Lerner meets with angry Browns fans

From combined dispatches

Die-hard Browns fan Mike Randall made sure he put on his Sunday best for his important meeting with team owner Randy Lerner.

He wore a giant plastic dog bone hat.

The season-ticket holder, aka “Dawg Pound Mike,” one of the best-known members of Cleveland’s rabid bleacher section of fans, spent two hours Tuesday meeting with Lerner, who stepped away from a turbulent week and his busy schedule for the visit.

Randall and his friend, Tony Schafer, have been encouraging others to stay out of their seats for the opening kickoff of Cleveland’s next home game Nov. 16 to protest the Browns’ futility. The fans were scheduled to spend 30 minutes with Lerner but ended up staying much longer.

“It was great,” Randall said. “How many owners would spend two hours meeting with two fans? None.”

Randall said Lerner was receptive to their ideas for improving the Browns’ game-day experience at Cleveland Browns Stadium and even tossed out a few of his own. Randall, who has met Lerner several times, came away impressed with the owner’s passion and determination to get the Browns turned around.

“He’s doing everything he can to improve the Browns,” Randall said. “He wants it to happen - now.”

Lerner’s meeting with the fans came less than 24 hours after general manager George Kokinis was removed from his job, the latest upheaval for a franchise that has made the playoffs just once since 1999 and is on its fourth coach in 10 years.

The camera-shy Lerner has yet to address the circumstances surrounding Kokinis’ departure.

Randall said Lerner liked the fans’ idea for displaying some of the team’s championship banners and retired jersey numbers inside the stadium. Lerner also seemed unaware of the strict security measures in place at the stadium, a zero-tolerance policy that has upset some Cleveland fans.

“He’s a fan, just like us,” Randall said. “He wants what’s best for Cleveland, and I believe him. He wants to win.”

LABOR: NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith are slated to participate in the league’s latest round of labor negotiations.

Speaking after testifying before a House subcommittee about a legal case involving two Minnesota Vikings players, Goodell told the Associated Press he would be present for Wednesday’s talks in New York about a new collective bargaining agreement.

Goodell has not attended all of the sessions the league and union have held so far.

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