Ohio QB’s- The Anti-Vicks?
September 26, 2008Open Thread: Buckeyes vs. Minnesota Gophers
September 27, 2008It has been quite well documented on this site that Romeo Crennel is on the hot seat as coach of the Browns. In fact, it’s not the first season where there have been questions about his coaching, his leadership, or his future with the team.
An interesting article about Crennel and his current situation with the team appears on the main Browns page of cleveland.com today. Tony Grossi almost goes out of his way to frame the lead as if the media and fans are ganging up unfairly on Romeo:
[The Browns] are contemplating a quarterback change and everybody has an opinion. There’s a lot of season left, and the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train of tough opponents.
These are the times that try a coach’s soul.
On any given day, Romeo Crennel hears his general manager stressing the importance of winning the next game. Or Jim Brown saying that Brady Quinn can give the team a spark, if only the coach would let him. Or Internet-fueled rumors that Bill Cowher is buying a house in the Cleveland area in preparation of taking over the team.
Fans are in a dither, lashing out at Crennel for kicking field goals, for mismanaging the clock in crucial situations, and for not chewing out players for making dumb mistakes.
Yes, yes we are. Tony, is it unfair that we criticize his coaching abilities and decisions? One would think not. After all, we’re the ones that buy the tickets and pay the salaries, which then in turn enables you to make a living. But I digress…
Tony then takes a bit of a different tack: how do the players feel about the fan base’s collective howling for their coach’s head? The three players whose thoughts were cited for the article:
Hank Fraley: “After the second game, somebody called in and said, ‘Tell Romeo to kick another field goal.’ I laugh and say I will. Hey, as fans, you should be frustrated. We’re frustrated. We’re just trying to win for our coach, as much as for ourselves. He’s been great to us.”
Shaun Smith: “I like him not just as a coach but as a man. I can talk to him about things other than football. I’m not the only guy that feels that way.”
Phil Dawson: “[Romeo] stays the course. When you’ve got a head coach that is confident, you can’t help as a player but feel that as well. You get a sense from RAC that he’s been in this business a long time. He’s not panicking. He’s not changing his ways. As players, we see that leadership and we admire that a great deal.”
Hmm. So, Fraley says the fans have a right to be frustrated, but hints that we shouldn’t be frustrated by our coach, because he’s been good to them. Perhaps I’m inferring something that he’s not implying, but I don’t think so. Shaun Smith really, really likes the guy, which is all well and good on some level. But, Dawson’s quote really struck a bit of a nerve with me. The reasons that he lays out for supporting Romeo are exactly why most of us think Romeo should go. Which brings me to my rhetorical-question-of-the-day:
Is it better or worse for a team that the players who are ultimately responsible for actually playing/winning the games might not want a terrible coach to be fired, because they really like him as a person?
Is it fair to say that the fact that these guys all clearly really like Romeo as a person actually is hurting the team in the end? The bottom line in the NFL is winning, and as fans we follow to team to see them win. Romeo himself acknowledges this, even if he puts a little aww-shucks spin on it: “We know what business we’re in. If you win, people like you more. If you lose, they don’t like you as much.”
While I don’t advocate sacrificing character entirely in the name of winning (Cowboys, I’m looking in your direction), keeping a coach whose abilities are largely in question *just* because the players like him seems short-sighted to me toward the bottom line of having an NFL team to begin with. But, with solid character guys perhaps comes an unwillingness to call things out onto the carpet when they are drastically in need of it. Does this then become a downward spiral? Is there a proverbial “nice guy” coach who has had sustained success in the NFL?
The first name that springs to mind is Tony Dungy. But, I think there’s a giant asterisk for him, because both of the teams he’s coached have had coordinators who either stayed on after he left or were there before he got there–Monte Kiffin, who built Tampa’s feared defense and stayed on to help Jon Gruden win a Super Bowl, and Tom Moore/Peyton Manning, who have been running the Colts’ offense like a finely-tuned machine since 1998. Are there any other examples I’m missing? Dick Vermeil, maybe?
To me Dawson’s quote is a tremendous indictment of Romeo’s tenure here: he’s 20-31 in 3+ seasons, no playoff appearances, and currently sits at 0-3 during a season of expectations. Clearly, something is not working. We fans watch the game and see a rudderless ship as Romeo seemingly stares blankly and throws up his hands as the team implodes. And in the irony of all ironies, the qualities that Dawson cites as “leadership” – Romeo’s not panicking, and he’s not going to change his ways – are exactly what we fans see as a team LACKING IN LEADERSHIP. And the players are OK with this?
There’s a phenomenon in sports that I like to call The Major League Effect: in the short term, a team can overcome adversity by banding together, circling the wagons, and motivating themselves in defiance of some external, “evil” force: think of Jake Taylor’s line: “There’s only one thing left to do: win the whole [bleep]in’ thing.” But, that’s not a long term blueprint for success. If anything, it’s enough to stave off the wolves at the door for an off-season, but in the end the team has collectively altered outside perceptions of its overall abilities and ends up making things harder on itself down the road.
For example, in his relatively short tenure with the Browns, we’ve found ourselves back in the same spot just last season: Romeo is on the hot seat as the Browns tank their first game; the players come out in support of their coach; the team manages to put together something that’s enough to keep the coach from getting canned (in fact, he got an extension!); everyone is convinced he’s turned a corner (well, maybe not Craig, hehehe). But, they invariably find themselves again facing the same adversity in the not too distant future (i.e., now).
As we noted above, the bottom line in the NFL is always winning. The players should know this just as well as the coaches do (don’t perform, and you’ll be replaced by someone who will). And, one would think that the players want to win more than anything else… why else would they sacrifice their bodies the way they do for the game? So, I ask: knowing that the players really, really like Romeo, is keeping him around in spite of the results nothing more than just enabling the team to keep underachieving?
Speaking of quotes from a Phil associated with the Browns, in the end the buck will stop with the General Manager. Surely the GM won’t go out of his way to defend a coach who might just be bad enough to take said GM down with him:
“There’s enough blame to go around,” Savage said. “Have there been mistakes made? Absolutely. It starts with me. Unfortunately, when you’re the head coach, most people are going to have an opinion based on what they see on television.
“That’s 10 to 15 percent of what a coach does during the course of the week. Romeo’s not the man who’s going to beat the drum and say ‘I’m doing this’ … he’s big enough to take the blame and handle the situation we’re in right now.”
Savage went on to say, “As long as the team plays hard for Romeo and they have a belief in him, then I don’t think we have an issue.”
Crap. With The Major League Effect fresh in our minds, let’s go back up to Fraley’s quote: “We’re just trying to win for our coach, as much as for ourselves.” That quote reminds me of another quote, from one of my favorite movies Office Space:
“That’ll only make someone work just hard enough NOT to get fired.”
Photo: Tony Dejak/Associated Press
12 Comments
How in the world is Eric Wedge getting more votes than Mike Brown in your poll? Eric Wedge? Are you serious? The guy whose teams choke every year in the biggest situations????
26 percent of your readers need to have their heads examined.
Sorry, 29 percent.
Excellent post
“He stays the course”
Yeah, there was a guy from Texas who used that quote a lot. He’s done wonderful things the past 8 years.
Great stuff, D. I wonder what Kellen thinks…
Yeah, I find it curious they didn’t ask Jamal “12 carries is pathetic” Lewis, either.
He doesn’t change his ways. I think Dawson pretty much summed it up. His ways are not working. He won’t change. The end. Can it be any clearer than that?
Look at how many players want to play for a coach like Belichik or Parcels.
You think Randy Moss would take a pay cut to play for Crennel?
More importantly, do you think Braylon Edwards would take a pay cut?
Neither do I.
He’s got to go.
Please don’t feed the Crennelephant.
I was gonna bookmark this site… until I read this. First, and worst… well-documented that RAC is on the hot seat??? Show me a single document!!! A blog is not a document, because you have ZERO power or authority. Show me a legitimate quote from anyone within the Browns organization that says the Browns are now, or have in the past three years, considering(ed) a coaching change. You can’t. You can find contract extensions for Romeo. You can find praise from Savage. And you can find Savage saying, quite clearly, we are not making a change. Just because YOU, an unimportant blogger, don’t like Romeo or his decisions, does NOT mean there is the slightly possibility of his departure.
Secondly, as to your point re: Dawson’s quote. Players throughout the NFL will generally agree that a coach who doesn’t panic; a coach who doesn’t suddenly throughout the game plan, or season blue-print; a coach who doesn’t yank players in and out of the lineup; those are the coaches they want to play for. It was an extremely telling quote that you… with no connection to the NFL whatsoever and no knowledge, obviously, of life within that world… can’t understand. Well.. that’s because you are a fan, and merely a fan. Blog or no blog.
Frustrated and disappointed by a 1-3 start? Of course, me too.
But quit pretending you are an expert when its obvious you are not. And quite LYING flat out “well-documented”. Blogs are not documents. Come down off the fantasy cloud. A document is an actual quote from someone in authority.
I will NOT be bookmarking this site.
John don’t hold back, tell us what you really think….