Mike Holmgren Contradicts Himself, Saying Randy Lerner Didn't Want Him to Coach the Browns

Boy, this Mike Holmgren guy sure does like to try to stroke his ego and pat himself on the back, no matter how many years later, eh? In today's edition of Peter King's MMQB, there was a brief quote from Holmgren about his stint with the Browns as team president:

"I really just should have coached the team, but he [owner Randy Lerner] didn’t want me to."

—Former Browns president Mike Holmgren to me last week, on whether he had any regrets about his years in Cleveland.

Really?

Daryl Ruiter of 92.3 the Fan already talked about how Holmgren's revisionist history needs a reality check, but we did some digging through our archives as well.

First, after Holmgren's stint as team president ended, he went on his Seattle radio station and talked in length about his time in Cleveland, making no mention of not being allowed to coach. Second, Holmgren once indicated that the team tried to get Jon Gruden and Bill Cowher to coach the Browns -- you're telling me that Lerner would have said "yes" to that but "no" to Holmgren?

Here is the most damning evidence of all against Holmgren, which proves he was either a liar then or a liar now. Either way, he's definitely a liar -- the paragraph below comes from 2011:

According to an interview with a Seattle radio station, team president Mike Holmgren stated that he considered returning to the sidelines to coach the Cleveland Browns before finally hiring Pat Shurmur. Holmgren sought the advice of his staff, all of whom would have supported his endeavor to step in as head coach. He decided against it after consulting with his wife.

There is also a line from a WFNY article in 2011 that says, "Randy Lerner told Holmgren that he had his back if he wanted to go that way."

Holmgren has come away looking foolish numerous times, including him chastising the Browns for the Trent Richardson trade, so he's only adding to his chapter in the history of Browns' failed front office personnel.