"Kokinis" rhymes with ... well, Venus

So George Kokinis' stint in Cleveland is over, after just eight games. The Browns are saying very little, but speculation is that even though Eric Mangini was instrumental in bringing Kokinis here, the two have not gotten along at all. So it seems Mangini won a power struggle against the guy he himself handpicked to be the general manager.

The GM is typically the guy who makes the personnel decisions, and the guy who discusses them with the media. When a trade is announced, for example, the GM usually makes the announcement. But who heard a peep from Kokinis when Braylon Edwards was traded? Did he actually have anything to do with that trade? Or did Mangini do it all himself? Did Kokinis, in fact, do anything at all for this team? Did he conduct the draft, or was that all Mangini? And if Mangini was the guy who put this dreadful team together, does Kokinis actually deserve to be fired? Probably, if all he did was collect a paycheck and stare out the window all day; but what about Mangini? Sure, it generally takes more than one season to turn a team around, but there is no question this team was better last year under Phil Savage and Romeo Crennel than it is this year under Mangini and Kokinis, er, Mangini again.

This Browns organization is rotten from the top down. I don't know how much blame team owner Randy Lerner deserves for this, but he did hire these guys. He says he's sick over the way the team has played, and I'm sure he means it. But he has more power to do something about it than anybody else in the world. And I've often said that the Browns, like the Chicago Cubs, don't have that much financial incentive to put a quality product on the field because they sell out all the time even if they're terrible. But guess what? Tickets are still available for their next game, Nov. 16 against the Ravens. I don't know about you, but I'm sure as shootin' not going to buy one, and I don't care that much if the game gets blacked out. Maybe Browns fans are finally going to insist that they get their money's worth, and maybe that will make some difference in the way the team is run.

I'm rambling a bit now; please accept my apology for that. Anyway, following this team at this point is a little bit like watching Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," because you know it's going to end in tragedy. The difference is, there's no poetic prose involved in this tragedy. Just some awful football.