After the Cleveland Browns traded running back Trent Richardson to the Colts, there was a school of thought that the Browns were basically tanking the 2013 season. Former Browns president Mike Holmgren said he would've quit his job if the Richardson trade had happened on his watch.
Holmgren quitting is probably something Browns special adviser Jim Brown would have loved to have seen. Brown joined the Inside the NFL crew on Showtime on Wednesday and had some not so nice things to say about Holmgren.
Holmgren fired Brown from his role with the franchise in 2010 and apparently Brown hasn't forgotten, "Mike is not from Cleveland. I’m a Cleveland Brown," Brown said. "So he gave me a choice of taking three dollars and doing a little dancing for him out there. I said, 'Mr. Holmgren, I'm sorry ... I don't dance ... become a mascot type of guy.' And I cracked up but I wrote him a letter. And I stated those things, and I had a little humor with it because I knew ultimately I would probably be back because Cleveland is my home. I have great roots there and I love the people and the people love me."
Brown was right about being back, Cleveland owner Jimmy Haslam hired Brown as a special adviser to the team in May. Speaking of Browns owners, Brown says that Holmgren knowingly took advantage of former owner Randy Lerner.
"[Holmgren] had all his boys that were going to come in and take advantage of the kind of money that he could pay his guys and never really be there," Browns said. "He took advantage of Randy [Lerner] and it was just a shame. Randy’s a good guy. Young owner. Wanted someone to take the pressure off of him. Mike came in, saw the weakness and took advantage of it."
And of course, Brown disagrees with Holmgren on the Richardson trade. Brown praised it. "I was surprised," Brown said of the trade. "But then I thought it was a brilliant move ... Because first of all, Trent [Richardson] couldn't have carried the kind of load that Cleveland needed."
Holmgren would probably disagree with that assessment, the former Browns president was willing to trade away several draft picks to land Richardson in the 2012 NFL Draft.
It's probably safe to say we won't see Brown and Holmgren hanging out together anytime soon.
