While you might think he was talking about football — after all, this very likely was his last home game as the Browns’ head coach — he was not.
In an obviously low moment — it now will be easier for Jimmy Haslam, the team’s very hands-on new owner to dump him after the season — Pat Shurmur never stood taller.
As he was concluding his post-game press conference — his team is now 5-9 with just two road games left at Denver and Pittsburgh — Shurmur happened to look toward the back of the room where his wife, Jennifer, sat. He grew silent for a couple of seconds, as he pursed his lips, reflected and then said what he had wanted to say at the onset.
“The events this week in Connecticut — we obviously were affected by it like the rest of the world. Not intimately like the people of Newtown, but it’s very disturbing still and we would like to send our thoughts and prayers to everyone who was directly involved. And we all know in some indirect way we were all involved.”
He, of course, was talking about Friday’s senseless massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. where 20 first graders — all of them 6 and 7 years old — and six teachers and school administrators were murdered by a heavily-armed, 20-year-old guy who forced his way into the school — after first killing his mother at her home — and then finally ended the spree by killing himself.
“Let’s not leave anything unsaid,” said Shurmur, the father of four. “Hug your child. Don’t let anything go because tomorrow and anything after tomorrow is not guaranteed.
“I wanted to lead off with that and I’m glad I remembered to say it. Sometimes we get wrapped up in our own issues of the day, but I think it’s important the folks there know we are thinking about them.”
As for those “other” issues, they almost certainly include his future with the Browns, the team he took over last season.
In mid October — after the Browns had started the season 0-5 — Haslam bought the team for close to $1 billion and promptly replaced team president Mike Holmgren with Joe Banner. It was widely speculated then that Shurmur, and possibly even general manager Tom Heckert — although he has worked with Banner in the past — would be replaced at season’s end.
It’s been rumored that Alabama’s Nick Saban, Oregon’s Chip Kelley and New England Patriots’ offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels were on the short list of coaching replacements, with Saban considered the first choice. NFL analyst Michael Lombardi’s name surfaced as a possible GM pick.
But after that 0-5 start, the baby-faced Browns — they have one of youngest rosters in the NFL — went 5-3 and before Sunday had won three games in a row.
Here it was, the second weekend in December , and they still had a remote chance to make the playoffs.
Although it’s thought Haslam had already decided to replace Shurmur, it would have been more difficult had the Browns kept winning and at least made a push for the playoffs this year. It would show the Heckert/Shurmur plan was starting to bear fruit.
When he joined the Browns in 2010, Heckert inherited the second-oldest team in the NFL. Eighteen players were 30 and older. He quickly turned the roster over, so now 20 starters are in their 20s and five who started Sunday — including running back Trent Richardson and quarterback Brandon Weeden — are rookies.
“Without a doubt this team has gotten better as the season has gone on,” said linebacker D’Qwell Jackson, a seven-year veteran. “We used to be in close games where we didn’t know how to finish. We corrected that…But it’s still clear as day. If we don’t come to play and hurt ourselves, it’s tough to dig out of that hole.”
Weeden — who struggled Sunday, throwing two interceptions that eventually were turned into Redskin touchdowns — bristled at the suggestion that the Browns’ three victories in a row had been against struggling teams — the Pittsburgh Steelers, Oakland Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs.
“We’re in the NFL, not playing in Podunk Town. … playing podunk football,” he said. “In the NFL there are no bad teams. Teams play well at certain times. They have their ups and downs … but (as for not beating anybody) I strongly disagree.”
And yet there’s no arguing that Sunday the Browns did look bad against a Redskins team that was without its magnificent quarterback, Robert Griffin III, who suffered a knee sprain in last Sunday’s game. He was on the inactive list, replaced by fellow rookie Kirk Cousins, who was making his first NFL start.
All Cousins did was complete 26 of 37 passes for 329 yards and two touchdowns against just one interception. He constantly burned the Browns defense with his naked bootleg passes. Afterward even Shurmur sang his praises.
Of course, that’s not what Haslam wants to hear — his coach praising the OTHER team’s quarterback.
“As players we wanted to give our fans a better final game at home,” Weeden admitted. “We wanted to give them something to cheer about and keep the momentum rolling, but we didn’t play well.”
So now the final two weeks of the season will be riddled with uncertainty about the coach, the GM and some of the veteran players.
As for how the players will cope, 33-year-old cornerback Sheldon Brown, an 11-year veteran of the NFL, tried to give some perspective:
“I’ve played a long time. For me anything can happen in the game and you just have to worry about the moment — the next practice, the next play. You can’t worry about everything else.”
“And yet won’t it still be there?” someone asked.
He shook his head:
“Look, you have uncertainty in everyday life, not just here. If you have family and kids, you have uncertainty in that. … You have to learn to move forward, teach them right from wrong and just try to keep going.”
Although he was talking about football, he just as well could have been talking about Newtown, too.
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