The extreme makeover of the Cleveland Browns' scouting department continued Saturday when former Redskins general manager Scot McCloughan joined the organization as a personnel consultant to assist the team in this year's draft, according to league sources. McCloughan, universally recognized as one of the league's top talent evaluators, agreed to reunite with new Browns general manager John Dorsey for the draft and participated in meetings Saturday with the team's full scouting department, sources said.
He has been fired three times in the last 8 years because of problems with alcoholism, but I suppose he could help them in a short-term advisory role.
So a guy with a drinking problem is going to work for a team second to none in driving people to drink? This should work out well
Talent is talent. During the Civil War, some people complained to Lincoln that General Grant, the Union's most successful general, was a drunk. "I wish some of you would tell me the brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals," Lincoln responded. .
It may be talent, but if he has been fired 3 times in 8 years due to his drinking, he has a serious problem, and soon could find himself unemployed, and his talent wasted.
I wasn't trying to minimize any problem he has, but you don't just push such a talented guy to the side and forget about him simply because he has a problem. How many chances do really talented players with a problem get?
I disagree. I think your statement is too simplistic. Someone with a drinking problem can screw up in a myriad of ways. Neither you nor I know how many 2nd chances he had with the 3 teams that have fired him, or what he did. In spite of his talent, he's been fired 3 times in 8 years, so his talent must not be worth putting up with, since he really doesn't have another job. He now is working only as a consultant for the upcoming draft. After that, he's out of work again. If he has such great talent, he needs to get his ass in rehab and AA and stay there until he knows he can stay sober with help.
We also don't know how his problem manifested itself, and Washington is such a chaotic franchise that we really can't draw any inferences from what happened there. I'd be inclined to give him a chance, maybe first as a consultant to see how it works out, then as an employee under a contract requiring AA compliance etc.
It's a tough question. He had a lot of success at San Francisco, but couldn't handle it. Seattle is a pretty stable organization, and he also had a lot of success, but he couldn't handle it there, either. Washington may be a zoo, but still, you're on your third strike and you can't make it more than two years. In his three successive jobs he's lasted 5 years, 4 years, and 2 years, respectively. That's not a good trend.
If he had admitted he had a problem, sought help and was working on it, I'd be inclined to give him a chance. I'd love to have someone with his eye for talent helping the Jets. The problem is that with alcoholics, until they admit they have a problem and seek help, they just continue to spiral downwards. Even when they have done those things, some people can't stop their self-destructive tendencies. You can't "fix" someone. The desire for change has to come from within.
There would’ve been little risk bringing him in as a consultant. Problem with having a GM and HC on a very hot seat is they probably don’t have much interest bringing in a potential replacement.