Cleveland Browns Top Brass Talk to Cleveland Media

Browns General Manager Tom Heckert, President Mike Holmgren, Head Coach Eric Mangini and Executive Vice President – Business Operations Bryan Wiedmeier press conference 1-12-10

(Opening statement)

Mike Holmgren “Thanks for showing up today. We appreciate it. I’m very, very excited to be able to introduce to you two new additions to the Cleveland Browns. On my right, Bryan Wiedmeier who most recently, well for a very long time, has been with the Miami Dolphins in the business side of the operation. He will be an Executive Vice President here in charge of business administration. On my left, Tom Heckert, our new General Manager, who most recently has been with the Philadelphia Eagles with my old friend Andy Reid and done a great job there. We feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to hire both of these men. [They are] excellent, excellent football people with a proven track record. I think you more you get to know them and talk to them you’ll realize that moving forward, this is quite a group up here, and I’m taking myself out of the equation, I’m talking about the other three. Eric and I have talked about many things in moving forward in the last couple weeks. It was really very, very important that we be able to hire men like these two fellas right here. I’m very, very excited. They can speak for themselves. What I’d like to do is start with Tommy, talk a little bit about whatever he wants to talk about then we’ll go to Bryan as a way of introduction and then after that we’ll entertain questions from you.”

Tom Heckert “First of all, I’d like to thank Randy (Lerner) and Mike for giving me this opportunity. It’s a very exciting time. We talked about a lot of things for myself in Philadelphia, about when was the right time to leave. Andy was great about it. Joe Banner was great about it. Jeffrey Lurie was great about it. They always told me if I felt a situation was a good fit for me that they would let me leave. They stuck to that agreement. After talking with Mike, I just think this is a very exciting time to get this team back to where I remember when my father (Tom Heckert, Sr.) was here way back and The Drive and all those games at the old Cleveland Stadium. It was exciting. I’m just excited to be here and we look forward to getting this thing turned around.”

Bryan Wiedmeier “I’d like to say how excited I am to be a part of the Cleveland Browns, what a great franchise, a great heritage and what it’s meant to the NFL. Just to be a part of it is very exciting. The opportunity to work with Coach Holmgren, Coach Mangini and Tommy again, Tommy and I were together in Miami years ago with Coach Shula and Jimmy Johnson. It is really an exciting opportunity to be part of a team that included these men. [I am] extremely excited about that. I talked to Coach Shula earlier today and was joking, my career is kind of going the opposite of where his was. He started here with the Cleveland Browns. He was from Painesville, Ohio and very proud of that fact. He would often talk about John Carroll [University], which is just down the road, and so we were reminiscing about that. The irony here is hopefully I’ll end my career here.”

Mike Holmgren “Thanks Bryan. Before we start the questions I just want to say a couple things. First of all, there’s a lot of curiosity as to responsibility. You’re ready to ask questions right now, I know, about who’s to do what, who’s going to make the call on draft day, [who’s in charge of] the 53-man roster, [who is going to negotiate with] Josh Cribbs. I know you’re dying, you’re ready. Just relax. Just relax for just a second here (joking). What we’re going to do is, and I mean this, it was my hope and it will continue to be my hope that the decisions this organization makes going forward will be handled by these fellas right here. I trust them. I believe in them. They’re good football people. Responsibilities will be defined. They will be defined, but right now we’re working that stuff out. At the end of the day, however, if we pick a player in the draft, if we make a decision on releasing a player, whatever it happens to be, it’s a decision that has been thought through, come to a conclusion by a lot of discussion, maybe some arguing, but at the end of the day that decision is not a Mike Holmgren decision, an Eric Mangini decision, Tom Heckert decision. It’s a Cleveland Browns decision and I want you to believe that and that’s how we’re going to do business from now on. Hopefully then we make enough good decisions to get it going in the right direction. I know now you won’t have to ask any of those questions that you were going to ask (joking).”

Tom Heckert (On why he withdrew his name from consideration for the general manager job last year)- “Yes, I know there were some ideas out there that it had something to with Eric and it had nothing to do with Eric. I talked to Randy a few different times during that process. Once I talked to him, actually, before Eric was hired and then once after. It was a situation kind of like I alluded to at the beginning of this press conference, was I had a very good situation in Philadelphia. I was only going to leave if I thought things were a better place for me to be at the time. We were winning. I thought we had a really good shot at winning the Super Bowl, so I just thought that the whole thing was just better for to stay in Philadelphia at the time. That’s just how I felt.”

Tom Heckert (On what kind of team he is taking over)- “It is real early for that. I think the main thing, and I think Eric and Mike will agree to this, that we want quality, character people. I think the last four games that proved something. There are a lot of teams that are in that situation that go the other way. It happens a lot. People think it doesn’t, but it does. Players just lose interest or whatever, but they didn’t. I think that’s obviously a compliment to Eric and the players. I think that’s a good start and it’s a good way to end the season and hopefully we can continue to do that.”

Tom Heckert (On his philosophy as to how he made Philadelphia successful)- “I think everybody that sits up here and answers that questions is probably going to have the same opinion where, obviously, you want smart, tough, good character guys, but you have to have guys that are willing to do whatever it takes to win and play football. It’s a tough game and we all know that. I think throughout the NFL it’s a common theme to say all those things, but there’s a way of getting to know that and figuring all that stuff out, interviewing the players and getting good people, good scouts. All that rolls into the whole thing and hopefully we can get that done here. That’s kind of the philosophy.”

Eric Mangini (On what has changed since the last time he spoke with the media)- “First of all, it’s pretty great to be up here with three other people, I have to tell you. Other people getting questions, I could get use to this. This is great. It’s been exciting for me. When I had a chance to sit down with Mike and spend some time with him, not everybody has that opportunity. To be able to work with him and learn from him and just be able to spend time sharing ideas and all those things, it’s a unique situation for any coach and for any head coach. I was excited about that opportunity and I’m more excited today with the opportunity we have as a group. I really have started to get to know everybody here and I think things are very bright for us.”

Eric Mangini (On if he will be able to concentrate more on coaching now)- “I think that’s one of the greatest benefits, is to be able to focus on that and, like I said, to have a resource in the building to bounce ideas off of. It’s not common, but it’s really positive. As we’ve talked over the course of months, whenever you can fuse really smart, really talented men like these three men here, it’s unique. It’s exciting for me. It’s exciting for the organization. It’s exciting for the city of Cleveland. I’m proud to be a part of it.”

Mike Holmgren (On if he saw any parallels with Mangini’s situation last year and his situation when he went to Seattle and if he became a better coach through it)- “Tony (Grossi), really I never looked at those two situations that way. I think the situations were different. I think Eric, as the season went along, more responsibilities kind of came to him. It’s very difficult when you’re trying to balance all the personnel decisions while you’re coaching and any number of things. It was different. He had a harder job than I had. I went to Seattle. I knew what I was getting in to. I wanted that. I wanted to be coach and general manager and have that responsibility. Even though I’ve been kind of ripped a little bit for my time as general manager there, I thought we were headed in the right direction. I messed up. I made some mistakes, there’s no question about that, but everybody does. I kind of relish that role. I kind of thought about it, I prepared for it. He was more thrust into it. Are you a better coach when you can just coach and not worry about that other stuff? You certainly have more time and your focus, I suppose, should be better on coaching. I’ll say it again, it’s not like all of a sudden we’re here, Tom’s here, I am and Bryan, and now Eric, all he has to do is doodle X’s and O’s. That’s not how it’s going to work. That’s not how it’s going to work. He’s going to be very involved in the player decisions. That’s how it’s going to work. Will he have to worry quite as much? No, I want to take some of the worry away from him or the anxiousness away from him, so maybe he can spend a little more time. He doesn’t have to worry about so many things.”

Mike Holmgren (On using historical analogies in football)- “I taught United States history when I was a high school teacher. (Bill Livingston: “Coach (Woody) Hayes used to do this all the time.”) Did he? Well, I wouldn’t begin to compare myself with Coach Hayes, but you know what? I think there are some wonderful, wonderful parallels you can draw, absolutely. The thing that I found out going forward over the years is I would bring up one of these things to my team, as I got older and the age of the team remained the same, I’d bring up somebody and they’d go, ‘Who?’ I just automatically though that they knew about those fellas, you know? I loved teaching Civil War history. Of course, Abraham Lincoln, my father was born on Lincoln’s birthday and all those things. The decisions that, as a president, he had to make and ultimately kept our country together and all things, I think he was probably the one man that I talked about the most in trying to draw examples towards our football team. I used to try and do it. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.”

Eric Mangini (On if he was confident he would be coming back)- “I felt good about the things that we did. I was excited about the chance to meet with Mike. Really having a chance to sit down with him and spend some time, I’m more excited now. I think this is a really fantastic situation for me personally and for us organizationally. Like I said, it’s unique and I’m happy to be a part of it.”

Eric Mangini (On how he would describe his meetings with Holmgren)- “I thought they were great. (Mike Holmgren: “I told him to say that.” (joking)) I couldn’t have been happier with them. It was just honest, really honest conversations. That was, I think, important to him and I know it was important to me. That’s how I would characterize them, just honest discussions.”

Eric Mangini (On if he will keep his staff intact)- “Right now everybody’s in place. Tom Myslinski, the strength coach, his contract is up and we won’t be renewing that. Besides that, I don’t foresee anything in the immediate future, but I’d be open to looking at things and seeing what other opportunities are out there.”

Eric Mangini (On if he felt overwhelmed at all last season and if it affected his coaching)- “It was busy. It was very busy. It would have been positive to have someone to bounce ideas off of and be able to go through that process with. The situation was the situation that we were in, so [you] move forward and try to do the best that I could in the circumstances.”

Tom Heckert (On if he discussed with Holmgren and Mangini how long it would take for the team to reach the playoffs)- “We never really kind of had that exact conversation, ‘Next year we’re [going to the playoffs].’ We want to win the Super Bowl. That’s obviously the goal of all of us. I didn’t come here not to be in the playoffs. There’s no question about that. If I’m correct, I think in my 19 years I think I’ve had one losing season. I think that’s the case. Obviously winning’s a lot more fun than losing. That’s our goal, is to get this thing into at least a winning record here as soon as possible.”

Tom Heckert (On characterizing his time here while his father was a scout for the Browns)- “He didn’t live here, he was just here like any area scout would come in and I’d come in with him actually. I actually would come to all the games, sometimes he wouldn’t even be at the games. We’d drive in and we’d go to the games. Sometimes I actually worked as like a loge attendant. They called their suites loges back then at the old stadium. It was great. They had a great team and a very exciting team. It was fun. We had a great time. His last year here I think I was a freshman in college, so we had a couple college buddies come down here for the weekend and we enjoyed it.”

Tom Heckert (On if coming to the Browns has special meaning for him)- “Yes, I think it does. Like I said, my first experience in the NFL was here with my dad. It was a big difference. We’re from a small town in Michigan and he was a coach at a Division III school, so the NFL, that was big time and it is big time. My first experience was here and hopefully my last experience is here.”

Tom Heckert (On how excited he is about having 11 draft picks and his draft philosophy)- “First the picks, the more picks you can get, the better we are, so that’s great. The philosophy is, everybody says ‘the best available player,’ and that’s the ideal situation, is to not have a need. Obviously, Eric and Mike and I will get together and we’ll figure out what our needs are and see if we can solve something in free agency. That’s the best case scenario, is to get some of your needs done in free agency and then worry about the draft and then take the best available player, because that’s the last thing you want to do, is force a pick in there just because of a need. That’s our goal, is to hopefully build this team where you don’t have to do that. You can draft the best player that’s available and then you don’t have to worry about reaching for somebody.”

Mike Holmgren (On if this organization was dysfunctional a year ago)- “I think it would be kind of unfair for me to comment on that to be honest with you. I know this, in talking with Eric, I look forward to being able to be that person he can bounce things off of. If he didn’t have that person last year, and it sounds like he didn’t, he didn’t. I think we’re a little bit better off that way, because I think every coach, that’s a nice thing to have. Anytime there’s a change in your organization there can be changes throughout. I said that the other day in our first meeting. Here’s what I don’t want to do, I don’t want to lose good people. I don’t want to lose good people, so this process going forward, now that Bryan’s on board and Tom’s on board, is to analyze who we have here, who will buy into our vision. In the organization you’d like everyone going this way together. It doesn’t always work that way, so our job, my job now it to make sure that everyone’s thinking the same way. I have to tell you one quick story when I went to Green Bay, and I don’t want to repeat myself. They hadn’t won really since Coach Lombardi. It had been 25 years. We talked earlier about playoffs, they hadn’t even [been to the playoffs], maybe one in 25 years and that was it, so it was a real challenge. It was a tremendous challenge, because everyone wants the same thing. You want it. We want it. If I told you this story the other day, I apologize. The controller of the company, the business guy, gave me my first cell phone, came out and gave me [a cell phone]. I wasn’t really a cell phone guy. He gave me the cell phone and he said, ‘Listen, when you get fired, give this cell phone back.’ I had been there three days. I had been there three days, but that was kind of the thinking with a lot of people. The challenge for me and Ron Wolf at the time was to flip that thinking. Quite honestly, hopefully I get a chance to talk to each one of you individually as we move forward here, but the thinking not only from the inside, but from the outside, too. That’s what our challenge is. That’s what our goal [is]. Was it dysfunctional? I won’t say that. Do we have to improve? Absolutely, absolutely, that’s what our job is.”

Mike Holmgren (On why Heckert is the right choice for General Manager)- “Well, you know what? I suppose there are no guarantees in life. I just have to go on my own experience and the people that I’ve known in this business over the years and what I’ve seen can happen. It was my charge by our owner to find people, the best people I could find for these positions, and then define their roles and let’s go. I believe in them. That’s about as best as I can say it right now. I just believe and know that they are going to get this job done. I don’t think this is business as usual. Take me out of the equation, we are talking about these fellas right here. We will not continue to have these kinds of press conferences, I don’t believe. We are all in it for the long haul. We believe in each other and I’m going to make sure that they all play nicely with one another. There are no disagreements. That’s my job. I believe in them. I guess that’s the best way to say it.”

Mike Holmgren (On what he has concluded about Brady Quinn)- “Brady hurt himself of course and I was asked yesterday, about [it]. He saw his doctor in Carolina and then he will be in town next week to see our docs here. I have not studied him enough to make a good judgment on that. I know quarterbacks pretty well and I want to meet him in person and talk to him. I haven’t done that since the combine, when he was coming out. I will say this, for a team to do well, the quarterback has to play well. How they won games at the end it wasn’t the quarterback but the ratio of runs to passes in the last four weeks of the season were remarkable. Normally you can’t win that way. You can have the greatest running game in the world and play good defense, but if you only throw six balls a game you are not going to win. We’ve got to look at that. I want whoever is playing quarterback for the Cleveland Browns to be the right guy, and I want him to succeed because when he succeeds the team will do well. I’m going to reserve judgment on that.”

Mike Holmgren (On why this situation was better than where he was)- “Why don’t we let Bryan talk first because he is feeling real bad up here (joking).”

Bryan Wiedmeier “One thing I learned a long time ago, was the business guy’s role was not to talk and be in the background of these things (joking). It’s a great opportunity with Coach Holmgren coming in and with what Eric had started to build last year, you get the opportunity to come in and hopefully make a difference that can help get this franchise back to what it can be and should be. The Cleveland Browns are one of the great franchises in our league’s history. [They have a] wonderful, wonderful tradition, but in recent years it has been a struggle. To the extent that through the operation and working together we can get this thing back on track it’d be great for the people of Cleveland, northern Ohio and the latent Browns following you run into all over the world. Our neighbors, everywhere you go, Los Angeles, Miami, we’ve got people my family runs into who are Browns fans. They are everywhere and they are looking for a winner. Hopefully the work that we can get done here can help get that done.”

Mike Holmgren “I kind of wore Bryan down. I interviewed him to come to Seattle five years ago, and I really gave it my best shot. I used to sell cars, so I gave it my absolute best shot and I thought I had him and he left me at the altar. This time I got him. See, I made mistakes as a general manager and I didn’t make the same mistakes again and I’m not going to make the same mistakes here. We got him, which is a good thing.”

Eric Mangini (On if he sees his offensive and defensive philosophies changing with input from Holmgren and Heckert)- “I think one of the most important parts of my philosophy is flexibility. That’s something that I know we’ve talked a lot about in here and that’s what has driven the types of players that I’ve always liked coaching and looked for. You want to be able to take new ideas and fuse those ideas into, whether it’s the playbook or game planning and that becomes the Browns’ identity. There are a lot of different things that you can do and there is a lot of studying that you do in the offseason as to how you can improve the system. What is unique for us and really good for us is to be able to pick Mike’s [Holmgren] brain and build on the things that he has done very well for a long time. I’ve talked a little bit about Bill Callahan in the past and Brian Schottenheimer, and the different groups that they came from and the ideas they brought in, and that became the Jets’ philosophy. It was a fusion of all those different ideas. If you don’t look into those things and try to improve every year then you stop growing and you won’t have that opportunity. This is a good situation.”

Mike Holmgren (On if it should assumed coaching system discussions would happen before free agency)- “Right now we are all kind of running. When things kind of slow down a little bit and we have a chance to really have some constructive meetings, what I want and what Tom will want, is Eric will make it very clear what type of player he wants, what type of team he wants. Right now we haven’t had those discussions yet. Then, it’s Tom’s job and my job to a certain extent, to try and find the right fit to make it work for him. I think that’s the approach we’ll take. It’s not like we are going to change the system so all of a sudden we need a different type of player. He is coaching this football team and he has to let us know his vision and kind of how he would like to set it up. Then it’s our responsibility to get that done for him.”

Mike Holmgren (On if he is okay with Joshua Cribbs going public with his contract talks)- “I’d rather that not happen. We’ve been at this a long time haven’t we? Is anyone surprised? No. That’s just the way it is. I said what I said, I’ll say it again. We as an organization will not negotiate in the press. We will not do that, but, I love Josh Cribbs and I’m hopeful things work out and everyone is happy at the end of the day. It is what it is as they say, and so, we’re going to keep trying though and hopefully they keep trying. We want him to be here and we want him to be successful because he is a good player for us.”

Mike Holmgren (On if Quinn’s doctors concluded that he does not need surgery)- “That is my understanding, yes. Now again, he has another meeting next week.”

Tom Heckert (On how they will deal with the possibility of having an uncapped year)- “First of all, it’s going to take a lot of players off the market. Obviously, it used to be if you were four years in the league you were a free agent and now it’s going to be six if that’s the case. I there are 220 less players that are going to be available. From that view, it’s going to be more difficult to get players. The uncapped year from an organization stand point, we are just going to treat it as normal. We are going to have to deal with the guys that are available and look at those guys and decide if there is anyone that can help us.”

Tom Heckert (On how the will deal will possibly being over the salary cap in the future)- “That’s the decisions and Bryan is going to be a big part of that too. Those are the things you have to weigh. Are you going to pay a guy an absorbent amount of signing bonus or salaries to the bigger name free agents and hope for the best and see what happens? We’ll come up with a salary structure for not only this year, but for the next two or three years out. We’ll just see where we are cap wise. See what we can handle and what we can’t and we’ll make those decisions.”

Mike Holmgren (On if he was speaking of playing ‘devil’s advocate’ when talking about ‘everyone playing nice’ earlier)- “No. Trust me. In fact, we talked about it earlier. There will be some disagreements. I’m sure of that. I’ve always thought that was healthy. You never want, in your cabinet, or any sort of structure, yes men. You don’t want that. You want people that will speak their mind. You want sharp people who are thoughtful. As long as the vision is the same, you might have a different way of getting there or a different idea of how to get there, but you have the same vision. Then you can make that work. I know that that’s the type of structure we are going to have. I’m expecting good discussions. I’m confident that we can make this thing work that way.”

Tom Heckert (On his number one priority as General Manager)- “Like Mike was saying, I think we have to really evaluate the team that we have right now. Obviously with Eric’s help, and Eric and I have spoke a lot about some the players, and he showed me some of the things that they do here from a personnel evaluation process and how the coaches do everything. I’m just getting up to date on all that stuff, I’ll take a look at it and Mike will do the same. Then obviously sit down with Eric and the coaches and decide what we need to be a better football team.”

Tom Heckert (On how much of the draft he did in Philadelphia and how it will work here)- “It’s going to be very similar to that. I’m going to do the same thing, I’ll get the scouts in and I’ll set the board along with Mike and Eric. It’s like what Mike and Eric said, ‘It’s going to be a Cleveland Browns’ decision.’ I’ve had this question asked over the last 10 years, it’s never going to be one person saying, ‘I want this guy,’ when five other people don’t want that guy. That just never works. We’ll come up with a player that we think fits our scheme, our organization and that’s the kind of guy we’ll take.”

Tom Heckert (On if someone will spend more time on the draft than the others)- “That’s my job, to watch everybody, set the board and give Eric and Mike, and try to weed it out a little bit. To have them look at the players we are going to take or the guys that we feel, as scouts, are good for this football team.”

Tom Heckert (On what changed with the organization to make him say yes this time around)- “I think obviously with Mike being on board and Andy [Reid] and Mike being very good friends and hearing all the good things Andy had to say about Mike definitely helped. I knew more of what I was getting involved in with Mike here. I think anybody that has been in this business as long as I have, Mike has, and everybody here, I was at Miami for 10 years and Philadelphia for nine years. I felt that if I was going to leave, it’s a good time to leave. It’s an exciting time.”

Mike Holmgren (On his thoughts on Jerome Harrison)- “I love him as a player. I thought what he did at the end of the season was remarkable. The fact that it appeared as though the teams that Cleveland played knew that’s kind of how it was going to go and still they got it done. 286 yards, is that what he had in that one game? That’s a lot of yards. Again, that’s a decision. I know Eric was happy with him, who wouldn’t be? Someone had to step up and get that done. [With the] weather, when it gets cold and you can have a good running game and you can control the clock, all those things, it’s nice to have a guy you can give the ball to like that. I like him a lot, clearly.”

Tom Heckert (On if he required final say on the 53-man roster to come here and if that is a huge deal)- “First of all it is not a huge deal. To be honest with you, I did not. I had it in my contract where I could leave if I wanted to and the Eagles were great about it. They always told me, like I said earlier, if I felt there’s a place that I wanted to go, they were more than happy to let me do that. I appreciated that.”

Eric Mangini (On how much his vision of the team has been altered with the addition of Holmgren and Heckert)- “There’s always been a lot of carryover between the drafts I’ve been involved in and the Philadelphia drafts. You probably remember this [Tom], you probably don’t remember it as well as I do, but in ’06 we traded with Philly. I really liked this one guy. I really wanted this one guy in the third round. We traded back, I think it was three of four spots. We were going through and we’re thinking, ‘Well Buffalo, they don’t need a linebacker. These guys don’t need a linebacker. Okay, we will do the trade.’ So we trade with these guys and they take the player I really wanted. This guy Chris Gocong and there were a bunch of other players they took that we had very similar grades on, on the board. They have a lot of the [same], not just types of players, but types of people on their roster. I’ve always had an appreciation, especially since that experience, of how similar we are in that sense.”

Mike Holmgren (On his thoughts on Pete Carroll leaving USC)- “I was surprised by the whole thing a little bit there, I’ll be honest with you. Pete’s a wonderful coach. He’s had a great, great record at USC. In fact when they started going, I resubmitted my $10 a month to the alumni fund. They were going so well there. I will say this, the college game and the pro game are two different animals. They really are, but the thing is he’s had experience in the pro game as well. Seattle is a wonderful place. My kids are all there and we had a great run there. It was great and now I am so looking forward to being here, I guess that’s the best way to put it. I wish those guys well, but now I am converting all my blue stuff to brown.”

Mike Holmgren (On if they have made any final decisions on Donte’ Stallworth yet)- “Not yet, Tony (Grossi), not yet, but soon we will. We will let you know what’s going on, but not today.”

Eric Mangini (On how it felt to be told he would be staying here)- “It felt great. It felt great for a lot of reasons, because I did feel very strongly with the things that we had done. I didn’t know Mike, but I knew of Mike. Obviously, his body of work speaks for itself. To be able to sit down with somebody and spend time with them and have them come to that conclusion, it’s really positive. It’s a really positive experience, and then just to be able to sit down with someone and talk football in depth from a lot of different perspectives, whether it was head coaching decisions or personnel decision or all of those things. You don’t get that opportunity. There are no continuing education classes for head coaches. There are no clinics. Those things don’t exist. It was invigorating for me personally after a long season. I’ve got to tell you, it was a long season.”

Bryan Wiedmeier (On if his responsibilities will include the salary cap)- “I’ve got that in my background. I cut my teeth on that before we had the salary cap and kind of in the early days of the salary cap. We will work on that and we will work with Mike and Tommy and Eric on what our strategy is and how we are going to handle that.”

Bryan Wiedmeier (On if his responsibilities will include contract negotiations)- “I’ve done all that and am available to do as much or as little as we need to do. It’s a skill set. I’ve done it, but we will be working together on those issues as a group.”

Bryan Wiedmeier (On if the team will be looking into new revenue streams)- “I think part of that is, again, we are just getting our feet on the ground here. A couple things we will want to do is just make sure that we have a clear understanding of what Mike and Randy (Lerner) want to get accomplished with the business side of the operation. I think most importantly, they would tell you, is they want to make sure that the fans feel connected to the team more than money and more than other things. Cleveland, they’ve got such great support, and historically have enjoyed such great support, that their fan base feels connected to the team and that we put something out there that makes them very proud.”

Mike Holmgren (On if there is a possibility that he could add to his staff)- “I think it is. It was important, and I think you would understand, to get the two building blocks in place as soon as possible. Now as Bryan and I work together to set up, kind of, the flow chart on the business side and Tom and I work on the flow chart on the football side, people that I know, friends of mine, you mentioned two of them, Will Lewis and Reggie McKenzie. [They are] unbelievably talented men. There are a handful of others that we are considering. I hope, yes, that I can get a couple more of those guys to come on board in some capacity. The NFL is a wonderful thing of titles. There are a million titles. I am getting real creative. I am going to have a lot of titles floating around. If Randy lets me, we are going to guys all over the place, doing all sorts of things. Those two guys are special. They are good men.”

Tom Heckert (On what he can do to make a difference for this organization)- “Obviously, my main job is to find players and that’s what I intend to do. The scouting staff we have here, I am going to get with them and we are going to start on the free agency stuff here and then the Senior Bowl is in a couple of weeks and jump right in. That’s my job, is to find players.”

Tom Heckert (On if he brought scouting and draft information he had done in Philadelphia with him here)- “The stuff that I’ve already done this year? I’ve got to be careful about that (joking). Yes, I have the stuff that I’ve done this year. I have that with me.”

Mike Holmgren (On if he thought he would be able to get Heckert and Wiedmeier a couple of weeks ago)- “I think I told you earlier on, as a coach, I always had lists ongoing. If I lost a coach, I’d already have a list so I wouldn’t have to compile a new list right when it happened. Even though I promised Kathy I took this last year off, when she was going shopping I was making my lists. These fellas clearly were on the list, at the top of the list. Now did I think I could them? Bryan said no to me once. Tom, I didn’t know if I could ever get him out of Philly. ‘Hope springs eternal’ and here we did it. That’s why I’m so excited about this. These are really quality men who are good at their jobs. Now we just move forward.”