it’s a very fair point, brad. i certainly haven’t been in any locker room with romeo or cowher, and i’m not in much of a position to question passion. so perhaps i should remove the “passion” part of my comment. however, i was equating that with “dedication”, about which i have read and heard from “people who know things” that cowher’s dedication is legendary. at the facility working, watching film, grilling players and coaches, working out himself at all hours…and outdoing most other coaches on all those fronts. that’s my basis for that comment.

in my opinion, cowher’s passion spills out on the field, i’ve read and heard that dungy’s passion is reflected in the seriousness with which he prepares himself and his players. what i know of romeo is that he comports himself in neither of those ways, and is much more reserved and low-key. not saying that he’s less passionate, maybe just less skilled at imparting that onto his players.

and let me also say that i think Cowher’s firebrand style of motivation and exhibiting his passion would be perfect for the Browns. absolutely perfect. they don’t seem to respond to romeo’s docile approach. if nothing else, the change of pace would be good for this team.

for those of you who want to keep savage alongside cowher, though, this discussion is moot. savage will never cede control, and cowher will never take a job without control.

You asked how we know whether Cowher has more passion than RC. I will tell you. We see it as a reflection of the players’ desire on the field. We see it as our players react to success and disappointment on the field. An effective head coach’s attitude is contagious to his players. RC may have passion, but he cannot get his players to share that passion. And that’s all that matters because the coach can’t make the plays. So, if he cannot transfer his desire to the players, his desire doesn’t benefit the team. And it has nothing to do with spitting or yelling, but it’s real.

I don’t really agree with this line of thinking. To me it is not that difficult to judge great coaches in the NFL. Sometimes guys are put in the wrong circumstances and can’t overcome a lack of talent. Right now the Browns have talent, and are underperforming.

I could point to Jeff Fisher and say that if we had him at coach, our team would be better off in the long run. Using your argument you would respond and say I am not qualified to know that Jeff Fisher is a great coach. I disagree, any team should immediately hope for someone like Jeff Fisher as their coach. Same goes for Cowher, same goes for Marty Schottenheimer amongst available coaches.

We don’t really disagree much. I voted for the yes, but don’t want to lose Savage choice. Of course there needs to be an interview process. Of course there is a variety of guys out there that should be considered.

I get excited about Cowher because it makes so much sense. It is a big name, the best resume out there, and, perhaps most interesting to me, a connection to Cleveland and the Browns. I don’t think this can be understated. He has a reason to want to coach here. There is a decent chance that he would actually chose Cleveland over other contenders, from what we know. He has been rumored for this job at least 3 times before (91, 99, 07).

I agree, “the most sure thing” is not the same as “a sure thing”, but it is certainly a huge plus. Does his turnaround of a mediocre to bad Pittsburgh team followed by 15 years or competitive success PROVE that he could turn our team around? No. But I don’t see what is so wrong about discussing the most qualified and most compelling choice that has been rumored by people with that have knowledge of the principals, of the game, of NFL coaching, to be a possibility for the job.

We do want a new coach. Fire Crennel would be a decent topic. Except that it would be pretty short. I don’t think many fans or posters are really arguing that he should stay, am I wrong? Crennel’s seat is more than hot. He will almost certainly not survive the off season without a 5-2 finish, and looking at our schedule and how we’ve played, its just hard to see. Maybe this discussion is skipping a step, but its a step that most fans have mentally already made.

Also as fans posting on the internet, if we avoid discussing topics where we aren’t qualified to speak, then this website would have 0 user comments. We can discuss coaching candidates based on track record. Take it with a grain of salt because we are anonymous internet posters, but it’s not unreasonable for people to speculate and weigh the merits of bringing in Bill Cowher or someone else

i’d like to hear more on this. people are pretty enamored with savage, and he’s done fine, but why so much faith in him? he’s supposed to be a great judge of college talent, right? by my calculation, and i tried to be liberal, i see 9 of 29 “hits” in his draft record…mediocre, if you ask me.

Ditto.

romeo makes about $4mm, garrett about $3mm.

if randy is convinced that garrett (or anyone else) is the right guy, he definitely won’t let money be an obstacle.