Tensions are heating up in the Cleveland Browns locker room. Veteran running back Jamal Lewis, who is so fed up that he has announced his he is hanging up his cleats after the season, says that Eric Mangani is overworking his team :

“You’ve got to take care of your players so they’re ready to go on Sunday, or in this case, Monday. It’s all about making your players ready, fresh and efficient for the games.

“With the way we work in the OTAs, in training camp, two-a-days and in practice (during the season) – 2½ to three hours a day, every day – you want to see some results, some wins, and we’re not seeing that.”

When asked if he had expressed his concerns with the embattled head coach the running back stated:

“It’s not my place, and that’s been the case with any coach I’ve played for,” he said. “My job is to run the football. My job is not to evaluate things and then try to fix the problems that exist.

“Just like he can’t go into one of my businesses and tell me how to run it, I can’t go to him and tell him how to run his team. This is his show. I run my show, and he runs his show.

According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, the Cleveland Browns are set to give Brady Quinn the nod to start against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. An official announcement is said to come tomorrow according to Eric Mangini.

If the report is true, it means that the starting quarterback job has come full circle. Quinn was replaced by Derek Anderson in Baltimore Ravens game this season but failed to produce and currently has the lowest rating as a quarterback in the NFL this year. Quinn will have his hands full against the tough Ravens defense with a green wide receiving corp and an aging running back.

I heard a lot of jokes about the Browns' bye week. My favorite was John Telich's line: "The Browns were 20-point underdogs to bye week."

It was genuinely pleasant not having to worry about them. As painful as it is, in our racket we must watch because we might have to talk about them.

The Browns are sadder than a country song and after reading Randy Lerner's exclusive email interview with Tony Grossi in The Plain Dealer last week I have not one iota of hope. Randy is a very nice person, very likeable, but the poor fellow is clueless about football and he admits it.

In 11 years now the Browns have not had a general manager who had a track record. The only actual general manager was Phil Savage. It was his first crack at the position and he failed.

That's why the name Ernie Accorsi generated excitement. The same with Mike Holmgren. Too bad the Dolan brothers didn't get the Browns. They went up to $500 million but Al Lerner's pockets were bottomless with all the money he made on credit card interest rates. The Dolans' football man was Don Shula. The old Miami Dolphins coach was past his prime, but at least he had a prime.

Cleveland Browns fans may be angry with Randy Lerner and the Cleveland Browns football team but that didn’t stop them from contributing $10.9 million to help him this year.

In October, Cuyahoga County taxpayers slipped another $1.2 million to pay for the Browns Stadium.

The Browns are 1-7 this season. And a pretty putrid 1-7 from what I hear.

This year, sin tax contributors – all we purchasers of wine, alcohol and cigarettes in Cuyahoga County only – have paid $10,900,768.11 to help Lerner. It helps pay for the Browns Stadium. Lerner pays $250,000 a year to rent the place. The city pays more than $400,000 each year for taxes on the land. The stadium is tax exempt. Free for Lerner.

Thank you taxpayers. Don’t mention it Randy.

Did you catch the so-called interview Tony Grossi did with Lerner in today’s Pee Dee. Talk about consumer fraud.

The headline says: Lerner discusses GM’s firing; reaffirms support for Mangini.” Should have said, “Lerner WON’T discuss ANYTHING.”

On Monday afternoon, two grown men with nicknames met with Cleveland Browns owner Randy Lerner to serve as fan representatives in voicing discontent regarding the current state of the Browns organization. "Dawg Pound Mike" Mike Randall of Massillon and Tony "Mobile [Wheelchair] Dawg" Schafer were equipped with thier best Sunday, um, Bone Hat to meet with the millionaire banking CEO and professional sports team owner, who has come under fire in recent months due to the poor play of his football (not futbol) team.

Wide Receiver Joshua Cribbs (On another change within the organization)- “I feel like the organization is still intact. We have our captain of the ship, (Eric) Mangini is still running it. We always went to war with him and we’re going to war with him.”

(On why the team’s hard work during the week does not turn into positive results on Sunday’s)- “I have no answer for that. You can’t explain some of the things that happen. Our effort is not being shown in the win column and it’s evident. It’s really disappointing to the fans and to us as players. It’s just something that we’ve been struck with, we have to deal with. It’s not going good right now, but as a professional player I have to keep going. As team, we have to keep going and move on, try to win the next game.”

(On if the players get used to personnel changes)- “It is adversity. That’s the pure definition of it, going through change and difficult situations unexpectedly. How you handle that determines your character. I feel like we handled it well and we’ll move on and keep showing effort out the on the field because that’s what our fans love. What they love most is a win, so that’s what we’ll keep trying to strive for.

(Opening statement)- “Good morning everybody. In terms of the decision that was made yesterday, I can tell you that anytime a decision like this is made it is difficult personally and professionally. George (Kokinis) is a friend of mine and I respect him and I wish his family well. I can tell you that for a variety of reasons things didn’t work out. You never go into a situation like this with the intention of it not working out. We felt that, organizationally, this was the best decision in order to move forward. We have a strong structure in place on both the pro side and the college side and things will continue to operate effectively on a day-to-day basis. I understand that you all have a lot of questions and there is really nothing that I’m going to add to this. I hope that you can respect that. What I will talk about are the things that we’re doing as a team over the course of the week in order to improve.

“What we did this morning and last night is, as a staff last night, we went through the first and second down packages. We really analyzed the things that we did well, the things that, as part of that, that we think we can continue to improve on, whether it be scheme, technique, whatever the case may be, things that we want to remove from the various packages and some things that we want to add. The coaches put together clips to reflect that, a scouting report, sort of a Browns scouting report and adjustments. [We] presented that to the players and then we’ll go out and practice that here this afternoon.

The Browns confirmed reports that their GM has parted ways with the organization with a statement on their website that read:

Cleveland Browns General Manager George Kokinis is no longer actively involved with the organization. In response to rumors and reports that Kokinis was escorted out of the building today, the Browns deny those reports. In the interest of protecting the parties involved we will withhold further comment.

The Cleveland Browns have fired general manager George Kokinis after only months on the job. Kokinis had been hired as GM after the Browns hired head coach Eric Mangini and many pundits had thought it was strange that he was picked before the head coach.

Kokinis was given his walking papers in the afternoon today when he was escorted out of the Browns headquarters in Berea. He had been hired from the Baltimore Ravens organization and was friendly with Mangini during their tenure with the Browns in the Bill Belichick era. With the move, one has to wonder if the head coaches job is in jeopardy if the team continues to play as poorly as they have this season.