Mike Pettine was already barely better than the Browns’ fifth or sixth choice to be head coach.
So this week’s news that it was actually sixth or seventh didn’t matter much to him.
Pettine just told reporters at the Scouting Combine that our report of the Browns making a play for 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh “has no impact on my job moving forward.”
Pettine called it “noise,” but admitted a bit of initial frustration.
“I shot the messenger a little,” he said. “I used a word proceeded by the word flying. And I don’t give a rat’s.”
Granted, that’s the way he has to handle it since he’s the one who has to take the mop and the bucket and clean up this mess.
The fact an effort was made to land an established coach can also be viewed as a positive, since it’s at least an obvious effort to move the Browns in another direction.
So while Pettine was thrown into an awkward position, it’s probably less awkward than the dance the 49ers are trying to do — trying to convince the world they’re committed to a coach they obviously are working through an uncomfortable process with.
