Report: Tony Grossi Out as Browns Beat Reporter

Finally. He’ll make a great op-ed writer for the suburban times

didn’t say he was fired though.  perhaps he’ll be the beat reporter for the Canton Charge at a reduced rate?

i will always be happy that Grossi played a big part of keeping Art Modell out of the Football HOF (according to Peter King), but outside of that, well, I won’t go there.

LOL.

Regards,
Eric Mangini

Don’t know the guy but feel awful for anyone that loses their job. 

Maybe he got the job when he was too young, stayed there too long and hubris let him make his fatal mistake. There really hasn’t been any energy or urgency to his reporting or opinions for a long time. Just seemed to go through the motions. Still, sad for him and his family. 

Do look forward to the PD hiring a knowledgeable, hard-working replacement who can write thoughts in a compelling and enjoyable manner. Would love a football version of the type of job Windhorst did with the Cavs. There are hundreds of such candidates around the country and relatively few such positions, so hard to believe the PD can mess this up.

I couldn’t be happier. I’ve been one of many commenters (thinking of you jim kanicki) to call for his ouster. His disdain for his readers was unbelievable.

I’m very curious to see where the PDs coverage of the Browns goes from here. I know Grossi was bad at his job so it will be interesting to see what the PDs coverage can develop into. I guess what I’m saying is how much difference can a good beat writer make? I think a lot.

He’s been crass and rude to his readership for years. I feel bad that he had to learn this lesson the hard way, but I won’t miss his attitude one bit.

At least they have Mary Kay Cabot to provide some experience and continuity during this little ordeal.

But it’s very difficult to replace a veteran like Grossi. For all the criticisms, he really wasn’t bad. He was MKC’s foil. The beat, with MKC and Grossi, actually provided both sides to each story.

Let’s hope the Browns beat doesn’t suffer as much as the Cavs beat, which has yet to find its footing since a certain large fellow bolted for the big network.

why do you say the old incident wasn’t his fault? As I recall: he claimed in a story to have tried to get a response on something from Modell, when Modell was available and close by and Grossi in fact never even made the attempt. Modell went nuts at the insinuation that he was unresponsive and Grossi was pulled off regular beat writing duty for the remainder of the season and wrote the side stories. Am I remembering incorrectly?

You’re close Harv and that’s a good question:

Grossi sought comment from Modell for a story, but Modell never got back to him. Grossi filed the story without a comment (he may have written Modell was unavailable or could not be reached for comment) but that night, before it was published, the assistant sports editor changed it to read that Modell declined (or refused) to comment, which was not the case.

That’s what set Modell off and when it hit the fan the next day, Grossi took the blame because the assistant sports editor was friends with the sports editor and was protected by him (that was the main reason he had a job at the PD in the first place, he followed the sports editor from New Orleans and was gone from the PD about 6 months or so after the sports editor left for a better job, I think it was with the Sacramento paper).

I was working as a college intern at the PD when this all went down so I was privy to the inside talk in the newsroom; everyone there knew what happened, and it obviously hurt Tony a lot.

Who knows, maybe that’s what made Grossi cynical?

Anyway, as much as this one was his fault and he deserves some kind of punishment, that one wasn’t.

Titus, you were there and I wasn’t, but it’s very hard for me to believe that Grossi would have gone through the humiliation of being yanked off the Browns beat because he was afraid to tell the truth about an assistant editor. Doesn’t make sense.

I, too, never had a problem with Grossi. Some writers connect with the fans, such as Pluto, Shaw, and others, and some don’t, such as Grossi and Livingston. But I don’t think that Grossi and Livingston care whether they are liked or not. That’s no knock on them, it’s just the way they’re wired.

/sort of like Denny (cheap walk-off shot; sorry)

YES!!! YES!!!! YES!!!! YES!!!!

(in all seriousness, it’s never great when someone loses a job–and maybe Grossi hasn’t–but this is a victory for everyone who enjoys unbiased reporting and journalists who aren’t too lazy to actually do their job)

yes, ive long thought he mailed it in.  he copped a real arrogant attitude with readers in the hey tony’s.  he knew football but came to believe he knew more football than the guys in berea.

and yet.

when you can someone you should have a replacement in mind.  this is a plum PLUM job.  mkc is out of her depth in her current role.  d-man hasnt brought any fresh perspectives to browns conversation.  

i dont think either of them are worthy of the role and would actually be worse than tony.  i truly hope the PD doesnt blow it with the assignment.

(my vote is for zac jackson. he tweeted a ‘thanks, but no thanks’ but still.. i think he’d be a great fit for it.)

I guess he won’t be getting any playoff tickets.

I know some people write for the Metro section in the PD and I asked around.  He knew it was coming after he made the Tweet and he’s actually fine with it.  He dislikes Holmgren with a passion (remember when I said there were plenty of others, some of them insiders, who hate this regime like I do?) and I’m sure he’ll land on his feet somewhere.

Final point:  Cracks in the cement first show in odd places.  They don’t always make sense and you write them off just as quick;y as they appear…the fans’ anger was the first.  The tiny quips you hear from the media are second.  Can’t wait to see what is next (a guess: we hear of a player or two, possibly someone who leaves the team, tell us how it really was in that locker room with Hehr Doktor Shurmur).

“Cracks in the cement first show in odd places.”

This is absolutely false.  Cracks in cement almost always show in places of constant stress, or pressure.  If the ground beneath your house begins to wash out and your floor sinks a crack will almost invariably appear either in the floor or wall where the sinking has occurred.  Cracks will almost never appear far away from the damage in an “odd place”. 

Sorry, I figured that everyone challenges your opinions on sports so I’d go after you where you least expect.  And since joking/sarcasm tones don’t always translate to typing, I’m just messing.

I would rather see Livingston go

Tony may not have connected with fans the way Pluto does, but I’ve always enjoyed his stuff. Tony is particularly good with the non-standard sports coverage: the podcast, Q&As, social media, blog posts, etc. I’ll miss him if he’s off the beat and maybe I won’t read cleveland.com anymore.

I don’t care that Tony wasn’t the nicest to readers. Many of the questions he receives are ridiculous and harshly written. Everyone thinks they know about sports or could be a writer, but that’s just not true. I frankly enjoyed his snarky responses to people. But the only thing I really care about is his knowledge of football and his reporting. On those counts, Tony is quite good.

A reporter having an adversarial role with those in power (i.e. Lerner) is not exactly groundbreaking. Why the PD took him off the beat for one errant tweet is beyond me. It’s not exactly like Lerner is A) media friendly B) popular or C) a deserved billionaire. 

There are not many people who cover the Browns well or even know the Browns well. Tony is one of them. Are we to turn now to the tepid AFC North blog on ESPN.com for coverage?

uugggghhh, that ESPN “blog” (really what makes it more bloggy than any other piece of content on their site?) is terrible. 

Headline: “Browns need a QB!”

Hensleys take: “Maybe they get one in the draft, maybe FA.”

gee, thanks

I think you’ll find that criticism based on facts (which mine is) will always have champions, even long after we’ve both gone to glory.

As to “everyone” challenging me, that’s also a lie and false.  Plenty of people don’t because they agree.

Keep it real.

Also, cement…really?  That’s your contribution…thread hijacking?

Because he still works for the PD and received a check from them. He may take a drastic paycut and only get to analyze the funny pages, but he’s still getting a check that many other residents of the greater Cleveland area would die for.

thanks, Titus. Back in the day I think I got my version from the alternative weekly Cleveland newspaper, as that was the only source to hear about what happened at the PD pre-internet. Don’t remember the PD uttering a word other than some sort of retraction of Modell’s refusal to comment. Grossi just sort of disappeared for a while, as if Clemenza had assured him in the basement: don’t worry, kid, we’ll let you know when it’s safe to come back, this happens every ten years or so. It cleans out the bad blood.

We still have print media in Cleveland?

Did you hear the manager editor on the radio this morning for the PD?  Interesting stuff…he said that due to the medium he used (Twitter) Grossi could not frame his comment in a larger story, and therefore he could not substantiate it with facts.  As such, the comment was not proper as a journalist. 

This makes me ill beyond belief, but Kiley did have a good comment:  What does this say about the legitimacy of the rest of the paper?  How do we not know that every article doesn’t pass through some sort of billionaire filter, so as to not offend anyone.

Also, remember that some people at 19 Action News were let go when they aired a 911 call from Lerner’s Aunt.  Bad call for the TV-station, but the KGB-Soviet-esque response is just as bad.

I agree that it is bad work by the PD (although I won’t personally go so far as to say it makes me ill).

This is why I said that I have to believe they wanted to remove him anyway and were simply looking for an excuse.  It’s one thing for Booms to say and act the way he does, but it is another for someone in Grossi’s position.  

Either way, weak justification from the PD.

The irony in all this is that the PD has now drawn national attention to this tweet, further embarrasing Lerner. Although a lot of people would agree with Grossi, I understand why the PD felt he’s the wrong guy for this job. Enjoyed his articles for his brand of dark humor, but often disagreed with him. He had one of the best jobs on the planet, and it seems did not fully appreciate it. As for Lerner, I believe he really does want the Browns to win, I just wish he was as passionate about football as the fans on this site.