LERNER TALKS ABOUT MANGINI HIRE

Browns owner Randy Lerner, who typically declines to permit cameras or microphones to be used during his meetings with the media, gave an interview on Thursday during an appearance on ESPN 850 WKNR in Cleveland. The goal likely was to help make the case for hiring Eric Mangini to be the team’s head coach before hiring anyone to serve as the teams G.M. Frankly, we weren’t persuaded. “When you are going out to hire a head coach and a General Manager, it seemed to me that the head coach hire is the more urgent one,” Lerner said. “The longer you wait, the less people are available.” The problem with that logic? Of the four other head-coaching vacancies with teams other than Mangini’s former employer (Rams, Lions, Broncos, Raiders), Mangini had generated no interest. Nothing. No interviews, no rumors, no speculation. Nothing. So, as it now stands, whoever gets the G.M. job in Cleveland will be stuck with a head coach for the first four years of his tenure. And this means that, if George Kokinis doesn’t take the job, Lerner will be in the unveniable position of having to persuade a G.M. to work with a man who might not have been the G.M.'s first choice in a head coach. Or his second choice. Or his tenth choice. I talked about this possible dynamic earlier today during a spot on Sporting News Radio’s The Monty Show. While the possibility of Lerner eventually hiring a G.M. who would then fire the head coach seems to be ridiculous on the surface, stranger things already have happened. In Cleveland. Lerner also explained the decision to hire a head coach before hiring a G.M. as follows: “Typically, if you have a long-standing head coach that has been part of the continuity of an organization . . . that guy would take a leadership role in hiring,” Lerner said. “In our situation, we don’t have that person.” Wow. This statement reflects such a gross misunderstanding of the business of the NFL that we can’t think of a way to address it without offending Mr. Lerner any more than we surely already have. Rarely, if ever, does a team search for a new General Manager while having a “long-standing head coach” on the payroll. Rarely, if ever, does a head coach at any time take a leadership role in hiring a true General Manager. A true General Manager is, by the NFL’s standard definition, the boss of the coach. The true G.M. has final-say authority over the roster and the draft, or the G.M. isn’t truly a G.M. (See Tom Heckert.) So maybe what Lerner is saying is that Mangini will be superior to the G.M. (as it is in New England and Philadelphia, for example), which could prompt the Ravens to resist efforts to hire George Kokinis, who can’t make the move from Baltimore to Cleveland without serving the role of a true G.M. Though this all might somehow end well, it’s definitely not starting well. And the losers are, once again, the fans of the Browns, who desperately deserve a team that isn’t competitive once every five years, but that consistently is winning at least as many games as it loses. So far, their favorite team is losing the offseason. Badly.