With the season likely lost, and Gregg Williams being far from the ideal candidate to lead a football team, the Browns have turned their attention to who their next head coach will be for next year. One of the names that the team has an interest in interviewing is former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, according to a report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Rice—whose most recent involvement in sports has been chairing the useless Commission on College Basketball—is a lifelong Browns fan who attends some of the team’s home games, mingles with the owners and has even appeared in an NFL apparel ad with another notable government figure because we’re in hellworld.
Schefter made sure to add that this would just be an interview, with no guarantee of her actually landing the job, but it appears she already has glowing reviews from the organization.
“She’s an amazing person,” one Browns source told ESPN.
(Seriously. That’s the one quote he got for the story.)
Another thing that was pointed out is that this news come at an age “when women recently have moved into decision-making roles in men’s professional sports.” Schefter draws comparisons to Becky Hammon on the Spurs, Kathryn Smith on the Bills, Kelsey Martinez on the Raiders and Katie Sowers on the 49ers as prominent examples of this. The difference between those women and Rice, however, is their overall lack of experience in masterminding pointless wars built on deception and international crimes (i.e. torture)—at least to my knowledge.
Hammon, Smith, Martinez and Sowers have worked their way up the ranks in their respective fields to get where they are. Rice, on the other hand, is being gifted the opportunity on reputation alone in the latest stop of what can only be described as a rehabilitation tour through the world of sport. Schefter even reported that if the plan to become head coach falls through, the Browns could still bring her on “in an official capacity or as a consultant.”
Regardless of what her ultimate position would be, this is a hire that just shouldn’t happen. But given that it’s the Browns, I doubt they’ll notice the consequences until its too late.
Update (1:10 p.m. ET): Browns GM John Dorsey released a statement saying Rice has not been discussed as a coaching candidate. This, of course, doesn’t say anything about whether the owners have talked about the idea.
Update (1:40 p.m ET): Now Rice has released a statement.