Why Was Butch Davis Fired?

[bodybuilder32]

I know this is slightly off topic but I'm a young Browns fan who was in middle school during the Butch Davis/Tim Couch era. I was just curious why he was fired considering he was the only coach to get us to the playoffs since the 99 expansion. Looking back, it's almost unbelievable that they did since it was only their 4th year back from expansion and had worse talent then this current team does.

[WRREBEL]

He was his worst enemy. He wanted and got full control of everything.

 

Good coach, but an ego maniac..

[Mark O]

If memory serves...Butch wasn't fired, he resigned towards the end of the dismal season after we went to the playoffs. We had a playoff team that he dismantled and we were terrible and he resigned with 3 or 4 games to go in the next year.

[RavensFan1996]

He's also a cheater. Just ask the University of North Carolina.

[miktoxic]

He's also a cheater. Just ask the University of North Carolina.

 

wow now that was just dumb.

[WRREBEL]

If u ain't cheating u ain't trying!

[hoorta]

He's also a cheater. Just ask the University of North Carolina.

 

 

wow now that was just dumb.

 

Not really. What ranks as one of the all-time dumb draft day moves, Butchie gifted the Lions a second round pick to move up one spot to take his Miami U Fave Kellen Winslow- when Ben Rothlisberger was still on the board. A close second would be him taking Gerrard Warren, instead of LaDanian Tomlinson or Richard Seymour. I daresay the Browns history would be slightly different if Davis had drafted correctly.

[jnuh]

Butch resigned 2 yrs after the playoff year. If he didn't resign he would have probably been fired anyway. I agree with whoever said Butch was his own worst enemy. If he didn't want full control and could live with just being a HC I think he would have worked out. Once he started making personel moves/drafting it went down hill. In my opinion Butch was the best coach we had since 99.

[ballpeen]

I always said Butch allowed his ego to interfere with making sound football decisions.

 

I had serious questions about Butch when after we drafted James Jackson, Butch said Jackson might not make us forget Jim Brown, but we might forget Leroy Kelly.

 

 

Riiiight

[The Gipper]

Butch's problem extended partly from the dysfunction of the Browns front office.

 

In 1999 you had Al Lerner as the owner, Carmen Policy as the Pres., and Dwight Clark as the GM. This group ran the Browns for 3 years. After their first 2 years they fired Chris Palmer as HC and Brought in Butch as HC to start the 2001 season. For the first year and a half, that was fine. But then Al Lerner died in October 2002 and Randy Lerner took over control of the team at that point. That is when the dysfunction started seemingly....though it wasn't immediately apparent because that same year, 2002, is when the Browns had their first (and now only) playoff appearance since their "return".

In that offseason after the 2002 season it became apparent that Randy and Policy could not coexist, so Randy paid off Policy and with Policy out of the picture, Clark followed (or maybe even preceded).

Thus, what you had was a power vaccuum. No President, no GM, only a HC who seemed like he knew what he was doing because of the playoff berth he attained as a coach.

So, you have a neophyte owner who has a power vacuum....and who steps in? Who engratiates himself with this pre-pubescent owner? The egomaniac Butch Davis. He essentially takes on the jobs of team President, GM, and head coach (though, if I recall there may have been a financial guy in place who had the nominal title of Team Pres. I don't even recall the name).

Well, needless to say, as we have seen from history here as well as elsewhere, that consolidation of duties in the NFL does not work. In the words of Bill Parcells, Butch was making the budget, shopping for the groceries, and doing all the cooking all at the same time.

It was too much for him. He became the perfect example of the Peter Principle and went way beyond his area of competency....and the team, and his coaching, and he personally suffered from it.

He was not suited to be chief cook and bottle washer. He needed to just wash those bottles. He made poor personell decisions as GM, and his coaching left the rails. I honestly think I believe him when he said ultimately toward the end that he was suffering panic attacks. Though they were probably self inflicted they were still probably real. After the team took a complete nose dive in his third season when he was running everything, he quit, or was fired, or whatever. He bit off more than he could chew and couldn't swallow it all.

 

The bottom line of course is that should never have happened. Shame on Al Lerner for dying and leaving this team in a lurch!! (Just kidding of course). It happened because we got an owner who was completely wet behind the ears and had no clue what to do. Prior to his Dad passing away all Randy did was play with his polo ponies and his MBNA money and play soccer with the Private Academy crowd. He didn't have a clue what to do with the Browns, so he put all the decision making into the one person that was still standing in the team's heirarchy when the dust settled: Butch.

He never should have done that, but he did because he didn't know better.

And now, nearly a decade later, he seems to still be trying to figure it out after a couple of equally disastrous front office debacles on this team.

 

So, that, my young friend, is the story, from my perspective.

[rich4eagle]

I would like to add to the story.

 

I believe that Davis was asked to resign or be fired. As it should have been.

 

He showed over time an obsession with defensive players as draft choices that were not really that good. Gerard Warren was a classic example. He went out and got not so good offensive lineman that were overpaid.. Our answer to the running game road grader Harmon is another example. He used a high first choice on Willie Green affectioately and rightly called DUPA by a few of us. He stuck with dink and dumb and three and out Couch way to long. He played QB roulette at the end and destroyed Holcomb and any chance that Couch could become something. He made the greatest blunder since the Browns were reborn by trading away his second round choice to move up one place in the 2004 draft to take Winsblow with the fifth choice in the draft while leaving the obvious choice Roethlisberger to fall into the hands of Pittsburgh.. I remember vividly that day and knew immediately we handed power to Ptittsbiurgh and got a head case TE. So bottom line on all this is Butch drafted and traded poorly his whole time here. He Signed useless Percy Ellsworth affectionalely called Prissy by some of us to a huge contract only to watch the guy wave at people when they ran by him.

 

1...... Again he drafted and traded poorly his time here and often played lesser players and benched better players

 

2. Second, and as important even moreso, he was a lousy game day coach. He never made the right kind of moves and adjustments during a game to provide a winning edge.

 

 

 

I was ecstatic when he got fired/resigned and rightly so. Lerner as mentioned before with no real expertise followed up by hiring Phil Sewage whose credentials where bringing coffee to Ozzie Newsome in Baltimore. He made Butch as bad as he was look like a genius... I cannot imagine anyone being worse than Phil Savage.

 

 

So in essence we finally maybe have some people running the team that are competent, although, I have serious concerns about drafting so far and strategies so far.. I give em one more year to start doing the right things to build a winner...

 

 

BTW, Butch showed at NC the same propensity to lose games he should have won

[hoorta]

To Rich and Gipper big +1s to both of you, and another failing of Butch was to WAY over rate any Miami U player he coached. He brought a couple of real stiffs to the Browns from the U.

[The Gipper]

Rich and Hoorta filled in some details about Butch's failings as a GM. I might disagree slightly about Butch as a game day coach. Initially, he appeared to be a very good game day coach....but he definitely tailed off. "Came off the rails" I called it. I think he did so because of the pressure of all those jobs he took on, and because he ego got in the way.

If he had just stuck with coaching I think he may have been able to maintain a decent game day coaching record. But, he became a wreck, and the team took on the personality of its coach/GM.

[RavensFan1996]

Not really. What ranks as one of the all-time dumb draft day moves, Butchie gifted the Lions a second round pick to move up one spot to take his Miami U Fave Kellen Winslow- when Ben Rothlisberger was still on the board. A close second would be him taking Gerrard Warren, instead of LaDanian Tomlinson or Richard Seymour. I daresay the Browns history would be slightly different if Davis had drafted correctly.

 

Absolutely correct. But as has been said on this board, you can't completely blame Butch for the Browns' draft woes. That's the one thing you have to give Ozzie credit for. The only reason the Ravens remain a perennial contender is because of their drafting, certainly not because of their FA moves. Although I would give most of our receiving corps to you guys for Joshua Cribbs.

[FearTheRoo]

Not really. What ranks as one of the all-time dumb draft day moves, Butchie gifted the Lions a second round pick to move up one spot to take his Miami U Fave Kellen Winslow- when Ben Rothlisberger was still on the board. A close second would be him taking Gerrard Warren, instead of LaDanian Tomlinson or Richard Seymour. I daresay the Browns history would be slightly different if Davis had drafted correctly.

 

There should be a statue of Davis next to Browns stadium for NOT drafting that tool.

 

Remember when we had a big QB with an ego problems, big arm, that who loved to get sacked and throw ints?

 

How'd that work Anderson??

[listercat]

If memory serves...Butch wasn't fired, he resigned towards the end of the dismal season after we went to the playoffs. We had a playoff team that he dismantled and we were terrible and he resigned with 3 or 4 games to go in the next year.

 

 

He freaked out at half time of a game and it was over he simply quit...or at least he was told he was done; at least Learner paid off his contract as the dude collapsed under the pressure

[ballpeen]

I know Warren is brought up a lot....and I understand, but my Gator blood had to defend Butch(or Warren).....or was Clark the guy who drafted him??

 

 

 

 

While Warren was a total flop in our book.....mnine as well, he did start for every team he played for.....Cleveland, Denver, Oakland, and NE.

 

 

He has a ring.....I think he made a pro-bowl or two though I may be wrong here, and was by all accounts if you look at draftable players, drafted where expected.....it's not like we took him, then nobody would have selected him for 20 more picks.....he would have gone inside 3 picks.

 

 

 

I guess all I am saying is even though Warren wasn't the next Leroy Selmon or Mean Joe, he was a solid NFL player for more than a decade, so to say he is a big reason we have sucked for 15 years is a bit of a stretch.

[Riffer X]

Where to start with Butchie?

 

---Loved to draft Miami/southern/ACC/guys he recruited

---Did not listen to his scouts

---Took on way too much

---Got the team in major cap trouble with average, old and overpaid FA's

---Implemented spies in the locker (see Miami product Andre King)

---Hated Couch from the get go yet extended his contract

---Had a major rep as a liar about all things

---Played his favorites

---Only trusted Pete Garcia his buddy, and he had no prior experience as a pro personnel guy

---Ran Ron Wolf out of town in a selfish and narcissistic power struggle

---Threw Foge Fazio under the bus after the Pitt playoff game when he himself made the decisions

---Took fliers on 5th round picks in round two (see Chaun Thompson)

---Always wanted to show everybody else in the NFL he was smarter than them

---Drastically overrated his own (wouldn't trade James Jackson for a third rounder)

---Traded the Lions a second rounder to move up one spot (Matt fooking Millen deeked him)

---Created a QB controversy and managed to alienate both of them

---Never gave two shits about the Browns heritage and history, took the job solely for coin after lying to Miami

---The one OSU product he took was a terrible TE named Darnell Sanders in the fourth--everybody knew he sucked

---Best pick was Pontbriand in the fifth, who he could have had in the seventh round

---Quit before being fired but still got paid--a lot

---Had a serious hillbilly accent

---Made excuses after losses--"Outside of about 6 plays, we basically had good gap integrity" after Lewis broke the NFL record for rushing yards against us

 

I know I am leaving some stuff out, but X's and O's wise he wasn't the worst. He also could get the team motivated with his college style rah rah. However, that also backfired on him big time. People forget he had been out of the pro game for years when Carmen wanted to make a huge splash by paying him to screw Miami. In turn, he tried to win quick instead of building the right way and the shame of it is, he was given plenty of time to do it the right way (like H&H are trying to do now).

 

I really believed in the guy for awhile, but it turned out he wasn't any super genius, just a guy who failed because he thought he was. I think as a pure coach not making front office calls, he may have made it, but when he convinced Lerner he had a plan, it was all she wrote. The college game is his mantra if he can stay clean, the guy can flat out recruit his ass off. He turned Miami into a powerhouse after they damn near got the death penalty and loaded up freaking North Carolina with pros out the ying yang.

 

Hope to hell Patty Shurms is better than that guy was.

[daddybull1]

I have to disagree about the non selection of Big Ben..

 

At the time we had Couch and Holcomb, QB was not the position that we needed while Pittspuke had a QB that was one year removed from selling insurance so Ben was the logical choice... If we knew then what we know now, 11 teams would not have passed on the rapist...

 

Peace

 

T.Dawg