All through this bleak Browns season, even at its previous lowest point several weeks ago, I was nearly certain that the jobs of head coach Kevin Stefanski and General Manager Andrew Berry were safe.

Now, I am not sure of that at all. In fact, if I had to guess — and it’s only a guess, albeit perhaps an educated one — I am leaning toward the possibility that they will both get fired. And if they retain their jobs, I think they will only barely do so and will be on a very short leash going forward.

The reason is the clunker of a performance that the Browns turned in on Sunday in a 27–10 beatdown of a loss administered by the average-at-best Los Angeles Chargers at Huntington Bank Field.

This is a new low. They were outclassed in almost every facet of the game. 

That it occurred a weekend after the hopeful 29–24 victory over the Baltimore Ravens to break a five-game losing streak only exacerbates the problem. It was a huge, huge, huge, fall. It was as ugly, as ugly could be — brutal, just brutal, like a horrible nightmare.

What in the world happened between the two weeks? Who knows? in fact, when you look at the Browns’ season overall, those same questions persist. What in the world has happened to a football team that went 11-6 and made the playoffs last year as a wild card?

Already, Browns co-owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam were going to ask Stefanski and Berry some very hard, pointed questions about the disappointment of this season. But now, after what occurred Sunday, those questions are going to get a lot more pointed and a lot harder to answer.

What is getting lost in this whole conversation is the fact that Jimmy Haslam is a proud man who is used to winning in business and wants to do the same with his football team. To see this club crash and burn in a fall during which he was trying to gather support for a new domed stadium is not just disappointing. Rather, it’s completely unacceptable. He is being embarrassed, his wife is being embarrassed, and his football team is the butt of jokes.

You just can’t sell this to the fans. 

He didn’t pay $1 billion for this, of that you can be assured. You can also be assured that he isn’t going to stand for it, which is why Stefanski and Berry are on such thin ice.

If he does fire Stefanski, is a viable candidate already on the staff in Mike Rabel, who is working as a consultant? I truly believe he would be. He has been here to watch what is happening, and I’m sure has already come up with 1000 ways he thinks he can fix it. This needs to get tougher, physically, emotionally, and mentally, and Rabel would sure do that. He wants to get back into coaching, you would assume, and what better place to do it than Cleveland?

Steve King