The Changing Culture of the Cleveland Browns

For the last five years, my friends and I have had an end of the summer ritual. We all went to school at Baldwin Wallace College, which is literally a couple of blocks away from the Cleveland Browns facility in Berea (we actually lived in the dorms that the Browns renovated when they used to stay there; air conditioning is a nice perk, no?). Every season since we’ve been gone, we reunite, visit some of our old bars, have a bite to eat, and then go to a Browns training camp.

Every season, that is, except for this one. It’s not because we don’t care about the Browns, mind you; in spite of their performances, we still follow the team avidly. No, it’s because Eric Mangini has decided that the training schedule is super-top secret shit that can’t be disseminated to the general public.

In the past, the entire training camp schedule was released a couple of weeks before camp; this would allow us to actually plan on a day to attend. This year, though, the schedule’s (available here) is only being released a week ahead of time. This coincides with what’s really been an almost  complete media blackout from the Mangini regime, especially in comparison to the Phil Savage era. Whether or not it was a good plan, Clevelanders loved Phil’s constant communication with the media; it gave them access to a team that, frankly, has flattered to deceive outside for a single sparkling season where we didn’t make the playoffs. Savage would opine on draft picks, sign big free agents, and at least make us interested in the offseason.

Mangini’s cut from a different cloth; I can’t speak to his coaching, but his media relations blow. A former manager of Arsenal once said that, if fans wanted entertainment, they should go to the circus; Mangini seems to be of that same mindset. Gone are the informative weekly press conferences, the player interviews, and the fan outreach; instead, we get Belichick-level secrecy and a “my way or the highway” attitude that’s kind of offputting.

In the compare/contrast, it’s important to acknowledge that Phil Savage’s draft picks were either gimmes (you didn’t have to work for an NFL team to draft Braylon Edwards or Joe Thomas) or busts (pretty much everyone else; a high point was when Savage tried to explain to fans that Babatunde Oshinowo, a sixth round pick, was going to be better than Haloti Ngata…and we all believed him). With the suspension of Donte Stallworth (who, frankly, would’ve been injured for ten of the sixteen games this season anyways), Eric Steinbach is the only remaining marquee free agency signing from Savage’s tenure. All that pomp and circumstance got us one good season over three years, and that was just as much luck as it was anything else.

What Savage did far better than Mangini was give the fans the illusion of access. He’d let you know what he thought about certain players. He’d lay his cards on the table in regards to the perceived problems on the team. He’d back Romeo up. We were all in it together with Phil, and after the disastrous Butch Davis years that was kind of refreshing.

Now we’ve come full circle, to a coach where everything – including the training camp schedule – is top secret. I understand why that’s important; lots of teams have far more restrictive policies than we’ve been used to lately. It does detract from the enthusiasm, however; where as in the past I’ve been waiting for the schedule, I almost missed it this season.

The tactics make sense. Unfortunately, Cleveland isn’t New York; we’re a football first, everything else second city, and Mangini’s giving fans a reason to be apathetic at a time when fan morale is just about as low as it can be. All will be forgiven, of course, if he can start winning…but no Browns fan puts blind faith in anything anymore, and if he wants to keep his training camp schedule secret in Cleveland than he’ll need to pay for that with wins.

Tags: cleveland browns, magnakai haaskivi, nfl, training camp
Categories: Daily Specials, Domestics

This entry was posted on Friday, July 24th, 2009 at 1:22 pm and is filed under Daily Specials, Domestics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.