

(Want to be recognized in “Three and Out”? It’s a rare treat. Comment here or send an e-mail to pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com, and put “First and 10” in the subject line)