What the hell is going on in Cleveland? They just fired everybody


It is not fun when the problem with your team isn't the players, the coach, or even the front office. It is most terrible when your team's problem is the owner.

Such is the case for the Cleveland Browns and owner Jimmy Haslam.

The Browns caused quite a firestorm shortly after the NFL season when they fired respected coach Rob Chudzinski after just one year. The Browns players were irate and called the organization a joke.

After losing out on candidate after candidate, including the Patriots' Josh McDaniels, the Browns finally settled on Bills defensive coordinator and former Rex Ryan understudy, Mike Pettine, to be their coach.

We thought that was it for the crazy Browns news for awhile. Not so fast.



These guys have not been with the team long. Banner was brought on as the CEO in October of 2012 and Lombardi was hired as the GM just last offseason.

The Browns had a disappointing season, but they didn't exactly have high expectations either. They pulled off a masterful trade of their first round bust from the year before, Trent Richardson, and then struggled through a revolving door of Brandon Weeden, Jason Campbell and Brian Hoyer at Quarterback.

Still, they had the emergence of Josh Gordon as one of the top receivers in the game and a stout defense with a lot of great additions by Lombardi. Despite all of the turmoil there was at least a glimmer of hope that the future could be bright, given the foundation of talent.

That wasn't enough for the obviously maniacal Haslam, who just canned these guys apparently running the show.

For the record, Lombardi was reportedly a big fan of coach Rob Chudzinski and was not in favor of firing him. He was not present at the press conference announcing the coach's firing.

What are the Patriots ties here?

Well, Lombardi has connections to coach Bill Belichick from their days in Cleveland together and always seemed interested in either current or former talent on the Pats. As an NFL Analyst, he praised Brian Hoyer, Josh McDaniels and Ryan Mallett. Two of the three he attempted to bring to Cleveland, with Hoyer eventually becoming a starter there and McDaniels interviewing for the head coaching gig.

Heading into the 2011 draft, Lombardi said that Mallett needed to be drafted by a team that wouldn't start him right away, so that he could learn under a veteran QB. Learning under Tom Brady is pretty much the perfect scenario for that, so some thought the Browns could swing a deal for Mallett this off-season.

It's a shame for Lombardi, who spent so long without a General Manager job after being fired from Oakland in 2007. I've always enjoyed his insights in the media and was happy for him when he finally landed a job in the NFL again. It's hard to say he got a fair shot in Cleveland.

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