Some week, huh? We get the Chud drama settling with a reassuring contract extension. There’s Phil Savage’s season-wrapping presser and all its news hooks, including a possible extension for honcho Romeo himself. Then, an intriguing team and media story with Todd Grantham’s ouster. Mel Tucker, the secondary coach, has been promoted to lead the defense.
Amazing, in a way, that the Grantham story flew under the radar for so long. That the narrative of the amazing ’07 Browns season must now delve into the decisions and deficiencies of the defensive coordiantor in order to be fully told.
But close Browns observers and readers shouldn’t have been totally blindsided by the news. Concluding my midseason rant against the defense, I intimated that Grantham’s status certainly deserved to be much shakier than it appeared with his own re-up still fresh from a few months ago.
So many little things each made a big difference in why the Browns didn’t quite make the playoffs. Bad plays, bad calls, bad individual games. Now it’s increasingly clear that one big thing made perhaps the biggest difference.
I feel like the Browns, less than two weeks from season’s end, have already improved their set-up for success in ’08.
On a more frivolous note, Grantham is not alone among Todds who have left the Browns without a ticker tape parade in their honor. As a first name, Todd hit its peak popularity in the ’60s and ’70s but now is given to fewer than 400 American baby boys each year. Here’s the extremely mixed fate of the other Browns named Todd:
- Todd Argust — current director of stadium operations, who apparently can survive flooded sewage
- Todd Bowles — assistant coach (defensive backs) 2001-4
- Todd Franz — DB played first two NFL games with Browns in 2000
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Todd Grantham — departing defensive coordinator, 2005-7
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Todd Husak — QB camp fodder in ’04
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Todd Jones — 1991 draftee. A high 11th-rounder. Only Todd ever drafted by the Browns.
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Todd McNair — running backs coach, 2001-3
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Todd Philcox — backup quarterback, 1991-3
- Todd Stewart — top team spokesman, 1999-2004
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Todd Washington — in the ’06 cavalcade of centers, he retired within a week.
