On Football: Browns are new laughingstock

When Cleveland Browns owner Randy Lerner panicked this week and fired first-year general manager George Kokinis, he might have received an e-mail from Redskins owner Dan Snyder.

For once, The Danny won’t be the chief pinata for Sunday’s pregame shows (unless John Riggins is a guest, of course).

A guess on what the note would have said:

Hey, Randy:

Wanted to say thanks for single-handedly removing the “Most Dysfunctional Organization” tag from the Redskins for at least this week.

Even I haven’t given up on a general manager eight games into his tenure or currently confront the prospect of paying three GMs next year. I’ll be paying only two coaches.

Thanks again,

Dan

If there were any doubt, Lerner clinched stooge status Monday when Kokinis was escorted from the team facility in the wake of a 30-6 loss to the Bears the previous day that dropped the Browns to 1-7.

Eight games is too soon to oust the front office chief regardless of how much or how little input he had in building the roster. One draft isn’t enough to determine whether Kokinis is the right guy to team with coach Eric Mangini.

Owner and coach have been evasive in answering questions about the firing, including whether Kokinis was sacked with cause and his contract must be honored.

Browns fans, who want Mangini out, deemed the move insignificant. Essentially, they feel nothing has changed.

The Mangini hiring triggered this mess.

Seemingly minutes after being fired by the Jets (to the joy of their fans), Mangini was in Cleveland to complete his road from former Browns ballboy to head coach. The hiring of Mangini marked Lerner’s second climb up the Bill Belichick tree of former assistants - Romeo Crennel produced a 24-40 record in four seasons as coach of the Browns.

Lerner said his top priority in finding a new coach was previous head coaching experience. Whether that experience came in a winning or losing situation seemed to be irrelevant.

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