The Cleveland Browns are so desperate for change within their organization that they are hiring baseball people.
The New York Post’s Joel Sherman reports that the Browns have hired New York Mets vice president of player development and scouting Paul DePodesta to serve as their executive vice president. As Sherman notes, DePodesta’s only superior will be Browns owner and CEO Jimmy Haslam.
In fairness (do we really need to be fair to the Browns?), DePodesta has football experience. He was a wide receiver at Harvard University, where he earned his degree in 1995. He has since worked with the CFL’s Baltimore Stallions in addition to being a front office assistant for the Cleveland Indians and Oakland Athletics and general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers for a short time.
Apparently this guy can do it all, or so the Browns hope. DePodesta specializes in analytics, so the Browns are obviously going all in with that. He was a big part of the “Moneyball” culture with the A’s.
With all the incredible stuff that has been going on with Johnny Manziel lately (you’ll want to read about it), the Browns can’t really afford anymore embarrassing mistakes. Hopefully hiring someone away from an MLB team doesn’t turn out to be another one of them.
