AND SO THE IMPORTANT STUFF BEGINS …

By STEVE KING

Forget the fact, at least for now, that the Browns host the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday at FirstEnergy Stadium.

That doesn’t matter until … well, Sunday, and perhaps not even then to a great extent. What obviously matters more at this time, and going forward over the days and months to come, is what happened Monday when the Browns fired both head coach Hue Jackson and offensive coordinator Todd Haley, and how the Browns fill both of those important positions going forward.

Advertisement: Well, maybe we can start a new rally

With that, then, I’m going to concentrate on that almost exclusively for a long time, beginning with this post. Really, what else should I be focusing on, and what else other than that do you really want to read about?

We’ll touch briefly on various parts of that story from day to day and then circle back later to delve into them more in-depth.

So here we go:

It’s not surprising – at all – that Jackson was fired. The only thing that’s surprising – shocking, really – is that it took this long for it to happen.

He should have been gone right after last season ended. That’s just after John Dorsey took over as general manager. When a GM comes in, he has to – he absolutely, positively has to – have the ability to hire his own head coach. The head coach-GM relationship is the most crucial for any NFL team. The GM is going to be judged ultimately on how the team does during his watch, and for that, then, he has to have his guy – someone he knows and trusts — there at his side to give him a chance to make it work.

That the Browns tried to mix and match their GM and coach was a terrible mistake. It almost never works anywhere it’s tried.

I understand – completely – Browns owner Jimmy Haslam’s desire to give Hue a chance with a real football man running the organization in Dorsey as opposed to neophyte knucklehead Sashi Brown. That’s noble – and fair – but it benefits only one man. What is of greater importance is the well-being of the team overall, and for that, then, Hue should have been gone last January.

The only good thing is that the Browns pulled the plug on it before the midway point of this season, By doing that, they cut their losses and now have a head start on their coaching search over the teams that will end up firing their coaches in a little over two months when this season is over.

Again, to be continued.