Dawgbeat 05/06/2007
A man on a mission
by Eric Brown
05/04/2007
When Randy Lerner took over the Cleveland Browns franchise in the fall of 2002, he was in the unenviable position of learning how to run a pro football franchise, hands on. Up until that time he had minimal involvement and understanding of the inner-workings of the daily operations of a football team. Even worse, he had Carmen Policy as his mentor to lean on.
I am from Youngstown, Ohio and am familiar with Mr. Policy. To this day, I believe that he is the reason that this franchise has spun its wheels since its inception in 1999. Carmen Policy is an opportunist and will look for any opportunity to make money or a name for himself. I’m not faulting the man for trying to make a dollar, but he clearly didn’t understand the dynamics of Cleveland Browns Football, or maybe he did. I believe he did understand the loyalty and following the Cleveland Browns had with their fan base. He saw dollar signs and knew he would make money with the startup franchise. He then put an inexperienced general manager, Dwight Clark in place to make personnel decisions. He also hired an inexperienced head coach in Chris Palmer. Not a good start for a franchise that needed a strong experienced leader in place so that it could start off on the right foot. Missed opportunities in the draft and overspending on minimally talented free agents further put the organization in a hole.
Enter Butch Davis. While on the face a winning college football coach with a fiery attitude seemed like it was a good decision. In two seasons the Browns had made strides on the football field and made the playoffs in 2002, and things were seemingly looking up for the franchise. But then after the 2002 season, Davis acquired more and more power, power that he was not qualified to have. Davis took the power, ran with it and eventually squeezed Policy right out of town. Lerner was now in charge of a franchise that had no power structure, only one man blindly running a circus. The debacle that took place in the 2003 and 2004 seasons were embarrassing to Lerner and he felt he needed to make changes.
During and after the 2004 season, Lerner, knowing he needed to turn the flailing franchise around spent time with Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, a lot of time. Lerner gained much experience and advice from Mr. Kraft, who had just experienced the thrill of winning the Super Bowl in 2002, 2004 and was heading toward another in 2005. A gesture in and of itself that shows that Lerner cared and was on a mission. Lerner learned the importance in today's NFL of a structured organization that works with each facet having as much importance the other.
Enter Phil Savage. Much like New England's franchise who had Scott Pioli making personnel decisions with Bill Belichick and staff clearly having input on players targeted in the draft and free agency, the Browns now have Phil Savage making personnel decisions with Romeo Crennel and his staffing weighing in on important pieces of the puzzle to be brought in. Savage and Pioli both worked on Bill Belichick's staff in the early to mid nineties and have the same philosophies on building their teams.
Using the draft as the main source of building your team, while adding in key free agents and veterans. The staff's influence in personnel decisions is clearly evidenced this season by the Browns acquisitions. Todd Grantham liked the idea of having Antwan Peek, Robaire Smith, and Kenny Wright as key pieces of his defense. Romeo Crennel's familiarity with Charlie Weis was a key in trading up to select Brady Quinn. This system of checks and balances between GM Phil Savage and his head coach and staff may very well be a system that turns this franchise back to its winning tradition.
Lerner to me has proven that he will take the steps to make this franchise back to its great tradition. Starting with his "internship" with the New England franchise, to his willingness to spend money to acquire talent, and letting each person in his chain of command do their job. I think the coming seasons of Cleveland Browns football will be exciting ones that will stamp champion back into our resume. A new era has arrived in Cleveland Browns football and it is being ushered in by a man on a mission.