The Browns organization has done a lot of dumb things over the years. Even if we spare ourselves an Art Modell flashback and only examine the decisions made under current ownership, there's plenty of material. There's the parade of colossally incompetent head coaches which may or may not include the incumbent (jury's still out, but it looks grim). There's the current quarterback situation which brings to mind the saying "If you have one quarterback, you have one quarterback. If you have two quarterbacks, you have no quarterback."  There's  the unsuccessful front office hirings of, to name just a few: the flailing and incompetent Phil Savage, the instant failure (and legendary tantrum thrower) George Kokonis, and Carmen Policy (we'll let that one slide). Browns fans supported the team on every one one of these decisions because we wanted to believe in and trust our organization, even though we often had serious reservations about their choices. We bought in and are still buying in because well, even as our doubts look more and more justified, we deeply hope to be wrong about them.Thus we can say that if Browns fans don't back the team up on a decision, they  probably have a really good reason. And guess what? We don't back the team at all on that lowball contract offer to Josh Cribbs.The offer is so ludicrous and so illogical that it defies explanation. It is also the kind of mistake which is not only foolish and unconscionable in the way that it treats Cribbs as an individual,  but could potentially (and likely will) have disastrous implications that extend far beyond just Cribbs himself. It is bad enough that the offer is blatantly insulting to a player who has been a tremendous talent on the field, a consummate professional day in and day out, and is beyond reasonable about his contract situation, a great teammate, and an all-around stand-up guy. Cribbs has continuously handled the contract situation with grace and aplomb throughout the season and even after the offending offer was placed on the table. On his Twitter (@JoshCribbs16), Cribbs mentions the contract just twice, once to say he's grateful to be able to negotiate for any type of contract and once to say he doesn't want to talk about it too much. And these statements even came after the ugly details of the contract offer were made public.And yet the greater issue here is that making a lowball offer to Cribbs has implications that extend far beyond one man's paycheck.What the Browns are doing to Cribbs is not just personally disrespectful to the player in question, but offensive to other NFL players, infuriating to fans, and just plain strategically stupid. Perhaps the most damaging repercussion of this offer is that it  sends a message that will discourage other players from wanting to sign with Cleveland in the future. Everyone in the world except for the Browns front office thinks the contract offer to Cribbs was insulting and absurd. No one would agree with that more vehemently than other NFL players. The not-so-veiled message that the rest of the league will derive from this situation is that the Browns not only won't reward players who have earned it, but they'll even renege after making a promise to do so. No one wants to deal with a team whose contract negotiation tactics seem to be modeled after Tiger Woods' wedding vows where, evidently, he made all his promises with his fingers crossed behind his back.Why would a free agent want to sign with a team which has shown such flagrant disloyalty to one of their own? If a team disrespects a player who is a) one of the best in the league at his position b) a consummate professional and a team player and c) someone who has been with the team for a number of years, then why on earth would they treat anyone else any better?No star player will ever sign on when they've seen this sort of treatment of another elite player. They don't need to. Why go to Cleveland and risk being a goat when you can go anywhere else and be a god?Even average players will be deterred by this. If this team won't even do right by a star-caliber player who is adored by local fans, then there's no way they'll do right by your average NFL talent. Even mediocre players will be telling their agents not to take calls from the Browns. And then there's the public relations nightmare of it all.Browns fans are some of the best in football. They will love this team no matter how bad they are. Having recently attended a Browns game, I was absolutely stunned by the loyalty and enthusiasm Browns fans continue to display despite everything that has happened. These people would stay true to the Browns even if they went 0-16.

The good people of Cleveland would probably support a losing team forever, but they do have a limit as to what they'll put up with from the team beyond that, especially if the team is doing poorly. And when they hit their limit, it's a very bad scene. Think about when Bill Belichick traded Bernie Kosar. The fans still loved the team despite how terrible they were, but they weren't going to take that Kosar trade lying down. Honestly, I'm surprised Belichick still had all his limbs when he left town.

If the Browns don't pay Cribbs and he walks when his contract runs out or is traded before that, there will be a fan mutiny. And it will be very, very ugly.Browns fans will approach this with the same insane enthusiasm with which they approach rooting for their team. They'll be reckless, relentless, and undeterred by rules, moral standards, or common decency.Remember the deluge of batteries and dog biscuits that rained down on the Broncos in the 1986 season AFC championship game? These people did not launch batteries and snowballs filled with ice onto the field in that infamous playoff game against the Broncos to merely be disruptive. They were actually trying to kill John Elway. Or for that matter, ever seen an average Sunday in the Dog Pound? These fans are not at all averse to violence, they have an obsessive and overly emotional relationship with the Browns and well, they're crazy.They will be a nightmare in the stands, in the parking lots, and in any bar within 20 miles. They will throw so much stuff on the field that 10 cent beer night will cease to seem impressive. They will storm the Browns' executive offices with torches and pitchforks. Literally. Finally, this sort of blundering move by a front office will prompt other organizations to lose respect for the Browns . Bad enough that our management will be the laughing stock of the league, but they'll also be on the receiving end of every bad offer in existence because the incompetence with which they handled the Cribbs contract situation tells every other team in the league just how easy it could be to put one over on them. They'll be perpetually offered trades for the football equivalent of ocean front property in Arizona. This may or may not be worse than the inevitable giggly phone call from Bill Belechick: "Did you know gullable's not in the dictionary?".That's right...while no one in Cleveland will find this funny, everyone else in the country will. And nowhere will they laugh harder than in Pittsburgh, where they'll lift cans of Iron City to toast the implosion of their rival while we sit helpless and unable to retaliate because similarly mocking jabs at the Pirates just won't  have the same ring to them.So the options are to simply pay Cribbs the money he asked for and has undoubtedly earned, or create a disaster which will not only cost us our best player, but alienate every other player in the league to the point where they will be loath to ever consider playing for the Browns in the future, contend with a fan base that is frustrated, enraged, and insane, give George Kokonis, Art Modell, Braylon Edwards, and every Steelers fan a really good laugh and to top it all off, prompt every team in the league to offer to trade us something akin to the proverbial three-legged horse. Not signing Cribbs would be the most offensive move by the Browns since Art Modell committed Grand Theft Football Team with the nonchalance of stealing pens from the office supply closet and merrily skipped out of town with the entire team, dressed it in purple, and called it the Ravens. Cribbs has restored the fans' hope in this franchise almost singlehandedly despite being surrounded by a largely forgettable supporting cast. If he leaves, that hope leaves with him.It appears that there isn't a person in town who can come up with a good reason to deny Cribbs a reasonable contract. And yet someone did it anyway. We may never know specifically who in the Browns organization is responsible for the offending offer, but let's hope they fix it. Fast.The city of Cleveland has survived The Drive, and Art Modell, and Tim Couch, and if it has to, it will survive its team's betrayal of Josh Cribbs. But it won't be pretty. And haven't we suffered enough?Pay the man.