Savage Called Out

[WPB Dawg Fan]

Apparently, Phil Savage's "blame game" isn't playing well in the mass media:

 

Seeing through Savage

 

By Michael Silver, Yahoo! Sports 1 hour, 41 minutes ago

 

Unless you are young, self-employed or incredibly blessed, you’ve probably had a boss like Browns general manager Phil Savage.

 

You know, a guy who cares only about his own hide, perpetually blames organizational underperformance on his employees and acts like everything he does is above reproach.

 

Oh, and in this case, a GM who goes on the radio the day before Thanksgiving to undercut the head coach he hired in 2005 and signed to a two-year extension last January.

 

In other words: A real horse’s ass.

 

After the Browns went a surprising 10-6 in 2007 and narrowly missed the playoffs, Savage bought into the considerable hype that his team was on the verge of Super Bowl contention. When Cleveland (4-8) crash-landed in 2008, Savage self-servingly concluded that poor coaching was to blame.

 

He may be right, at least partially, but his willingness to make a conspicuous scapegoat out of head coach Romeo Crennel – in an obvious attempt to convince owner Randy Lerner not to fire him – was completely shameless.

 

On the night before Thanksgiving, during his weekly appearance on Cleveland radio station WTAM, Savage carved up his coach like a turkey just out of the oven.

 

Said Savage: “I’ve said it on this program a number of times. Hey, my responsibility is the 53-man roster, and then it’s Romeo and the rest of the coaching staff’s decision how to utilize the 45 players that are dressed on Sunday. Who starts. Who plays. When they’re gonna play. How they’re gonna be utilized. If I’m going to get involved in those decisions, then I may as well put a headset on and double my salary.”

 

Right, Phil – you’re a genius when it comes to acquiring talent, and the only thing that can keep your collection of future Hall of Famers from succeeding on Sundays is a misguided coach who messes up your masterpiece.

 

Never mind that this is the same person of whom you said at the news conference announcing his hiring, “Romeo Crennel represents everything that is great about the game of football. We are extremely proud and honored to make him the next head coach.”

 

It’s also the same man you praised 10 months ago, upon announcing his contract extension: “Romeo has proven that he can be a winning NFL head coach, and he has the respect of the players and of the entire organization.”

 

And, amazingly, it’s the same loyal employee who went out of his way to defend you after one of the most unprofessional episodes in NFL front-office history: The email reply you fired off to a critical fan after the Browns’ Nov. 17 victory over the Bills which read, “Go root for Buffalo – f#@* you – ”

 

Asked about the email by reporters, Crennel said, “We all get frustrated at times … [but] sometimes things slip out … It’s unfortunate that it slipped out.”

 

Even more unfortunate is the fact that Savage, based on Lerner’s most recent comments, seems likely to keep his job, meaning that in a few weeks he’ll get to spearhead the hiring of a new coach.

 

But I’d be much happier if Lerner halved Savage’s salary and told him to put on a headset – and, if he doesn’t like it, to go root for Buffalo.

 

Now for our weekly penthouse-to-outhouse trip through the NFL, beginning with the team whose only defeat came to – you guessed it – The Phil Savage All-Stars:

 

Wow...sounds like this board was the leader again...only to have the mass media follow days/weeks/months behind.

 

I think Savage is pretty good at talent evaluation. As a GM, however, he leaves much to be desired.

[Chicopee John]

I think Savage is pretty good at talent evaluation. As a GM, however, he leaves much to be desired.

 

 

Please elaborate / explain what you mean WPB. Thanks

 

[WPB Dawg Fan]

Yep I agree John,

 

And I'll explain more from my point of view for you HWG

 

I am on e who still believes Savage has brought more talent to this organization than any other person since 1999. Could he have done better? Sure. Did me he miss on players? definitely. But I think he evaluates talent well.

 

However that is not the only job of a GM. and in all other aspects, Phil has shown an imaturity and lack of good judgement that just makes you wonder if he is right for a GM job. From the way the Winslow fiasco was handled, to the E-mail response he should have never sent. Right down to the latest things where he seems to be throwing Romeo under the bus. To me it shows a guy who 1) doesn't have the best people skills and 2) who is more concerned right now about keeping his own job than he is about doing what is best for this franchise.

 

As I stated in the coaching thread, I'd like him to stay as a head scout, but I'd love to see someone like Marty or Cowher in here to oversee him and control the message and philosophy of this organization.

 

Exactly.

 

Add into that the knee-jerk reaction to signing DA this past off-season (cost the team a 1st and 3rd). His unwillingness to sign a WR and/or CB early this season (cap reasons) and blaming it on RAC. There are a TON of these instances where he has shown a total lack of OVERALL MANAGEMENT SKILLS....but on the whole his talent scouting has been solid.

 

[Vegasdogg]

Dan Marino has a point when speaking about Savage's comments: "The GM needs to keep it shut and only be heard during draft day."

 

Savage has way too many responsibilities.

[Chicopee John]

Yep I agree John,

 

And I'll explain more from my point of view for you HWG

 

I am on e who still believes Savage has brought more talent to this organization than any other person since 1999. Could he have done better? Sure. Did me he miss on players? definitely. But I think he evaluates talent well.

 

However that is not the only job of a GM. and in all other aspects, Phil has shown an imaturity and lack of good judgement that just makes you wonder if he is right for a GM job. From the way the Winslow fiasco was handled, to the E-mail response he should have never sent. Right down to the latest things where he seems to be throwing Romeo under the bus. To me it shows a guy who 1) doesn't have the best people skills and 2) who is more concerned right now about keeping his own job than he is about doing what is best for this franchise.

 

As I stated in the coaching thread, I'd like him to stay as a head scout, but I'd love to see someone like Marty or Cowher in here to oversee him and control the message and philosophy of this organization.

 

Thanks for the explanation. You make excellent points.

 

However, just something to keep in mind: " bringing more talent to this organization than any other person since 1999" is the lowest of the low fruit.

 

FWIW, I don't see many high-caliber players on the roster. People like to talk about potential, etc. but I believe it is results that count. Not too many teams salivating over potential Browns' FAs. Maybe a niche player like Cribbs and a handfull of others. Remember, a good team needs 45 good players, not 22 and the Browns fall considerably lower than 22 IMHO.

 

[Gips]

Well savage tried a bad trick used once almost every year by our oh so blameless owner everybody loves so much savage just like lerner waited way to long to either dictate to fats how to coach this team or just flat should have sent him packing at the bye week..

 

When savage defended instead of firing fats lerner should have fired them both putting chud in as the interim coach and made keenans sorry arse act as gm until a talented one could be found this would have served 2 other important functions imho besides keeping the heat off of the owner it would have allowed the world to see what i already know..how bad chud would suck as a head coach and how bad a choice keenan is as the teams president...

 

Randy needs to purge a lot of people to eventually get a spark its sad but true its to bad he isnt somewhat more interested in fixing this football team right..

Keeping to many of the current unmotivated staff at every level will cause a status quo and or a friction if new motivated people are brought in to clean things up this is going to be an interesting off-season one that likely determines if many of us will be going to any games next year...

[Fooleeze]

I may be the only person that feels this way, but I kinda feel like this stuff is being taken out of context, and blown out of proportion. Below is the link to the interview, and from my perspective he was responding to a direction question / quote from Willis and Snyder saying that he has responsibility for the roster only. And Savage HAS said this several times on this program. . . but now suddenly it's throwing people under the bus? Why wasn't it 'throwing romeo under the bus' when he said it before? Seems like he's being treated with a different microscope now.

 

The email incident, I agree, shouldn't have happened, and is a black mark on his record.

 

The Winslow incident, we don't know enough about what happened behind the scenes with this one to really fault anyone.

 

That's just my take, and I don't expect anyone to agree with me, just wanted to voice it.

 

 

WTAM Interview

[Earle]

im glad to see some spunk out of Opie! He should light a Fire under RAC's Ass! that is his Job!

 

What he should of said was, You perform and stop your playing favorites and start playing to Win or your fat Ass is in the unemployment Line BITCH!!!!!!!!!!

[pl4tinum]

I don't think Romeo is smart enough to turn an ultimatum into anything other than an Arby's melt.