The Term"Professional" Can Be a Stretch for Some NFL Teams

There’s an old saying that “even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.”

The Cleveland Browns, the blind squirrel of the NFL, went into Buffalo over the weekend and managed to find just six points. As it turned out, it was three more than the home-standing Bills, thus providing loyal, suffering fans of the Pumpkin Heads their first win of the year. The Browns are now 1-4 under Eric Mangini, who is in his first year on the shores of Lake Erie after being relieved of similar duties the previous three seasons with the NY Jets.

A couple of interesting notes: the Blind Squirrels or, excuse me, the Browns have failed to score a touchdown in three of their five games this season. Clevelanders know that with their baseball Indians having packed up their belongings a couple of weeks ago, it had to have been the Browns who won Sunday’s game 6-3. Mangini was hired by the Jets in 2006 and, at age 35, became the youngest head coach in the NFL. He wowed them in that rookie season with a 10-6 record and was tabbed “Mangenius” for his work. But, the Jets flight path took a 180-degree turn in 2007 to a 4-12 mark. Last season “Gang Green” started off 8-3, but suffered a late season swoon to the tune of 9-7, which kept them out of the play-offs. Mangenius was dismissed. But, Cleveland said, ‘Hey, we want that guy.” Well, now you’ve got him.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 0-5 and often times look even worse than that. They are a great example of having people within their organization empowered with decision-making responsibilities, but they don’t know how to do just that—make good decisions. Here are just some samplings from the Bucs sad song book.

At the end of last season long-time defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin left to join his son who had become the head coach at the University of Tennessee. Early thirty-something defensive backfield coach Raheem Morris was elevated to defensive coordinator replacing Kiffin. About a month later Bucs ownership fired Jon Gruden and decided to give Morris an elevator ride all the way to the top by naming him head coach. Keep in mind his only significant coaching assignment with any degree of advanced responsibility was one season (2006) as defensive coordinator at Kansas State University.

So, the Bucs handed the keys to the car to their kid, who was just 32 at the time of the promotion. The Bucs head coach and administration proceeded to hire a new offensive coordinator last winter, former successful Boston College head coach Jeff Jagodzinski. But, later, much later, they decided that wasn’t going to work and they fired him one week before the season’s first game! Was it case of being hood-winked by Coach Jags in the thorough interview process conducted by the Bucs, or was there a philosophical difference? It doesn’t matter. This doesn’t happen to well-run organizations. What’s even funnier is that Tampa Bay replaced him with a guy who was on staff with Gruden, Morris, and the Bucs last year, and he interviewed for the very same job Jagodzinski was given. Huh? Why wasn't he hired the first time around? Did he become smarter or more qualified between his February interview and the start of the season in September?

After releasing last year’s starting QB Jeff Garcia, the Bucs brought in veteran free agent Byron Leftwich to compete with back-up QB Luke McCown for the top job. They also drafted Josh Freeman with their valuable first-round pick, paid him millions in signing bonuses, and tabbed him as their “future of the franchise player." Succession planning was that either Leftwich or McCown would keep the seat warm until Freeman is ready.

Pay close attention now. McCown was traded to Jacksonville right at the end of the pre-season and Leftwich was given the starting job. With little talent among his supporting cast, and Leftwich having even less pocket mobility to go along with his slow passing delivery, he was benched after three games. Your guess is that first-round pick Josh Freeman will get the ball, right? No. The Bucs named another Josh (Johnson), who was a rookie on the practice squad a year ago, as their starting QB. With Leftwich, McCown and Freeman around all of the pre-season Johnson got very little work in the practices. How could he when he was the fourth-string QB? And, he got minimal playing time in late fourth-quarter mop-up duty.

Further demonstrating their business acumen, the Bucs are still paying off both Gruden and their former general manager Bruce Allen. They added to that debit list the fallen Jagodzinski, who never made it to his first regular season game. The latest decision with financial repercussions was cutting place-kicker Mike Nugent. Nugent had been signed away from the Jets in the off-season to come in and compete with veteran Matt Bryant and, hopefully, provide a stronger, longer leg when it came to kickoffs and field goals. Nugent won the job by default because Bryant never got to kick in the pre-season, as he nursed a muscle pull in his kicking leg. Nugent, in the Bucs’s eyes, was ineffective enough in four games to warrant dismissal, yet still be paid his $2 million salary. It’s not hard to see the calculator totals lighting up.

The Bucs are 0-5. Do you wonder why? If this real-life drama continues, don't be surprised if the Glazer family, owners of the team, begin entertaining offers from reality TV show producers.