The other day a fan calling in on a radio talk show actually said that he thought Browns coach Pat Shurmur should have been let go a long time ago.
If you gauge a long time ago to be, say, two months, that would have meant firing Shurmur the week that the regular season opened.
Is that what is has come to in Cleveland these days? Instead of the normal pattern of hiring a new coach every other year, some fans only want to give the guy two months.
At some point there has to be calm, rational thinking when dealing with head coaches. When you refer to the Browns as being a franchise, we're not talking about a fast-food business that turns over teenage employees quicker than they can flip burgers. This is supposedly a well-run organization that gives its employees a chance to prove their worth.
The way things have been run over a lengthy period of time you can question whether or not the Browns are well-run. They might be able to sell loges and suites (although that's become a problem) and are visible and giving for charitable causes, but they often appear dysfunctional in the football operations part of business.
It's time to finally stop the revolving door in the head coach's office. Every time a new coach is hired, he tears up what had been in place before, installs new offensive and defensive philosophies and tries to make it all work in a time frame of two years.
Do the Browns think they are the Warren Board of Education, which has embarrassingly turned the football coaching job at Harding High School into a joke statewide.
No one can predict if Shurmur is the right man for the job in the long term. All we have to go on is that he supposedly is a competent teacher and play-caller on the offensive side, with an emphasis on the West Coast philosophy. It will take some time before we know if he's adept at game-planning, game-day decision making and, most importantly, at commanding presence in the locker room.
The good news is that Shurmur is team president Mike Holmgren's hire. He believes in Shurmur and seems willing to stick with him for more than a couple of seasons.
Then again, Holmgren is a neophyte at his new gig. He's been a coach and a general manager, but how he will react in bad times as the man one step below owner Randy Lerner among the hierarchy is anyone's guess.
A couple of red flags have gone up just nine games into Shurmur's rookie season as a NFL coach. The first occurred on opening day when the defense was late breaking the huddle when the Cincinnati Bengals went with a quick snap. All that cornerback Joe Haden could do was watch helplessly as Bengals receiver A.J. Green ran uncovered down the field to haul in a touchdown pass from quarterback Bruce Gradkowski.
The second happened last Sunday when Shurmur called a fullback dive on a crucial possession inside the St. Louis Rams' 10 late in the game. The problem was that fullback Owen Marecic had been hurt two plays earlier. Tight end Alex Smith, who's never been a running back, took the snap, which he not surprisingly fumbled.
Good teams with coaches that are in tune with everything around them don't make those mistakes. Maybe once, but not twice.
For now it can be chalked up to on-the-job training for Shurmur. It's easier to accept in a season that has rebuild written all over it.
But it can't continue to happen, especially next season. By then Shurmur should be more aware of everything that goes into running the show.
Of course, we're assuming that there will be a next season for Shurmur. Remember, we're talking about the Browns, who have done their share to keep the unemployment rate above nine percent.