The Detroit Lions tore the top off their front office last Thursday when, during their bye week, they fired President Tom Lewand and General Manager Martin Mayhew.
 
I bring that up because of expected changes of that sort with the Browns, either during their bye, which is next week, or at the end of the season.
 
Lewand and Mayhew came across, at least to the casual observer, as pretty humble and responsible guys. But they are being blasted by some in the Detroit media for being smug, aloof and stubborn.
 
So I guess there’s some difference of opinion on that matter.
 
But that’s not the case with Browns GM Ray Farmer. Everyone – perhaps other than the members of his immediate family — would agree he’s smug, aloof and stubborn, and probably a number of other undesirable things as well. Delusional comes to mind as being one of them. Dishonest is another. Then there’s despicable.
 
Later we’ll work on another letter in the alphabet.
  
If those in the Detroit media think Mayhew has a holier-than-thou personality, they need to check out Farmer. He is the poster child for that. He is Mayhew on steroids.
 
Browns head coach Mike Pettine is not aloof or smug, but, like Farmer, he is stubborn, believing that if you stay the course, you’ll eventually succeed. Or, in the case of those two, you’ll keep drifting, or speeding, further and further into the abyss.
 
If you choose, and your name is Bill Belichick, you can afford to be those things and get away with it. The NFL is a bottom-line business, and Belichick’s bottom-line is among the best in the game’s history.
 
But if you’re with the Browns or Lions and at the other end of the spectrum, you had better not get too stuck on yourself, and you had better be willing to change things up when it all starts to unravel, lest you turn people off and make them root against you. You need everybody you can get on your side.
 
That’s where Browns fans are right now with Pettine and Farmer. They are rooting against them in hopes they will at some point mess things up so badly – you mean it can get worse? – that owner Jimmy Haslam will finally notice and take action.
 
And unless the owner takes action, nothing is ever going to change and the Browns will continue to be stuck in the mud.
 
Lions fans are begging for the same thing as Browns fans – that is, quality replacements at the top of the organization who will get their teams back on track.
 
Heck, those fans wouldn’t even care if those replacements are a little snooty and staid, as long as they can do the job.