Cleveland Browns are well-positioned if a coaching change is made: Bud Shaw's Sports Spin

If a coaching change is in the works, the Browns have never been so well positioned to make it work for them in 2011, Bud Shaw writes in his Spin column.

View full sizeLisa DeJong / The Plain DealerA coaching change for the Browns appears inevitable, and with team President Mike Holmgren running things in Berea, chaos is sure not to follow.

Change in Berea is not nearly as scary these days as consistency just for the sake of it.

If any city's football fans should know what constitutes "starting over," it's this city's.

Cutting ties with head coach Eric Mangini wouldn't be starting over, not with Mike Holmgren as president and Tom Heckert as general manager.

And certainly not with Holmgren in front of the cameras in January, saying, "I'd like to introduce the Browns' next head coach, a guy I think the world of, a guy who shares my offensive philosophy on how to win in the NFL in 2011, a man I've known all my life . . . even my wife loves this guy . . . give it up for . . . me!"

Holmgren should keep Mangini only if he believes the Mangini way is an expressway to the Super Bowl. I can't see how that's possible, but we'll see. I do know Holmgren has other options that didn't exist last year when he let things ride after that four-game winning streak to close the season. That winning streak, by the way, proved to be the launching pad to . . . oh, yeah . . . a 1-5 start.

View full sizePDAre Eric Mangini's days in Cleveland numbered?

Holmgren, Heckert, the availability of Jon Gruden and John Fox and -- quite possibly -- Holmgren's own unscratched itch to coach again make this potential transition unlike any other in the past decade.

Randy Lerner saw his father, Al, match a first-time head coach in Chris Palmer with an overmatched GM in Dwight Clark. Clark threw an arm over Palmer's shoulder at a news conference late in their second season and -- prophetically it turns out -- sang a few bars of "Side by Side." Prophetic because they were connected at the guillotine, even though Clark showed enough life for a while to serve as Butch Davis' floor mat.

When Randy Lerner overthrew King Butch, he vowed to embrace the separate seats of power model with the GM having final say. Problem was, Romeo Crennel and Phil Savage didn't merely prove dysfunctional as a team. Lerner came to see Savage as a bad match for the general manager's job.

The owner reversed himself by hiring Mangini, then delivering George Kokinis to an already compromised GM job.

Two years later, the Browns have never been better positioned for what looks and feels like inevitable change. Heckert's first draft and Holmgren's timely intrusion on behalf of Colt McCoy in the third round, along with some good free-agent pickups, are insurance against a step back next season.

The closest the Browns could come to starting over would be on defense if they scrap Rob Ryan's 3-4 to go with the 4-3.

But changing head coaches? It doesn't invite the chaos of the past decade. Not even close.

In fact, it gives Holmgren the opportunity to create an even more harmonious organization.

SEEING IS BELIEVING

But sometimes he has to fight a blind squirrel for it.

Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis predicts Peyton Hillis won't run roughshod Sunday at Cleveland Browns Stadium the way he did against Baltimore early in the season.

"It won't happen again," Lewis said "A blind cat will find a meal every once in a while."

We'll see. As Al Gore once said, "A leopard can't change his stripes."

LET'S TALK FOOTBALL

And you thought it was the other kind of golden arches Rex Ryan had a thing for.

View full sizeAPJets coach Rex Ryan with his wife, Michelle (feet not pictured).

Jets coach Rex Ryan did not deny a Deadspin.com report showing videos of a woman who looks like Ryan's wife showing off her feet while a cameraman -- said to sound like Ryan -- talks to her.

Big deal. So what if he has a foot fetish. Could be worse. Do you prefer a coach with a foot fetish at home or a field-goal fetish on Sundays?

SPINOFFS

I think if videos of Josh Cribbs' feet showed up on Deadspin.com, we'd see why he shouldn't be trying to play with four dislocated toes. If you can't see that already just by watching his kick returns I mean. . . .

Minnesota coach Leslie Frazier won't put 41-year-old Brett Favre on season-ending injured reserve and said Favre could play Sunday despite a shoulder injury. I saw this exact plot the first time, when it was called "Weekend at Bernie's." . . .

The Saints ran the ball 10 times against Baltimore on Sunday and still used two running backs. The Browns can't give Peyton Hillis one carry off? Now I see why Jerome Harrison had to go. . . .

If they're not going to use Mike Bell, they should've traded for Patriots lineman Dan Connell. Then the two longest runs of the season could belong to a 6-4, 314-pound lineman and a punter. . . .

Eric Mangini stopped short of lamenting the loss of "gap integrity" against Cincinnati. In the past two games, the Browns have been outrushed, 380-164, so I'm not sure that's the sole issue unless those gaps of integrity are bigger than anything found in the House and Senate. . . .

HE SAID IT

"It's the 17th concussion we've had this year. I've been coaching now 35 years and I've seen five concussions in 35 years. Now the new thing is everybody has a concussion. If you walk out and slightly brush the door, you have a concussion. That's the way it is today." -- Louisville coach Rick Pitino, downplaying what medical experts warn is a serious issue among athletes.

Actually, there have been 18 concussions at Louisville this year, with Pitino's going undiagnosed until that statement.

View full sizeDarren Hauck / AP Rick Pitino: Duh.

YOU SAID IT

(The Slightly Expanded Holiday Edition)

"Bud: Who do you have in the 'San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl' tonight?" -- Tom Hoffner, Broadview Heights

Red, narrowly, over Candy Cane.

"Dear Bud: Is it true Rex Ryan prefers Dr. Scholl's to Victoria's Secret?" -- Michael Sarro

We'll know more about his preferences if next year he's coaching the only barefoot team in the Lingerie Football League.

"Bud: I heard the Indians are interested in signing Bartolo Colon. What, is Sid Monge not available?" -- Angelo, Cleveland

Monge is available. But at age 59, he missed the Indians' self-imposed cutoff for signing veteran hurlers by four years.

"Bud: If Cleveland ever has an actual professional sports team again, will you be forced to write a 'straight' column?" -- JC

Yes, but I'm within a decade of retiring so I'm not expecting that to happen.

"Bud: What do sportswriters at The PD want for Christmas?" -- Bob Jackson

I can only speak for the guys. An end to the annoyance of being hit on by supermodels.

"Bud: Given the dismal sports scene in Cleveland, will you open 'You said it' to home and gardening questions?" -- Peg Schmidt

First time "You said it" winners receive a T-shirt from the mental_floss collection.

"Hey, Bud: NFL 'get-back coaches' are a revelation to the ordinary fan. I hear The PD also has 'get-back coaches' but they are used in the cafeteria to maintain order among the sportswriters. -- Dr. Grinder

Repeat winners receive a very lightly used Abdomenizer signed by me.