SI.com tries to shed some light on the departure of George Kokinis.
Don Banks writes that Kokinis felt marginalized within the Browns front office, lacked anything close to the personnel decision-making authority his contract called for, and was ultimately scape-goated by Mangini when the repeated failures by the Browns (1-7) this season intensified the heat on the new coach." Banks says that Kokinis thought he would be working "with" Mangini, only to learn he was working "for" him.
This would technically be a violation of Kokinis' contract, since Kokinis had final authority over player personnel.
The story is filled with disturbing details about the role Mangini played in luring his friend to Cleveland, then ensuring he had no say in things. It's not pretty. Nor does the Browns case to claim Kokinis' dismissal was "for cause" seem too strong.
Peter King writes, though, that he was told "that the Browns will contend that Kokinis never tried to assert that authority, despite repeated attempts from the organization higher-ups urging him to take a stronger role in team affairs. If that's the case, then the team likely has documented his perceived failings."
What an inexplicable mess.
And yes, Randy Lerner spoke with King, but not the local media.
That Don Banks column is excellent, but folks should also read the first online page of the column. That link only shows the second page of the column, go down to the bottom to go back a page. Just an FYI.
What stooges. Oh, and before I forget, look at that photo of Mangini together with Lerner. Lerner and his mom have about a zillion dollars, but the guy looks like he's homeless. Hey, I dress like a slob, and I am proud to admit it. But jeez, I'm living on a peasant's salary. I mean, just look at that guy. Give him a neck tattoo, a knife, a rifle, and a wife to shove, and he could easily be mistaken for a pasty-white Delonte West enjoying 30 minutes of outside recreation time.
Not much left to say about this current coaching staff. I've never felt embarassed to be a Cleveland Browns fan til now. I will watch this train wreck from a distance.
Link fixed, thanks Alan. And you know what … I noticed that photo too. There is the Cleveland Browns leadership.
If this Banks guy's sources are accurate, then I guess I was wrong about Mangini not being actively involved in the departure of Kokinis. Not only is Mangini slimy as heck, but he's stupid too. He just dug his own grave with this one. If he would have just threw George a bone here and there to make him feel important, this thing wouldn't have come to a head now and it would have bought him more time to turn things around. By being the one who forced Kokinis out, he just put a big spotlight on himself for being the sole one responsible for the team's early failures. He better hope the team goes at least 5-3 during the 2nd half or he's probably gone. Pretty rotten to lure his buddy away from a job he loved and then just toss him to the curb.
tim, i have no idea why you would have thought otherwise. from all accounts kokonis was well liked and respected by his peers and former employer. mangini on the other hand is a piece of crap. what kind of guy rats on his mentor for spying when for years mangini benefited from it? either randy lerner is afraid of this bottom feeder or he is one as well. so far it's looking like randy is just another log laying at the bottom of the bowl.
Dandy, Dandy should buy some brand new panties,
just because your wealthy does not mean your mental health is too…. some one lock up randy and fire that missgenie …its not funny anymore..honestly its not!! And to think Pat got all that crap for saying its "time to admit their MISTAKE" you are a VISIONARY SIR!!!!
Keep digging, Pat. More to this story than power. Kokinis is no innocent here.
Mark this day in your calendars everyone: Alan passed out a compliment.
And Pat, I know it is your job, but man, this dead horse has been beaten. There are so many other sports stories in NE Ohio for you to comment on; the Browns are like following a Third Division English soccer team (don't worry, Randy will get Aston Villa there).
I never understood why Randy Lerner felt compelled to give contract extensions to both Phil Savage and Romeo Crennel after one decent, yet non-playoff, year.
I never understood why the Browns didn't trade Anderson after he had one decent year in which he backed into the Pro Bowl as a sub.
I never understood why Lerner hired such a toxic personality like Mangini in the first place.
Just because you won the birth lottery and inherited billions doesn't mean you're smart enough to run a pro football team.
Still, something just doesn't add up here, especially with the timing of the departure. Why not just wait until the end of the season to force Kokinis out? Oh well, I guess maybe all of the facts will eventually get out. I'm now just resigned to the fact that we'll probably be starting all over AGAIN after this season. I guess if Lerner wants to pay 10 GMs and coaches at once, it's his money, so why should I care. I just hope he finally sticks it out with a regime (the right regime) to get some continuity in there.
Now that someone with actual credibility has chimed in from the national media, I have decided that I am now in favor of blowing it up and starting all over (again). After that, we should blow it up and start again-again just to be safe.
"Now that someone with actual credibility has chimed in from the national media, I have decided that I am now in favor of blowing it up and starting all over (again)."
nice of you to let everyone else do your thinking.
and drew, why do you think this is beating a dead horse? obviously no one else does. it's pretty big news to watch the total collapse of a football franchise in a year. from 10-6 and respectability (finally) to becoming al davis' neighbor in the loony bin. that's pretty amazing.
Kokinis sounds like a real milquetoast. Pat, you're headed toward Tom Melody country. Bitter and angry is no way to make a living.
Sheesh, Pat, you cover the Browns, you tell us — what was Kokinis doing? Was he doing anything? I mean, it's nice that the guy has friends who are willing to give anonymous quotes to one SI reporter, and it's nice that Lerner has friends willing to give anonymous quotes to another SI reporter, but really, the relevant issues are, (1) what was Kokinis supposed to do as GM, and (2) what did he actually do? If the guy spent his days playing Tetris — and it's not like the fans have any reason to think that he was doing anything else — then that would seem like cause. When you spoke with him as part of your regular coverage of the team, what did you get the sense he was doing? Or did he not speak with you at all these last 11 months or so?
Frank Sinatra sums up the Browns since they returned to the NFL in his song "There Used To Be A Ballpark",
Now The Children Try To Find It
And They Can't Believe Their Eyes
'Cause The Old Team Just Isn't Playing
And The New Team Hardly Tries
And The Sky Has Got So Cloudy
When It Used To Be So Clear
Yes, There Used To Be A Ballpark Right Here
This fiasco won't be over until Mangini is shown the exit. Until then, pipe down, Drew and all you haters. If you don't like the stories here, go read another blog. This is, indeed, the most newsworthy story in town: the utter destruction of our pro football franchise by a clueless owner and the buffoon he hired to run the show.
Funny thing is, those arrogant NFLer types raised such a fuss when Rush Limbaugh wanted to buy in and become a minority owner. But no one in the league office is the least bit concerned about the mockery and travesty that's occurred here in Cleveland for a full decade?????????????????
"Pat, you're headed toward Tom Melody country. Bitter and angry is no way to make a living."
yeah pat! maybe you should haunt the political blogs and rail on "liberals" for relaxation like larry does.
These stories are actually very disturbing. As I understand it, Lerner had Kokinis removed because he hadn't taken control of Mangini and performed according to his contract as General Manager … but, ?????, at the behest of Mangini?
If this IS what happened, then Mangini is history … and not more than ten seconds after the introductory press conference ends after a new GM takes over (if the GM expects to hold his job, since he's being told by the Browns that he will lose it unless he controls the coach, and the current coach refuses to be controlled).
But, ?????, Lerner, by his comments, doesn't seem to get this himself. Being as rich as he is, maybe he doesn't really run anything he owns, but listens to those he's hired. When I hear or see Dan Gilbert, I get the impression he keeps himself informed and involved in any part of any company he owns and not only holds people immediately accountable, but knows when they aren't — but even Art Modell was like that, and so made so many bad financial decisions. Isn't it the norm for the owners of sports franchises, though?
Where I see that Lerner failed as a boss is that he should have supported Kokinis the first time there was a conflict — not just get sad that Kokinis couldn't just step into the job Lerner placed him in without Lerner's support. Lerner should have known that Kokinis had to grow into this NEW position for him … and Lerner should have WANTED him to succeed. If Gilbert would have hired Kokinis, he would have made d*** sure he had a chance to succeed!
Lerner obviously didn't ….
good points keith. it just goes to show that in berea the inmates run the asylum. and mangini is the most depraved and disturbing of them all.
Reading those articles, I have to wonder… at what point will the league intervene with this mess?? It's not just an embarassment to Cleveland and its fans, it's an embarassment to the NFL. Fortune 500 companies have federal regulations and oversight committees to ensure that their business practices are legit, why don't the Cleveland Browns? They are a business that is being run by a corrupt administration and they are fleecing their fans out of their hard-earned money. How is Randy Lerner any different than Bernie Madoff? He is taking people's trust and money and gving false promises and absolutely no return on our investments. I can only hope that Lerner and Mangini have just made the one mistake (firing Kokinis) that will expose them for what they are and this nightmare will be over sooner rather than later.
Terje,
You may be right, and I am just apathetic. But do you want to know the most disappointing moment of my life as a Browns fan? Well, even if you don't, I am going to tell you:
Three to four years ago, my friend and I took a weekday off and went to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. We read every piece of writing on every plaque, wall, and countertop. We stopped and looked at every piece of paraphenalia. And on our way out, we saw the plexiglass history board: every record of every NFL franchise's existence. And as I looked at the Browns record, and saw what it has been since 1970 or so, it finally hit me: this team, with a few exceptions, has been mediocre for close to 40 years. It has affected me ever since. My logo clothing, once all Browns merchandise, turned to Buckeyes, Indians, and Cavs merchandise.
I know I am being melodramatic, but as a maniacal follower of Cleveland teams, that realization after seeing the Browns seasons laid out before me, that the glory days are a distant memory, hurt. I still hold a place in my heart for them, but seriously, it is the same song and dance every day, month, and year.
I very well believe this may be an NFL rule violation. Kokinis cannot leave his Baltimore contract for a lateral move. If he did not have final say over player decisions it is a lateral move. Regardless of what title you want to give the position. Lerner has all but admitted this. These 2 stooges may end up costing us a draft pick or 2 over this.
i hear ya drew. it's taken a bizarre turn from rooting for the team to just standing by horror struck to see how low they can sink.
i'm brainwashed just like you. my first browns season was 1980. if i had only started a year later maybe i could have been free of the browns curse. i've never even felt great affection for the expansion browns. i've never lived in cleveland while they've been there, i've only seen cleveland browns stadium from a distance and i've never been able to shake the feeling that the team died the year before they actually moved. it's like a moth drawn to a flame. and this brown and orange flame not only burns, first it punches you in the face a couple dozen times, kicks you in the nads, rips your heart out just enough for you to feel it but never quite finishes the job and keeps you in agony until the day you die.
Wow terje. You've lost it.
Just wondering: who do you think is more hip–Pat or Obama?
yeah, i've lost it. you're telling pat that he's bitter and angry yet you're the guy obsessing over a president. secret service is probably all over your phone and i.p. address. give it a rest larry.
A recent issue of Rolling Stone compared the Mangenius to Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. To extend that metaphor, Kokinis is Charlie Bucket– a good guy who is soft-spoken and not willing to scream and pound the table and elbow everyone else aside to get his way.
I heard pretty much the same story that Banks wrote– after Kokinis got here, the Mangenius told him that they'd put "final control over the roster" in his contract to satisfy the NFL's stupid rules, but it wasn't going to work that way. Kokinis could overrule Mangini, but Lerner could overrule Kokinis– and if George wanted to go that way, he could get outvoted 2-1 on every decision.
The Browns have unquestionably violated Kokinis's contract, and they're gonna have to pay it in full. And they've also violated NFL rules. Cleveland committed a deliberate fraud to obtain the services of a senior member of the Baltimore front office.
There's no way Roger Goodell doesn't give Mangenius a stiff fine. But since the Ravens have been damaged, he's gonna compensate them with draft picks. And given the number of times the Mangenius has flouted NFL rules– and the Ravens being a division rival– and the deliberate, outrageous nature of this offense– it'll be a high one,
And if "Clown Shoes" Lerner thinks he can get away with saying "George didn't really try hard to get his way", he's even dumber than I imagined.
The only thing this franchise is missing is Don Delaney, a polka, and a fat guy eating beer cans.
I know the season is only half over but who do you think the Brown's will go for next year in the draft? I would like to see them get 2 running backs, a QB, 6 offensive lineman at least 2 receivers, and 4 DB's. Is this asking a lot. Maybe a new coach and someone that knows what an offensive corridinator is supposed to do.
thanks
Season Ticket holder.
P.S. How about some kraut for the brats. (:
Dan's comment above requires an answer, and I'd e-mail this to him personally but he didn't leave his accurate e-mail address. Hmmm.
First, Dan says I cover the Browns. Well I don't. Not anymore. I am a columnist. Marla Ridenour is our beat writer. This doesn't mean I can't get information, just that I'm not the beat writer.
Second, Dan writes like I had unbridled access to George Kokinis while he was with the Browns. I didn't. This has been a constant complaint of mine under this new regime: Media access is limited. Many people rail at me for complaining about it. Now I'm being railed at for not saying what someone does.
Third, I think we all know what a GM does. It's pretty evident. But how in the world am I supposed to know what he thinks or feels about anything if I can't talk to him. The SI stories are a classic example of how local media has to compete with the nationals. Because they're national and have a national platform, they get more access. This sounds like a whine, but it's not – it's fact. I actually had a coach recently tell me that he will purposely tell local media less than nationals because local media is watched more closely by opposing teams. To which I say: Huh?
Fourth, I spoke with George Kokinis three times. At his predraft news conference. Once to say hello and how are you at a game. The last time was after the Chicago game, when he struck up a conversation. We chatted a bit, and I asked him if he wanted to talk for the record. He said thanks, but no. I've been trying to get to him since Monday, with no luck.
This is the problem with cutting off access. It's hard to provide information, except from "around the corner," so to speak.
And I don't think it's fair to have it both ways — rip me for lamenting the loss of access, then rip me for not giving inside information.
That's all.
I'm going to watch Foghorn Leghorn now.
I find that ripping on Obama is much more satisfying than kissing a backwater sports columnist's butt all day, terje. You should try it.
Classic Foghorn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKx7v-uHDRQ
Not-so-classic Foghorn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejkguJ3wv9Y
To reflect on Pat's added comments: What do the Browns think they're "guarding" in Berea? The secret to world peace? The cure for cancer? The day of the Rapture? Aren't we just talking about….a game? Football? And yet, the secrecy regarding the most basic things, like a starting QB, is at the level of national security.
There is something so very wrong with this. The game isn't fun anymore, Randy. It's just an exercise in futility and frustration. Thanks a whole lot.
larry, you've been around a long time. you know that pat and i disagreed severely on romeo crennel. so don't give me that. it seems your slavish devotion to the company line in politics has bled over into the sports pages and manifested itself into personal attacks on pat. i suspect pat would need you to issue the passport if he wanted to visit the world of bitterness and anger.
Here's my problem with this whole thing…
So from these reports it sounds like Kokinis (as one poster put it) was very milquetoast and had problem asserting authority. In an article over on the PD Pluto mentioned that in his conversations with Kokinis he had trouble illustrating any vision for the future of this team.
My question: WHERE WAS ALL THIS INFORMATION BEFORE THE GUY WAS FIRED!?!?
Lerner did actually interview the guy and not just take Mangini's recommendation, yes? You're telling me we couldn't get a read on his personality in that interview and it wasn't a huge red flag that we were hiring this guy for one of the top positions in our organization and he was going to have trouble asserting himself?
And don't tell me these things wouldn't have been evident in an interview. We're talking about a league that puts potential draft picks through the Wunderlich, and has full day interviews with potential coaches. If we're not giving the same time and rigor to the guys we put in charge of the operations of the entire franchise I don't even know what to say.
From all accounts Kokinis sounds like a bright, decent guy, but also from everything I hear about his personality type I wonder how in the world he was cut out for this job. Just seems like a complete hiring fail on Lerner's part.
i'm not sure what kokonis could have done differently. he signed on, napolean dynamite immediately showed to be the bunghole that he is and got no support from the owner. better to sit in your office doing bong rips and watching porn than fight a battle that can't be won.
i hope geoff's scenario becomes reality. i have no hope that it will since there is no justice for the cleveland browns but it would be nice if the league were to do right by the fans and make these chumps pay.
I didn't mean to make personal attacks but I guess I just find Pat's glee at the Browns' poor showing tiresome, and it does remind me of Melody. In any case, when the Beacon conducted a three week investigation into the painting of some wall in Berea last winter, their credibility as far as the Browns took a slide in my estimation. It's been nitpicking crap pretty steady since then, all based on personal axe grinding stuff, and the fact that Pat's a former Browns employee makes one wonder. I can't see how anyone would call their coverage of the Browns this season professional at all, though I understand from your posts that you've got some kind of Mangini/self-hate problem going on that clouds your perspective.
But if you've got a problem with my comments on the political blogs, maybe you should take it up there, terje.
larry, i have no problem with your politics. just you getting on pat when just about every sports journalist that doesn't work for the plain dealer has been saying the same things he has been saying for just as long. if you want the mangini era sugarcoated then terry pluto is as good as it gets.
Why would you have a problem with me "getting on Pat"? You trying to get on him too?
Maybe that's why Joyce is so mad at you.
why would i have a problem? because it's ridiculous.
besides, i think joyce likes me again.
It's not like I constantly pick on Pat, terje. I just think when it comes to the Browns he seems personally invested in such a way that his bile-filled columny becomes tiresome.
In any case, I'll post what I want until he bans me, though I don't think he would do that. If it hurts your feelings, I apologize in advance.
"It's not like I constantly pick on Pat, terje. I just think when it comes to the Browns he seems personally invested in such a way that his bile-filled columny becomes tiresome."
which brings me back to my point to your political postings.
see the irony yet?
When a manager/boss (Lerner) hires someone, he's kind of obligated to ask them how it's going — especially in the beginning, and maybe more often when there isn't a "training program" for the position, or when the person being hired is being promoted from a different position. It could be that Kokinis is a milquetoast, but everything in these articles tends to suggest Lerner was completely disinterested in forcing his company to go in the direction he envisioned (if he envisioned anything, and he must have to fire Kokinis for not fulfilling his contract, since that implies a criteria).
I don't know if sports is completely different where good management is concerned, but in another kind of business, Lerner not only would have kept track of how and what his new people were doing (both because he'd want them to succeed and because he'd want them to take his company where he told them he wanted it to go when he hired them), AND if he wanted Kokinis to have and exercise final say, a good manager wouldn't have left it to chance, but would have watched for the first conflict, gone to Kokinis to learn exactly what Kokinis wanted, then informed Mangini that that was exactly the way it was going to be. One time and Kokinis and Mangini would have known who had final say.
I don't see any irony, terje. I'm not paid to give analysis on Obama for a paid publication, and I don't pretend to be either objective or an expert. I'm just some schmoe who likes to argue with lemmings. Like I said, if you've got a problem with my postings on political blogs, you should take them up there. You've mentioned them four times now.
Why does my criticism of Pat affect you so personally? What's your deep connection with Pat? Did Pat say something nice to you?
larry, remember the term andy dufresne used in "shawshank redemption"?
obtuse.
fits you like a glove.
Here's how I understand your argument to this point:
"Don't pick on Pat."
"It's ridiculous."
"You criticize Obama on a political blog."
Now if you've made some better point and, being obtuse, I missed it, maybe you can put it in plainer terms. If not, let's move on to discussing the reasons Pat touches your soul so intimately.
larry, i'm going to have to pass on continuing this discussion with you. you've made my point pretty clearly whether you understand it or not.
Come on, terje. I'll start the ball rolling:
If Pat were to join you for a cup of coffee at Starbucks, what do you think he would order? Also, do you think you would you blush if you slurped too loudly?
If what Geoff said above is true and the Browns are forced to pay in draft picks, I'm done with the Cleveland Browns. D-U-N, done!
Gingerbread latte?