In the first public remarks regarding his involuntary departure from a senior management position with the Cleveland Browns, Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown did something that likely would have helped him keep his position.
He didn’t say anything particularly controversial.
“The one thing you learn about life is that you don’t try to hurt people, you don’t try to defend yourself, you don’t try to do anything but be helpful,” Brown told Tony Grossi of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “So I stand by who I am, what I am and what I do. I will never open up any Pandora’s box because I have too much respect for the Lerner family and the Cleveland Browns and the way I’ve been treated. I’ve been treated like a champion.”
On the surface, it looks like Brown has taken the high road. But reference to opening Pandora’s box implies that such a box exists. And now the Browns may have to worry about whether Brown at some point changes his mind and decides to slide open the lid.
Per Grossi, the Browns fired Brown “months ago” during a meeting with the former executive advisor and new team president Mike Holmgren, and that owner Randy Lerner didn’t intervene.
Said Brown as to the details of his departure, “The only quote I can give you that concerns the Browns is that Mrs. [Norma] Lerner, she told me once the greatest compliment that I ever had concerning the Browns. She said, ‘I appreciate so much the fact that you look out for my son [Randy].’”
But while Brown may have had good intentions, his penchant for public comments complicated the team’s efforts, in our view, especially in light of the lofty title he held. When Brown spoke, it wasn’t simply another former player offering up his opinions. Brown was a member of the senior management team. His words carried extra weight.
And, on at least two occasions, that wasn’t a good thing.
During the first month of the 2008 season, a year removed from the selection of quarterback Brady Quinn in round one and the unlikely ascension of quarterback Derek Anderson when he got the ball in early 2007, Brown took his case to the media for benching Anderson and giving Quinn a chance to show what he can do.
“If they don’t [go with Quinn], I don’t know what will happen,” Brown said at the time. “I’ve been in meetings all day. I’ve met with Coach [Crennel], the president of the organization, team captains, individual players, we all seem to be in one accord. But it’s up to the coach to make the final decision. If he makes the right decision, I think we can be out of this terrible slump we’re in.”
Again, it was only September.
Former G.M. Phil Savage publicly explained that changing quarterbacks is “not the thing to do at this juncture of the season.” And so the dirty laundry was flapping in the Lake Erie breeze -- one member of senior management (and also a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame) wanted to make a change, and the men charged with caretaking the roster wanted to stay the course.
The fact that Brown survived in his job more than a year after choosing to publicly undermine the football operation proves that the dysfunction ran far deeper than anyone realized.
Then came, in November 2009, a successful attempt by Brown to let the cat out of the bag regarding Randy Lerner’s recruitment of Holmgren. And so Holmgren knew that Brown couldn’t have access to sensitive information regarding the operation of the team if he couldn’t be trusted to be discreet -- or to not call out in the media the folks hired to make the football decisions.
Of anything that has happened in Cleveland in the past several months, the decision to part ways with Brown represents, in our view, the most tangible proof that the organization finally is moving in the right direction.
None of this changes the fact that Brown did great things on the field, perhaps becoming the greatest running back of all time. But he simply had too much power over the team in recent years -- and he had no qualms about using it.
Moving forward, he still has plenty of power. Because he surely knows plenty of other secrets that, to date, he has yet to disclose.