Thursday, December 21, 2000
Good hire, Mike; now step aside
Mike Brown did a good and smart thing Wednesday, in giving Dick LeBeau a contract. Now he needs to do another. Now he needs to finish the job. Mike needs Mike to step aside.
It has become apparent to many — even some inside the Bengals organization — that Mike Brown is not up to the job of general manager. It seems everyone knows it but Brown himself.
Even Wednesday, at the news conference announcing LeBeau's contract, Brown came across as unknowing. “I don't want to interject myself,” he said, responding to a question about the extent of LeBeau's control.
Really? Then why, over Bruce Coslet's protests, did Brown insist on drafting Akili Smith instead of taking the trade with New Orleans? Why did he pronounce that the QB job would be open next summer, then a week later, decide Scott Mitchell was currently auditioning?
Do owners not wanting to interject themselves make coaching decisions like that?
Mike Brown is a good man. To most of the people who have worked for him, he is a loyal man. I'd be proud to have him as a friend.
He may even be a football man. He has spent the last decade trying to prove it. But the record speaks for itself.
Here is what Brown should do, and he should do it next Monday, before the sweat dries on the Bengals uniforms:
Turn the team over to his daughter.
Tell her to hire a general manager.
Let the GM call the personnel shots.
Tell Katie Blackburn, “Hire a smart man and let him work. Build a buffer between you and the public. Spare yourself the criticism and ridicule I've taken.”
If Brown doesn't do all of that, Dick LeBeau is just another guy. Call it a belated Christmas gift to the fans, and to the taxpayers of Hamilton County.
It's easy to get healthy quickly in the NFL. Since 1995, 12 teams have doubled their wins in one year. Atlanta hired Dan Reeves, a good coach and talent judge, gave him broad powers and in two years went from 3-13 to the Super Bowl.
The once-lowly Jets reached the AFC title game with Bill Parcells. Bill Polian got Buffalo to four Super Bowls and Carolina to an NFC title game, then turned Indianapolis around in two seasons. With the right people running things, it's not that difficult.
This is a crucial time for the Bengals. The public's impatience with the team's constant losing is now fueled by its aggravation at paying for Paul Brown Stadium. The perception is stronger than ever that Mike Brown is reluctant to change the way he runs the team.
Other issues - ticket-holders angry at their seat locations, the misperception that the Bengals were against peewee football at PBS - have further soured fans. Incumbent Hamilton County commissioner Bob Bedinghaus was voted from office in some part because of the public's anger with Mike Brown.
At least two fan-based websites urge Brown to step down. Even with the state-of-the-art amenities at PBS, Baltimore Ravens Pro Bowler Shannon Sharpe has said free agents don't want to play here.
Mike Brown has spent the last five years holding the fans and taxpayers hostage to his ... what? Pride? Ego? Optimism? Delusions?
It has to stop. Now is the time. His legacy as a businessman is set. We've built a monument to it, filled with 67,000 seats. Brown's work is done. His family will keep the Bengals as long as it wants.
Now is the time to do the right thing for everyone.
Paul Daugherty welcomes your comments at 768-8454.
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DAUGHERTY: Good hire, Mike; now step aside