That didn't take long. It was the world's worst kept secret anyway. Within an hour of the end of the Super Bowl, Romeo Crennel was offered, and accepted the head coaching job of the Cleveland Browns. From the team's web site:
The Browns offered the job to New England defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel shortly after Super Bowl XXXIX and he accepted.Negotiations between the Browns and Crennel's agent, Joe Linta, were to begin Monday at the team's Berea, Ohio, facility.
The Browns hope to announce Crennel's hiring on Tuesday or Wednesday, and then let him start building a staff.
It's apparent that the principals in this deal have been winking at the NFL prohibition on contacts between teams and coaches still involved in playoff games. Crennel's interest in Maurice Carthon as his offensive coordinator has been reported for several days now, and no doubt other conversations relating to the building of a coaching staff for Crennel's Browns are ongoing.
The NFL office is aware that their "hands off" policy has as much downside as it does benefit. It may well have cost Crennel a previous shot at a head coaching job, since teams don't want to wait around till February to get their new man in place, even though some of the most desireable candidates are on Super Bowl coaching staffs.
Patriots offensive cooordinator Charlie Weis, who weeks ago accepted the head job at Notre Dame, doesn't seem to have been negatively affected by having his new gig lined up before the playoffs ended. I'm not sure what the NFL considers to be the benefits of keeping this policy in place, other than avoiding the possible perception of a conflict of interest, which seems pretty weak especially when a team is in the Super Bowl.
So instead of enforcing their rules, the Browns and Crennel wink at the policy, and the NFL winks back.
Posted by dan at February 6, 2005 11:11 PM