As the Browns’ season disintegrates a little more with each passing day, there are a lot of things being said that simply don’t make any sense.
 
One of them is that the Browns can’t fire Mike Pettine until the season is over because there is no one on his staff capable of taking over as head coach.
 
Really?
 
Under Pettine, the Browns lost their final five games last year, and have dropped seven in a row this season to stand at 2-10 with four games left. We’re not exactly talking about Paul Brown here. With a track record like that, how much worse could it possibly get?
 
As Clark Griswold said to his wife in “Christmas Vacation” when things had bottomed out on Christmas Eve, “We’re at the threshold of hell!”
 
That’s where the Browns and their fans are at right now.
 
Perhaps there are indeed no capable candidates to take over as head coach, but the Browns won’t know until they try. By continuing to let this disaster play out and doing absolutely nothing to at least try to soften the blow a little, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam is, in effect, condoning the job Pettine is doing. There’s no other way you can look at it. To take some action such as firing Pettine would be an attempt by Haslam to show that he’s not condoning what’s going on.
 
In Detroit, Lions owner Martha Ford Firestone, a native of Akron who was also married there, fired the GM and president recently to show she wasn’t condoning losing. Why can’t Haslam do the same? Why shouldn’t he do the same?
 
And if he did do it, I have a candidate. It’s running backs coach Wilbert Montgomery.
 
The 61-year-old, a former star running back for the Philadelphia Eagles, is an old-school, no-nonsense, tough-as-nails guy who doesn’t tolerate mediocrity. Remember in training camp when he was greatly outspoken about the failure of any of the team’s young running backs to assert themselves and win the starting job? Then he no doubt got an earful from Pettine to keep his mouth shut and quit rocking the boat. Well, the boat needs to be rocked – a lot – and if anybody falls overboard, then so be it.
 
The Browns need a coach who will shut down the country club atmosphere in the locker room and start making players accountable for their failures. The team needs someone who will light a fire under people.
 
You say Montgomery doesn’t have what it takes to be a head coach?
 
Neither does Pettine.
 
So why not give Coach Wilbert a shot at it for these last four games?
 
Again, after all, how much worse could it possibly get?