Unless you’re old enough to remember the days when running back Jim Brown played for the Cleveland Browns, then you don’t have a clue about the prior success of the organization. From 1950-1965, the Browns played for the National Football League Championship nine times while winning it all on four occasions. But since then the Browns have become a bumbling disaster in the mode of Wile E. Coyote while the rest of the NFL is their Road Runner. The Browns have become such a train wreck, that when former team owner Art Modell decided to move the original Browns to Baltimore, Maryland in 1996 to become the Ravens, the new Browns that began playing in 1999 have kept the engine of futility going on the shores of Lake Erie.
Since 1999, the Browns have had only two winning seasons while they’ve had a revolving door at all of the team’s critical positions. Since 1999, the Browns have had three owners, seven general managers, eight head coaches, and sadly, 23 different starting quarterbacks with that number expected to grow soon.
In 2014, after selecting cornerback Justin Gilbert with the eighth overall pick of the National Football League Draft, the Browns traded back into the first round to select quarterback Johnny Manziel. At Texas A&M University, Manziel won the 2012 Heisman Trophy as the nation’s top college football player, but the off-the-field issues that he was involved in cast a dark cloud over him heading into the NFL.
Johnny Manziel
As a rookie, Manziel started a pair of games for the Browns as he only completed 51.4 percent of his attempts without throwing a touchdown pass. This season Manziel has started three games for the Browns and Cleveland is 1-2 in those starts. Browns head coach Mike Pettine has liked the on-field progress that he feels Manziel has made which included him passing for 372 yards in a Week 10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. But after past issues involving alcohol during Manziel’s short stint with the Browns, the young quarterback was on a short leash with the team which has appeared to finally come a head.
The Browns had their bye week during Week 11 and during that time, an image of Manziel holding a bottle at an Austin bar appeared on Instagram. The image has since been removed, but its damaging effect cannot be replaced. And due to Manziel’s past track record with alcohol which included him checking himself into a rehab center earlier this year along with this most recent incident have now forced the Browns to have a zero tolerance policy with him as far as causing distractions to the team. But what made what made matters worse was that Manziel lied to the team when he was questioned about it.
Mike Pettine
Manziel’s actions have forced Pettine to demote him to being the Browns third-string quarterback as he has been replaced as the starting quarterback in Cleveland by Josh McCown and the move could symbolize the end of Manziel’s brief stint in Northern Ohio. And for the Browns, this will more than likely mean that they will be starting over once more. The Browns are a loss away from their eighth consecutive losing season and their 13th year since 1999 in which they’ve lost at least 10 games. Pettine and Browns general manager Ray Farmer are each in their second year in Cleveland, but even if they return for 2016, it is more than likely that you’ll see another starting quarterback in Northern Ohio next year which would make him the team’s 24th different starting quarterback since 1999 which in itself is totally mind boggling.
Jimmy Haslam
Jimmy Haslam has owned the Browns since 2012 and he surprised many people last year when he decided that the team needed a new uniform design. The old Browns uniform was vintage and iconic, but Haslam felt that the team needed a new look. However new uniforms in 2015 for the Browns haven’t been able to mask the stench of futility. It also hasn’t helped the case of the Browns that their current stadium ( FirstEnergy Stadium), was built on the site of their former home in Cleveland Municipal Stadium which was also the site of utter heartbreak.
The Browns have lost their last five games including losing the last four contests by double figures and there appears to be no end in sight for them. This season the Browns are 27th in the National Football League in total offense and 30th in total defense as if nothing else, it shows that they are consistent.
I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but the Browns must start over, and in doing so, they must put the right people in each position that will finally make the organization successful. Since returning to the National Football League in 1999, the Browns have only hired one head coach (Eric Mangini) that was a previous head coach in the league and he was fresh off of being fired by the New York Jets. And also over that stretch, none of the general managers that were hired by the Browns had previous experience in that capacity which is a glaring reason why this organization has struggled so much in returning to the NFL. When the Browns draft a quarterback, they tend to throw him to the wolves right away due to the fact that this organization is so desperate for a spark. And if not an overmatched rookie signal caller, the Browns will use a journeyman quarterback to be their starter who is nothing more than a career clipboard holder.
Just like winning is a culture, so is losing, and unfortunately for the Browns, there are low expectations within their locker room as losing is obviously accepted. Instead of worrying about the style of uniforms that the Browns are wearing, Haslam needs to worry more about the players that are wearing the brown and orange which means that he needs to pony up the bread to find front office personnel that can not only find players that can play, but also guys that hate to lose more than they enjoy winning. And until that happens, we will consistently talk about the Browns starting over as they are picking early in each round at the National Football League Draft.
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