Cleveland Browns: The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same

The Cleveland Browns football team was not always as bad as they’ve been since their rebirth into the NFL at the start of the 1999 season. In fact, this team is among the most storied franchises in NFL history, with names like Otto Graham, Jim Brown, Lou Groza, coach Paul Brown, and a host of other legendary players counted among their alumni. So how did the once proud Browns become the inept bottom feeders that they have been for most of these past 13 seasons? The list of mistakes and poor decisions by the powers that be is long and distinguished, but a couple of things really stand out to me.

Coaching Chaos
Since 1999 the role call of Browns head coaches is less than impressive. Chris Palmer, Butch Davis, Terry Robiski (interim), Romeo Crennel, Eric Mangini, and the latest inexperienced rookie head coach Pat Shurmer have produced a disastrous and pathetic combined record (as of Sunday, December 4th, 2011) of 68 wins and a whopping 136 losses. That’s a paltry 33% winning percentage fans, and that’s nothing less than shameful, and an insult to the Browns history and legacy. Moreover, that’s six regime changes in under 13 full seasons. Six new head coaches, and only one of these six had any NFL head coaching experience before he joined the Browns! New offensive and defensive coordinators with their own schemes, systems, and philosophies are put in place about every two years on average. Scores of position coaches coming and going with different ideas on how each position should be played. How can any group of players develop, bond, and learn to win consistently while being exposed to such chaos around them?

The Quarterback
The elite teams that win year in and year out in the NFL have a solid, consistent, talented quarterback to run their offenses. QB’s with names like Breese, Manning, Rogers, Favre, Rothlisburger, and Brady are proven winners who make big plays in crunch time and know how to win football games. Since their rebirth the Cleveland Browns have fielded their own stellar group of quarterbacks. Who can forget the legendary play of superstars like Tim Couch, Kelly Holcomb, Jeff Garcia, Trent Dilfer, Charlie Frye, Derek Anderson, Brady Quinn, Jake Delhomme,and the current incarnation at quarterback Colt McCoy. Can you imagine the fear struck in the hearts of the defensive units that have faced these studs? I think it might have been more of a feeding frenzy that the opposing defenses were feeling when they saw these guys under center.

Sobering Perspective
The reborn Browns have been in existence just short of 13 full seasons now. They have made only one playoff appearance and have recorded only two winning seasons in that time. Compare this futility to the 14 seasons from 1976 through 1989 when the Browns made seven playoff appearances. Quarterback Brian Sipe played eight solid years for the Browns in that era, and to this day still holds the team’s all time passing record of 23,713 yards. After one losing season in 1984 with Paul McDonald at QB along came a tall, awkward, slow-footed guy by the name of Bernie Kosar who quarterbacked the Browns to five consecutive playoff seasons!

The Beat Goes On
With four games remaining in the 2011 campaign the Cleveland Browns have a choke hold on last place in their division and are poised to humiliate themselves yet again with another double-digit loss season. It’s time to ask this question on behalf of every long suffering Browns fan. Exactly how much more of this garbage does Browns ownership expect us to swallow? The Cleveland Browns are blessed with arguably the best and most loyal fans of any NFL team. Clearly just as winning breeds winning, so must losing breed losing. The Browns appear to embrace only the “losing breeds losing” part of that statement. Oh, the Browns will chalk it all up to rebuilding as usual, and they will make yet another empty promise of better days to come, but sadly the beat will go on. Since 1999 the dog and pony show that once was the proud Cleveland Browns football team has proven that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Six head coaches and nine quarterbacks in 13 seasons. The Browns certainly are experts at bad choices and constant change, and all they have done with their revolving door approach to football is earn a PhD in losing.

There are only four NFL teams that have never played in a Super Bowl. The Browns should be ashamed to be counted as one of those four. Don’t expect them to move from the ranks of the pathetic anytime soon.

Rich Kaminsky is a long suffering Browns fan from suburban Cleveland, Ohio. He adopted the Browns in 1964 when his family moved to Ohio from the heart of Steeler country in western Pennsylvania.

Source
All stats and data from Pro-Football-Reference.com


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