The Cleveland Browns hired a former Major League Baseball executive to help with their organizational-wide overhaul on Tuesday.
You read that right.
Paul DePodesta, primarily of “Moneyball” fame when he was a member of the Oakland Athletics organization, was brought on to be the team’s executive vice president.
So why not continue to go away from the grain and add another candidate seemingly out of left field. See what I did there?
In this, former Washington Redskins quarterback and NFL personality Joe Theismann pretty much pitched the Browns on the idea of him running the organization in a recent interview on Yahoo Sports Radio:
“Johnny (Manziel) still doesn’t get it. And I guarantee you the Browns are going to go shop for another quarterback, because they flat don’t believe they have one, Theismann said. “I mean they are going through more coaches and quarterbacks … they are setting records in the National Football League. I would love to run the organization for them.”
The former quarterback’s reference to Cleveland’s organization lacking the necessarily continuity is something that has been preached around NFL circles for some time now.
By now you already know the situation Johnny Manziel got himself in over the weekend. Since his reported romp in Las Vegas, indications are that the Browns are fully prepared to move on from the former first-round pick.
The team also fired head coach Mike Pettine and general manager Ray Farmer immediately following its loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday afternoon.
As it relates to Theismann’s potential interest in the job, we have seen crazier things happen.
In addition to hiring DePodesta on Monday, the Browns named Harvard Law alum and former general council Sashi Brown as its executive vice president of football operations on Monday.
Though, there is nothing here to suggests that an unqualified Theismann would even be on the team’s radar. He has never served in a front office capacity, instead deciding to go into the broadcasting industry following his retirement in 1985.