On the same day that the Browns are expected to get an answer from the guy who could be the next chief of their football operations, the guy who previously held that power (but who apparently wasn’t expected to use it and then fired because he didn’t) has filed a claim for the balance of his contract.
Tony Grossi of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that former Browns G.M. George Kokinis has filed an arbitration claim against the team for firing him “with cause,” which cut off his pay for the balance of the deal.
Per Grossi, Kokinis seeks more than $4 million in “compensation and damages” from the team.
Given that jobs of this nature are rare and the competition for them intense, teams typically include non-negotiable language in the contract giving the Commissioner or his designee the authority to resolve any legal claims arising from the employment relationship. And this gives the teams an inherent edge, since it’s the teams not the team employees who determine the identity and job security of the Commissioner.
Still, even with the fielded tilted in their favor, it appears that the Browns don’t have much of a chance to prevail. By all appearances, Kokinis’ only mistake was to assume that the contract giving him final say over the roster meant what it said. When his “friend” Eric Mangini opted instead to dominate the relationship and Kokinis assumed the back-seat position that Mangini wanted him to take, the team concluded that Kokinis had failed to do his job.
So unless there’s evidence that Kokinis did something he shouldn’t have done, he should ultimately prevail.
In this regard, “ultimately” gives the team some leverage. These things often can take a while to percolate -- the last time we checked, Lane Kiffin’s effort to get the balance of his salary from the Raiders was still pending, well over a year after he was fired. So if Kokinis decides that he just wants to move on (after moving out), he might take less money than that to which he’s entitled in order to settle the dispute.