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02 Nov 2009

Browns Fire George Kokinis

The Browns have fired general manager George Kokinis, only months into his tenure alongside head coach Eric Mangini.

Posted by: Bill Barnwell on 02 Nov 2009

48 comments, Last at 05 Nov 2009, 11:01am by Big-Hairy-Andy

Comments

1
by Thanos (not verified) :: Mon, 11/02/2009 - 9:51pm

Is the 'Man-Genius' far behind?

3
by Thanos (not verified) :: Mon, 11/02/2009 - 9:53pm

I understand that the Browns are saying he is not, but are they to be believed?

10
by Phil O'sopher (not verified) :: Mon, 11/02/2009 - 10:48pm

Actually they didn't respond to reports at all, but didn't deny it.

Legend of the Cleveland Browns grows

2
by loneweasel (not verified) :: Mon, 11/02/2009 - 9:51pm

Hunt and Glazer should think about following their fellow soccer owner and do the same to their comically incompetent underlings.

7
by MilkmanDanimal :: Mon, 11/02/2009 - 10:33pm

Yes, please.

19
by Jerry :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 2:44am

At some point, you stop blaming the underlings....

4
by the silent speaker (not verified) :: Mon, 11/02/2009 - 10:24pm

So, are all the ManKok jokes going to be cut short now?

25
by JasonK :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 9:02am

Man Cuts Off Kok to Save Himself?

27
by DrewTS (not verified) :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 9:36am

Sounds painful.

5
by the silent speaker (not verified) :: Mon, 11/02/2009 - 10:24pm

So, are all the ManKok jokes going to be cut short now?

6
by jonnyblazin :: Mon, 11/02/2009 - 10:27pm

So which Ozzie Newsome underling will the Browns hire next? Maybe they should try a secretary this time.

8
by Rocco :: Mon, 11/02/2009 - 10:38pm

I'll take scapegoats for $1000, Alex.

11
by wr (not verified) :: Mon, 11/02/2009 - 11:17pm

Yup. Did Kokinis have any actual power? or was he just a front man
for Wile E. Coy.. er, ManGenius?

14
by Rocco :: Mon, 11/02/2009 - 11:31pm

Mangini hand-picked Kokinis as the GM. Usually it's the other way around, so that tells you what's wrong with the Browns.

9
by Phil O'sopher (not verified) :: Mon, 11/02/2009 - 10:45pm

Browns = Epic Fail

Randall Lerner = terrible weak owner

Just clean house and start over AGAIN?!?!?!? Why did you hire this guy to be GM and fire him during this (once again) horrible season. I wasn't a fan of the original hire of ManKok, but that is what we get w/ Randall The Weak.

I figure the Browns accidentally will get this new (again) process and decision to hire an actual decent GM/VP Football Ops right at some point in my life. Aren't probabilites on the Browns side? Or are they so inept at everything that they can't hire even one competent manager?

Gruden? Holmgren? Dungy? Shannahan? Would any of those guys take the reigns? I doubt it. Another retread Baltimore clown? Another Belicheck inspired coach?

Browns same bad decisions year in and year out.

As a 20 year Browns fan, I have never seen the city more willing to throw in the towel on this team and owner.

Any ideas on teams that are worth rooting for? Saints? Vikings? ATL?

Browns

22
by peachy (not verified) :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 4:45am

The odd thing is that Lerner is a model owner in the EPL - he hired a top-end guy in O'Neill, provides plenty of cash when required, engages the fans (who deeply disliked his predecessor, and were initially apprehensive at being taken over by an American billionaire), and generally stays out of the way and lets the pros do their job. So he's clearly not constitutionally incapable of owning a successful pro team; and just as clearly, Cleveland is a mess. What am I missing?

30
by Mr Shush :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 10:42am

Seconded. I think there's a strong case to be made for Lerner as the best owner in the EPL, at least under any scheme that rewards something other than throwing suitcases of cash at anything shiny that comes in range (actually a somewhat viable tactic in the capless Premiership, provided you have deep enough pockets).

36
by zlionsfan :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 1:16pm

It's an interesting divide, or so it seems from here ... if you have enough income from other sources, you can hand out a reasonable number of giant contracts for a long time. (In baseball terms, think Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Cubs.) If you don't, you better turn the huge salaries into Champions League wins, or else it comes down to selling the team or administration. (Think Rangers ... Texas, that is.)

26
by Vlad (not verified) :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 9:03am

The Steelers are pretty good. You could try rooting for them...

12
by tonic889 (not verified) :: Mon, 11/02/2009 - 11:17pm

Let me get this straight. The team endures HORRIBLE drafting for 5 YEARS (Tim Couch, Gerrard Warren, Courtney freaking Brown, to name a few). Then they hire an Ozzie Newsome protege who does decent (D'Qwell Jackson is way underrated, Joe Thomas is solid)...fire him to replace him with a 2nd Ozzie protege, who has less say in personnel decisions (as evidenced by a coach who imports role players from a mediocre at best Jets team)...and THAT guy only gets 8 months?

This organization is officially dysfunctional from top to bottom. They might even be the most dysfunctional NFL team in Ohio. As a Ravens fan, I can only hope it stays this way for the foreseeable future.

13
by cisforcookie (not verified) :: Mon, 11/02/2009 - 11:29pm

as a rabid baltimore fan, it pains me to see valued lieutenants chewed up and spit out by the cleveland browns machine. surely there's nothing actually wrong with george kokinis or even phil savage that being away from that cancer that is the browns wouldn't cure. the shame is that both of them will probably be out of football for a few years because of remaining years on their contracts that will pay them to do nothing.

Also, how do you fire a GM after less than a year on the job? Is this more "personality conflict" than anything else? It's certainly impossible to know whether his drafting or free agent moves have been good or not. I seem to recall that that phil savage also had trouble with that in his early time in cleveland. Possibly something wrong further up the ladder of the front office? The ravens certainly never seem to have any personality problems, or at least none that ever leak out, so it's odd that their top lieutenants run into them when they leave.

15
by PatsFan :: Mon, 11/02/2009 - 11:36pm

Seeing Ratgini run out of yet another town would be sweeeeeeet.

16
by Raiderjoe :: Mon, 11/02/2009 - 11:58pm

Browns biggest joke team in league. Lions, rammes, Bucs, chiefs all pretty close too.

17
by Amp (not verified) :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 1:55am

I think you missed one there raiderjoe...

24
by Raiderjoe :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 7:58am

who? Maybe Seattle? Besdie two gmes vs crap teams, Seattle horrible team this year. Big whoop. Beat Jakcosnville bad and Rams they beat. Who cares. tea,m sucks.

Or maybe Titans. Forgot them. Other teams bad are Bills, Redskins, panther,s, Raiders 2-6 but getting closer to divison lead. Broncos going to go down again this week, Raiders to be 4 back with 8 games to go, got good chance to come back and win divison. Just having some proeblsm getting QB untrakced. Progress made vs Chargers and really goign to start to turn things on to the upswing now.

31
by M :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 10:49am

Thank you Raiderjoe. Any time I lose faith in humanity's ability to cope with the evils of reason, logic, and evidence - you manage to be a shining beacon to the ultimate evolution of our race toward enlightenment. May you live a thousand years!

32
by M :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 10:50am

In my statement above, "race" = "species", lest anyone think otherwise.

38
by dbostedo :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 1:33pm

I actually thought you meant race as in foot race, or car race, or rat race. Although now that you mention it, I do think otherwise.

40
by M :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 3:14pm

Ha ha.

35
by Phil O'sopher (not verified) :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 12:38pm

Raiderjoe = Awesome

Thanks man, I needed that. Once JaMarcus makes the Pro-Bowl, the Browns will win the Super Bowl.

45
by THE Sean C (not verified) :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 10:10pm

Well, he did nail it square a couple weeks ago, predicting the upset over the Eagles...

33
by Eddo :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 11:16am

I think the St. Louis (prounounced San Loo-EE) Rammes is quite an appropriate spelling.

18
by Will Allen (not verified) :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 2:06am

Whew! That was a close one! If that guy had hung around any longer, the Browns woulda' been ruined!

20
by Justin Zeth :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 2:47am

It's time to bring in Marty Schottenheimer.

23
by NHPatsFan (not verified) :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 7:52am

They tried that already. Those of who lived in Ohio at the time are still paying for the $@#$$%$ therapy....

29
by DrewTS (not verified) :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 9:49am

A return to the Marty years would be about 7 steps up from where this franchise is right now. I don't doubt that "The Fumble" was traumatic, and it's very thoughtful of the team to spare their fans that pain by intentionally missing the playoffs every year, but maybe there's a better way.

34
by Will Allen (not verified) :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 11:40am

Yeah, compared to what Browns fans have now, it would be terrible to lose a conference championship back game when a Browns running back fumbles while going into the endzone, or to lose a conference championship game in overtime, after a opposing Hall of Fame qb engineers a historic 90 td yard drive in regulation.

Almost any NFL football fan who isn't relatively happy with their team being in mathematical contention for the playoffs, at the time of kickoff of their 16th game, probably has unrealistic expectations.

41
by BucNasty :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 3:20pm

At the very least, let him turn you into contenders and then fire him for someone who can take you the rest of the way. Like Norv Turner.

43
by Bowl Game Anomaly :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 7:19pm

Because Norv Turner is such a proven finisher. At least go for George Seifert, or Barry Switzer, or Gruden. Those guys actually won Super Bowls (with someone else's team).

48
by Big-Hairy-Andy :: Thu, 11/05/2009 - 11:01am

Might want to recalibrate the sarcasm scope...

44
by tonic889 (not verified) :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 8:10pm

I can say unequivocally, I would be OK with any coach who won 14 games the last season he coached.

21
by Israel P. (not verified) :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 3:41am

People who sign on with certain organizations should insist on a no "escort-out-of-the-building" clause.

That kind of humiliation seems gratuitous. What Browns secrets do they think are worth stealing?

28
by slomojoe (not verified) :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 9:40am

I think there was a concern that the Raiders were after their drafting plans for next year.

37
by The Other Ben Johnson (not verified) :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 1:30pm

Is there some sort of a vendetta the Browns have against themselves? I don't think that makes any sense, but I think that's what's going on here.

I think it's pretty clear that Mangini's greatest gift is for self-preservation-based backbiting and infighting within an organization's front office. He's the Clay Davis of NFL front office politics.

Is it me or do the Browns seem like they're trying every single person that ever worked with Belichick just to prove that it wasn't their fault that he was a bad head coach the first time around? Only they keep screwing it up and making it look worse. They should hire the anti-Belichick. Jim Zorn. He'll be available next year.

39
by DrewTS (not verified) :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 1:46pm

If the Browns hired Jim Zorn, that would be one of the all-time classic "team gives its own fans the middle finger" moments. I'm 100% for it.

42
by Phil O'sopher (not verified) :: Tue, 11/03/2009 - 7:05pm

You may have a whole revolution here in C-Town if they do that.

I am guessing more useless moves ala Marty "the go 14-2 and get fired" Schotty rumors. We need a Holmgren type that has been successful and isn't so useless when it comes to the media and the fans

47
by JimZipCode :: Wed, 11/04/2009 - 12:23am

Honestly I think Marty would be a stunningly good choice for the Brownies.
How does Cleveland turn up its nose at a .613 winning pctg and going to the playoffs 2 out of every 3 seasons? As an added bonus you'd likely get Brian Schott as offensive coordinator (and heir apparent).

It would be a great story to see Marty redeem himself there. Not that I want to see the Browns become consistently good (I'm a Ravens fan). But it would be a great story.

http://www.oblongspheroid.com/

46
by JimZipCode :: Wed, 11/04/2009 - 12:14am

If they were trying everyone that worked with Belichick in Cleveland, they could have snagged the right guy by hiring Jim Schwartz.

http://www.oblongspheroid.com/

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