NFL Rumors: Constant fighting between Joe Banner, Mike Lombardi led to firing

The Cleveland Browns are not in a good place, but it’s starting to become more and more clear that the change which Jimmy Haslam made this week was the right move. In fact, as much as we want to roll our eyes at Haslam over the head coaching search, it sounds like firing Joe Banner and Mike Lombardi was the only move he could have made.

While he still bares blame, Mary Kay Cabot reports that Haslam fired Banner and Lombardi partially due to the fact that they were constantly at one another’s throat and couldn’t stop fighting with each other.

"By the end of it, Banner wanted to fire his embattled GM, and Lombardi knew it. If he didn’t know, he missed the writing on the wall.But what Banner didn’t know, and should have, was that Haslam had also grown weary of him during the search — portrayed as dysfunctional in the local and national media — and was gearing up to fire him."

That’s not a good example of what a happy or properly functioning front office looks like. Haslam has gotten rid of both problems, but we will soon find out if Banner and Lombardi were really that bad or if they were just scapegoats in this mess.