May 25, 2013

A simple solution for Mike Holmgren and the Browns

March 20, 2012 by 77 Comments

Mike Holmgren did it again.

He called his old buddy in Seattle to talk football. Many fans and media are up in arms about it not because of what he said, but because he’s seemingly out there talking to Seattle more frequently than he is talking to Browns fans. That assessment might be harsh, but in the world of sports and entertainment where fans cling to every word, perception is reality. What’s most surprising to me is that Mike Holmgren and the Browns for all their experience don’t seem to get it. There’s a really really easy solution to all this.

Mike Holmgren needs to preempt every Seattle appearance with a Cleveland one.

Sounds simple, right? That’s because it is.

Mike Holmgren needs to pick one radio show, be it WKNR, WTAM, 92.3 or even WMMS and talk to them for 10 minutes on the same day before he calls his buddy Dave Mahler in Seattle. Maybe even do it a day before he calls Mahler. Seattle won’t mind. I promise.

If Holmgren really wants to make sure he gets a home team interview he can even just do a quick podcast with Vic Carucci for ClevelandBrowns.com

Maybe Browns fans are overly needy. Maybe it is silly that Mike Holmgren needs to placate fans and hold their hands so much. Even if that is your opinion, so what? Every NFL job comes with a pretty lucrative paycheck and slightly different sets of requirements. If Browns fans need more hand-holding, load up the tape recorder and hold their hands with a few minutes.

It would be better than inviting select media to a conference room, telling them to leave their tape recorders and cameras at home and not releasing any transcripts so that Twitter and next-day articles are needed to figure out what you said. This is the modern world.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it wouldn’t be good enough and people would still complain, but you never know until you try. Another appearance on KJR and another day of sports talk radio making it a topic of conversation means that you’re not doing it right yet.

Fix it. It will be far and away easier than solving all the personnel issues that you need patience to fix on the field on Sundays.

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  • Garry_Owen

    1.  Now?  That can’t seriously be a complaint RIGHT NOW.  If he was to do that RIGHT NOW, with the results that would surely follow, there would be even more complaints. 
    2.  He hired an Offensive Coordinator.  Calling plays or not calling plays, hiring an Offensive Coordinator was a huge change from what they said last year - and we still have no idea what the play calling will look like yet.  It’s freaking March. 
    3.  No cause of action is stated for which relief can be granted.
    4.  What is he supposed to say?  “Look, we don’t believe in Colt, and we don’t expect him to win or to take us to the playoffs, but we just don’t have any other answers or alternatives right now.”  What owner, president, GM, or coach would ever publicly admit something stupid like that (unless you knew you were signing Peyton Manning today)?
    5.  Yeah, I still don’t get why everyone is so hung up on that.

    Having taken part in and attended more than a few elementary school music recitals, I can attest that some tones are just better not hearing.

  • Garry_Owen

    Pretty sure it wasn’t sarcasm, but he did nail it. 

  • Garry_Owen

    There is no cat. The cat is an illusion.

  • cmm13

    condescending font then?

  • Max

    1-no, not now. But had he done that in the beginning, I’ll bet many fans would be less likely to complain.

    2- if the OC/play calling thing doesn’t register as a failure to you, then we can agree to disagree.

    3- he is leaving Heckert to do his job. This makes me happy. That’s the point I was trying to make

    4- All I’m saying is don’t expect people to just nod their head and pretend everything is hunky-dory, that’s all. People tend to get unhappy when they feel their intelligence is being insulted

    5- so obviously a joke, I guess I didn’t make that clear

    you just asked if there was anything he could do to make fans happy. I presented a list of things (some serious, others not so much) of things that probably would’ve bought some more goodwill among the malcontents. He’s free to do whatever he likes, obviously, I was merely trying to answer your question.

  • Mark

    I was going for sarcastic condescension. Sorry if I went too far. I’m a bit tired of the whole, “nobody knows OUR pain” attitude.

  • Garry_Owen

    But none of those are things he can do now. What can he do now, going forward? I guess I just come from a heritage and school of thought that gives little stock to complaining.

  • cmm13

    Didn’t go too far for me, I thought it was spont on.

    The thought process that the Holmgren, Heckert and Lerner do not want to win now AS WELL AS build a succesful team for later is mind numbing.

  • Max

    I’m not complaining. you asked if he ever could do anything to make people happy. I submitted a list of things that, if they had been done, probably would have made a lot of people happy. That is quite a bit different than complaining.

    Do you think if he had hired a seasoned head coach, or not wasted a year with Mangini, or at least forced his rookie head coach to have as much help as humanly possible when attempting to do an insanely complicated and chaotic job that people would be as rankled as they are now?

    Again, I’m not complaining. Complaining about something you have no control over is a waste of time. I was merely playing devils advocate to the “cant make anyone happy” argument. Truth is, anytime you are dealing with such a large group of people, there will never come a time where everyone is happy.

  • BuckeyeDawg

     I don’t know that it’s so much not “knowing our pain” as it is acting like you understand that in Cleveland, the Browns are king.  The area is obsessed with football, and we are one of the most passionate fan bases in the league.  Case in point…it’s mid-March, the draft is a month away, the NCAA tournament is going on, the Indians (who should contend for the playoffs) are 2 weeks away from opening day, the Cavs are in the home stretch and are still in playoff contention, and what are we talking about?  The Browns.  Nothing “moves the needle” in this town like they do, and it’s not even close. 

    We want the people in charge to care as much as we do…or at least act like it.  We want to be kept in the loop when it comes to our team…and while doing this doesn’t necessarily mean that this isn’t happening, and he didn’t say anything that we don’t already know, it sure plays poorly in the media and amongst many of the fans. 

  • BuckeyeDawg

     I don’t know that it’s so much not “knowing our pain” as it is acting like you understand that in Cleveland, the Browns are king.  The area is obsessed with football, and we are one of the most passionate fan bases in the league.  Case in point…it’s mid-March, the draft is a month away, the NCAA tournament is going on, the Indians (who should contend for the playoffs) are 2 weeks away from opening day, the Cavs are in the home stretch and are still in playoff contention, and what are we talking about?  The Browns.  Nothing “moves the needle” in this town like they do, and it’s not even close. 

    We want the people in charge to care as much as we do…or at least act like it.  We want to be kept in the loop when it comes to our team…and while doing this doesn’t necessarily mean that this isn’t happening, and he didn’t say anything that we don’t already know, it sure plays poorly in the media and amongst many of the fans. 

  • mgbode

    once a month?  what is he doing the rest of the time?  he should have daily podcasts, interviews rotating between the radio stations, as well as fan meet-n-greets throughout the week.  not to mention host benefit concerts at the Rock Hall, while schmoozing with the VIP luxury box holders at Cleveland Orchestra concerts.  

    (we just heard from Heckert a couple weeks ago, Shurmur a couple weeks before that and Holmgren on the conference call.   Like you I think they are doing just fine with frequency of communication and the above sarcasm is directed at some of the others :) )

  • mgbode

    great, now people will blame them when it’s cold outside in Cleveland  :)

  • Garry_Owen

    Peace, brother. I’m not talking about you, necessarily. Just making an observation in general.

  • Big Z

    If our team was any good, we wouldn’t have to worry about dumb crap like who “Homegrum” (ala Sam Rutigliano) is talking to.

  • CavsFanInLA

    God Bless the Browns, but I am so happy that we have one sports team in town where the owner, GM and Coach are moving ahead on all cylinders doing everything they can and spending whatever it takes to win for the fans and the City. I really appreciate Gilbert and the Cavs, and how they treat and think about the fans, and for how they are making smart choices.

  • Flxlin

    I dont think Browns fans are overly needy, the fact of the matter is that he is the prezident of the CLEVELAND Browns. Not the seattle chapter of the Browns fan club. Holmgren has barely spoken to CLE media about the off season, but he spills his guts to seattle? I find it fishy that Holmgren doesnt make a play for Matt Flynn, but his favoritist seahawks do and get him…. Just saying.

  • floydrubino

    I am confused on what Holmgren is here for. If we are building through the draft and Heckert is responsible for the draft then what is Holmgren doing. I thought when we hired him that he was going to be able to get something done but look what he has done. He brought in Shurmur which is a joke of a hire. Then he stepped in to take Colt McCoy and wasted a pick with him because he was never going to be a franchise qb. If we passed on McCoy I bet Heckert would of maybe gone after Dalton the next year if we weren’t committed to Holmgren’s pick. Holmgren is making terrible decisions while Heckert is making some solid choices. I have no clue what Holmgren’s responsibilities are. To bring in some has been Brad Childress to mentor an unprepared Shurmur for a couple years before we fire Holmgren and look bad to everyone. I just wish Randy Lerner understood we just needed to hire Heckert and build through the draft if Holmgren is going to screw stuff up with his ego decisions. How is any reporter not standing up and saying every team in the nfl has to build through the draft for the most part for the last 30 years and longer and challenge Holmgren what a cop out answer this is. Then ask if you are building through the draft as your only plan then why are you even here. I still really mean it when I say I don’t know what Holmgren does.

  • porkchopexpress

    You should have gone for sarcastic condensation, that way your words would be dripping with disdain.

    I’ll be here all week folks, don’t forget to try the all you can eat Zebra Mussel bar.

  • porkchopexpress

    I’ve decided Holmgren has turned heel and gone Ric Flair on us, its the only possible explanation.  I mean the only thing the “with us or against us” speech was missing was “And you keilbasa eatin’ Parma boys don’t have what it takes to be with us”! 
    Or maybe go on Browns Roundtable, snatch the mic from Sam and crush Bernie in the head then dance around with a couple girls in Steeler cheerleader costumes.
    I’ve got another one where he finally offers to do an interview with Rizzo, only to show up 30 minutes late and cracks Goldhammer in the back of the head with a chair, but I’m actually holding out hope that it happens.
    Funny? Barely, maybe not at all, and to be honest I don’t care who he talks to, but I get that a lot of people do.  And alot of those people spend alot more money on tickets than my zero (work every football Sunday, but I gotta be honest I wouldn’t be up there anyway, I hate crowds), and if those people get bent out of shape over it, I can’t believe that he is so clueless as to just keep F’uing them. 
    I can’t think of anyone in sports/sports entertainment outside of Vince Mcmahon that continually taunts his fanbase like Holmgren and gets away with it. 
    I’m just saying that my prediction for the draft now is that Holmgren shows up wearing a glittery robe, walks up to the podium, stands there mugging for the camera for 9:58 seconds and then says “With the fourth pick we select… FU Cleveland!”, drops the mic flicks off the camera and walks off stage.  Next day season ticket sales triple.

  • https://twitter.com/jimkanicki jimkanicki

    holmgren thinks he’s parcellls and that’s his francesa.

    but he’s not parcells and that’s not francesa.

  • MrCleaveland

     He started it.

  • BenRM

    b/c he is probably the worst radio personality in the history of the medium. 

  • http://www.cinpleweb.com/ stin4u

    Honestly, in the NFL with the cap structured as it is, deep pockets are only great for a few things. One of them being, turning over the entire coaching staff before fulfilling their contract.  If anything, that has been a hindrance to this team. I’m not saying your wrong, I’m just saying having all that money coupled with panicked fans, has probably lead to more trouble than good over the past decade due to the the inconsistency of the FO and coaching staff(s). 

  • Wheel

    You ought to be a comedy writer! Well done.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_EFUG2PACUMJICJHNHPVZ2WRWGM Tsl Ink

    holmgrens a fraud….the phat ass will walk away with millions and ZERO accountability….NOTHING WILL CHANGE UNTIL LERNER SELLS THE TEAM

  • NoVA Buckeye

    you are mistaken. jim bollman is the walrus in all of this

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