Browns spoke to Bill Parcells about running team per Mike Freeman
By Peter Smith
Aug 4, 2013; Canton, OH, USA; Bill Parcells at the 2013 Enshrinees Gameday Roundtable at the Canton Memorial Civic Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
The Cleveland Browns spoke to Bill Parcells about running the team according to Mike Freeman of Bleacherreport. Evidently, this was a discussion they had with him before making Ray Farmer the general manager of the team. Farmer may well have still ended up as the general manager, but Parcells would have been the one making that decision. Parcells is reported to have said that he spoke with the Browns about what it takes to win and run a successful organization, but that was the extent to of it.
Parcells is one of the best talent evaluators in history as well as having a supreme understanding of what it takes to make an organization successful in the NFL. He has won the Super Bowl twice with the New York Giants, led the New England Patriots to the Super Bowl after a decade of horrible football, taken the New York Jets to the AFC Championship, got the Dallas Cowboys to their last playoff appearance and found quarterback Tony Romo and was in charge of the Miami Dolphins when they went from 1-15 to 11-5 in one season.
His success in the draft and turning around different organizations is unparalleled, so there is almost no one better the Browns could have consulted or potentially tried to hire to run the franchise. It would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall for that conversation between Parcells and Jimmy Haslam on how to run the franchise and if he had any thoughts on who they have in place. It does suggest that Haslam is at least talking to the right people when it comes to trying to understand of how to make the franchise work.