DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Alec Scheiner, gaining power and influence over football operations..

Who knows Mac? At this point we are simply guessing.

It does make sense that Joe and his camp would want guaranteed money to keep from being a 1 year rental. At this point the Browns still have a pro rated share to pay each year. If traded, the new team would only have whatever the contract calls for for the duration, and that isn't guranteed.

At any rate, he is still here and probably isn't going anywhere any time soon.

From SI.com...

Cleveland Browns: Owner Jimmy Haslam Breeds Apathy


by Peter Smith 1w ago

link
As long as Jimmy Haslam continues to own and operate the Cleveland Browns the way he has, the team is reduced to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic hoping the iceberg miraculously gets out of the way. Before and after the game on Sunday, which the Browns fell to the Cardinals 34-20, the team was surrounded by rumors ranging from the team having a fire sale as the trade deadline approaches this coming Tuesday to the ever present possibility that the Browns’ head coach, Mike Pettine, is fighting for his job.

Since taking over ownership of the team, when many fans no one could be worse than Randy Lerner, Haslam has done nothing to improve the team’s woeful win-loss record while only serving to drag the team into the depths of embarrassment time and time again. All of this only breeds an environment of apathy from a fanbase that is running out of hope and anger to waste on the team.

Haslam was awarded the team after he had been the minority owner of one of the most consistent, orderly franchises in the NFL – the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Commissioner Roger Goodell was convinced this was a slam dunk great move, because Goodell would be easy to approve since he was a known commodity within ownership circles and would have learned how to run a franchise from the Rooneys.

Instead, Haslam was immediately part of an FBI investigation involving his company, Pilot J then cleaning house for the first time with the Browns.

Not an unexpected move, Haslam replaced the remnants of Lerner’s final hires to make his own. That was three years and two head coaches ago.

After just a year of Rob Chudzinski, the Browns are now in the second year of Mike Pettine and despite statements in August that he would not blow up this regime, the assumption is that Pettine is coaching for his job. If Ray Farmer is replaced along with him, that would put Haslam on his third front office in four years.

Haslam’s expectations and irrational behavior make it difficult for anyone to succeed and poison any potential pool of candidates. The concept of having to coach to win right this second forces both the coach and GM to make decisions focused entirely on this moment in time with little or no thought to the future.

There are many fans clamoring to see Johnny Manziel, arguing that playing the 36 year old Josh McCown is a waste of time and the team needs to see what Manziel can do. Assuming that Manziel was close to McCown in terms of ability and readiness (which is debatable), there is no incentive for Pettine to play Manziel if he is not the absolute best option to win games. It does not benefit Pettine or his staff to coach up players for the next staff if they cannot help him stay employed now.

This also makes it more difficult for the team to attract or retain players, since the only constant is Haslam. Money is obviously a huge selling point for players but things like fit, the coaching staff and volatility matter and may be the difference for players. It can be extremely difficult for players to want to spend their prime years in an unpredictable situation where the only redeeming quality is the money on the contract. Players want to compete, want to win, and feel like they are part of something. Right now, with the specter of another regime change, there is little if anything to be attached.

Chudzinski was given just one season and Pettine may well just get two. Outside of a tendency towards masochism, no good head coaching candidate is going to want to go to Cleveland and take what might be their only shots to coach an NFL team when the owner has this type of track record.

People liked to joke that Pettine was the umpteenth choice for the head coaching vacancy after Chudzinski. Every high profile coach turned the Browns down, including but not limited to Chip Kelly, Gus Malzahn, and Bill O’Brien. Two years later and primed for their third head coach in four years, there is every reason to believe the situation is even worse.

This goes to another huge Haslam issue, which is his complete lack of self-awareness. Despite the fact that Haslam’s track record is one with numerous failures and few if any successes in his role as team owner, he never takes a meaningful look in the mirror or seeks to change his own behavior. After proclaiming so-called rookie mistakes (that were not really rookie mistakes), Haslam tried to assure the public that he would not blow up this group he put in place in August. At just the halfway point of the same season, the talk has shifted to potentially doing just that, again.

Every indication is that the front office is filled with people who do not focus on their own job and there is crossover from unqualified people into roles they have no business performing. This reared its ugly head in the situation that saw Ray Farmer get suspended for texting demands down to the field and the coaching staff. There has been plenty of talk that President of Business Operations Alec Scheiner, among other unqualified opinions including Haslam’s, is having a huge impact on important personnel decisions.

The lack of clearly defined roles with anyone holding them accountable when they drift has created a Wild West feel to the offices within Berea. Haslam’s first role, above all else, is to create the best possible environment to promote success from top to bottom. The top has been nothing but a steaming pile of excrement that is trickling down to the field.

Getting back to the rumors of a fire sale before the game – the reality is that those rumors could have been made out of thin air. The unpredictable nature of the organization and its owner has created an environment where any rumor, no matter how outlandish, is given attention and discussed as though it is possible.

For example, it was floated out there that Joe Thomas was mentioned in trade rumors. The idea that the Browns would trade a lock Hall of Famer, just 30 years old, playing at an incredibly high level should automatically be dismissed as a joke. Not with Haslam in charge. The lack of a track record to do most anything logical has this team in a situation where the coaching staff and players have to address these types of rumors in the post-game press conference.

The Browns are not a good football team and there is plenty of blame to go around. Players need to play better, coaches need to coach better, but it all starts from the top and the weakest link in the entire organization is and has been Jimmy Haslam. If he proceeds to fire Pettine, Farmer or both, he finds himself squarely in Daniel Snyder zone. Not only will he look irrational, but just as with Snyder in Washington, will have effectively toxified the situation so much that there is little if any hope for things to improve.

Despite the starvation to see the Browns be successful from fans, the apathy is increasing. Much like with Modell when the team was primed to move in 1994, outside circumstances and overwhelming success in other venues are not working in the Browns’ favor. The Ohio State Buckeyes won the National Championship last year and might be poised to make a repeat this year while the Cleveland Cavaliers are poised to make another run for their first championship in franchise history as well as the city’s first since 1964.

With the losses, embarrassment and constant speculation about what is going to happen with the Browns, there is a limit to what fans can take and apathy is more powerful than outrage. If on the radio, social media and general conversation does not even bother to get mad at the Browns, preferring to talk about the Buckeyes, Cavs, or anything else, that is a loss for the Browns. Anger and frustration are indicators that fans are at least engaged. When even that starts to disappear, what else is left?

The only meaningful solution is winning games and doing it on a consistent basis but even before that, there has to be something in place that suggests that winning is even a reasonable outcome. Currently, the way Haslam is operating the team, that is dubious.

What makes Haslam’s feat so impressive is just how fast he has done it. He was only awarded the team in 2012. Not even four years since he took over the team, it appears primed to be a completely toxic environment with no hope in sight, fans’ patience tested and plenty of talented players’ prime years wasted while he continues to try to figure out how to run a team – or not.

Short of divine intervention, there is little, if anything to suggest Jimmy Haslam will allow the Cleveland Browns to be successful, unless he makes a concerted effort to change how himself, first. There is no evidence to this point that Haslam has or is even capable of changing how he operates the team, so the fans are forever caught in the lurch until Haslam figures out what is readily apparent to everyone else. What he is doing is causing the problems this team has rather than fixing them and he is one of the worst owners in the NFL and the results are making it increasingly difficult to care.

If $$ was the issue with Elway, the discussions would have never taken place and we would not have been "deep" in trade talks winding down to the final hour. Because Thomas himself is quoted as saying it wasn't about guaranteed money and that he wasn't even involved. It wasn't about money. It was about compensation to Cleveland.

My guess is the Broncos called expressing interest and what they were willing to give up. Browns (specifically Farmer, not Scheiner) responds saying if they were even to consider a trade, it would have to be much more. Broncos weren't willing to do that. End of story.

Yep. That is probably the most ridiculous thing written about this entire affair.

How horrible to have a guy who goes every single week, hurt or not, and does his job no matter what. Can't have that kind of influence in a locker room.

My point is none of them were in a position to oversee football operations and the relationship between GM and HC.

All of them, with the exception of Holmgren, have been effectively in charge of only themselves.

For instance, who's the moderator between Farmer and Pettine? Schiner? The Non-football guy?


Who was in place to put Butch Davis in check since he was both the GM and HC? Of course, he was. He was to put himself in check.

Dwight Clark was only a GM. He and Palmer were being overseen by Policy - not a football guy.

So no, most of the time we have had either non-football people overseeing the football operations or the football people who were doing that were simply overseeing themselves.

There was no football people in a position of responsibiliy who could hold others accountable.

Peens point trumps your point.. we were discussing football guys over NON-football guys. That's really all there was to his point that I can see.

Just being football guys is not enough. The team needs a football guy to moderate between the Gm and HC. (That is what we have not had).

Otherwise he is only moderating himself.

What good is that?

That's usually the Owner! And that person may or may not be a football guy.

Was Wellington Mara a football guy? How about Dan Rooney? (Art Rooney Sr. was without a doubt a football guy and until he hired Chuck Noll it didn't work out to well for him.

Stephen Biscotti isn't a football guy, but Ozzie is.

Bottom line, I don't think the President of the team has to be a football guy. But he better be a pretty darn good business man with knowledge of all the things that matter from an admin, operations, legal, HR, facilities and accounting/finance standpoint..

Further, to understand all of those functions and to deal with them appropriately, he also has to have at least a baseline knowledge of things within the company that effect everything else. Namely, cost of materials and the biggest cost items are the players.

So when people complain about Scheiner looking at film or sitting in the draft room or standing out on the practice field, it doesn't mean he's exerting authority but it could mean he's trying to understand the business he's the president of.

Don't forget Phil Savage!

Way to try and mislead people.

You are either not aware that that article was written by Peter Smith (maybe you are Peter Smith), a fan. The article is on Fansided, who says:



http://fansided.com/about/

This is not Sports Illustrated. This is a blog that some random dude wrote.

Either you are intentionally trying to mislead people or you are oblivious. Or both.

???

The link I clicked was a WFNY article.

I love when you respond to yourself. It's the best.

I also love how you use words like "confirmed" when we literally know nothing.

I know. That's what I said.

The below article is from Disney.

Disney

Just so I understand, do you still believe in little green men from Mars?

He said that Jimmy Haslam wanted to trade Joe Thomas to the Broncos because he is friends with Peyton Manning. And he was serious.

Insanity .... That is all!

I've been keeping out of this thread for a purpose, so I apologize for not reading through seven pages of, what I'm sure to be, some interesting comments.

If this is true, certainly Ray Farmer is bye bye. I like Alec, he seems like a highly intelligent and highly motivated guy, I really do, but I don't know of him in any "football" operation position.

I like him making the calls on whether we need to add more concession stands, cell towers and so forth in nature calls.

JMO

cfr...Yep, I was trying to mislead "you"...BECAUSE IT IS SO DAMN EASY TO DO...

The typo is my mistake...

cfr...So you didn't know that si.com is a Time Inc company and that FanSided was acquired by Time Inc in May 2015.

The announcement appears here, on "SI.com", click the link link



TIME INC. ACQUIRES FANSIDED
Posted by Ken Fang on May 27, 2015 13:45

Here’s some interesting news. In a case of traditional media buying a quote-unquote, new media company, Time Inc. has purchased FanSided and its 300 affiliated websites. FanSided is a sports and lifestyle network with 15 million unique visitors 50 million page views a month. That’s quite impressive.

This is a deal that will help Time’s Sports Illustrated brand by spreading it towards a new audience and according to the official announcement, “will deepen Sports Illustrated’s local sports coverage and add more weight to the brand’s new customization platform” which is expected to launch later this year.

FanSided founders Adam and Zach Best said in their announcement that there will be bigger and better things to come for the company:

300+ sites, roughly 1,500+ contributors and millions and millions of readers later, FanSided officially joins the Time Inc. family. What does this mean for you? It means lots of great things ahead, but there are no immediate plans to change the way you currently access and use our FanSided sites. Our core team will be sticking around to ensure we deliver more coverage, better products and even higher quality to service you, the fan. Our longstanding partnership with Sports Illustrated will only grow. Strategically, we will be more ambitious in our effort to be the one-stop shop for the most fanatical of fans. Additionally, we’ll be a sibling brand to other iconic Time brands like Entertainment Weekly and People. Overall, this will add up to a bigger, better fan experience.

We want to thank you for allowing us to go from being a bootstrapped company run by two brothers to one of Time’s iconic brands. It was your loyalty as fellow fans and readers that got us here, along with the hard work and ingenuity of the terrific group of FanSiders we’ve been fortunate enough to call our team. We promise you that we will continue to do everything we can to make your experiences as fans as fun and fruitful as possible.

Time has been branching out with its 120 Sports operation plus a new documentary series, SI Films, which will be available on its various platforms.

And it appears that Time isn’t done with its acquisitions as it’s looking for more companies to buy and bring under its umbrella.

No financial terms of the Time/FanSided deal were disclosed.

[SI.com]

cfr...I'm sorry that you were confused...but at least you know, it "was not" intentional on my part.

Why do people get wound up about Grossi articles? Dude is practically a troll.

I don't know why, but I am shocked that you don't understand the difference between a fan blog and Sports Illustrated.

And Tony Grossi would never make anything up. . .

I don't know man... Grossi's "sources"... yea, I don't know.

Exactly

What you don't understand is that the author is a credible writer. You or I could have written that article and had it posted.

And this makes it real?

doesnt make it not true. with the facts that we have of him and farmer wathing film toghter monday morning after game day....

Dub....they were football guys making the calls. You are wanting a football guy over a football guy. If that doesn't work, how about a football guy over a football guy over a football guy?

Face it, we have had football guy totally screw this up for 20 years.



Oh....I forgot to mention Savage....another football guy who cost John Collins a job with this club. I might add that Collins has done a crack job with the NHL as a league executive, but we kept Opie, who turned out to be a POS just like Collins tried to tell people.


Being a football "Guy" is overrated.

Peen, being a football guy is only half of the solution. The other half is having that football guy in responsible position, job title, that has him, the football guy, overseeing the GM and the HC. Someone to set policy for football operations and to meet with, mentor, run checks and balances on and mediate issues between the GM and HC.

That means the team needs three football guys. The GM, the HC and the VP of Football Operations to oversee them.

Anything less has no checks and balances in place. No one ultimately responsible to hold the GM and HC accountable.

Who is holding Farmer accountable to have a good working relationship with Pettine? Who is holding Pettine accountable to have a good relationship with Farmer?

No one.

So the higher ranking between the two is perceived to have the greater power and he may just use it to push his own agendas.

If you have a VP of Football Operations setting the agenda then that is what both Farmer and Pettine have to follow. In addition, they are both accountable to the VP to insure they are doing that.

It's not just needing "a football guy". It's needing a football guy in charge of both the GM and HC.

That's what we don't have. That's why Farmer feels free to text to the sidelines on game day to make suggestions regarding HC decisions. Being the ranking member there is no one to keep him in check.

I've talked in circles trying to make this clear.

It takes 3 football guys. One to find talent, one to coach that talent and one to make sure those other two are on the same page and working well together.

And yeah, we both forgot Savage. But when he was here it was set up exactly the same way it is now.

A GM and a HC with no moderator.

Holmgren was the only football guy we had above the GM and the HC. But Holmgren used the Browns job as his retirement. Then Randy sold the team and everything changed, for the worse.

Of course it was...or maybe they are planning to sell the team.

And what football guy do you need to oversee him? You can look at other teams, they don't have "football" guys all the way up the ladder. The bottom line is we have had football guys make the calls for 20 years and our team sucks. It doesn't take a football guy to see that.