Butch Davis goes after Randy Lerner in article

In an article at Gridiron Now, former Cleveland Browns head coach Butch Davis decided to unleash on former owner Randy Lerner for the downfall of his reign with the club. Davis talked about how things took a turn for the worse after Al Lerner passed away:

“I left a great great job (at Miami) to go to Cleveland to work for Carmen Policy, who had won four Super Bowls, and Al Lerner. We go to the playoffs my second year, Al Lerner dies of brain cancer and the son (Randy Lerner) takes over and fires Carmen — complete culture change.

“The son tells me, ‘We’re no longer doing this my dad’s way.’ His father told me, ‘You got 10 years to turn this franchise around.’ The son says, ‘We’re not doing one thing the way that my father did.’

“We just went to the playoffs six weeks ago. He says, ‘You’re $33 million over the salary cap; you got five weeks to get under.’ The only people that you can cut to get under the salary cap are the guys that can play. … Who were the most pissed off (players)? The kids that had to stay, not the guys that lost their job. The kids that had to stay because they’re like, ‘We’re going back to being like an expansion franchise; we got no chance of winning.’

“(Randy Lerner) ended up screwing it up and sold the team after he fired five more head coaches.”

I don’t recall Davis having talked so negatively about Lerner in the past, so it’s interesting that it comes out now.