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February 13, 2014
Well, that certainly didn’t take long. Multiple reports out of both Cleveland and New England claim former Browns general manager Mike Lombardi will join the New England Patriots’ front office, just days after being shown the door in Berea.
Lombardi will be reuniting with long-time friend in Patriots’ head coach Bill Belichick. Recall, the two worked together with the Browns during Belichick’s first head coaching opportunity in Cleveland from 1991-1995. Lombardi’s role with the Patriots is unclear, though he is believed to be assuming the nebulous role of “personnel executive.” He spent five years working in the media (NFL Network, National Football Post) after being fired by the Oakland Raiders. He was subsequently hired to run the Browns prior to last season to work under Joe Banner pror to being fired earlier this week.
Various members of 92.3 The Fan, including Chris Fedor and Browns beat reporter Daryl Ruiter, were among the first out of Cleveland to report on Lombardi’s next chapter.
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(Image via ClevelandBrowns.com)
36 Comments
I don’t think I have ever seen a report that included “Lombardi” and “Patriots” that actually had any truth to it, unless the words “fleeced by” were also included. Because my heart is two sizes too small when it comes to my feelings toward Lombardi, I will continue to believe he is at home crying because he will never EVER have another NFL job again.
Even if he does get the job, I will console myself by believing that his friend Bill gave him a do nothing position out of sympathy. Mike will be working on the Penske file all day.
I want to “like” this post x1000
Mike Lombardi will be making personnel decisions for the Patriots in the same sense that Pat Shurmur makes offensive decisions for the Eagles.
so, you mean completely and totally just not getting any credit, right? right?
you just rung a bell as that episode sums up the Browns first year under Haslam so well.
(1) company is for rest stop supplies (PFJ)
(2) guy hired does no real work other than shuffling around papers (Banner/Lombardi pushing everything off for the 2014 offseason)
(3) boss comes in, finds no real work done, gets upset and fires them (Haslam firing everybody)
(4) we even have someone under federal investigation (fed’s instead of SEC, but close enough)
I just hope that Grace got her lovely birthday party and Lombardi gave a warm toast to her at it.
and no, Lombardi isn’t Penske/Patriots material
Good luck Patriots fans…
http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/50centdriving.gif
If you read Peter King this week and MKC this morning, you read a story of Banner and Lombardi at odds and Haslam and Banner at odds. No one looks good, honestly. You have Haslam wanting to leave the Senior Bowl to interview Greg Schiano (Greg Schiano?!) on the recommendations of Belichick and Urban Meyer. Banner doesn’t want to talk to him, and no doubt Banner was right there. Then, you have all the conflicting reports over who wanted to fire Chud. You have the whole process and timing of how the firing went down. All of the talk on sports radio and in the comments trying to come to Haslam’s defense or hoping that we accidentally lucked into a good front office seems to miss the fact that we definitely had Three Stooges, and Haslam might be the biggest of them all when it’s all said and done. We can always hope, but really, is there any real reason to have faith in any front office so long as Haslam is owner of this team? (And, no this is not an endorsement of Randy Lerner). It’s to say that when we compare one stooge with another, we’re not going to get anywhere. The sad news is that the whole place is a mess. Here’s hoping that people like Scheiner and Farmer can navigate the madness, that Pettine knows what he’s doing, and that we luck into the right quarterback (whoops Luck was drafted a couple years ago). I would suggest the odds are against it, but the odds are always against us Cleveland fans. Let us hope this roll of the dice works out and that the pie that Curly thew that hit Larry and Moe also has the silver lining of some other disaster (maybe a federal indictment is a blessing in disguise) allows the front office people to do their jobs and to do them well.
/sheds tear
that’s beautiful
Mike, we’re gonna need to go ahead and move you downstairs into storage B. We have some new people coming in, and we need all the space we can get. So if you could just go ahead and pack up your stuff and move it down there, that would be terrific, OK?
I cannot wait to find out how Lombardi ends up burning the Patriots down, runs off with a ton of money, and ends his career sipping mai tai’s in the Caribbean.
it was a magarita. And he specifically asked for no salt, NO SALT on the rim
You lost me at “If you read Peter King…”
If you liked his article, I have a great piece from Jason La Canfora you need to read.
Somebody please Photochop Lombardi’s face on this…
Yeah yeah yeah, I know about Peter King and Bernie Kosar and that debacle; that doesn’t mean that King isn’t awfully connected (what happened with Bernie was merely King editorializing stupidly), and besides some disagreement in details (like over the Whisenhunt interview) these and other stories trickling out are beginning to pain a consistent picture of the dysfunction. So, they are all evidence worth considering when piecing together the truth about the mayhem in Berea. I did read the La Canfora article, too, and though he is a Mike Lombardi apologist (and Lombardi is an idiot – other articles suggest he was the driving force behind wanting to trade Josh Gordon), there is a lot of truth in what he says about Haslam as being the remaining stooge.
I want to believe that the Browns will turn it around; I hope they do. I hope Farmer is what everyone says he is; I didn’t get the same good vibe from his press conference as everyone else. I didn’t like the way he muffed the D’qwell Jackson question as one example (though Terry Pluto insists Farmer was playing stupid on purpose – okay, we will just see).
I wish someone with drawing skills could create the cartoon of Haslam knocking the other stooges with a pie while a big 2X4 that says “FEDERAL INDICTMENT” on it is about to hit the laughing Jimmy in the head. In the background, you have Scheiner, Farmer, and Pettine watching scared, as the ghost of Art Modell hovers in the background transparently over the scene with devil horns. This is what the team I have always loved has become, and it would be nice to go back to a time before that Sipe interception in the end zone jolted me as a child. I want to believe all those stories about Jim Brown and Otto Graham before him really are true.
Gotta wonder exactly what Belichik employees must undergo in return for the career-long safe harbor that always welcomes them back. I’m picturing some horrific initiation rite with candles and prison tattoos. Stupid Mangini all he had to do to raise his kids in Foxboro was shut his mouth.
to his credit, he now gets to raise his kids in SF instead of Boston.
http://gifrific.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Billy-Madison-I-am-the-smartest-man-alive.gif
http://www.totalprosports.com/2010/11/19/so-close-gif/
I will believe this when I see this. If the Pats were interested in brining in Lombardi, why didn’t they do it while he was out of the league for 9 years? More likely that Lombardi leaked this to his contacts to try to draw interest from other teams and/or save face.
the one thing that doesn’t pass the sniff test on Lombardi being with the Patriots:
Lombardi is great at utilizing the media as a tool. Throwing out anonymous rumors/tips to select journalists, etc. The Patriots/Belichick hate the media having absolutely any inside information on their team and happenings. So, not only why would they want Lombardi, but how could they ever trust him? (and that is not even a dig at Mike, but merely how could you trust an old dog who chews on your furniture alone in your house?)
BB: “Mike, tell me what you’d do so I can do the opposite.”
I believe that sums up his new role at NE.
I heard he’s going to be working with Lloyd Braun in ticket sales.
Jason La Canfora article praising New England for yet another example of exemplary management that dysfunctional Cleveland can only dream about emulating, in 3…2…1…
Say what you will about Lombardi, but he was right (sort of) on Hoyer.
So Haslam looks bad because he fired two incompetent employees? I swear – in any other business firing cancerous, scheming top executives would be applauded, yet in pro sports it’s criticized for some reason.
Why does anyone have to look good? You missed the point; I never argued he looked bad BECAUSE he fired two cancerous employees. My point was that he isn’t necessarily good because of it either. It was to reject the kind of comparative analysis that praises someone relative. A pox on the whole House of Berea, and now let’s hope it works out.
Maybe I misunderstood your exact point. That said, I’m not praising him relative to Banner and Lombardi. I’m praising him because both of those guys are demonstrably bad at their jobs and Haslam fired them. (Admittedly after hiring them to begin with.) Haslam doesn’t deserve a medal, but he did what any slightly competent boss would do. And any form of competence in Berea deserves some kudos.
As for Schiano – I think we both have the same low opinion of the coach, but as I said elsewhere- the front office was selling everyone on this exhaustive search. So why wouldn’t an owner want to interview a guy with head coaching experience and a rave review from Belichick? I mean, we’ll give QB coaches and guys we never heard call backs, but we won’t even talk to that guy?
Many may disagree, but firing Banner looks like the first correct informed football decision Haslam has made. In my eyes, he’s learning. That makes me happy.
He looks bad because he hired two incompetent employees.
Agreed.
From day one, Haslam still looks bad.
Over the last week, he has looked good.
His ERA is still 6.55, but (since Mickey Callaway coached him up and changed his release point) he’s thrown 21 innings of one run ball while striking out 23 and only walking two. Maybe it’s just noise or maybe he’s finally figured it out.
Well, I hope you are right. No one is shedding tears for Lombardi or Banner, that’s for sure. I don’t have as much confidence that he’s learning; he seems much more reactionary. But stay tuned, the soap opera from Berea certainly piqued my interest this week, and I’ll at least enjoy the entertainment it provides during this offseason.
speaking of Mickey, where are all the random stories about MLB players being in the best shape of their lives?
The broken clock being accurate twice daily and all that …
Though admittedly I actually feared losing Heckert, and his ’12 draft appears, just one season later, to be a simply legendary stinker. Around here we don’t differentiate between competent and not, but which pile sells worse.
Two words: Jamarcus Russell
last known photo:
http://thebostonjam.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/purp.jpg
Patience…
Jordan Bastian @MLBastian 2h
New players spotted in Tribe clubhouse this morning: OF David Murphy, SS Asdrubal Cabrera (and his son). Francona holding team meeting soon.
LMAO
Lombardi could be the FO equivalent to Brady: look good and answer to The Hoodie AKA Darth Belichick. Wouldn’t put it past Belichick if he cursed that rat Modell as well…