Savage: Quit yer Whining

Phil Savage held a press conference to back up Crennel:

General Manager Phil Savage said with emphasis, “Romeo has the total support of Randy (Lerner, the owner) and I. He’s earned his way here. He’s left a positive impression on hundreds of coaches. He was going to create a team-first philsophy, with discipline, hard work and unity. He brought an experience level to us. “The bottom line is we felt we needed someone to come in and provide a steady hand. We needed to regain the trust and respect of the players from the head coach position. He has done that on an hourly, daily and weekly basis. “He has the respect of the team. They believe in him. Randy and I are 100 percent behind him. We’re going to do everything in our power to help him rest of five games and next year.“

I'm glad to see that the people in charge aren't going hysterical, just because some vocal fans/Cleveland sports press have concluded that Crennel is gone.

Tony Grossi has been pushing the "Crennel is gone" story as much as anyone. He started the rumors that they're looking into Jim Tressel. He has also claimed that WTAM's calls from Crennel's head were instigated by Browns management. It looks like, with Roger Browns' departure creating a void in the Plain Dealer's Making-Things-Up department, Tony Grossi is pushing to be the new Man-with-an-ear-to-his-own-mouth.

To be fair, I'm sure Grossi does have some inside source who feeds him rumors. But just because he hears from Joe in accounting that "Marty in accounting has checked out OSU's web page to see when Tressel's contract is up", that doesn't make the rumor anything like true. And the fact that Profootball.com, who is never afraid to pass along any unsubstantiated rumor, especially anti-Browns rumors, hasn't mentioned anything about Crennel being on the hot seat really drives home how bad a source Grossi is working with.

I wonder how much Grossi was the story behind the "inside information" that Todd Grantham was going to be the next MSU coach (for those out-of-the-loop, MSU hired someone else to be their coach, with Grantham not even making the final cut). I know that it was a teevee station that first reported the "it will be announced after the Steelers game" story, but I doubt that Grossi wasn't at least part of alot of the "chatter". In one of his recent podcasts, he was blaming the Browns for the rumors getting out because "they didn't go out of their way to stifle the rumors" (I'm paraphrasing). So let me see if I got this right:
Grossi: Coach, is it true that Todd Grantham is going to be hired by MSU on Monday.
RAC: I don't know, and even if I did, I wouldn't comment on it.
Grossi: Aha, so it must be true!

Maybe I need to re-examine my trusting of the PD Browns news. I read them because they always seem to have stories that Akron Beacon Journal, Dayton Daily News, and Steve Doerschuck don't have, but maybe thats because those are just made up stories. . .