Tony Grossi questions latest Cleveland Browns report from Jason La Canfora
ESPN Cleveland analyst Tony Grossi called into question the latest Cleveland Browns report from CBS sportswriter Jason La Canfora.
Jason La Canfora wrote about the Browns heading into Week 1, and guess what, the CBS scribe long known for authoring hatched jobs on the franchise did it again and Tony Grossi isn’t going to let him get away with it.
La Canfora wrote about disfunction in Cleveland’s front office, with coach Hue Jackson supposedly being “irate” with Executive Vice President Sashi Brown’s decision to cut Joe Haden.
Grossi, a longtime Browns writer sees it a different way.
Talking on WKNR 850 AM, Grossi called into question La Canfora’s report.
Grossi argued that the whole “lynchpin” of La Canfora’s story was Hue Jackson’s public comments about releasing Haden. The Browns head coach talked spoke about wanting Haden on his roster.
As Grossi correctly noted, what’s the head coach supposed to say?
"“If Hue Jackson and Gregg Williams were irate, what does the locker room feel? ‘”[They’d be asking] who’s in charge here, right? if they were so irate and couldn’t stop, it, who are the players supposed to listen to? The coach or the front office? So I’m not buying it. I’m against what they did to Joe Haden, but I don’t think they’re against it,” Grossi said."
Grossi’s interviewers, Tony Rizzo and Aaron Goldhammer asked about La Canfora’s connection to former Browns’ GM, Mike Lombari.
Goldhammer suggested La Canfora may have an axe to grind because the Browns fired his friend.
Grossi didn’t want to touch that topic, and it’s understandable. He was a leading critic of Lombardi during his disastrous year, which yielded Barkevious Mingo as a first-round draft pick.
Grossi is usually heavy criticized when he paints Lombardi in a bad light. Usual criticisms include Grossi’s always negative and he has it out for Lombardi.
So, you get why he doesn’t want to talk about it.
Jim Donovan, the longtime Channel 3 broadcaster and Browns play-by-play man also spoke on La Canfora’s story,
"“I don’t know about the whole landscape, as are they on the same page regarding everything…they say are…you would hope they are and you would expect them to say that anyways……I think they were all in agreement they were going to watch [Haden this preseason] and unless they were going to be wowed…[they were going to move on.]”"
Donovan also talked about the pressure La Canfora is under as a national reporter to come up with stories in order to appear on the CBS pregame show.
Donovan described the pregame show market as “very competitive.”
For followers of this blog, you may have been surprised to see nothing about the La Canfora report.
When I first caught wind about it, I thought, “Really?” You’re going to report this two weeks after the deal went down. And really, another Browns “disfunction” story.
The Browns are such just low hanging fruit. It’s almost too easy.
When you factor in his friendship with a disgruntled Browns employee, you can’t help call his credibility into question.
And that’s all a reporter has.
With that said, I’m not saying Jason was wrong, nor am I saying he’s right. But his credibility has been shot with me, and that’s a personal decision.
Next: Analytics fail the Browns in Week 1 loss to Steelers
Name names Jason. Who’s your source? This isn’t watergate. It’s a veteran who makes a ton of money and his past his prime getting cut.