Cavaliers Film Room: Defending Dwight Howard
December 14, 2012NFL Report: Browns’ Pinkston plans on returning in 2013
December 14, 2012Anytime you make changes its going to effect some things. It’s not going to be smooth, it’s just not. I don’t think I’d be surprised [if I am in Cleveland next season], but I really don’t have an idea. That’s the honest truth. I would love to (stay) but if it doesn’t work out here I’ll go do it somewhere else.
— Cleveland Browns general manager Tom Heckert, in an impromptu press conference, discussing his future with the team. Widely considered the best general manager in recent team history, Heckert has drafted the core of the team that has since been taken over by Jimmy Haslam III and CEO Joe Banner. Heckert made it very evident that he likes Cleveland and likes the direction of the Browns, in turn making it very tough to spin anything short of a firing.
[Related: Tom Heckert’s future may rest in his own hands]
13 Comments
he understands it’s a business and that what he has done here has pretty much guaranteed him a job elsewhere if Haslam/Banner fire him (due to philosophical differences as I don’t think that they can discredit his actual work).
I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a Cleveland team to retain a current GM so much.
He should be given the chance to continue his work here.
I’ve been on the fence about Heckert, but he has swung me with the surfeit of talent he brought in with the 2012 draft. Would be a shame if the rigid ideology of an incoming regime wiped out the internal leadership structure that has produced increasingly effective drafts
I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a Cleveland team to retain a current GM before full stop.
Indeed. Heckert has put himself in a pretty enviable situation. I love the matter-of-fact literalism in the quote above “If it doesn’t work out here, I’ll go somewhere else”…”And once there, I will rent an apartment, buy groceries, and commence my work at a desk with a computer…”
haha awesome.
He has certainly earned his job. Unfortunately, that factors in at around 20% relevance.
It’s probably the most accurate and straightforward answer possible.
If they get rid of Heckert, Haslam and Banner better pray that they never ever blow a high draft pick.
However, I’m not sure Garry Owen would want a guy who doesn’t know the difference between effect and affect.
Banner paid off the guy quoting him 😉
I’m sorry, mg, but I think that a person who makes his living as a writer would have a little more pride than that.
I would prefer it if Heckert stayed, but I’m a fan, not an owner, and as a fan I like the idea of the main talent evaluator being the person responsible for assembling the team. But I can’t really fault a guy who just paid a billion dollars for a team to want to structure the management of his business in such a way that a person with an eye for the bottom line has final say over a major expenditure like payroll.