Cavaliers Waive Samardo Samuels
January 6, 2013NFL News: Chip Kelly is staying at Oregon
January 6, 2013
The Browns aren’t having the best couple days in their coaching search, at least from the perspective of rumor and anonymous sources. The team camped out in Arizona presumably to talk to Chip Kelly primarily. They’ve talked to some other candidates too, of course, but Kelly was obviously the candidate that required the most immediacy and urgency. Friday night, it was thought the Browns were “close.” Saturday night the Eagles were reportedly “close.” This morning the only thing apparently close to Chip Kelly is Chip Kelly.
Bad pun alert, but those chips will fall as they may. There’s nothing any of our worrying or hoping can do to change it. More distressing to me is that the Browns seem unaware or unwilling to change the negative perception of how this coaching search is going.
None of us really knows whether Chip Kelly is going to be a good coach in the NFL. We don’t know if he has the right temperament and ego or even if he has the desire to leave Oregon. Unless you are sitting in those interviews and truly know the candidates intimately, you’re left trying to extrapolate unknowable things from disconnected realities, and from a big distance to boot. Ultimately, whether you’re picking from a pool of former NFL head coaches, NFL coordinators or college coaches, the failure rate is significant no matter what. If there was a magic formula that fans could see with the naked eye, then we wouldn’t see so many coaching vacancies appear every year.
So, yes I think the process has been a bit discouraging so far. The Browns seem to be missing out on their target, which is bad, generically speaking. Without an ability to know just how good a candidate is going to be, you are left rooting for your team to achieve whatever it is they’re looking to achieve. Their actions lead you to believe that Chip Kelly was the first on their list, so naturally it seems like a failure if they don’t get him. I understand that completely.
Also, the Browns are allowing themselves to be victims of the national rumors. The Browns appear to insist on being tight-lipped, so instead of talking, they find themselves being talked about. Many, including ProFootballTalk, think at this point that Chip Kelly’s agent is feeding most of the rumor and speculation in order to work the Eagles and Browns against each other. That’s both typical and predictable, but it just helps fuel a nervous fanbase into thinking that the new guys are failing at the same proportion as the old guys.
What’s missing in this equation are some well-placed tidbits in the local media’s hands to project the confidence that Banner and Haslam presumably are operating with even in the face of Chip Kelly uncertainty. Instead of the local media being blacked out and being left to report the whims of Kelly’s agent via national people with unnamed sources, the Browns could own the news cycle locally. I’m not saying they need to take a Comic Sans page out of Dan Gilbert’s book, but trust me when I tell you there are at least five local beat reporters who can be trusted to remain honest and objective while also providing a venue for the team to present its case.
That’s what was so great about “Road Tested.” The Browns had a pitiful record with a questionable head coach amidst massive organizational change, but out of that was a very compelling team going through a compelling process. The national media tells one story of the Browns and how bad they are, and the Browns via reality TV were able to tell their own story with their own tone through their own prism. Maybe it was like a cloudy camera filter that Barbara Walters would use, but so what? How can the same organization that understands that so well on the Travel Channel, not figure it out in the midst of their coaching search?
Many Browns fans rightly say that the only thing that truly matters is winning. That’s absolutely correct and ideally that’s the number one way to fix any kind of public relations issue. Fact is that there are no games to play right now, so truly elite organizations must answer the bell in other areas when on-field wins aren’t available to buy them their fans’ good graces. The Browns aren’t answering that bell right now and it leaves their biggest customers with the most consternation.
I’m done trying to talk Browns fans out of that consternation too. I honestly don’t think the sky is falling with regard to this coaching search. I’ve stated multiple times that my search would start with Bruce Arians, so what do I know? Regardles, I am also willing to admit that missing out on Chip Kelly might be the best thing ever for the team if they were ever granted a hindsight view of him going to another team. It is a distinct risk and possibility with a dynamic and volatile personality like I view Kelly to be. But that message of optimism in the face of “failure” is mine because of who I am as a person. It might actually be a personality flaw, but that’s neither here nor there. If the Browns want that same optimism from all Browns fans they have to earn it by not only making good decisions that yield better on-field results, but also bringing people along for the ride.
That’s what’s gone wrong in the Browns’ search for a coach so far. Just as the Browns might have been left on the sideline by Chip Kelly and his agent, Browns fans have assuredly and absolutely been left on the sideline by Jimmy Haslam and Joe Banner in the coaching search thus far. I don’t think it has to be this way.
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(Sunday morning soundtrack for writing this post was “World Waits” by Jeremy Enigk)
143 Comments
I’m hoping that with his high football IQ and Shanahan’s coaching he will follow the example of history’s other great scramblers with guns who lasted because they learned to read defenses and trust their teammates (Steve Young, Tarkenton, Archie Manning), rather than the lowbrows and unfortunates who never could (Randall Cunningham, Vince Young, Vick).
“The Browns will now either hire someone they’ve already interviewed, or conduct a second round of talks.” –MKC
she never fails.
didn’t want to get busy with this but craig. just read the crap steve jackman has linked. seriously. crap. seriously. browns will now either hire someone or someone else. IT’S THE MEDIA THAT IS MISHANDLING THE BROWNS.
1. the browns didnt retweet a parody account as news.
2. as far as i can cleveland media did less information delivery on who doug marrone is than i did in 15 minutes of googling. if there was an article on marrone’s syracuse win over svu by a local reporter and in a marrone context, i missed it. however, i did the shallow-as-a-pie plate analysis of his .500 college coaching record.
3. no one forced cleveland media to report the whole chip kelly thing as a done deal friday night based seemingly on one, ONE, tweet from @rapsheet.
4. no cleveland reporters were in arizona were they? why not? because the browns mishandled them?
cleveland media really truly seriously sucks. know youre kinda a part of it so maybe cant see it as clearly as the rest of us.
Those are not running QBs, they were pocket passers who were also mobile. They are nothing like RGIII. To site comparable QBs you should list McNair, McNabb, Cunningham and Vick. To be fair, RGIII is better than any of those others.
Homgrum or Bust!
Wow. MKC is really on top of it. A regular prophet.
On a related note, I’m either going to eat supper now or maybe wait a while.
I agree with a lot of what you are saying, but it’s a two way street. Did anyone know the Browns were going to Arizona before they already got there? You think media just magically appear where the team is, or is a bit of a dance they do together?
is it “saying your peace” or “saying your piece?” just curious…
the former is Bo Jackson, the latter Curtis Martin. i know what i’d choose.
Perfect!
your general point is acknowledged: the browns could indeed do more. but in looking at this prospective PR mess, i assign most of the blame pie to the outlets covering them. in fact, they ran with that one rappaport tweet as fact and that’s not on the browns.
I simply wish that when people talk about Ray Lewis’ legacy, that they talk about his entire legacy….and not just pick and choose which parts to mention…..because it isn’t just him being a passionate football player, he destroyed the world of two families who have not received justice for their loved ones.
again, begs the question of what you’re accusing him of is fact
Garry does this mean we can rule out “dinner” as an option? If so, we’ll need an answer on that ASAP so that we may begin to speculate on the rest of your night.
Just tweet whatever you want. It’s bound to be either true or false.
thought i did list Cunningham and Vick … and those I mentioned were not originally standard “pocket passers” early in their careers … but in any case you’re making a distinction w/o a difference to my point. Did you see Young play with Tampa before he sat on the bench with the 49ers? Manning at all? Griffin’s great skills are not new. His arm is not better than Young’s or Cunningham’s (or Vick’s probably). Relative to the speed of the defenses they each faced he’s not more elusive than Tarkenton or Manning for sure. The question is: can he channel his phenomenal skill set in a way that lets him exploit defenses but avoid a significant brain or severely traumatic joint injury early on? Cunningham avoided horrible injury but was ineffective when he stopped running. Vick, like Cunningham, can’t read defenses. Manning’s teams were so godawful that he had no chance of greatness and tried to do everything himself. I think what makes Griffin “better” than the failures I mentioned is his brain.
I was pretty busy this weekend (i.e. not sitting in front of my twitter feed clicking the refresh button) and this is what I saw from my perspective:
– Browns interview a few guys – have a long meeting with Chip Kelly
– Kelly is meeting with Eagles and Bills and Browns again
– Browns leave Arizona without Kelly.
I gotta say, I’m not all that panicked at all. I can’t say I did or I didn’t want Kelly, but I can say my opinion of Haslam and Banner hasn’t changed at all in the past two days (two! over a weekend!)
It’s the first weekend of the offseason for the franchise that’s in the midst of turnover. Whose to say who is on the clock this weekend or not in terms of PR. It just seems silly to bash a franchise you (i’m assuming) would like more access to. As a new owner and a new President on their first real public stints at personnel hiring, I’m not sure Banner and Haslam have those super trusted sources you mention, nor do I think they realize how emotional those who cover the team are…. even about the little things.
I can totally understand the annoyance of a blogger or beat writer who needs content to write about and isn’t getting it from the team… but I’m not sure it warrants a hatchet job on the team’s PR policy or anything.
From what I did gather, Grossi et al were calling Chip Kelly the next coach while the two parties were still in the middle of their first meeting on Friday night…. once you make that proclamation is there really anything you can do not to seem foolish if it doesn’t happen?
Twitter, 24 hour news cycle, passionate fan base, PFT, Adam Schefter. I get it. These guys are in the middle of a two day weekend business trip across the country…. let’s have a little perspective.
Youre speaking as if speculation isn’t gold for this website — it’s what fuels a lot of discussion and subsequent columns.
What Craig is speaking of is a form of calming the masses. Why disrupt goodwill? Why not, casually, let fans know that things are being taken care of when theres been a decade of complete neglect? I’m not speaking as a “blogger.” I’m speaking as a fan. A fan who expects more from their team in 2013 when information is of the essence. When theres a public relations nightmare which calls Berea home. When there’s a team who has ZERO idea how to connect to fan base who trusts them less and less each day…
Cool story bro
“Things are being taken care of. ”
The lack of that? With all due respect. Scott, if you claim your need to hear that stems solely from your fandom, as opposed to your, uh, blogdom(?) my sympathies. You’re more ill than I, and that’s saying something.
yep
“Twitter, 24 hour news cycle, passionate fan base, PFT, Adam Schefter.”
All the more reason to adapt to how you address a fan base that has essentially had a bullseye on their chest for the last 14 years.
“The media is going to write about something, if you don’t find a way to leverage them (even with misinformation, think the NFL draft, in some cases) to tell a story that doesn’t make it look like you’ve missed on your first 5 options as coach, it just looks bad.”
Bingo.
The vast majority of fans (if this doesn’t include you, suit yourself) does not trust a word that comes out of Berea. Silence does no one any favors. I’m sorry if you disagree, but Craig is spot on.
They, largely, would not have been forced to “run” with anything had the team built a relationship with someone — ANYONE — who covers the team. If it is in fact Cleveland against the world, why not use what you have?
The latest report I saw is that The Chip is still angsting about college v. NFL, and Haslam wouldn’t tolerate want any more pattycake with a waffler. If The Chip returns to Oregon I’ll go as far to say that the Browns coaching search has been exemplary, despite the lack of minute by minute handholding for the neurotic public: go for your #1 hard until you smoke out his intentions, then cut bait, fly home and move down the list.
If taking their best shot at their #1 cost them their #2 (Marrone), so be it, that’s the cost of going for it and not playing it safe and mediocre. And given Buffalo’s track record of HC hires, no guarantee Marrone’s the Next One either. After all, we’ve had a good HC hire more recently than the Bills.
um, didn’t Cunningham break his leg in a game or something like that?
And for sure he tore his MCL and PCL and missed a year. My lasting images of Randall are with him wearing that knee brace.
No comment.
Because we chase stories. Right.
man – that’s a great post, Harv. i agree with 100% of what you said.
I was just thinking that I liked the “idea” of Kelly more than the man himself. And when i heard about his Oregon/NFL crap, I wished that HasNer would pull the plug on him. Nobody reported this until that one article, and i must say: I am quite pleased by what I am seeing out of our new owner.
Encouraging to see a guy with stones running the ship!
You’ve lost me. You don’t believe what Berea says, but you
want pre-hire updates? You want to hear sweet-nothings you don’t
believe? Now I think we’re talking right past each other.
[“Vast majority …”?]
“But that message of optimism in the face of “failure” is mine because of who I am
as a person.”
Craig Lyndall is an optimist; now there’s a scurrilous rumor…
except the only people following all those things are the beat writers! Just because the entirety of Cleveland media based their weekend story off of a single tweet doesn’t mean its the Browns fault. I’m sorry. This isn’t a big deal and I don’t feel the Browns have a crises. WFNY had an article 3 days ago praising their exhaustive search (even those it wasn’t exhaustive yet) and now from the time when Banner and Haslam had dinner on Friday night until they had dinner on Saturday night they’re process is a total farce? Can anyone truly believe this?
Rarely do I completely and totally disagree with an article on this site…but that is the case here.
Why should the Browns front office have to react to a “controversy” that has been entirely fabricated by the media? The media are the ones who got the story wrong…not the Browns. Banner and Haslam are doing exactly what they should be doing, and they don’t owe an explanation to anyone regarding the intricacies of the interview process. The idea that they should speak just to placate a fan base is ridiculous, and it says more about the fan base than it does about the Browns.
Do your homework, complete the interview process, hire a coach and hold a presser to introduce him. Nothing else need be done. I don’t need to have my hand held or to have occasional reassuring pats on the back throughout the process.
I think I’m with you on this one Harv. There are several points in this post where Craig basically asks the Berea brass to tell us anything, even if it isn’t true.
I guess I’m just not sure what Craig wants to hear. There’s obviously no point in saying who they would like to hire…it gives away leverage. So that leaves us with “we’ve interviewed (insert coaches names)” and “The search is going great!”
The national media is going to stir it up regardless. Just don’t worry about the rumors. We’ll know what’s up soon enough.
For what it’s worth, your tweeting re: Marrone helped keep me sane during the brief period folks were crowning him for the HC gig.
Um have you looked at the PD? There are at least 3-4 columns about how the Browns walked away from Kelly because he wasn’t 100% in. If that isn’t media manipulation I’m not sure what is.
The people who cover the team are F’in morons. Why build a relationship with morons who are incapable of delivering a nuanced message? How does that help you? Kanicki has this dead on – the media are the clowns, not the Browns. This whole debate is mind numbing.
And, Scott and Craig, if you believe your readers are somewhat representative of the majority of the fans, then this comment section is pretty strong evidence that no one agrees with you on this issue. Most fans understand that the Kelly story was a media creation and not a failure of the Browns.
Bingo?
So if Haslam – after months of using words like “transparency” and “candidly”- used “misinformation” and it came out that he was just performing some Machiavellian act, then I’m sure you and dwhit110 and Craig and everyone else would stand up and champion him for doing whatever it took to not make things “look bad” during the coaching search?
She nan igans I say She nan igans
If their #1 said no (Saban), their #2 waffled too much (Kelly), their #3 chose another team (Marone), and #4 chose to stay where he was (O’Brien), then how is this any different than ’99 when Policy rolled out Palmer as their candidate #1… and p.s. Harv – read up on Ray Ray before you post that he was found “innocent”….#pleadeal
Did you ever lose your jacket from the night you were accused of murder Harv?
This post went up at 2 PM-ish. That post went up at 7 or 8 I think.
They don’t “have” to react. They should want to. Or better yet, they should desire to be proactive. This isn’t a government or military operation. This is sports entertainment and information is a part of the product.
As someone with a science background who had to conduct research and write a thesis, I have a big problem with you saying “The vast majority of fans [think X]…” without some evidence to support it. There seems to be a lot of disagreement in these comments that, subjectively, would suggest there isn’t a “vast majority” of Browns that can agree about much of anything. (Outside of cheering for the Browns and wanting them to win. And I’m not even sure about that when it comes to late games in a lost season.)
Then feel free to move along. I’m either not wording this succinctly or you refuse to understand target demos and communication/perception. Twitter and Facebook (read: where the fan base largely congregates to discuss news and inter workings) was inflamed last night over this nonsense. You don’t have to agree, but to disparage the initial point is fruitless if not self-fulfilling.
This is far from insular and focusing on this lone news item. It’s a culture issue.
Horrible article and idea
I believe this comment section is representative of the community we have fostered over the years. We don’t all have to agree here — this isn’t a right or wrong argument. It’s how Craig (and I) feel this issue could have been avoided if not lessened.
Winning.
Its the only thing that will fix this thing.
This article, this discussion, this entire line of thinking is absurd, pointless, and totally understandable when you look at the father who witnessed its birth and then tripped off to England to buy a soccer team and generally act as if he carried the weight of Sisyphus’s stone on his back because he was tasked with the unthinkable burden of caring for a civic trust (that my friends is how you run on a sentence : ). Can we just give a huge fu to Randy. Seriously he made 500 million dollars off of a ten year investment and acted like he had been tasked with repelling an alien invasion. He really is the poster child for wealth redistribution, nobody I can think of has done less with more.
Winning will fix it and nothing more.
The notion of this post is nonsensical. All of the information has been given. Haslam said he doesn’t have a “ranking” for potential coaches. Haslam says that the only 2 people who have insite into what they are really doing are he and Banner. The blogosphere/media ignores this tand takes the word of any schlub who will talk – or worse takes information sent directly from Kelly’s agent/camp, and disseminates it generically as an “NFL Source”*- and crowns Kelly the “NUMBER 1 CHOICE”. Who cares that there was a happy coincidence of Kelly, Wiz, and Horton all being in Arizona, and outside of these 3 almost everyone else you would want to talk to are either engaged in bowl games or playoff games. No the Browns failed to get “their” (the media or the Browns?) guy. Hell Craig writes an article a week ago praising the patience of this FO, while the ink is still drying on that one the new hot rumour is that the Browns have settled on Kelly, Craig is still okay with that despite flying in the face of his initial headline, and then he crushes the Browns for being patient and not jumping into bed with their “first love”.
And I will say Craig is not wrong for doing so, he has been among the most patient, wait and see, give’em time writers in the city. The truth – to me at least – is that we are all guilty of this, we hem and haw, we fall to fast and to hard for the guy that we think is going to fix this mess, and really nothing is going to change until someone wins. We build people up just to knock them down, or we just start knocking before they can get out of their chair.
And I applaud Haslam for the whole “strong, big personality, etc” because whoever comes here is going to have to put up with an insane amount of second guessing until they start winning. Its the biggest reason I had concerns about Kelly, College coaches of winning programs simply don’t feel the heat that procoaches do. They don’t get in the locker room and they don’t get it from the campus newspapers/city papers that depend on their successs for revenue. How long could a guy lose games while installing an offense that runs contrary to most everything the NFL does? The guy that comes here has to put up with the fact that we as a fan base are akin to the even crazier jealousier friend of the crazy jealous stripper that you once dated because she was so different from all the other girls. The Jets fans are the Crazy Jealous Stripper, we are that friend. It has to stop, but I have accepted the fact that we won’t be able to. I will have to be somebody coming here and winning freaking football games.
*NFL Source. This is directed directly at the writers of this site, and anyone else who sites “sources” without knowing who those people are. It is irresponsible and wreckless (yes this is sports but the mindset carries over to mainstream journalism as well) to post articles and give credence to “sources” without knowing who they are. The sheer volume of information coming out of this Chip Kelly story lends itself to a belief that his agent or persons close to him were the distributers, or as commonly thought Mike Lombardi. But actually we don’t know, its all just speculation “where it comes from”. The Browns clearly weren’t disseminaters, or maybe they were, we don’t know. To simply post this stuff without knowing or telling where it comes from is bush league. If you can’t call Ian Rappaport to find out a proximity for his source than you shouldn’t be putting it out there. Craig claims he is upset that the Browns didn’t control the message. I say I’m upset that Craig has taken the privledge of writing, but has shirked the responsibility of at least placing a call to a guy like Rappaport to determine who his source was.
For example…. ???
You’re wrong on this one, Craig. They should be tight-lipped until their process is done & they’ve got a selection to announce. They wanted Kelly. He didn’t want them. They’ve moved on. That’s how professionals handle it. I don’t sense panic.