Have you ever prayed for God to do something, or give you something specific in your life? Asked for a certain someone to love you? Begged for a job, promotion or opportunity? Can you think back to a time when you did, certain that what you were asking for was the best thing for you? How did that turn out? I’m guessing that many of you, like myself can answer that question in at least one circumstance by saying “I’m glad that prayer wasn’t answered the way I wanted.”
Here’s where I get to the point. The Cleveland Browns are an absolute mess. I’ve heard and read so many opinions and ideas over the last 72 hours about what it will take to fix the situation. Most of them are ridiculous. Here’s one- Bernie Kosar should be the next GM of the Cleveland Browns. Really?
Bernie Kosar is the Browns QB of my youth. I remember watching Brian Sipe, but Kosar was the man during my football formative years. I remember fondly Bernie and Webster Slaughter hooking up to beat the Three Rivers Jinx. I wept with all of Cleveland when the Kosar’s Browns came up short in the AFC Championship games. I fumed and openly rooted against the Browns against Seattle after Kosar was dropped because of ‘diminishing skills’, and yes I was thrilled for him when he won his ring with the Cowboys.
But Bernie Kosar for GM? I have nothing what-so-ever against the man, except that he is not qualified to be team’s general manager. There is more to being a GM than knowing what’s going on down on the field. There is talent evaluation. Could Kosar be a good judge of talent? Sure, maybe he could. There is also a little matter of contract negotiations and the salary cap. Now, I don’t claim to be any kind of financial genius, in fact I submit that I myself would make a terrible GM for the Browns, but do you want to give control of your team’s salary structure to a guy that went bankrupt in his personal life? There will always be a special spot in my heart for #19 because of what he did on the field. I’d rather not have that ruined because he pulled a Matt Millen. That article I referenced said Kosar basically lost his money because he picked the wrong people to get advice from. Those in charge of his books and business dealings were trusted too much. That doesn’t speak well to his ability to find the right people.
I remember when the community was fighting to have the Browns back in the league. Fans were clamoring for a rich owner that would leave the team in the hands of football people. Well, congratulations! That is exactly what you got. Al Lerner had ties to the history of the team and essentially let his front office people handle the football side. Randy is following in his father’s footsteps, albeit from a farther vantage point. So how is that going for you? I mean, we got exactly what we wanted right?
What about Phil Savage? Wasn’t he exactly what we were looking for? I know I was excited about the hire. So let’s get a little bit of a grip on ourselves before we go suggesting that Kosar should run the team. I know, most of us really didn’t want Mangini. Congratulations, maybe we called that one right, but for the most part asking the fans who they want to be the QB, GM or Head Coach is not the brightest idea. And Cleveland fans are some of the smartest football fans in the country. That doesn’t mean we always know what’s best for the team though. So let’s learn the first rule of poker- leave emotion at the door.
