Late this past Tuesday afternoon during my weekly segment on Kenny Roda’s sports talk show ln WHBC (1480) radio in Canton, I was asked where I thought the new Browns vice president of player personnel – a quasi-general manager – would come from.

I said since I thought head coach Hue Jackson would have such a huge say in the decision, the guy would come from one of his last two coaching stops with the Cincinnati Bengals and Oakland Raiders. That’s the way these things work, I said.

Dumb answer. A really dumb answer.

That’s not the way these things work with the Browns now.

It was proven about 24 hours later with the hiring of Andrew Berry, who spent the last seven seasons in scouting with the Indianapolis Colts.

But the real tie – and the way these things work now with the Browns – is that Berry is young, smart and comes from Harvard.

Sashi Brown, the team’s executive vice president of football operations, is that guy.

Paul DePodesta, the club’s chief strategy office, is that guy.

Other than Jackson, all the top football people are that guy.

And this will really tick off some short-sighted fans: Don’t look now, but Berry, like Jackson, defensive coordinator Ray Horton and assistant head coach/offense Pep Hamilton, is an African American.

The Browns have indeed taken the old-boy network and kicked it to the curb. That they are going this route with hiring fresh-faced think-tank guys in their front office instead of older, well-traveled football people, is a brand-spanking new approach and may or may not work. That’s to be determined.

But I like it. Why? Because with older, well-traveled football people in charge of procuring the talent, the Browns have messed up royally.

How bad? Consider that they keep losing despite the fact they have had two picks in the top 32 – that is, in the first round – of the NFL Draft in four of the last five years. One of those players is Johnny Manziel, for whom the Browns would be thrilled to death to trade for a seventh-round draft choice. In two short years, Manziel has gone from the top of the draft to the bottom of it. The Browns missed that badly on him. You have to work hard to draft this poorly. If you used one of those draft guides off the newsstand to pick the players in the first round, you could have done better.

Much better.

Really.

Thanks, Ray Farmer.

Thanks, Mike Lombardi.

Thanks, Joe “Don’t Call Me Punxsutawney Phil” Banner.

Thanks, Tom Heckert.

Thanks, Eric Mangini.

Yes, thanks for nothing.

Bill Polian knows something about player procurement. He was so good at it that he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame last year.

And he had this to say about the Browns hiring Berry: “Andrew Berry is one of the brightest young men we ever had the pleasure of working with. He came to us very early in his career and very soon we realized he was on a fast track. I am not surprised the Browns hired him for this very important position. I assure you he has both the capacity and the will to do an outstanding job. The Browns have made, in my humble opinion, a great hire.”

I know, I know, most times, these canned quotes from someone in a press release about a hiring have little truth and no believability. They’re just a bunch of words – a bunch of baloney. They’re worthless.

But not this time. Polian isn’t that kind of guy. First of all, he’s a straight shooter. And secondly, the last thing he wants to do is put his reputation and credibility on the line by praising someone in whom he doesn’t believe.

So let’s see how it all plays out in terms of victories, playoff appearances and titles.

But this much is certain: It’s no longer business as usual in Cleveland in any way, shape or form.

By Steve King