Cleveland Browns: 4 Reasons Haslam Should Hire Bernie Kosar

Kosar’s Hire Re-Energizes The Fan Base

This isn’t the best argument to do anything in business, but that’s how low the Browns have sunk since their re-birth in 1999.

No matter the ownership group, Cleveland has continuously been a training ground for inexperienced executives and coaches.

Al Lerner tapped Chris Palmer to coach, and Dwight Clark to head the personnel department back in 1999. Palmer had never been a head coach before, and Clark had never been the No. 1 man when it came to identifying talent, although he had been executive with the 49ers. Both men reported to Carmen Policy, but the pairing turned out be a “runaway train” that crashed into Lake Erie.

From there the Browns moved into the Butch Davis era.. He was an experienced NFL coach, but had never been THE man until getting the gig in Cleveland.  After Al Lerner died, he won a power struggler with Policy and became his own GM.

From there it was Phil Savage and Romeo, and who could forget the Eric Mangini/George Kokinos fiasco?

Mike Holmgren was though to be the experienced football man Cleveland had longed for, but the Super Bowl winning coach was too busy gulping down umbrella drinks to do what he does best: Coach. Instead, Holmgren hired a first-time coach named Pat Shurmur who fell flat on his face.

Haslam bought the team and named Joe Banner president and Mike Lombardi president. Both men had credentials, but Banner had never been responsible for football operations, and Lombardi had been out of the league for some time, working in the media with NFL Network.

That braintrust hired Rob Chudzinksi, but before Chud could sign a lease on an apartment, Jimmy Haslam blew the front office up and put his faith in guy who had never been a GM–Ray Farmer–and someone who’s only head coaching experience came at the high school level–Mike Pettine.

Next: Kosar's Identified Talent