Just because there was much to answer for doesn’t mean that much would actually be answered for.  It’s the Cleveland Browns, after all, the team that perennially overpromises and underdelivers.

Browns owner Jimmy Haslam and club CEO Joe Banner stood before a group of incredulous Cleveland-based reporters on Monday and spoke from the usual script such types speak from after they’ve just fired a head coach.  They talked about needing to improve.  They talked about understanding the fans’ frustration.  They talked about making sure they get the next hire right.

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In Cleveland, we've become experts at identifying failed football leadership. A decade and a half of being exposed to it will tend to have that effect.

Joe Banner and Mike Lombardi, you fail. Please exit to the right, and continue collecting your paychecks for the ensuing five-odd years, per the particulars outlined in your lucrative contracts.

But ... They've only been on the job a year -- this is still a work in progress, right?

No. They've failed. It might not become evident until a few more losing seasons have accumulated and they actually receive their walking papers, but they've failed. This regime will end like all the others. With the main characters sitting at home, collecting ownership's money to not coach, not general manage and not preside, and the Browns once again looking for the same answers that have eluded the franchise for 15 years and counting.

They failed to hire a big-name coach last winter. Then they hired Rob Chudzinski, which they now admit was a failure by firing him after one season.

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In what was a surprising move – even for a franchise that is synonymous with dysfunction – the Cleveland Browns fired head coach Rob Chudzinski Sunday night after just one year on the job.

And Browns fans are left wondering why they should believe anything that comes out of the mouths of team owner Jimmy Haslam or CEO Joe Banner.

Chudzinski becomes the first Browns coach to be fired after just one season in franchise history, so at least Haslam was truthful when he said things were going to be different with him as owner.

Officially, the team “relieved” Chudzinski of his duties (how very polite of them), saying they “needed to see progress with this football team. We needed to see development and improvement as the season evolved and, unfortunately, we took a concerning step backward in the second half of the year.

"Our fans deserve to see a consistently competitive team. We have high standards, and there's an urgency for success. When we believed we were not positioned to achieve significant progress in 2014, we knew we had to admit that a change was needed, and move forward.”

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In a manner totally befitting the random, callous way that the Cleveland Browns operate, Rob Chudzinski was fired after one inglorious year.

They did it first by dropping the rumor in the media a few hours before the Browns were scheduled to suffer their annual year-end beat down at the hands of the Pittsburgh Steelers. They then left Chudzinski dangling at game's end by issuing a press release in which they deliberately refused to end the speculation. They finished the job sometime after the game, informing Chudzinski Sunday night telling him, undoubtedly, that the organization was moving in a different direction.

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