I like Browns safety Donte Whitner.
In fact, I like him a lot. The former Cleveland Glenville High School and Ohio State star is a good guy who loves the community and its people, especially children. It means something – really something special – to him to be playing for the Browns, the team he rooted for while growing up.
But at the same time, I have to shake my head – we all have to shake our heads – over his comments Friday in support of the embattled Browns coaches. He said owner Jimmy Haslam shouldn’t fire head coach Mike Pettine and his staff members because he and his teammates have let those coaches down.
That’s true. They have. They really have.
But I am always dubious of playerd who, when it’s way too late to save their coaches’ jobs in a lost season, come out in support of those coaches by saying it’s not their fault. Rather, it’s the players’ fault. They were coached well but performed poorly.
If Whitner, a team leader – in fact, maybe the most impactful leader the Browns have in that locker room – really feels that way, and we have no reason to doubt his sincerity, then he should have made sure weeks age and even months ago that the players got their act together and began performing up to their potential, when there was still plenty of time to turn this miserable season around.
The Browns are an NFL-worst 2-10 and have dropped seven in a row heading into Sunday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers at FirstEnergy Stadium. The damage has already been done – long ago.
The coaches are all going to get fired. So are General Manager Ray Farmer and all of his scouts and personnel people. It’s a fait accompli. Those lights you see off in the distance are of a freight train bearing down on those guys, and it’s not going to stop. In fact, it’s not even going to slow down.
On top of that, many of the players – perhaps even Whitner and other high-profile Browns — are going to get fired, too.
As such, the time to do something was way back when, before those lights could be seen.
It’s great that Whitner – and perhaps some of his teammates – feel that way. But it won’t help this situation. It will merely be a lesson learned so that the players realize the responsibility they have not just for themselves but for many others as well. Because the GM, scouts, personnel people, head coach and assistant coaches can all do their jobs very well, but if the players, the main cog in the operation, don’t hold up their end of the bargain, then everybody pays the price.
