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.
The NFL opted out of the collective bargaining agreement last year, although the contract won’t expire until after the 2010 season. That season will not have a salary cap under the current CBA, and Smith has said he hopes to have an agreement before then.
SEAHAWKS: The Edgerrin James experiment in Seattle is over.
The struggling Seahawks cut ties with James, releasing the backup running back who never provided the pop Seattle hoped to get when it signed the 31-year-old in late August.
James failed to provide the punch Seattle hoped for when it cut T.J. Duckett to make room for James. He gained just 125 yards on 46 carries with no scores. He averaged just 2.7 yards a carry.
BILLS: Starting cornerback Terrence McGee had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee to repair minor damage and expects to be out for about two weeks.
McGee said he waited to have the operation Monday, when the Bills began their bye week so that he would not miss much playing time. Buffalo is off until a road game against Tennessee on Nov. 15.
McGee said doctors told him the operation went well. McGee, who hasn’t missed a game this season, injured his knee during a 38-10 loss at Miami on Oct. 4.
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