12:35pm: Dorsey has released a statement expressing admiration for Rice but denying that she is under consideration for the team’s head coaching job. Rice also took to Facebook to say she is “not ready to coach.” She expressed her hope that NFL clubs will begin to bring women into coaching roles, but she is apparently not interested in such a role at this time.
09:50am: No, it’s not April Fools Day, and yes, we did check to make sure the blue checkmark appeared next to Adam Schefter’s name over this report. So it seems clear that the ESPN NFL Insider is legitimately reporting that the Browns are interested in interviewing former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for their head coaching job at the end of the season.
The interest in Rice will surely be met with plenty of skepticism, as expressed by Michael Lombardi of The Athletic (Twitter link). But it is not entirely out of left field. Regardless of one’s political views and one’s opinion of Rice’s work as Secretary of State, obtaining that position generally requires a great deal of intelligence and leadership ability, and Rice — a lifelong Browns fan — is using that ability to become more involved in the sports world. As Schefter writes, she was one of the inaugural members of the College Football Playoff selection committee, and she recently chaired a commission on college basketball that recommended major changes to the sport this year.
Rice was spotted on the field with Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam earlier this season, and as Matt Miller of Bleacher Report tweets, the team’s reported interest in Rice is almost certainly driven by the Haslams. Although GM John Dorsey has stated that he would be open to interviewing a woman for the team’s head coaching position, he would doubtlessly prefer a woman who has actual coaching experience, which Rice does not. So if this interview comes to fruition, it could lead to more concern from the coaching community, which is already wondering if Dorsey is really in charge of Cleveland’s head coach search.
Rice would become the first woman ever to interview for an NFL head coaching job, and even if she does not land the gig, Schefter suggests that she could nonetheless become involved in the organization in an official capacity or as a consultant.
We asked our readers earlier this week whom the Browns would hire as their next HC, and current Packers head coach Mike McCarthy received the most votes. Rice, though, was not on the list of choices.
What
No matter what, Haslam looks like a bigger fool now than ever before.
You should know
Lol
This isn’t basketball. She would be a good basketball coach. I don’t think football
Why would you say basketball? Because she is black. Get your head out of your a$$
She is one hell of a pianist though.
I think this might explain why the Bears once had Abe Gibron as HC. He couldn’t play the tuba but he was as fat as one.
That statement is even dumber than the Browns considering her for HC
what
Wtf
What
LOL.
I would vote for her if she was running for president, but a woman would have no chance of maintaining the locker room for an NFL team. It might be sexist, but it is an absolute fact that testosterone driven alpha males wouldn’t take to having a woman football coach.
Then a GM would have to pick up the non misogynist guys in the league.
Thanks for coming to the rescue, Lancelot.
Haven’t testosterone driven alpha males accepted women in the NASA space program as well as military combat roles? More than half of the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are women. Virginia McCaskey, Martha Ford, Gayle Benson and Amy Strunk hold ownership positions within the NFL. I doubt a female HC would cause the sky to fall.
What he said is absolutely true. You dont have to be a sexist to have those feelings. How would a female who has never played the game get players to buy in?
The only way a coach in any sport gets players to buy in is by producing winning results. Game experience certainly helps but Al Davis never played a down of college or pro football yet built the Raiders into a dynasty.
I’m sure some men will always insist that women don’t have the brain power to understand the concepts of football and that they lack the ability to be motivators. History has shown us though, that every time women have been given a chance to break down a barrier, they have succeeded.
Way to completely misrepresent everything the post was about and instead post some drivel about men not thinking women are smart. It’s a very legitimate concern to think that a woman is going to control 50+ men in a locker room, when women visibly get offended by the male bonding that occurs in locker rooms. There is an entire set of figure of speeches about locker room talk. It’s also 100% not sexist to question giving 1 of a hand full of pro sport coaching jobs to a person with no coaching experience. That’s not saying said person can’t do it, it’s saying they are not qualified from lack of experience. No where did anyone mention women being inherently not capable compared to men. Climb down off your pedestal and realize that recognizing differences in biology doesn’t make one sexist.
How about a woman who doesn’t have a shred of football coaching experience ? That would be the reason enough right there !
Being a chair member on a committee has nothing to do with ax’s and O’s.. This has to be a publicity stunt or the Browns have lost their mind
Yeah guys like Mancini went from being the xerox boy to being a head coach. Kansas City is doing pretty damn good, their GM was standing on the Eagles sidelines just a few years ago holding the cable for Andy Reid’s headset.
Guess Doc Brown is not available
This has to be a mistake. Higher position business side maybe. Head coach…..never.
That primal scream you heard was John Dorsey.
Every time a woman breaks a barrier it is met with “Well a woman can’t do that!” You all suck and I feel sorry for your daughters if you have them.
A woman can’t do this. A woman can’t do that. When will this ever stop.
Still bitter over the most recent presidential election I see
I think the big worry here is the play-calling… she has no experience and it’s not something you can just pick up…. the same would be true of a man who had never coached or played before. Football unquestionably has the largest X’s and O’s learning curve of any major sport. I do think a woman would have trouble earning the respect of an NFL locker room, but that’s because of the culture rather than her capabilities. While it’s nice to see women break down some of the stupid barriers they face, she is being treated with a level of equality here (by some of these people anyway), in that her candidacy is being mocked like any other totally unqualified candidate.
Shout out to Hue Jackson
Now he’s going to blame the Bengals for preventing him from becoming the next Secretary of State.
Seriously? I’m fine with women doing any job she has trained to do. There has never been an NFL head coach who has not actually been at least a position coach at the college or professional level. A man with a resume that is long on Academia and International Diplomacy but with no actual coaching experience would never get hired to be an NFL head coach and neither should she.
Yup.
So your saying it’s fine to have a man who is clueless run the country as president but it’s unacceptable to have a women lacking experience coach?
No, neither is fine. The difference is that the Browns HC position is not filled by a vote of the fans. The Brown’s management hires the person and they should be interested in finding the most qualified football coach. If Rice wants to be an NFL HC then she should start like all other NFL head coaches did by coaching at lower levels (high school and college) and/or as a low level NFL assistant and working her way up.
Best comment yet
When women stop trying to do this and do that?
Leave it to the Browns. They won’t be good until they get an ownership group that doesn’t interfere with the football process.
If it is true that the Browns are even thinking of hiring Rice for HC or any other football related position, Baker Mayfield should ask to be traded once the season is over. He should not put his future in the hands of the idiots who own and run the Browns.
Anyone who even gives this serious consideration as being true needs their head checked.
You realize the coordinators will call the plays. She’s dealt with bigger issues than deciding whether or not to go for it on 4th and 1 or punting.
Yeah play-calling depends on the team. But if she doesn’t have understanding of the X’s and O’s what does she bring to the table that outweighs the value of other coaching candidates? Leadership and management skills obviously, but that’s a basic requirement for any candidate. The trick here is two-fold; Does she have the capability of picking the x and o side of the game fast enough, AND does she bring more to the table than any other candidate…
I hope this happens!
Go for it! Guaranteed she’d do better than 1-31 her first two seasons.
Haha well this may be true
As a consultant or someone working in the front office, I think she’d be a terrific addition. As the head coach? Not so much.
What in the BLUE HELL would Condi Rice know about leading a professional football franchise out of 20 years of embarrassment? This is nothing more than John Dorsey swallowing the words he spoke earlier this week.
I would like to hear a Browns fans reaction to this. What in the actual f**k!?!
I would like to see the Browns at least consider some alternatives who are Democrats. Elizabeth Warren? Maybe even Pelosi, if she can’t lock up the Speaker role? Whatever happened to “fair and balanced?”
She wil almost certainly end up in a front office position, and probably be very effective in that aspect. She’s also been heavily rumored to have the commissioner job in her wish list…. a position I also think she would be good at. But it is MUCH different to be a head coach of a team, with literally ZERO coaching and football experience. A selection committee for college football playoffs, does not mean you can coach players, can call plays, pick an offense/defense system you want your team to run that matches your players abilities, and on and on the list goes. It has NOTHING to do with being a woman, any notion that that is the case, is actually a sexist remark on their part. Because I’m saying she’s not qualified to be a head coach of an NFL team, must mean I’m sexist because I’m a man…. is actually the sexist statement. Again, I think she would do very well in a position like commissioner or possibly an analyst in some capacity in a front office…. but coaching a sport, takes actual first hand, in depth, knowledge of that sport. I love ice hockey, grew up playing it my whole life (which is more than rice can say regarding football)… and I still know I’m not qualified to coach an NHL team. It’s that simple. Now, if she was hired as an offensive assistant, learn from somebody for a few years (like almost every other head coach has done), then in a few years she has the experience, go for it. It has nothing to do with sex…. it has to do with ability. She simply doesn’t have ANY ability to COACH FOOTBALL right now.
Charlie Weis’ football claim to fame was having a famous roommate in college, Eric Mancini made a helluva errand boy running Xerox’s….
This really cannot be true. Even for the Browns.
If the Browns can pull this off it will give the Jets a reason to hire Paris Hilton.
How is Jim Hassan a billionaire, because he is an idiot?
By cheating other businesses…
Who is Jim Hassan?
Right when you think the Browns can’t be anymore “Browns”, they surprise you. Always expect the unexpected and insane out of this franchise.
Without the Browns as the barometer of mental health could we really determine how crazy we really are?
She could be a good front office GM
A nothing burger. Here’s what Dorsey had to say…..
The Browns said in a statement from Dorsey, “Our coaching search will be thorough and deliberate, but we are still in the process of composing the list of candidates and Secretary Rice has not been discussed.”
And in other news, the Browns players voted unanimously in favor of having Halle Berry join the team as a TE.
Ohhhhhh. Please, please, please make this so. I cannot for the life of me imagine comment sections across the US of A. It’ll be like a nationwide, real-world reliving of every gnarly scene in the movie Scanners. Cameras will roll, keyboards will crumble, and Thanksgiving dinners will never, ever, be the same again.
F@cking ridiculous. Leave it to the Browns, however.
Kelly Anne Conway will be the Offensive Co-Ordinator……
Why not football is dead
If things don’t work out with Nagy, will the Bears be interviewing Barrack Obama?
Nah, because he throws like a girl.
But they be promised Hope and Change and after 8 years of poor coaching and no playoffs they’d be in worse shape when he’d hand the reins over to somebody else…
Ahhhh look! Polish “Snowflake” Hammer and his silly jokes! Don’t quit internet, basement job
Tstupid in the House…race-baiting on board and yo mamma jokes soon to follow…
The Boards biggest SNOWFLAKE is still kickin. Good to hear from you
As a former secretary of state who was constantly involved in various negotiations I would think a GM or other front office position would be more up her alley than being a HC
And national security advisor who was clueless about Osama bin ladin. The entire administration was.
Because the previous regime was so dialed in on him and did nothing…
Polish “Trump” gobbler Hammer
Tstupid
Seattle based tree-hugging liberal. Take your CNN fed rhetoric to a site made for it.
Gerry Faust, where are you when we need you?
Stupid ass browns like usual
Trump will step down in 2020, buy the Browns, be the head coach…….
He wouldn’t be able to coach in the rain
I can see her in a front office but not sure about on the field.
She will be fine on the field as long as she doesn’t keeping asking the kicker if he knows of any good shoe sales in town.