Bullet points on the struggling Cleveland State Vikings
January 7, 2016Whitlock: “Football people” rooting for Browns to fail
January 8, 2016I hate when I write something and it basically expires the next day. That’s what this week felt like after the Browns fired everyone, elevated a non-football guy, and then hired a well-respected baseball exec. It was a lot of ups and downs from being confused and nervous to somehow being hopeful all in the same week. At least that’s kind of how it went for me, anyway. So I’ve been thinking a whole lot about the Browns and this is going to be a Browns-heavy WWW for me…
Ray Farmer should have stuck to his guns…
Based on what I’m reading about Ray Farmer’s time with the Browns over at The OBR ($$$ link,) it wasn’t so much that Farmer was dumb, but that he didn’t stick to his principles and philosophies in selecting Justin Gilbert and Johnny Manziel. Now, that’s potentially just a different kind of dumb, but I think you know what I mean. I’d be even more concerned if he truly had Justin Gilbert ranked that highly and whiffed. The idea is that Ray Farmer had a good draft board. He had a good idea of how he wanted to build the team, but if you believe what Lane Adkins is reporting over there, Ray just allowed himself to get pulled in different directions by people who knew less than he and his staff did. By being a team player, he ended up hurting the team and ultimately lost his gig.
In a lot of ways it’s encouraging to hear assuming you’re someone who likes humanity, roots for people to do well, and hopes that even if they injured you in some way that they can improve thereafter. While I’m absolutely ticked at what Browns fans endured this season, I don’t root against Ray Farmer for the rest of time. I’m encouraged because it seems to me that the difficult part of working in the NFL is gauging the talent, but that there are many examples of guys needing to learn more about business and working within a complex organizational structure. I might be wrong, but it seems to me those things can be learned more easily than the scouting sensibilities that enable great personnel people in the NFL to identify good players.
Analytics and branding…
I hate the word “analytics.” I use it begrudgingly because it’s convenient, but it seems so pretentious and pompous. On this website we use it to discuss sports and it seems miscast in that sense. I know that we treat sports like serious business a lot of the time, but the word “analytics” seems like it would be more appropriate for economics, finance, the stock market or scientific research. I know that sports and scouting encompass all those things, but using the “analytics” in relation to sports is like using the word “film” in relation to Michael Bay’s IMDB page contents. They’re movies or flicks or blockbusters, but they’re not “film.” It got me thinking. What should we call “analytics” in a sports environment? We Clevelanders will need it most of all now that the Browns are on the front lines of the story for the NFL with the hiring of Paul DePodesta. Leave a comment.
Johnny is responsible for himself and his situation…
Part of the Johnny Manziel experience in Cleveland has been as a divisive topic. Can he play? Can he party? Should he stay or go? Lots of fans have spent lots of time arguing about lots of things regarding Johnny Manziel including a faction of Browns fans that seem to think it’s all just a criminal situation in which everyone should just leave Johnny Manziel alone. I get the sense that many think if the media and websites like this would just leave him alone, everything would be fine. I will agree that it was kind of ludicrous to send a news crew out to Johnny Manziel’s house, but let’s not overstate the media’s impact here. First, check out this video and lol with me.
It’s crazy to go stand outside of his house and report that there was talking and the talking stopped after you knock on the door. The root of this problem is Johnny Manziel himself though. He’s not a victim and he’s certainly not being victimized by the local media. Even if they’re occasionally overzealous, the facts are that he’s the one with the traffic incidents, and the failure to show up to treatment, and the stints in rehab, and the pictures that don’t follow the timeline of how old his dog is, and the water bottle tossing incidents, and the fights in The 9 and and and…
This is Johnny’s life and it’s not happening to him. He’s the catalyst for pretty much all of it.
Your weekly moment of soccer zen…
Pogba has a cool name and a bunch of amazing touches on the ball…
The Modern Electric is a great band…
Somewhere along the line this year I changed the way I think about Cleveland music. I used to put “local music” in a category below “national artists.” It was my upbringing with a clear delineation between the quality of recording artists on major labels and the more limited opportunities for local bands that recorded “demos” on four-tracks and things. I can’t believe it took me this long to realize that the gap was officially closed. I’ve posted a lot of Cleveland bands and I’m posting one more, The Modern Electric. This album has been living in my car with me and I can’t stop listening to it. Such a great singer. Such a tight band. Great songs.
That’s it for me. Have a great weekend folks! Thanks for all the reading and commenting you do! We appreciate it!
40 Comments
Speaking of music, did anyone around here even notice that LEMMY died last week? Anyone?
SMH…
1. If it’s true that Farmer caved on the draft, then that is a perfect example of the big flaw in Jimmy’s touchy-feely, consensus-building, let’s all play nice and compromise management style. I hate that style.
If you want to run an organization, you put people in charge of things. They listen to advice if given, and then they decide what to do. You don’t have other people demanding consensus. That cannot work. But it doesn’t look like that’s going to change.
2. I’m all in on giving analytics a chance. I think analytics might be behind Mike Tomlin’s penchant to go for 2 after TDs, and nobody’s making fun of him.
3. TV news long ago stopped being journalism, even in the current watered-down definition of the term. Even the non-entertainment serious stuff is reported on a template of emotional hyper-empathy and melodramatics. It’s unwatchable. I go back to it every once in a while hoping that maybe it’s changed, but it never does.
Yes, the loss of Meadowlark Lemon was sad.
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hi Craig … excellent take on farmer. you just knew gilbert & manziel were not his choices , but ended-up being his responsibility. and to be fair to his detractors , he whiffed badly again the following season , again with 2 picks in the 1st round … and the FA’s he brought in were basically washed-up retreads.
And you are . . . ?
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Farmer just made too many mistakes whether it was the draft or free agency. But I feel Haslam is the real problem here. This is now the 3rd regime he will be assembling. As far as Manziel goes, that coverage has gotten ridiculous.
what should we call analytics ? : the first thing that comes to mind is “moneyball” … but that seems like it belongs to baseball now. hmmmmm …. i may have to go with “paulyball” … in honor of it’s inventor … “PeeDee-atrics” ?
#TeamRational
hi JM … we can only hope haslam has learned a lesson & will let the people he pays make these decisions.
… my apologies to mccown & hartline. i thought these guys did fairly well.
good post …
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What a week! Firings, analytics, bewigged Manziel, Nakamura to the WWE…. I’m exhausted.
The collation and analysis of data or statistics, esp. by computer, typically for financial or commercial purposes; the data that results from this; (also) software used for this purpose.
So says the Oxford English Dictionary.
To me, Moneyball refers to a very specific of findings and methods employed by Billy Beane and the A’s. Sabermetrics is more the broad, all-encompassing field of data driven analysis in baseball. I’m all for finding a better name for football analytics. We sure as heck don’t want to have the NFL finding themselves indebted to baseball.
How about we call it what it is and remove the verb-to-noun buzzword: data-driven decision making using algorithms and iterative simulations to predict outcomes based on known inputs and outputs.
i know … this is the most “fun” we’ve had all year.
hi ALLEN … so , “D.D.D.M.U.A.A.I.S.T.P.O.B.O.K.I.A.O.” for short ?
*smile*
There is all sorts of post mortem silliness. Farmer was a genius and had every pick lined up (but was pushed into going with someone else)! Pettine and Farmer were actually on the same side and were battling with Scheiner and Brown–the latter two were the evil, meddling business villains!
Spin and fan fiction. Plus, this nonsensical finger pointing and blame games will never result in any actual truth coming out about what went wrong.
Any way you cut it, Pettine and Farmer weren’t getting it done.
1. I think the hope is to institute a data driven system that makes it so you don’t have coaches and executives going on gut feeling come draft day. Of course, as has been said before here, a system is only as good as the people applying the data. The optimist in me hopes that Jimmy learned his lessons.
If those stories are true though, Farmer seemed to be in way over his head. Haden wasn’t even in your top three cornerbacks, yet you still picked him at #8? Seriously, that’s beyond messed up.
And we still have 3 months til the draft.
I hope and pray that I am lucky enough to enjoy 70 years of Lemmy life. Not a Motorhead fan, but how can you not love that guy? This is from an interview published back in August.
“While the all-black uniform is present and correct this afternoon, Lemmy has lost a lot of weight, and appears pale and drawn. His hands aren’t wholly steady, and he says that these days he has to walk with a stick because “my legs are f***ed”. Nevertheless, he insists: “Apparently I am still indestructible.”
He has changed his lifestyle – he’s down to a pack of fags a week, and has swapped from Jack and Coke to vodka and orange, apparently to help with his diabetes, – though his assistant wonders whether swapping from one 40% spirit topped with sugar to another 40% spirit topped with sugar is really going to help. “I like orange juice better,” he says. “So, Coca-Cola can f*** off.” A full bottle of Absolut is put in front of him for the interview, and a full bottle of Jack Daniels is given to me – which seems a bit optimistic, given Lemmy sets an interview limit of 25 minutes, which he will extend by five minutes if he likes the questions (we get up to 33 minutes).”
I have been fortunate enough to see Motorhead.
No concert resume’ is complete without them.
I love how every name mentioned that we didn’t draft just happen to be awesome football players. It’s not like, “we also had Marcus Smith ranked right up there”. And there’s still the difficult facts that a.) Pettine, a football guy, wanted Gilbert, b.) Farmer used the 8th pick on a guy who as at best the 4th CB on his board, and c.) your scouting department thought Manziel was just as good of a pick as Bridgewater and Carr. After reading all that, I understand why Jimmy kicked these guys to the curb.
The ridiculous one blaming Pettine for Gilbert makes me insane. Yesterday, my toddler excitedly pointed to a crappy old Ford Focus with a spoiler and thought it was a really cool “race car.”
Even if Pettine was tugging on Farmer’s sleeve with tears in his eyes and begging for a fast new corner while pointing to a picture of Gilbert…it was on Farmer to get him the right one while managing the value aspect of the draft picks.
It also makes me question the accepted “Haslam made them pick Manziel” narrative. Originally, the story made it sound like Haslam burst into the draft room, shot his revolvers into the air, and said, “I don’t care what your fancy scouting says…. Give me Manziel!”. In reality, it sounds more like the personnel department provided information that all three were equally good, acceptable picks at #22. All Haslam was doing was choosing one of the three options presented him and he went with the high-profile guy. Now granted, he still shouldn’t have been involved in the decision process, but it sounds less egregious than it originally did.
The OBR post this week was pretty interesting, and confirmed a lot of what was being reported over there all year. Picks are on the GM regardless of circumstances and he paid the price. I didn’t find the post encouraging, I thought it was pretty sad. What should have been…..
Also thought it was a dagger thrown right at Pettine, and frankly, well deserved. His handling of his own hand picked guy was a debacle, and he has the nerve to take shots at the personnel guys. Good riddence.
Last thought, you really have to wonder if Haslam gets it. His presser was all about talent acquisition and he personally set this franchise back at least two years, probably more like four, with the JFF pick. There was nothing wrong with any of the reported draft ratings from the Browns Scouting dept. But hey, he got his flash jersey sales, and they still don’t have a front office exec with any football experience.
Can’t wait to get the scoop on textgate…….
So hang on…if Farmer had plans and ideas and he wasn’t allowed to follow them then how in the hell can anyone expect this latest front office reincarnation to be any different? I mean they bring in DePodesta are they even going to listen to what he brings to the table and who in the hell is going to make decisions? Final decisions? I’m sorry but all of this reeks of an owner who isn’t satisfied with just being the owner he wants his paw prints all over this organization regardless of who he hires. How’s that worked out so far Jimmy? Dee?
I did.
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It wasn’t that Ray wasn’t allowed to follow his own plan. It was that Ray decided not to in hopes of appeasing Haslam, Pettine, etc. I agree though. None of this is going to be worth anything if people just do whatever the heck they want.
Haslam is the problem I completely agree. I knew being so happy Randy Lerner was gone would be a mistake but I never imagined it being this bad this fast. Like I said previously Haslam gives me the impression of a behind the scenes meddler who isn’t happy just being the owner. Instead he and Dee we have to make sure we include her now, have their paw prints all over this organization and it’s been an absolute disaster.
Moneyball and analyics are not synonyms.
Appeasement is basically the same thing I just wish people would tell the truth when this happens. Instead they try to cover it up or act like it didn’t happen which just makes them look even worse. I understand not throwing someone especially the owner under the bus but if I got fired you’d know the truth. Unless I had somehow had to sign something in writing which prevented me from speaking out.
So who exactly is going to want to be the head coach now? The general manager? The only logical conclusion I can come to is it will have to be another first timer who isn’t familiar with what it takes to be either a head coach or a general manager.
hi TRS … it doesn’t have to make sense.
#TeamRational
I’m just the guy on the side of the road holding the sign “Pump the brakes Browns fans!!!”
Not really, considering Pettine was hyped up as a defensive guy who knew defensive talent.
I thing the DePodesta hire will turn out to be a good one. As much as another change in Coaches and GM can be damaging it can also be good. I definitely believe that Farmer should be shown the door or kicked out of it. As far as Petine he may have been given another yr, but if they land a good coach it will be for the best. As far as Manziel, i have been hoping for his success since so many people are so down on him, but he has shown time and again that he is his own worse enemy. But i do believe that there is too much scrutiny on his off time about what he does. He may have the talent to be a successful NFL QB but i am not sure that he will ever get to prove it unless he gets out of his way.
Farmer is a “rock”, two words, “Dwayne Bowe” analytics would have told you he was a bust. The tune from Modern Electric is going onto my phone ASAP, thanks.