Friday, September 26, 2008

Romeo Must Die, Savage too

This topic has been beaten to death in other blogs and forums, but I have to put in my two cents. Romeo Crennel is the worst coach in the league. He has to be. We all know why so I don't need to repeat it here to inform you of the reasons. Instead, I will repeat here the ones that come to mind because I am so angry about them. In no particular order:

1) Can't coach-a very important aspect of coaching
2) Can't manage the clock
3) Too loyal to incompetents around him to get rid of them while there is still time-See Carthon and Anderson
4) Can't make a good decision on anything. I liked it better when he was flipping coins. At least then he had a 50-50 chance of getting it right. I've never seen someone mess up so many challenge calls and starting lineups and play schemes, yada yada.
5) Can't evaluate talent.

Romeo must die (get fired). He wasn't any good last year during Cleveland's 10 win season. Don't let the record fool you. He exhibited every one of these problems all last season. We won in spite of him (and Derek Anderson for that matter, but I digress).

Why isn't he fired? Because Phil Savage has no sack. It's hard to believe it, but the Browns actually have someone in the organization with less testicular fortitude than Romeo. Savage repeatedly sits by while Romeo takes the ship to the bottom of the river. Romeo is stubborn. We know that. As the guy actually responsible for the personnel decisions, it is Phil's job to know when to make the changes and when to re-sign the players.

Carthon stunk. It took waaaaaay too long to get rid of him over Romeo's objection. Shaun Rogers had 3 years left on his contract when he came here and we gave him a brand new deal without playing a down.

Derek Anderson had about 5 decent games last year, against turrible (as spoken by Sir Charles Barkley) teams. Watch the games, it's true. The man got a new contract. Romeo had no good games, and he got an extension. I don't understand this philosophy that if we win games, we must be doing well. That is bull shit. Yes, winning games is what matters. But that doesn't mean we must reward people who happen to be on the team in key positions of coach and qb when they didn't play like 10 win guys. Yes the coach and the qb always get more share of the credit when the team wins and more share of the blame when the team loses. But isn't it the job of the team general manager to look past that and evaluate based on talent and performance, and not the record? Trent Dilfer won a super bowl. He must be very talented, right? Terry Bradshaw is probably one of the most overrated qb in history thanks to his 4 super bowls that the Steelers defense got him.

Yes, Romeo is god awful. Everyone knows it. But that's not his fault. It's just who he is. The problem is why is he here being god awful for Cleveland? Phil Savage, the man who gave Romeo an extension. This isn't to say that Savage hasn't done anything right. Unlike Romeo, Phil has some hits to go along with his misses. The Frye trade, the Joe Thomas pick (a very ballsy and great pick). However, the problem with the team right now is Romeo Crennel, and he is Phil Savage's responsibility.

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