5 reasons Cleveland Browns gig is better than Cowboys

Browns are way out in front on social justice and hiring

Players say they care about social justice and hiring, but they are so eager to work for the man who threatened to fire everyone who did not obey him and remain standing for the national anthem.
That would be Jerry Jones. The Haslams supported the players from the very beginning, asking for everyone to at least be able to discuss their differing opinions like adults, but promising to support whatever the players decided.

When the Browns were created in 1946 by Paul Brown, he included two African Americans on the roster:  Marion Motley and Bill Willis in 1946, the first in the modern era (two other African American players also played for the Los Angles Rams that same season). It was a year before the great Jackie Robinson broke in with the Brooklyn Dodgers, by the way.

Cleveland was and is a unique community because it has always had an upper middle class that included African Americans, centered in the Shaker Heights community. This is the community that Jim Brown lived in when he played in Cleveland. It’s understandable why Cleveland was the first city to elect an African American mayor, as early as 1967, given the existence of this environment. That’s not to say that there are not also great problems in the city, because there are, but it is a city that has had great diversity.

In the 1960s Jim Brown, John Wooten and others were local activists in the Cleveland area, creating  organizations to work with African American owned businesses, and supported a number of social causes, including working with young people on the East side.

Some NFL organizations pretend to offer opportunities to African Americans, especially at the quarterback position, head coach and general manager, but the Browns really do it. A cynic might observe that the turnover is rather high here and the Browns have also fired the most African Americans, but nevertheless check out the numbers.

The Browns surely have the NFL record for most African American starting quarterbacks with at least eight: David Mays, Spergon Wynn, Seneca Wallace, Thad Lewis, Jason Campbell, Robert Griffin III, Deshone Kizer, Tyrod Taylor

African American head coaches: Terry Robiskie (interim), Romeo Crennel, Hue Jackson.

African American general managers: Ray Farmer, Sashi Brown, Andrew Berry

The Browns have also been pro-active in hiring female and minority coaches, scouts and front office personnel, including chief of staff Callie Brownson, and scouts Kathleen Wood and Riley Hecklinski. It’s an inclusive environment attracting top talent from around the country.

The Browns have created ties with a number of local causes that players and fans can support to make a real difference in the community, partly in response to the call for social justice and social activism, but the Browns have been active in this area throughout their existence.

Andrew Berry has articulated the challenge for Cleveland Browns employees in his program ‘Be the Solution’. We have had at least partial success in publicizing problems and talking about them. What can be done to make tangible improvements in the community? Can we make a difference for at least one person at a time to improve their life?

Community-oriented organizations can be found on the Cleveland Browns website so that Browns players, employees and fans can donate money or time to help out and create better communities. It’s not just wearing a tee shirt with a slogan, it’s an opportunity to support good causes with your hard earned cash, and some of the free-lance money this writer gets from Dawg Pound Daily goes to these causes.

The Dallas Cowboys are also an outstanding organization, and in particular the Jones family operates the Jones Family Foundation. They’re certainly among the most generous families and organizations in the NFL, and always have been. Still, the mishandling of the National Anthem fiasco, with Jerry Jones threatening to fire players who did not obey his orders concerning flag etiquette, probably escalated the situation and made it worse rather than bringing people together. At any rate, the agent of a prospective player for the Cowboys should discuss that nasty detail before signing that contract offer, especially if it is for lower bucks than the Browns are offering.

If players are serious about giving back to the community, the Cleveland Browns are one of the top organizations in the NFL that have the players behind them. They have an action plan and they have a visible presence in the community. All organizations talk. The Browns really have a record of doing something about problems in the local community.

When all is said and done, matching a player to an organization is a complex decision and sometimes sometimes the Cowboys are going be a better match and sometimes the Browns are going to be better. A player will not go wrong with either decision, frankly (just do not let your client sign with Washington, okay?).

But when all the factors are laid out on the table and added up, in a surprising number of cases, the Cleveland Browns are going to prove to be a better gig than the Dallas Cowboys.