Cleveland Browns: Why be petty with former coaches?

Dec 20, 2015; Seattle, WA, USA; Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam watches pre game warmups against the Seattle Seahawks at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports /

The Cleveland Browns reportedly will not be going out of their way to help their former coaches network for new jobs. Why do they need to be so petty?

It was a familiar sight at Cleveland Browns headquarters in Berea following the end of the 2015 NFL season.

Players cleaned out their personal belongings, as did a coaching staff that the day before had seen head coach Mike Pettine lose his job and the rest of the coaching staff free to pursue other opportunities.

But there will be no lovely parting gifts for the coaching staff, according to Sports Illustrated‘s Peter King.

In his weekly Monday Morning Quarterback column, King points out that the Browns gave the departing coaches one last kick in the pants on the way out the door:

"In their closing meeting with team brass, the outgoing Cleveland staff was told the team would not foot the bill for them to network and try to get jobs at the Senior Bowl. And the coaches were told they would not be allowed to purchase their two Super Bowl tickets, a perk of being an NFL player or coach, which they were under the impression they’d be allowed to do."

"So when those two bits of information were dropped on the coaches, most of whom have one more year left on their contracts, they were not pleased."

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King doesn’t mention whether or not this is standard operating procedure among NFL teams, but the fact that he singled out the Browns leads us to believe that similar situations may not be playing out in Miami, San Francisco, Philadelphia and the other teams that fired their coaches after the season.

And even if it is the norm, why do the Browns need to be so petty? It’s not as if owner Jimmy Haslam is hurting for money, so it comes off as really bad form for the Browns to do something like this. The coaching fraternity is not that big, and sticking it to the departing staff only serves to give them extra incentive to share the team’s dirty laundry with their fellow coaches.

It is possible that we are taking this too personally because of our recent experiences, where we were tossed aside by a new boss with nary a “thank you” after more than 14 years of service to the employer. But it matters how you treat people – especially once you believe you no longer need them.

King also touched on the Browns’ restructured front office:

"The Browns have many issues as they look for a new coach and general manager while building an organizational structure different from that of any other team."

"I’ve talked to many people around the league in the last few days about Cleveland hiring club attorney Sashi Brown as the executive vice president of football operations and Paul DePodesta as chief strategy officer of the team."

"The overriding thought, from one veteran personnel executive: “They better be absolutely sure they find a coach and GM who buy into the culture they’re building there, or this will be another Cleveland train wreck. Personally I think it’s innovative and pretty smart. But it only works if the coach you’re bringing in is open-minded.”"

That’s nothing we haven’t been saying all along – there is nothing inherently wrong with the new plan, the Browns just need to make sure they have the right people in place to execute it.

And if it doesn’t work out?

Hopefully the analytics will tell Haslam not to be so petty the next time he makes a coaching change.

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