This e-mail from Michael Lampers came thorugh the system the other day. It read:

Dear Pat,

Isn't this move to get Mike Holmgren and turn it all over to him simply more of the same from Randy Lerner?  I don't care what his pedigree is.  If Holmgren is hired without the owner conducting any other interviews (AGAIN!!), then it's just more stupidity.  You cannot just zero in on a name.  You have to research and identify an actual person, rather than just a persona that you know through reputation alone.

If this were Bill Cowher we were talking about, then I probably would be willing to close my eyes and take the leap.  But anybody — ANYBODY — else should have to go through a selection process.  If not, then you really do not know what you are getting.

I'm not trying to trash Holmgren, by the way.  Just trying to point out that Randy Lerner seems to be falling in love all over again, and that style of infatuation management has proven to be a disaster.

Reading this e-mail causes one to put his hand to his chin and say, Hmm .. not a bad point.

However, you lose me a bit when you say you'd give Cowher credibility but not Holmgren. If memory serves correct, Holmgren took two teams to the Super Bowl, and he has as many rings as Cowher (Brian Billick has the same number, by the way).

That being said, it is a good point about falling in love before interviewing anyone. One would hope that Lerner would go through a lengthier process in hiring this time, because we all saw how it worked out last time.

It's just amazing the things we are talking about related to the Browns during the season, isn't it?

As an aside … and last … Mike … you  broke the "McManamon I Don't Mean To" rule. Which means that any time you say you don't mean to do something (I don't mean to be rude, to interrupt, etc.) you are in fact doing that very thing. So … well done trashing Mike Holmgren!

Mike Holmgren? Sure. Absolutely.

But does he want to?

Ron Wolf? Great, bring him.

But why would he do the Browns routine again?

Rich McKay?

They didn't hire him last January, so why would he now?

Ernie Accorsi?

If he's willing to leave retirement.

Those are the four names to hit the air and internet waves Sunday, as the Browns rumor mill heated up. Randy Lerner isn't confirming those names on or off the record, because he figures it's counter-productive.

But they're all on the wish list, and they're all legitimate, credible people who would bring an instant sense of reality to the team's front office.

If they can be hired.

And that's my question. Can any of them actually and truly be hired?

The Browns goals have become simple: Make like Miami.

They point to the Dolphins as their latest model (a few years ago it was New England and Philadelphia, but these things change). The Dolphins hired Bill Parcells to run the football side, he hired a GM and they together hired a coach … well … Parcells suggested a coach and Ireland … agreed.

So would it be in Cleveland — the idea being to hire a credible, respected voice and football guy taking over the football end. He would hire a GM and both of them would decide on the coach. (Hint: It's probably not going to be Eric Mangini, who appears to be Fired Man Coaching for the rest of the season.)

Holmgren might be the one guy who could be convinced to take over. He's as good a name and as good a guy as there is available right now.

But … the Browns would be putting him in a role he's never filled. In 1999, Seattle hired him away from Green Bay to be coach and GM. A few years later, Seattle took the GM duties away.

There are other questions. Holmgren might prefer to coach as opposed to take over in the front office. It also might behoove him to wait until after the season to weigh his opportunities. Let's be honest — at this point the Browns job is not the most attractive in the league.

But if he did want it … hey … it's a great idea.

Holmgren could be an outstanding football leader. He's credible, smart, football-wise, experienced and he communicates incredibly well (being able to communicate with fans and media has suddenly taken on high priority in Berea, perhaps because there's nobody there willing or able to communicate). He'd represent the team, the city, the owner extremely well.

Put Holmgren in a position like the one Parcells occupies in Miami and let him hire a GM and coach (remember Jon Gruden once worked on Holmgren's staff in Green Bay) and the Browns could have something.

There's a little trepidation given what happened in Seattle, but that would be tempered by the fact that Holmgren would be in charge and not doing two jobs.

It also would take us full circle. It was back in 1998 that Carmen Policy joked about hiring someone like Holmgren at a Cleveland City Club Forum, which led to Policy being fined for tampering.

Now there's no worry about tampering, because Holmgren is part of a Hall of Fame free agent coaching class that includes him, Gruden, Bill Cowher and Mike Shanahan.

The others in the rumor mill? They seem like longer shots.

Wolf was with the Browns once, but left in a hurry when Butch Davis basically treated him like a second-year scout.

Wolf would be outstanding, but he like Accorsi seems blissfully happy in retirement, and not likely to move out of that comfortable zone.

McKay? He couldn’t distance himself from the Browns fast enough after last January once it was evident they were hiring Eric Mangini as coach. Would he come now? Not if he had to swallow Mangini.

If he could truly take over and hire his own GM and coach, bring him in. They don't come much better than Rich McKay — or Holmgren for that matter.

Look at it this way, too: Wouldn’t we all feel a whole lot better looking to the next few years if someone like Holmgren or McKay were guiding the ship?

So perhaps Randy Lerner can salvage something from the mess of the past week.

The one thing that can't be ignored is that Lerner is liked by folks in the NFL. Because of that, they will pay more attention to helping him — provided they get the millions in the contract that they want.

Lerner may make mistakes, but he just might have enough goodwill to pull something off. It'd be 10 months too late in that he could have done something like this in January, but in this case 10 months too late would be better than never.

You just wonder if he can really and truly make everything come together to make it happen.

Because at this point when it comes to the Browns, we should all be living in Missouri.

As in they need to show us they can do what's needed.

It's hard to argue many of Jim Ingraham's points in this column. The situation in Berea is a mess that seems to get worse by the day.

Watching the replay of Eric Mangini's news conference Tuesday, the one when he pretty much refused to discuss the "firing" of GM George Kokinis, one word came to mind.

Arrogance.

The arrogance of this coach and this team to set up this system where the coach is the voice of the team during the season, then to have that voice dismiss legitimate questions during a news conference set up to answer questions.

I counted 11 times when a question was asked and Mangini said he would not answer, with respect of course.

I know I've been critical of Mangini, but this might be more of an organizational issue rather than his alone. That being said, he's the one who set up the organization.

Would I expect every question to be answered?
No.

Would I hope they'd make an effort to answer most queries?

Yes.

Was Mangini the wrong guy to put at the podium?

Maybe. But if he wasn't the right guy then the right guy should have been there.

Some explanation could be given even if settlement negotiations are ongoing. It's almost as if the Browns don't think the fans or the media deserve an explanation.

The GM of the team was removed from his job. The coach handpicked the GM. Stand up and answer questions about it. Be accountable, like he would expect his players to be. Don't duck or hide or use coy phrases. Just answer the questions — and if you can't say so and explain why.

Randy Lerner spent two hours meeting with a couple upset season ticket holders on Tuesday. That's fine. But he or somebody else could have made 15 minutes for the media, and by extension the fans, either Monday night or sometime Tuesday. Not doing so actually might have put Mangini in a more difficult spot than he deserved.

I mean, a man dubbed smart and energetic enough to be the team's GM last January was ushered out of the building on Monday.

Is an explanation too much to ask?

1)      I awoke to NPR this morning stating that the Browns released an "awkwardly worded statement" that General Manager George Kokinis was gone. Calling the statement awkward — it said Kokinis "is no longer actively with the organization" — would be like calling winter in Nome chilly. You read that statement and you wonder what it means.

2)      Then coach Eric Mangini stands up in his news conference and says he won't talk about what happened with Kokinis other than to say "it didn't work out." So the one voice that the team has isn't taking questions about it. Next thing you know the Browns will wonder why there's so much speculation and rumor about what happened. Not addressing the situation smacks of cowardice. Leadership means standing up when things are tough (see Mark Shapiro discussing and addressing the firing of Eric Wedge). In this case, Mangini and the Browns sat down. The really frightening thing: Mangini kept saying "we" when talking about the organization and the team's future, as if to imply he would be part of it long-term. Guess we now know the subject of the next paranormal activity movie.

3)      I don't know what happened that caused this to happen with Kokinis so suddenly. Randy Lerner obviously felt strong enough about something to act. I have heard that Kokinis worked in Cleveland the same way he did in Baltimore. He kept coaches hours, which means arrive early and stay late and sometimes sleep in the office. He had his scouts doing the same thing, and that didn't sit real well with all of them. He also worked quietly, behind the scenes. Kokinis was not a real public guy, though he's always been a good guy in my private dealings with him.

4)      The way this went down, though, clearly makes it seem like Kokinis is taking the fall for a bad start. Mangini somehow continues in his job, yet the GM is fired? After the majority of players brought in were ex-Jets? After the quarterback situation was completely mishandled on the field? After all the garbage we've seen on the playing field? True or not, this clearly makes it look like Mangini sacrificed his friend to save his job. And the Browns statement and Mangini's nonexplanation do nothing to rectify that impression. As for Mangini calling Kokinis a friend … I can hardly wait to see what gifts they exchange this Christmas.

5)      The flip side is that if Kokinis was simply not up to the job and the pressures of the job and losing got to him — a possibility — then Mangini was wrong to suggest him as GM and the Browns made a mistake picking him. Either way, Mangini does not come out of this well. Nor should he. He's overseeing a season of disastrous proportions.

6)      Let's not forget, too, Mangini's history in New England. He wanted a head coaching job, and Bill Belichick asked him not to take one job — with the Jets. Belichick's thinking: The rivalry and feelings between the two teams were too intense for the friendship to continue. Any other team … Belichick said, he'd do anything he could to help him. Mangini took the Jets job anyway, and he knew he was getting it as the Patriots flew back from a playoff loss in Denver. So on the team plane, Mangini was recruiting coaches from Belichick's staff to join him in New York. When Belichick heard this, he was irate, and the next day locked Mangini out of the building. Once Mangini got to New York, Spygate followed. Now we have Kokinis recommended by Mangini, hired, and fired. Err … no longer actively involved.

7)      One thing can't be debated: Kokinis waited to take the job with the Browns last January because he wanted it in his contract that he had final say over personnel. He got that. It seems quite obvious that once he got in the building, Mangini had final say over everything — including how Kokinis should act (he was not the same person he was in Baltimore), who parks where and the fact that the first floor should have plaster board covering up the cinder block. Not to mention moving the mural of the hall of famers that has never been placed in the lobby like the team said it would (though there are nice plaques with the names of the hall of famers).

8)      Walking out of Solider Field on Sunday, I heard another writer from the Chicago area describe the game this way while talking on his cell phone: "Wasn't much of a game. The Bears played really bad, and the Browns are just horrible." Sums it up, doesn't it? The Bears had a day they'd like to forget, a day when they openly admitted they played down to the Browns level — and they won BY 24 POINTS.

9)      What did Jamal Lewis mean when he said he "stuck his neck out" for the Browns? Two things: First is he is playing on a very painful ankle, one that required an offseason procedure and would sideline a lot of others players. Second is he stood up for the new regime, and did what he could to get everyone on the team to "buy in." Now he sees what's happening, and he's rightly disgusted.

10)   There's no sense hiding from another reality: The majority of the players cannot stand playing for Mangini. Yes, there is a small group that believes in him, and most are the guys he brought in from New York. But others simply don't like him. Because he belittles them in meetings, beats them down mentally and has no clear plan to win a game. Anyone who believes that this team believes in this coach is not looking at the reality on the field. Too, the players look at how he says everyone should be treated the same and they see that Mangini treats employees in the building shabbily and they think "hypocrite." As one league insider very knowledgeable in the workings of this and any team said: "That situation there will get 100 times worse before it even starts to get better."

Three and Out

There were so many letters the past eight days, so many from which to choose. I'm sticking with four as a representative sample.

Dear Pat,

Webster's defines death as "a state of being." That's a pretty good definition of the Cleveland Browns. Eric Mangini claims it's a process and he is right; it has been a slow death over the last 39 years.

Ineptitude can creep in and destroy a beloved franchise. Greedy owners, mismanagement, a revolving door of incompetent general managers, coaches, support staff  and quarterbacks can over time lead to the fall of a once storied championship team.

This has all created a dysfunctional organization that is an embarrassment to itself, its loyal fans and the city it represents. To paraphrase Einstein: "The problems that face us today as the Cleveland Browns cannot be solved by the level of thinking that has created it."

Be respectful of the "dead." Don't try and leave it on life support with a parade of old legends like Jim Brown or Bernie Kosar. It's too late simply cremate it and spread the ashes over Los Angeles, and like Braylon Edwards give it a new start.

We the Baby Boomers are tired of grieving year in and year out over this ailing parent. Let it go! It's over already

Craig Bassett

Ft Mill SC

Dear Craig,

I think many share your pain.

Dear Pat,

Is Randy Lerner clueless.  He fires a guy who did nothing. I have not seen a quote or anything else from George Kokinis since he was hired. That's like blaming the cook for the Titanic sinking.

Have a great day!

Ed Miller

New Waterford, OH

Dear Ed,

Every day is a great day when you're involved with the Cleveland Browns.

Dear Pat,

Thanks for starting the firing process of Eric Mangini. Please add Brian Daboll, the clown who is our offensive coordinator, to the list of people to be fired immediately.

I hope you can convince Randy Lerner why Mangini has to go. The players have lost all confidence in him. He is simply going to make it even worse by hanging around.

Thanks for all your help.

Best Regards

Tom Joseph

Season Ticket holder since 1979

Dear Tom,

I take no pride in "starting" a process that leads to someone losing his job. I simply have the opinion that you are right: This is going to get worse before it gets better, and I don't see it getting better with Mangini guiding the ship.

Dear Pat,

I’ve been a Browns fan all my life.  I was eight when they won it all in 1964.  I’ve seen a lot, heard a lot, etc.  I’ve lived in four different states, currently in the Chicago area.  I’m around plenty of Bears fans all the time.

Today, the day after the Bears-Browns game, I’m getting pity.  Even the most ardent Bears fans realize Sunday’s game was poorly played from the Bears standpoint, yet they had no trouble winning.

Here is the most common thing I’ve heard today – I feel sorry for the city of Cleveland that the Browns are so bad.  They say the Browns are the worst team they’ve played in they can’t remember when.  This is coming from fans whose team plays the Lions twice a year!  How sad that is.

I didn’t see the game live.  I taped it but I won’t watch it.  I was traveling back from Ohio to Chicago yesterday afternoon so I listened to the game on the Bears radio network.  More than once the Bears announcers (Jeff Joniak and Tom Thayer) asked the question – what has Brady Quinn done that he can’t even get on the field?  This was before the one series mop up at the end of the game.

To me the Browns are at the lowest point in their history.  There is no reason to be optimistic about the future.  What building blocks do they even have in place?  What free agent player other than one that no other team wants would play for this team or this coaching staff?  There are holes everywhere.  We are watching the destruction of a franchise that will take years to rebuild if it can be rebuilt.

Delusional Browns fans can quit dreaming about Bill Cowher or any other big name coach coming in to save them.  Not going to happen.

I’m still a fan but I’m becoming a very apathetic one.

Tom Shenberger

Crystal Lake,  Illinois

Dear Tom,

You sound much more than apathetic. But you also sound correct. Very, very correct.

(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.)

My column for tomorrow's Beacon Journal: It's time to admit a mistake with Eric Mangini.

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)

First and 10 27 with the Browns

 1)      Well things are just peachy now, eh? It’s hard to believe the Browns could be more of a mess, and a revived Cincinnati team arrives Sunday. It’s also hard to know where to start with this team. There are only 10 items (though the name did change this week) and the Browns show no signs of heading in a positive direction. There is talk of the team quitting, of Eric Mangini’s ways being too oppressive and of a negative feeling in the locker room toward the head coach that might be impossible to stem. The Browns may face another tough decision before the season ends – if things don’t change. Losing always brings out the negatives, and in the Browns case much of it is directed toward Mangini. It’s a mess. A m-e-s-s.

2)      There has been national speculation that perhaps Mangini will not make it through the season. I speculated that very thing in Monday’s Beacon Journal. And I think it’s justified – if things do not change. This team is in disarray. There is not a single position on the team that is better than it was a year ago. It took the fifth pick in the draft – a potential spot for an impact player of some sort – and traded down three times for a center. That’s center. C-e-n-t-e-r. A bunch of guys have been brought in who have not helped. The team’s mood is horrible. There does not seem to be a drop of belief in the coach. The quit word has come up over and over again. The best thing the Browns have going for them is Rob Ryan, and right now his defense can’t defend a flea. If the problems and the losing persist, continuing on the same road for the sake of doing so is just compounding a mistake.

3)      In past years I did not cry for coaches to be fired, even when they had bad records. Romeo Crenel had some really bad games, but he never lost his team. The players always played for him. And if they had a stinker of a game, they usually followed with a good effort. Chris Palmer’s teams competed. The 1999 expansion team lost by seven in Baltimore and actually laid a hand on guys when they scored. They beat Pittsburgh. As bad as those teams were, they beat Pittsburgh. They also did not avoid the head coach on the sideline like he had Bubonic plague. One might recall that at the end of the 2007 season the players presented Crenel with a game ball and a thank you, leaving him pretty emotional.  I’m not thinking that Mangini is on many players’ Christmas lists at this point. It’s probably not even fair to say Mangini lost this team – because there never seemed to be a point where he had it.

4)      The schedule is not pretty, not with two road games in Buffalo and Pittsburgh following Sunday’s game against Cincinnati. Pittsburgh is (sorry) a loss. Buffalo is not all that great, but going there 0-4 would not be like charging in with the Light Brigade. After those two games come a home game against Green Bay and a trip to Chicago. The hope in all these games isn’t based on the Browns suddenly finding themselves; it’s on the opponent. As in, maybe Cincinnati will go back to playing like Cincinnati and maybe Buffalo will be torn up by Terrell Owens by that point (though one would guess that if any cornerbacks can revive TO be season, it’d be the Browns). It’s never good when you look at a team that’s playing poorly and say: Well that other team might be worse.

5)      At this point Mangini has to rally the team. Maybe he can. He best hope he can. But the clear feeling I get from league insiders is that Mangini will not try to be upbeat this week, but instead will hammer the team mentally for losing, and that this week will be tougher than tough. Maybe that’s what’s needed. We’ll see. But the general feeling from those I speak with is that that kind of negativity is what has the Browns where they are now. Players are beat down, beat up, playing like they’re tired and playing completely uninspired (hey, is that iambic pentameter rhyming, a la Shakespeare?). Manginieth does noteth seemeth like the coacheth who can get that doneeth.

6)      The negativity toward Mangini is growing around the league as well. There’s a lot of chuckling in Seattle because of the signing of Floyd Womack. His nickname – Pork Chop – makes him sound like a gnarly offensive lineman. In reality, he’s been a walking injury report. In the past five seasons, he’s had elbow, triceps, quadriceps, knee, groin, hamstring and foot injuries. Nobody in Seattle is surprised he’s now been out with an ankle, but they were surprised any team signed him as a free agent. Since 2005, he’s started 26 of 67 games (14 of them last season) and missed 19 due to injury. Yet the Browns signed him and touted him as a hard-nosed guy. That’s our Browns.

7)      Then again, Womack was playing because Rex Hadnot was hurt. Who’d have thought Rex Hadnot would be this team’s lynchpin?

8)      The great mystery of this early season is what happened to Brady Quinn.  A year ago, he threw for 239 yards and two touchdowns against Denver, then threw for 185 yards in a win over Buffalo. In that game he guided the Browns on a 96-yard touchdown drive, and led the team to the game-winning field goal. This season he’s looked lost. The difference? Clearly he has no confidence. Insiders say he’s been so programmed to avoid the mistake he was playing scared, which is impossible. It’s the only reason Derek Anderson might change things, because if he’ll do anything he’ll take chances. The Browns would have to live with his interceptions, but he’d also get the ball down the field. Quinn was so tied in knots by this coaching staff that he could not do a thing. I’m not at all sure, though, that Mangini is the kind of coach who will live with interceptions. Me, I’d start Anderson and hope for a miracle against the Bengals like Phil Savage got two years ago. There’s an inherent risk because Anderson pretty well figures this is his last season in Cleveland so he’s just going to go out and wing it. But … nothing ventured, nothing gained. And at this point, the Browns have to venture somewhere and try something.

9)      At some point, too, some questions have to be asked about Brian Daboll, who kind of makes you pine for Maurice Carthon, but really makes you lust for Terry Robiskie or Bruce Arians. Daboll opened Sunday’s game in Baltimore with some quick-hit passes, but after an interception four plays in he went right back to the same old stuff. Daboll’s inexperience seems glaring, and a team with a young quarterback has a defensive head coach and an inexperienced coordinator trying to guide him. Is it any wonder Quinn looks confused?

10)  Brian Robiskie has been spending his Sundays with Amelia Aerheart. One of the reasons given is that he’s not able to contribute on special teams. Anyone tell me how many receivers contribute on special teams? The answer: One. Josh Cribbs. Mike Furrey, Mohammed Massaquoi and Braylon Edwards do not play special teams. Why then is Robiskie required to do so? And if he is, didn’t he do fairly well on special teams in the final preseason game (yes, it was the final preseason game)? Is the guy considered the most polished and most NFL ready receiver in the draft that far behind? Or is there another unspoken reason he’s not playing? I don’t know. I just wonder.

OK .. I just can’t stop at 10 …

11)  The San Francisco 49ers, who are 2-1, sent out this news release about injured players: “The results of a MRI on 49ers RB Frank Gore show a right ankle strain and a right hind foot sprain that will sideline him for approximately three weeks The results of a MRI on T Joe Staley show a right quad contusion and he is listed as day-to-day. The results of a MRI on S Reggie Smith show a right groin strain and he will be re-evaluated in two weeks.” Not only did the walls not collapse in the 49ers facility, the team is actually winning. Any explanations on how the 49ers can actually reveal this information and … umm … accomplish something on the field are welcome.

12)  Randy Lerner is taking a lot of public heat for the state of the team. This comes with the territory. He did in fact hire Mangini. And my guess is he will recognize this reality. Calling for him to sell the team, though, is pretty silly. Unless you want to go door to door in the neighborhood, I’m not guessing there are many people in the area with $1 billion sitting around to spend on a football team. How Lerner handles this situation if it doesn’t improve will be telling, though. Because (I repeat) … continuing with a mistake just for the sake of doing so only makes the mistake worse.

13)  The Browns have a very tenuous situation on their hands, and without a win it will not change anytime soon. In fact, it will get worse. They need some hope. So if there is any extra hope sitting around the house, it might be wise to pack it up and send it to Berea. Because right now the hope isn’t coming from within the team. It might on Sunday, but that will be tough. Please … folks … pack up any hope in an envelope, a mayonnaise jar, a small box … and send it to Berea. They really need some.

Three and Out

Several good letters were sent the past week. Because of that, in honor of you, the dear reader, a longer version of Three and Out will appear on the blog in a few hours.

(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)

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 28^th 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?

I'm sitting in the press box in Pittsburgh, waiting for the Steelers to play the Chargers in the playoffs and wondering how that Arizona-San Diego Super Bowl will play in America. The amazing thing is that the NFL now could have both of the lowest-seeded division winners hosting the championship games – if San Diego beats the Steelers. I don't expect that to happen, but with all these road teams winning all these games anything can happen here in Ketchup Field.

It's always good to attend one of these games, in part because it reinforces the notion that this is a pretty unbelievable job. But it's also good because you run into a lot of national types who are at the playoffs. That includes scouts, team employees and national media. That provides a good gauge of how your team is perceived nationally. Might not be an accurate reflection, but it is the reflection.

A few years ago the Browns gave Butch Davis a contract extension after a lousy season. At the Super Bowl, everyone came up and asked: What the heck are they thinking extending his contract after he went 5-11? So after the commissioner's speech the Friday before the game, Tony Grossi and I met with Carmen Policy and Randy Lerner to discuss the state of the team. Our first question: Everyone's been asking us what you were thinking extending Davis' contract after a losing season … so what the heck were you thinking?

They discussed continuity and consistency and all that, then Davis was fired before the next season ended.

At any rate, the going question in today's press box was: What the heck are they thinking hiring the coach before the GM? When I asked what kind of GM the Browns could hope to hire at this point, I was greeted with a lot of blank stares and rolled eyes. The going thinking is that any strong-minded GM would not join a team that hired a coach without input from the GM.

Word has it that:

–George Kokinis does not favor taking the job, and if he does want the job the Ravens might make it impossible by telling the Browns they will not let him leave unless he has full hiring and firing powers in Cleveland.

–Rich McKay was never a real serious candidate.

–Ted Sundquist might be do it because he's not with a team now. Same with Floyd Reese, Charley Casserley and Tom Donahoe. Me, I've thought Reese was an excellent choice from day one.

–Nick Caserio would be a good hire, but he also might not leave New England.

–The Browns would be wise to pursue Chris Polian, but his father might not recommend he make Cleveland his next stop.

If none of this happens, the Browns may well give personnel power to coach Eric Mangini and hire a personnel guy like T.J. McCreight.

As the Browns world turns.