The fact that David Griffin is gone is now old news.
That broke at the beginning of this work week and we are now at the end of it.
The current hot-button topic – and one that will continue to be there for a long, long while – is what the Cavaliers will do going forward without their general manager, who, as we pointed out a couple of days ago, has his handprints over everything the club has done the last three years as it has made three consecutive trips to the NBA Finals, including winning the franchise’s first championship in 2016.
With that, then, I just can’t get past that what happened with the Browns 30 years ago seems to be a carbon-copy of what’s going on now with the Cavs.
In case you missed the story I did on this, then Browns owner Art Modell and head coach Marty Schottenheimer agreed to disagree on several key issues, resulting in the situation coming to a head days after the end of the 1988 season. Schottenheimer subsequently resigned – after turning in his best coaching job in guiding the Browns to the playoffs despite an almost historic number of injuries to their quarterbacks.
That followed 1985, when the Browns won the Central Division title with just an 8-8 record and then blew a 21-3 third-quarter lead to the Miami Dolphins in the divisional playoffs en route to a 24-21 loss; 1986, when the Browns won the division again with a 12-4 record and then blew a 20-13 late-fourth-quarter lead to the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship Game before losing 23-20 in overtime; and 1987, when the Browns went 11-5, captured the division for a third straight time and made it back to the conference title game, losing 38-33 after Earnest Byner fumbled the ball away on his way into the end zone with the tying touchdown with just over a minute left.
Frustrated? Yeah, Modell was frustrated. So was everybody else on the Browns, including General Manager Ernie Accorsi, who, in probably the only poor move in the Cleveland portion of his long career, traded Byner following the 1988 season for Mike Oliphant – Mike Oliphant!
How did that work out for the Browns?
Sending Schotteheimer and Byner out the door were panic moves by the Browns to try to get to the Super Bowl before the window of opportunity closed with that group of players in the Bernie Kosar era. It didn’t work. The 1989 Bud Carson-coached Browns again won the division, and again lost to the Broncos in the AFC title contest, this time by a much more convincing 37-21 after Cleveland closed a 24-7 deficit to 24-21 in the third quarter.
In 1990, the Browns slumped to 3-13 in what was dubbed by the team in its highlight video as “The Season From Hell.”
Looking back now, it was obvious that the Browns started spiraling downward with all that happened immediately following the 1988 season. It was clearly the beginning of the end for that great era.
I’m just afraid – very much so – that the Cavs, despite that 2016 championship, are feeling that same frustration and sense of urgency in trying to figure out how they can overcome the Golden State Warriors.
I hope that I’m wrong, but I’m afraid I’m right.
If so, then the Cavs’ run was great – really great – while it lasted, just as the Browns’ run through the last half of the 1980s was great – really great.
