Wedge: “I hope to have some resolution before the season is over.”
September 3, 2009Browns Preseason Game #4: Chicago Bears Open Thread
September 3, 2009
With only Oakland’s Al Davis, Cincinnatti’s Mike Brown, Chicago’s Virginia McCaskey, and Detroit’s Bill Ford Jr behind him, our own Randy Lerner finds himself among the worst owners in the NFL.
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. After firing general manager Phil Savage and coach Romeo Crennel following the ’08 season, Lerner should have aggressively pursued Patriots VP Scott Pioli to take over football operations. Instead he went hard after Eric Mangini, coming off a failed stint as the Jets’ coach, rushing to take him off the market when there were no other suitors. Why Mangini? Sources say Lerner, who fashions himself an intellect, was won over by Mangini’s sophisticated conversational style and passion for various pursuits outside of football. One thing I’m guessing they didn’t discuss: Mangini’s plans to bully the team’s rookies into taking a “voluntary” bus trip to and from Hartford, Conn. – 10 hours each way – to work at his football camp. Lerner also repeated the mistake he made when he hired Crennel – choosing a coach before hiring a GM (in this case, George Kokinis). As with the Raiders’ devoted fan base, the passionate Browns backers deserve much, much better.
While I disagree with the bus trip being a point of contention with anyone, the fact of the matter is that Lerner has done absolutely nothing to prove his passion (if there is any) to the fans of this Browns team and the city of Cleveland. I’m willing to bet that Silver would have used at least a dozen more “much’s” if it wasn’t for sake of monotony. To be such a perrenial underachiever in a league with a salary cap is unacceptable. To not care enough to face the media is salt in the wounds.
For what it’s worth, Pittsburgh and Baltimore both fall within the top 10. Mike Keenan will now take your questions…
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’09 owner rankings [Michael Silver/Yahoo!]
17 Comments
Yes. BUT, He’s one of the greatest soccer owners across the pond. You gotta take the good with the bad.
You are just mad because he is a great scarf officianado.
Breaking news: Beanie Wells walks out on Cardinals; Joins Aston Villa Soccer Team; Isis seen standing on bridge.
As much as I may or may not agree with his position on this list, the guy’s reasons are kind of ridiculous. Put him on there for Crennel and Savage, sure, but bringing up the bus trip B.S. and then pretty much assuming from one off-season and 3/4 of a preseason that Mangini will fail is kind of petty.
How do they rate his expertise in hiring coaches and front office personnel?
EZ-it’s kind of true and obvious, wait and see.
See background/left of photo.
That’s my security guy, strategizing return of my scarf. Damn you, Lerner, flaunting your ill-gotten gains. You shall pay.
Lerner doesn’t run Aston Villa or the Browns any differently.
He puts people in charge that he thinks know about those sports from talking with many people, and he steps back and lets them do his thing.
Ernie Accorsi was the driving force behind us hiring Mangini and Kokinis. Not sure why people have a problem with an owner ‘not’ being hands-on (as opposed to those owners who are hands-on and actively hurt their teams….like Mike Brown and Al Davis)
The guy behind Lerner in the photo looks like old Professor Kingsfield from Paper Chase.
“Mister Lerner . . . You have a skull full of mush.”
If Cassel doesn’t work out, will Pioli seem so great? I’m sick of the whole Belichick tree, Parcells tree, etc. thing. Mangini getting so many former Jets could fall in with that idea too- the #5 pick might have gotten a better deal than what Mangini got. Why can’t coaches/GMs evaluate talent objectively instead of focusing so much on players from organizations they’ve been in? Yeah, you can learn some things about them from being around them so much, but you might also miss out on better players from outside your comfort zone.
Tim: case in point – Mike Tomlin. The guy is born into 4-3 defenses, coordinates a great one in Minnesota, then goes to p-burgh and does what? Adapts to the 3-4. I know, he had a great thing going, but he also checked his ego at the door and didn’t assume he had all the answers.
There’s nothing that burns me more than seeing the team I hate the most do it the best and the team I like the most perform among the worst.
Sorry Matt, I have to disagree with the Mike Tomlin point. It’s not like he had to start all over in Pittsburgh, adapting personnel to fit a scheme he doesn’t know, or even hire a defensive coordinator. He had one of the best in the game already on staff, so unless someone has the ego the size of Jerry Jones, they’d have the sense to yield to LeBeau in that situation. I don’t think Tomlin did anything great; he just knew his place as a first year head coach with a HoF coordinator.
he also would not have gotten the job in the first place if he wasn’t willing to let LeBeau keep control of the defense. that Rooney guy is no dummy.
Yeah, I agree, Matt, you have to be able to adapt and be willing to change.
I couldn’t agree with Silver any more. If the Browns succeed under Mangini/Kokinis, I think it will be in spite of Lerner, not because of him. The man has never had any real interest in the team and it shows. I’m not even complaining about Mankok at this point. I will reserve judgment on them until after we see the fruits of their labors. I’m just sick of Lerner’s indifference.
Mangini, Lerner, Quinn, D.A., and Bernie have a chat: http://kardiackid.blogspot.com/2009/09/int-eric-manginis-office-day_28.html
[…] with YouTube worship – his status over here has been not as good. In September, Lerner was ranked 28th out of 32 NFL owners citing primarily his absence in his home […]