After Gary Baxter's 2005 campaign was cut short by injury, his 2006 season -- and his career -- ended abruptly on this play. (Source: Daylife.com)

The past two decades represent a drawn-out, frightful voyage into deep wilderness for the Cleveland Browns franchise and its faithful followers.

Fans of 31 NFL teams are left disappointed each season, but you’d be hard-pressed to name a more snake-bitten enclave than Cleveland’s. Their troubles are well-documented, from soul-crushing AFC title game defeats to John Elway and the Denver Broncos in the 1980s; to Art Modell‘s splintering of the franchise with the move to Baltimore in 1995; to the focused, passionate fight of Browns fans to keep the team’s colors and history tied to Cleveland forevermore.

All of this happening BEFORE the team returned in 1999.

Cleveland’s re-emergence on the NFL landscape was cited as a striking triumph for the city over the tentacles of greed tightening around pro sports.

But victory trumpets were quickly silenced.

Etched forever in time. (Source: N.Y. Times)

In their first game back, the once-proud Browns — now an expansion squad littered with anonymous bodies — were scattered to the wind 43-0 by the Pittsburgh Steelers who, more than a decade later, have only been beaten by Cleveland four times in 25 games.

Generating a list of the Browns’ 25 biggest headaches since 1990 — limited, in this case, to players, coaches and personnel (not individual games or opponents) — is a subjective exercise that allows one to select from hundreds of mistakes and misfortunes. If we all compiled a list, no two would look alike. This is mine, and I stretch it back to 1990 for a specific reason.

I grew up in Jets and Giants country, but chose to follow the Browns as a fifth-grader midway through the 1986 season.

The Browns were on the rise behind Bernie Kosar, Earnest Byner and a young Marty Schottenheimer. Late that season, I watched them shred a heavily favored Dan Marino-led Miami Dolphins team on Monday Night Football and my search was over.

I’ll accept the jab that I jumped on a winning team at age 12, but it was less of a bandwagon leap at the time than joining the Jets — who started 10-1 that season — or the Giants, who won the Super Bowl months later.

We all know how that season ended for the Browns — with The Drive, a stunning moment in time that Cleveland’s yet to erase from its battered collective consciousness.

After that game, I floated through middle-school hallways, enveloped by jubilant, preadolescent Giants fans in freshly printed Joe Morris and Phil Simms jerseys. Two weeks later, they watched Bill Parcells guide New York to the biggest win in franchise history.

Certain the Browns were next, I dug in deep, tracking the Browns every move in a pre-Internet age through radio and newspaper clippings — any shred of evidence supporting my theory that they were destined by God for redemption. In those days, the beloved Browns News/Illustrated publication, arriving sometimes a full week after print in my East Coast mailbox, was not unlike the Ark of the Covenant burning in my bedroom.

Little did I know the path my obsession would take — how The Fumble on January 17, 1988, would collapse my youthful worldview and sense of all things good.

For me, that game stung deeper than The Drive. I played the VCR tape on repeat probably 50 times. The footage of Byner willing Cleveland’s offense to the brink of victory with 187 yards and two touchdowns, only to be sliced to the ground in the final moments, losing the ball in a burst for the end zone that would have tied the game at 38 — ending up alone and slumped on a single knee as Karl Mecklenburg and the Broncos jumped for joy.

I could not speak against Byner. He was the heart and soul of the team, and the rest of his career — which included a Super Bowl championship with the Washington Redskins and a successful return to Cleveland from 1994-95 — proved his resilience.

Fifteen years past "The Move," Browns fans still seek redemption. (Source: AP)

An aging Browns squad scratched its way to a third AFC Championship against the Broncos in 1989, but were pulled apart at the seams. It was the closest they’d ever get to glory in the quarter century since.

The Browns were a team on borrowed time, unable to reload the roster, haunted by terrible drafts and an AFC Central that was every bit as nasty as today’s AFC North.

In 1990, the floor fell out and the Browns spiraled to 3-13.

As Parcells won in his second Super Bowl with the Giants — and my (now) high-school hallways were populated with (at least twice as many) high-fiving Big Blue fans dressed in freshly printed Pepper Johnson and Ottis Anderson jerseys (complete with Gulf War-era yellow-arm bands) — Cleveland was beginning a steep descent into hell.

Having never experienced a Browns team that couldn’t turn misfortune into a playoff berth, I was highly optimistic that a good offseason would have the Browns — with new heroes, if required — back in the hunt for the AFC title.

The AFC hadn’t won the Super Bowl since the Raiders beat the Redskins following the 1983 season, and I was (very misguided and) convinced Cleveland was the most-fitting the team to do it, after all the drama they’d endured.

Little did I know that the Browns, by 1996, would no longer exist and, fittingly, Elway and the Denver Broncos would take the Lombardi Trophy away from the Green Bay Packers to end the AFC’s drought in 1997 — another biting, ironic disappointment for Browns fans in a chain of poisonous subtexts that have pulled this team farther away than ever from its glorious tradition of old.

My selection of this franchise’s 25-biggest headaches since 1990 was simple to generate. I could have gone 50, 100, 500 deep. You’ll have your own — ones that I’ve not selected.

We’ll go from bitter pill to bitter pill, 25 to 1.

Let’s begin our walk down the NFL’s Ho Chi Minh trail.

Not unlike an exorcism.

One can only hope this long journey into night has a dawn.

25. Gary Baxter

The Phil Savage/Romeo Crennel era in Cleveland kicked off with high hopes when Savage signed veteran free-agent cornerback Gary Baxter away from the arch-rival Baltimore Ravens, his former employer, in March 2005.

The Browns inked the serviceable-at-best Baxter to a whopping six-year, $30 million contract that included a $10.5 million signing bonus — a disturbing preview of the economic malfeasance the Browns front office would exhibit on repeat during Savage’s tenure.

Crennel was wheeled out before the media to laud the move.

“Gary’s experience on a dominant defense and the attitude he brings to the game will certainly enhance our efforts on the defensive side of the ball,” Crennel said at the time.

Crennel was never one for prophecy, outside of Baltimore’s continued dominance on defense, which never missed Baxter for a second. While the Browns hoped Baxter would serve as a defensive cornerstone for years to come, weeks would have to do.

Baxter tore a pectoral muscle six games into the season, ending his 2005 campaign. He returned in 2006 promising a new start, only to tear the patella tendon in his right and left knee — on the same play — in an October loss to the Broncos. Baxter was the first player in the NFL to suffer such an injury in 13 years.

Despite a flurry of comeback attempts, Baxter never started another regular season NFL contest. After netting 54 games for the Ravens from 2001-04, he played in only eight with the Browns from 2005-08, a poster boy for the team’s shoddy luck with injury-prone free agents since its return.

During his first season in Cleveland, Savage had this to say: “The overall professionalism (of the Browns) has been raised to a point where our fans can say, ‘They might not win a ton of games, but at least they’re representing themselves well and we can get behind these guys.’”

He was correct: Win a ton of games, they did not do.

Follow Marc Sessler on Twitter @MarcSesslerNFL.

Feel like starting over again? Me neither. (Source: gridironfans.com)

In a season where four NFL head coaches have been fired heading into Week 17, it doesn’t look good for Cleveland Browns coach Eric Mangini.

There was a sense midseason that the tenuous connection between president Mike Holmgren and Mangini could work — and should be forced to work — after the Browns consecutively dismantled the New Orleans Saints and New England Patriots, only to lose to the hyped-up New York Jets by a hair.

All the talk about Holmgren’s coaching roots not jiving with the Belichick/Parcells tree seemed half-baked, as the team was suddenly worth three hours of your Sunday. For a shimmering moment, the Browns were the team nobody wanted to face.

Problem is, down the stretch, the same Browns team that had played far beyond expectation during a brutal stretch in the schedule — led by galvanizing rookie quarterback Colt McCoy — dissembled against soft opponents when McCoy became the third starting passer this season to suffer a high ankle sprain. Jake Delhomme took over, the offensive line took some hits, and the attack never recovered.

Had the Browns stayed relatively healthy after the Patriots win, and polished off the few teams they were favored against, Holmgren would have nothing to point to in firing Mangini. This is a coaching staff that’s enthused large segments of the Browns’ faithful — downtrodden fans who’ve watched this team closely since its return in 1999, and finally see signs of progress.

Colt McCoy, the first legitimate quarterback prospect in Cleveland since Bernie Kosar, could be a factor in Holmgren's coaching decision. (Source: Cleveland.com)

Some feel that losses to Buffalo and Cincinnati rightfully marked the end of Mangini by giving Holmgren something to hang his hat on in making a change.

If Holmgren is truly committed to playing the role of president and not, at some stage, coach of the Browns, it’s hard to imagine that those losses, taken in context, mean much of anything.

Holmgren sees that Mangini and defensive coordinator Rob Ryan have gotten this Browns team to fight to the end in nearly every game this season. Cleveland’s garnered — for the first time since Reagan was in office — respect around the league with its gritty style of play, despite a poor talent base.

When McCoy plays the Steelers for the second time this season, it will mark the first time under Mangini that the same quarterback has faced a division opponent more than once.

Bottom line: Mangini, perhaps to his discredit, has been saddled with some of the worst NFL quarterbacks around (read: Derek Anderson, Brady Quinn, Delhomme), and still managed to keep games close. In McCoy, the Browns feel they have something special.

But it’s McCoy’s emergence that might work against Mangini. Holmgren lives to develop quarterbacks. His (to be fair, distant) reputation for doing so does not come without its fair share of ego and need for control.

Holmgren has shown poise and grace as president of the Browns, and he has done a tremendous job in adding value to a previously floating franchise, but not unlike that ever-drunk friend you have — who, despite promises of sobriety, is guaranteed to show up hammered and surly to your wedding, despite his intentions — Holmgren is fighting, utterly struggling, against the urge to dispatch the entire coaching staff and take over. Screw this president thing — GET ME THE HEADSET.

I wonder what was floating through Holmgren’s mind watching McCoy out-chess-match Tom Brady on the field, only to trot off to visit with — Brian Daboll.

These days, Holmgren spends portions of his week deciding what concessions will be sold at the stadium — while the coaching staff down the hall holds the fate of his team in their hands.

Had McCoy not hit the scene with such verve — and had the season plodded along with the excruciating Delhomme under center — Mangini would likely be swept out of town with full support from the fanbase.

Now, with the quarterback piece perhaps in place, Holmgren’s left questioning: do I trust anybody but myself with this kid?

None of this bodes well:

“One of my greatest challenges is I’m up there, and … I try not to get too boisterous up there,” Holmgren told reporters in November. “You’ll see things and you’ll go, ‘Aw, gee.’ That’s the coach in me talking and I apologize for that right now. Whether it’s Rob Ryan, who’s a wonderful coach, they’re fine coaches, but when we start moving around on defense and do all of those things, it drives me crazy, but it works. I’m not used to that. This first year in many ways, I’m getting used to a certain style, if you will. I do not question their work ethic and how hard they’re trying to get this done. They are working very hard at this.”

And this:

“I’m doing okay. Does it sound like I want to coach? No, I’m doing okay,” Holmgren said. “The challenge of this is really something for me and I’m enjoying the challenge.  I’d be less than honest if I didn’t say I get fired up watching the games, I mean I did that for too long not to react sometimes the way I do, but I also recognize what I was hired to do and that’s what I’m trying to do.”

Followed by this enigmatic gem:

“I made a promise and I’m going to stick with it. Now, if I keep wearing a suit or not, we’ll see,” he said, adding: “You are catching me at a weak moment. I just came off vacation (joking). I love coaching. I am doing what I am doing now and that’s what I plan to be doing. My commitment is to get the Browns going in the right direction and having people feel good about their football team in my role as the president. When I talk to Randy (Lerner) honestly about those things, I am being honest about it. Right now, that’s what I am going to do.”

Right now.

Less coaching-tree symantics. More patience. (Source: waitingfornextyear.com)

There has been hideous discussion about Holmgren firing young Eric Mangini for the likes of John Fox, whose contract will not be renewed by the 2-13 Carolina Panthers. That should galvanize the fanbase.

Oh, and then there’s word that Holmgren is hot on his boy Marty Mornhinweg. I’m not going to waste another sentence on that.

Of course, you get the Jon Gruden talk — another Holmgren guy.

None of it feels right. Mangini, despised last season, and unfairly portrayed in the media, has been a gentleman. This is someone who seems to genuinely care about his players, his coaches, his organization — and even the media covering him, who have slowly come to see that there may be more to this coach than last season’s rough start.

Mangini had the courage to take apart a Browns team that was diseased in 2009 — and it nearly cost him his job. One year later, there is no question the squad has begun to reflect his philosophy of “team first.” The lack of wins are an issue — and there must be results next season, if there is one, but the Browns are not a smoke-and-mirrors team. They are beginning to resemble, in the early stages, an organization built to last.

There is an AP story out today about Belichick’s work in New England this season, perhaps his finest as a coach. Impossible to name another mid-season, shifting-gears rebuilding job that resulted in 13 wins. The article talks about the “Patriot Way,” really just another phrase for the “Belichick Way.”

Belichick, who 20 seasons ago today was guiding the New York Giants defense to a Super Bowl win over the Buffalo Bills — days before becoming the Browns head coach, where he worked alongside Ozzie Newsome, the rising personnel man — on a team that was moved to Baltimore.

Had Art Modell not sold his soul, and endured less riches to keep the Browns in C-Town, I would not be writing this column tonight.

Still, all of this is yesterday. The franchise has a chance this week to exhibit patience and allow a young coach to develop — this time with the Browns.

Dumping Eric Mangini — especially to address a personal need to return to the sideline — will be Mike Holmgren’s greatest mistake.

Win or lose against Pittsburgh on Sunday, it time for this team to stop the cycle of tearing down — only to half-rebuild and then do it all over again.

It is my hope that Mangini will be afforded something Holmgren was given in his time with both the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks — a third season.

We are going through the fire… I believe that a great story is being told through the Cleveland Browns. We are a football organization unlike any other. It is alright to go through some suffering, some pain.

* * *

My first season as a Browns fan was 1986. I was in sixth grade. I lived in Connecticut–just outside of New York–and everybody I knew worshipped the Giants, the Jets, or the Dallas Cowboys. I genuinely disliked the New York teams, even though everyone around me was excited about them. I wanted to find my own team. One night, after a Pop Warner football banquet, some friends and I watched Bernie Kosar and the Browns utterly dismantle Dan Marino and a heavily favored Dolphins team on MNF. I was in love. There was something about the Browns that pulled me in–they seemed like a team that would die for the cause, and for each other. When I told friends that Cleveland was my team, I was immediately questioned–even my parents couldn’t quite figure it out.

Within weeks, I had memorized the roster. This was 23 years ago, and my family didn’t have cable TV. I only saw the Browns when they played on national TV, which was two, three times a year. I would wait weeks, sometimes months, to see them play. I videotaped every game available and watched the tapes hundreds of time, slowing down every play to analyze strategy and player trends. I would take statistics in a notebook.  I spent hours in front of Jets and Giants games waiting for the 10-minute ticker, waiting for Bob Costas to give me a highlight, a glimpse, a second from Municipal Stadium.

By December, I was fully, comprehensively obsessed with the Cleveland Browns in only the way a middle school kid with no car, no woman–no clue–could be. Anybody who was a Browns fan, as a kid, in the 1980s, knows where I’m coming from.

* * *

I’m not sure what a younger person today could possibly see in the team–there’s no core, nothing to hold onto, not a single memory or hope to cling to. For those of us who followed Kosar’s Browns, we are haunted by a different “level of losing” (as Bill Simmons would say) than today’s fans. My heart was ripped to shreds in 1986, and totally burned in the furnace in 1987. Earnest Byner was my favorite player. I loved his absolute dedication, his underdog storyline, the way he’d outshine stars and household names–coming out of East Carolina to shred flashier teams for 144, 168, 178 yards in BIG games. I never blamed him for that fumble. Ever. I felt terrible for the guy. No player on the Browns has shown the same heart since. If we are cursed by anything, if such a thing exists, you don’t have to look much farther than the way we treated the heart and soul of those Browns teams: Bernie and Byner were shipped out of town. No disrespect to Mike Oliphant, but trading Byner was criminal.

* * *

I have sat–and suffered–through every single game since. My goal was to work for the Browns. I went to school and studied public relations, and planned to move to Cleveland at the end of my senior year and get into the organization any way I could. I’d sweep floors–I didn’t care. I loved the idea of moving to Cleveland. My heart was with the team. When I graduated in 1996–the Browns were gone.

I’ll never forget the anticipation of their return in 1999. And the immediate, recognizable, sinking dread when the Steelers began to shred them on national television.

* * *

A decade later, I catch myself watching YouTube clips of late-1980s Browns games. Many of these were games I only read about in the paper back then, and had to imagine by pieceing together the box score. For those of you who lived in Cleveland back then, and had the chance to GO TO games, every week–no big thing–I envied you greatly. I don’t envy the experience today. I picked up Sunday Ticket for the first time this season. Twenty minutes into the Vikings game, I knew it was a dreadful purchase. Sundays have especially annoyed my wife. From 10 a.m.-1 p.m. (I live in L.A.), I am sullen and non-conversational. She is incredibly patient, and wonderful, and roots for the San Francisco 49′ers. By the time her game comes on, I am taking my fourth walk around the block to vent. This season has been a special type of hell so far–worse than anything I recall, with no ray of hope. But sometimes you can’t see what’s around the corner.

* * *

Unless you win the Super Bowl, every fan has a moment during the season when you know it’s over. It might be in the AFC Championship. It might be when your star quarterback goes down in Week One. It ranges. For me, the breaking point this season was the 4th-and-1 call they gave to the Steelers. We weren’t going to beat that team, but to suffer such an overt injustice–it ended the season in my book. I still watch the games, but from an emotional distance. Admittedly, I can’t help but get excited by Friday, even when we’re 1-6 and days away from another shredding. I have come to the realization that what I’m excited about is ILLUSION. The IDEA of upsetting the Bears and ending up 7-9, and everyone saying what a “great story” we are heading into 2010. Why do I still fall for this? I guess I don’t entirely–I’m starting to catch myself.

* * *

We are going through an all-consuming fire today. Not one of us knows what will be left on the other side. I am saddened by the idea that Browns fans are protesting the MNF game–sitting out–staying away. Somebody on here wrote about a Cavs game in which the fans went nuts from end to end–and pushed that team to victory. I don’t suggest the same as a solution for our anger, but the whole protest thing reeks of entitlement and weakness to me. We all want a winning team. Our hearts are broken by a drifting Browns franchise. We long for a team that will DESTROY Smiley Hines Ward, Big Jen, the self-satisfied Steelers; the rest of the AFC; and the waiting NFC Super Bowl representative. What a great story it will be–and it will happen someday, I hope and pray–our Browns, who were proud, and then stolen away, returning humbly to win the crown.

* * *

Don’t protest. As someone who would have given everything in youth to be at that stadium on those Sunday afternoons–don’t represent us that way. Go out there–pack that stadium–and make the Baltimore Ravens wish they never got off their luxury jet.

We have the world against us. We have a national press that releases daily stories embarrassing us. This is a team that needs support. Even if you don’t like aspects of the ownership and coaching staff–support the players, support the legacy of this team we fought to bring back. I don’t know Dawg Pound Mike from Holly Hobby, but the idea that he now REPRESENTS us in the national media is troubling. He doesn’t represent me. And he probably doesn’t represent you.

* * *

We are going through the fire.
What will it reveal about us?

In the wake of the Cutler debacle, there was talk about Josh McDaniels pursuing a trade with the Browns for QB Brady Quinn. It never went down. Meanwhile, speculation about a Derek Anderson trade dates back to January 2008.

Tonight, on the eve of the 2009 season, the New England Patriots are without a solid backup for Tom Brady. With only two quarterbacks on the roster, something has to change.

There’s chatter all over the grid that Mangini’s decision to sit both Quinn and Anderson last night had a purpose: resting Quinn for the starting role in Week One, and positioning Anderson for a trade that will happen over the next 48 hours. People speculate that the Browns and Pats couldn’t be talking–the Belichick/Mangini feud would prevent that, right? Nonsense. If the deal makes sense for both coaches and both teams, the trigger will be pulled.

While Derek Anderson is far from perfect, he’s young with a cannon arm, and may appeal to Belichick in the same way Vinny Testaverde did in 1993, when Belichick made the decision to release Bernie Kosar, much to the horror of the entire city. (People forget that Vinny wasn’t even healthy when Bernie was cut, but he figured into the coach’s plans for 1994, and he helped lead the Browns to an 11-5 season and their most recent playoff win–over Bill Parcells and the Patriots, of all teams.)

Derek Anderson recalls, in some ways, the imperfect--but dangerous--skillset of Vinny Testaverde.

People ripped on Vinny for his perceived lack of intelligence–and his knack for throwing costly interceptions. Belichick loved his arm, and fawned over his athleticism. Inherent to Anderson are some of those same strengths and weaknesses–when he thinks too much, and gets tight, he suffers. When he’s loose (we’ve said before that he should drink about three beers before every game), the guy just guns the ball all over the field. Anderson can be frustrating beyond comprehension–but he’s downright dangerous when he’s on. Besides, he’s toiled on a team that’s been in flux since the Reagan era. What would happen to Anderson under the guidance of Belichick and the Patriots? It’s a scary thought.

DEVELOPING…

The Washington Redskins selected DE Jeremy Jarmon in this year's supplemental draft

Yeah, it caught me by surprise too. But apparently the NFL held it’s annual Supplemental Draft today, giving teams a chance to select one of eight college players who didn’t declare for April’s draft, but then lost or gave up their eligibility for varying reasons.

In the past, the supplemental draft has resulted in a handful of impact players in the NFL – most notably QB Bernie Kosar and WR Cris Carter.  Oh, and Brian Bosworth.  But for the most part, few players end up making it this way, and most end up going the way of Giants QB Dave Brown.

Plus, the supplemental draft is held somewhat like a silent auction, which takes pretty much all of the fun out of the process.  And clearly there’s no need to rent out Radio City and invite all 8 potential draftees down to sweat it out on national TV.  But you’d think the NFL could spring for a deli on the lower east side, and have Kiper blather on for a couple hours.  And there are literally NO photos of this event.  It’s like they held it in a back alley … or more likely over the interweb.

Here’s how the process works, from NFL Fanhouse:

Prior to Thursday afternoon’s “draft,” each NFL team’s general manager submitted an e-mail to the league, listing which players they’d like to bid on. Those bids include what round the team would like to “select” a player in — if a team is awarded a player in the 2009 supplemental draft, it forfeits it corresponding pick in the 2010 NFL draft.

The only player selected in the 2009 Supplemental Draft was Kentucky DE Jeremy Jarmon, who went to the Washington Redskins in exchange for the 19th pick of the 3rd round in the 2010 draft.  Jarmon tested positive for a banned substance, and was ruled ineligible by the NCAA for his senior season.

The other 7 hopefuls who went undrafted, and now become free agents are: Blake Boyd (Western Kentucky), Torris Magee (Southern Mississippi), Dixon McKinner (Texas Tech), Joe McMahon (Central Michigan), Demetrice Morley (Tennessee), Deon Murphy (Kansas State) and Corey Surrency (Florida State).

Barry, thank you for being with us. These days, most people take a site like www.theobr.com for granted. But the site well-represents a shift in sports journalism. Your site’s stories have been lifted by the mainstream media. Did you ever think that might be the case when you started this whole thing?

It’s been an amazing journey, and proof that a website or any other media outlet will be just as good as the people writing for it. We’ve been particularly blessed there.

Back in the 90s, I certainly never thought we’d be at the point where we were battling toe-to-toe with some of the major players in this town for stories and opportunity. The website was started for fun, a sense of adventure, and the vague notion that appreciative readers would buy us beer. We didn’t have any big plan to replace any of Cleveland’s major media players.

In terms of how we’ve been treated by the mainstream media, it’s been a mixed bag. Like any group of people, you’ll have folks with great integrity and folks who lack any at all. You try to learn from the former and ignore the latter, although it can be frustrating or depressing at times.

The Browns have been through 20 years of turbulence. On bad days, the team feels like a franchise slowly rotting from the core out. Is Coach Mangini the one to turn things around? Does he get how much this could mean to the city and the league?

Mangini seems to understand how important this franchise is to Cleveland, and Randy Lerner certainly does. The team’s owner desperately wants the town to be proud of the team again.

The question with both isn’t whether or not they understand how important this is, but rather if they’re capable of making the right detailed decisions to get things back on track.

Mangini, for example, borrows his style from his mentors Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick. The OBR’s Steve King did a neat article not too long ago, which compared Mangini’s arrival in Cleveland to that of Bill Belichick in the early 90s. (The article can be found here: http://cle.scout.com/2/847469.html) The parallels are eerie. But under their surface similarities, will Mangini make the right personnel decisions like Bill Parcells? Is he capable of developing a game plan as effectively as Belichick? On both questions, the results in New York were mixed and the jury remains out. If Mangini builds a winner here, he’s redeemed in the eyes of the NFL. If he doesn’t, Browns fans will suffer through another re-boot in three or four years time.

Along those lines, we’ve seen Winslow shipped south for picks… we’ve heard whispers that Derek Anderson, Brady Quinn, and Braylon Edwards are all available for the right price. Is Mangini confident enough to start from scratch? And, if the team parts ways with its “stars,” would this roster reset be a surprise to Lerner?

We met and talked with Randy Lerner earlier this off-season, and the Browns owner is convinced that the most important decision he can make is to get the right coach. He believes that Bill Belichick was the key to the Patriots turnaround, and that Chuck Noll took the Steelers from perennial losers to one of the league’s top franchises. His instinct tells him he made the right choice in Mangini, and he’s going to let his coach do things how he feels they need to be done.

Mangenius has arrived.

Based on our discussions, the notion that Lerner is insisting on the new group just tweaking around the edges of the roster doesn’t seem to bear out. If they think changing over a good chunk of the roster is needed, that’s what’s needed. He wants capable people running the franchise professionally. The owner is similar to the fans in wanting a winner soon, but he’ll give his coach the chance to build the team.

I don’t think that Mangini really wants to start from scratch. Guys like Joe Thomas, Shaun Rogers, and D’Qwell Jackson probably aren’t going anywhere. We’re not hearing talk like we did from Phil Savage when he arrived in Cleveland. I remember Savage telling the media that he asked himself “When will the varsity team arrive?” when looking at Butch Davis’ roster. We’re not hearing that now. Mangini and Kokinis are acting like they feel they have more to work with.

Beyond that, the front office wants to build this team through the draft. If dealing off talented but imperfect players like Quinn, DA, and Edwards lets them do that, they’ll sure talk about it. But they aren’t pushing these players out the door like Phil Savage did with Gerard Warren, for example. They’ll deal them for picks if the offer is right and if they think on balance it will improve the club.

Are Browns fans any different than other fans around the league?

No doubt about it. Northeast Ohio is the cradle of football, and the team’s history through the 1960s is without peer in the NFL. The team’s legacy, the town, our love of football has created a unique and dedicated fan base. I remember in the 1970s and 1980s when it sometimes seemed like football was one of Cleveland’s few sources of pride, how even when the city was the butt of jokes that Bernie Kosar would still do everything he could to come here to play for the Browns.

A moment marked in time... seconds before THE FUMBLE. It's not clear if Browns fans have ever recovered from this game. It was grueling to witness a player like Byner suffer after all he'd done for the team.

That’s a lot to live up to. There are very few fans that compare to Browns fans, both in their intensity and the loyalty they display even if they’ve relocated out of the city. The Browns Backers groups spread out all over the planet are amazing.

It’s interesting hearing the local media literally begging fans to turn their backs on the Browns and focus on the city’s other teams. After 20 years of frustration and Modell’s sickening betrayal, it’s still impossible to take a crowbar and pry fans away from this team. The hard-core fans who hang out at the OBR may get frustrated at times, but most of us are lifers. We’ll never walk away, no matter how tough it gets. That loyalty and dedication is what sets Browns fans apart. It’s in our DNA. Browns fans are fans for life.

Derek Anderson was a human car-crash in 2008. Brady Quinn seems like a prototype NFL quarterback on a team with few, if any, stars. Why put the team through another terribly lame quarterback derby?

Why indeed? I think the “school solution” is to give Brady Quinn a chance to succeed or fail with a full year to operate as the team’s starter, and I suspect that’s exactly what will happen even if both quarterbacks remain on the team. At present, however, the Browns front office doesn’t want to do anything to diminish the value of two trade-worthy commodities, so they won’t stand up in front of the media and declare that one of them is the backup. At this point, it’s more about negotiating strategy than really talking about who is going to start.

Bernie Kosar shares words of wisdom with, perhaps, the next great Browns quarterback, Brady Quinn.

Don’t be too incredibly shocked if the team goes in another direction entirely if the right opportunity presents itself. I believe that the team’s front office looks on both the quarterbacks as having weaknesses as well as strengths. They would be perfectly willing to bring in someone else if they feel that they could get the “complete package” at the game’s most important position, either in this year’s draft or next.

We hear a lot about Brady Quinn’s lack of arm strength. Is that what makes him expendable in the eyes of this coaching staff, if he is?

I’m convinced that Quinn is only “expendable” if a better option in the eyes of the coaching staff presents itself. He’s not getting rushed out the door, but they’ll listen to offers. But, yes, it’s primarily arm strength which we believe is a concern. Perhaps one major difference between Charlie Weis and those following in his footsteps is that the latter tend to more concerned with the vertical game, and they’re concerned about Quinn’s ability there. That’s why the Broncos didn’t fall all over themselves to get Quinn and why Daboll would let him go, but only for the right price or if a “complete” QB fell into their laps.

Where will Donte Stallworth be come September? Is he the most star-crossed free agent signing since the team’s return in 1999?

It’s certainly the most tragic story, because an innocent man lost his life.

I’d say that LeCharles Bentley’s situation was the most damaging to the Browns as a team, since he was intended to be the lynchpin of Phil Savage’s efforts to rebuild the roster. You could feel the hopes of Browns fans being crushed when that story went up on the first day of training camp. Chris Spielman, of course, was a similar story back in 1999. The Bentley story will always stick with me as the worst moment of the expansion era.

Fan and media reaction to Stallworth’s problems were a bit more muted because people were already cynical about what he could contribute. I don’t think we’ll see Stallworth in a Browns uniform ever again, That’s just a hunch, since I’m not a lawyer, and Stallworth’s fate is in the hands of the legal system now.

With a gun to your head (held by John Elway), (a) Where do the Browns end up picking in the first round? (b) What player(s) highlight their draft, and (c) Will any notable Browns be jettisoned by the end of draft weekend?

The notion of an armed John Elway is almost enough for me to consider becoming a gun control activist, but my guess today would be that Browns will wind up getting stuck at #5. They want to trade out of it, but it’s not a great place to be in this year’s draft, and other NFL teams know it. The team’s best chance of trading down or getting good value is if the two quarterbacks or Aaron Curry aren’t snapped up in the first four picks. I fear that KC grabs Curry and Detroit and Seattle may grab the QBs, or trade to a team that wants a quarterback, in Seattle’s case. My take is that if you’re a Browns fan, you should be rooting for some of the offensive tackles or a player like Michael Crabtree to wind up at the top of the draft boards.

Lane Adkins was the first to report the team’s intention to acquire a large number of first-day draft picks, which may involve trade-downs and dealing off existing players, and alongside Giants Insider, we broke the Edwards trade story. John Taylor told fans early this off-season that buzz about dealing K2 wouldn’t die. So, that’s the general direction where we think they want to head. There aren’t many players who wouldn’t be dealt if the front office felt, on balance, that the picks could help to rebuild the team.

Anything’s possible on Draft Day, as we’ve seen in the past, so being in the prediction business is a dicey proposition. The unpredictability is one of the things that makes it so much fun, like Christmas morning for grown-ups.

Will the Browns win the Super Bowl in your lifetime?

About ten years ago, I would have said “without a doubt”. Nowadays my answer is that “it depends on how long I live”. If you’re going to be a Browns fan, get in it for the long-haul and have a lot of patience. A long life span would help.

The fact that the answer is in doubt is probably a good indication that I should turn off the computer, go outside, and get some exercise

Even if the Browns never win a Super Bowl under Mangini, fans can be proud of his first head coaching experience with the Kew Colts, a semi-pro gridiron team hailing from Melbourne, Australia. Under Mangini’s guidance, the Colts won a regional league championship game in 1992.