A History of Romeo: Good and Bad

“If we do what we’re supposed to do then we would be better.”

Those words were spoken by our fearless leader, Romeo Crennel, after being blown out for the second week in a row to open up the 2012 regular season. It shows the ineptitude and thought process that our head coach is currently exercising. In other words, it doesn’t make him sound very intelligent. After seeing the lack of creativity in the game-plan on Sunday, I think that was evident to everyone watching.

After the 2012 season Romeo’s career as an NFL head coach has probably run its course. (Photo Credit: ©Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports)

Romeo has held various positions and has seen a lot of success since entering the NFL in 1981. He started out as an assistant on the Giants coaching staff for two years. In 1983, when Bill Parcels was hired as coach, he was then promoted to oversee their special teams. Romeo held this position for seven years, before he was again promoted to defensive line coach in 1990. He stayed here for three years and did an excellent job coaching the trenches. He then followed Parcells around to the Patriots for four years and onto the Jets for three more. In 2000, he finally got the much bigger promotion from a position coach to the coordinator position and became the defensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns.

His next position was by far the highlight of his career.

In 2001, he moved onto the defensive coordinator job of the New England Patriots. During the four year tenure of Crennel, New England was able to win three Super Bowls in four years. Obviously, after this success, he was a very sought after head coaching candidate. He may not have been offered any jobs prior to the 2003 playoffs, but he interviewed with six teams in less than two days.

The Cleveland Browns hired him as their head coach in 2005 and that kicked off the downward spiral of a very promising coaching career. Crennel had little to no success in his first two years on the job. In his third season, he finally was able to pull the team to a 10-6 record. The Browns decided to offer him a 2-year contract extension that only lasted one because of the very putrid season that followed.

We all know the story from that point on all too well. He was a very weak DC for the Chiefs since taking on the job. In my opinion, he lacks the ability to adapt to the game. His schemes are very outdated and he doesn’t possess the knowledge or in game familiarity to make on the fly changes or to adjust at halftime. In the six years that he has been a head coach, Romeo has totaled a 21-58 record. Four out of his six seasons, his team finished 4th in the division. Not once in any of his head coaching jobs did he lead a team to a division title.

The game has passed Romeo by, even as a defensive coordinator. Gary Gibbs is doing a much better job, and he’s not really a DC. Romeo was content with the “bend but don’t break” defense and that isn’t compatible with the high-flying, pass oriented offense that the game has become today.

I like the guy a lot as a person, but he has shown he is unwilling to adapt to today’s game, and therefore, is no longer a coach that will be receiving any offers after his exit from Kansas City.