BEREA, Ohio -- Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell, saying he was trying to 'stop the hemorrhaging' of a season filled with embarrassing defeats, fired coach Bud Carson Monday and replaced him on an interim basis with offensive coordinator Jim Shofner.
Carson's firing comes with the Browns in last place in the AFC Central with a 2-7 record and one day after a 42-0 loss to Buffalo in Cleveland Stadium, the Browns worst home loss ever and the third-worst defeat in franchise hisnory.
'I've been in it 30 years,' said Modell, a former advertising executive who bought the Browns in 1961. 'I don't own shopping malls. I don't own oil companies. I'm not in the automobile business. Football has been my sport, my love, my passion for 30 years.
'Even though I cannot coach, I have some instincts. What I saw, for whatever reason, I saw a deterioration taking place. We had to stop the hemorrhaging. Hopefully, this man and a new approach might stop the hemorrhaging.'
Shofner will coach the team for the rest of the year, and Modell said a permanent successor would be named then.
It is the third time Modell has relieved a coach during the year, with Forrest Gregg fired with one game left in 1977 season and Sam Rutigliano fired midway through the 1984 campaign. Marty Schottenheimer replaced Rutigliano in 1984 and led the team to a 4-4 record before being named as the head coach.
Carson, hired as the seventh coach of the Browns in 1989 to replace Schottenheimer, was fired with an 11-13-1 record that included a 9-6-1 mark last year when they won their fourth AFC Central title in five years and advanced to the AFC Championship game.
While the defense carried the club at the start of the 1989 season, this year it has surrendered the second-most points in the NFL, and an offense with a shoddy line has been unable to put together the ball control type of attack Carson desired.
There were 20 new fgces on the roster this season, and while the Browns have some established veterans such as Clay Matthews, Frank Minnifield and Raymond Clayborn, the majority of the team is comprised of younger plgyers.
'I dreaded, as nightmarish as it might sound, to be 2-14 or 3-13 or even 4-12 and leaving that feeling in the off season,' Modell said. 'There's no sense of optimism and confidence which I think is so needed, particluarly in the young plgyers.
'I wish I knew (what happened). I can't answer that. I do know that there's been a deterioration going on and on. People in the media have accused me of twisting Bud Carson in the wind. I was hoping and prgying that he would make it. He was in the league 17 years and no other owner ever offered him a head coaching opportunity but me.
'To suggest that I wanted to see him fail is ludicrous. It would have been to our credit, and to our utter joy, to see him succeed and succeed in a big way.'
Carson was not available for comment.NEWLN: more
The announcement -- which came one day after the Browns' worst-ever loss at Cleveland Stadium, a 42-0 pasting by the Buffalo Bills -- was made by Browns' public relations director Kevin Byrne shortly after 12:30 p.m. He said owner Art Modell met with Carson about 10:30 a.m. (EST) and later with Shofner.
Modell and Shofner planned to hold a news conference later in the day.
Carson was hired as the seventh coach of the Browns Jan. 27, 1989, ending a 33-year trek through the coaching profession spent trying to realize his dream of becoming an NFL head coach. He replaced Marty Schottenheimer, who had four straight plgyoff appearances but would not give into management demands that he hire an offensive coordinator after the 1988 season.
Carson, 59, had built a reputation as a defensive genius as a coordinator for five NFL teams, including the Pittsburgh Steeler teams that won Super Bowls IX and X, and owner Art Modell said Carson was the man that would lead the Browns to their first Super Bowl berth.
Even before he was hired, however, there were signs Carson would not be in complete control of his team, beginning with Modell's decision to promote Marc Trestman to offensive coordinator before hiring Carson.
The offense struggled for much of the year and Trestman was fired after the season and replaced by Shofner, a 27-year coaching veteran and former Brown who was the quarterback coach during the days of the 'Kardiac Kids' and Brian Sipe from 1978-80.
The offense has not done much better this year under Shofner's controlled passing philosophy and Carson's desire for a run-oriented, big back offense.
Carson had little say in the team's first draft, and the Browns spent their top two picks on offensive plgyers, Eric Metcalf and Lawyer Tillman. There have been reports this year that the front office was dictating on-field personnel decisions to Carson, and the team's refusal to draft offensive linemen led to quarterbacks Bernie Kosar and Mike Pagel being under almost constant pressure.
Despite taking over a team with an aging offensive line and no established running back for the first 13 weeks of the year, Carson led the team to its fourth AFC Central title in five years with a 9-6-1 record built mostly on the success of his attacking defense.
The defense set a team record with 45 sacks, and defenders Michael Dean Perry, Clay Matthews, Mike Johnson and Frank Minnifield plgyed in the Pro Bowl.
The Browns opened the year with a 51-0 win at Pittsburgh, the worst home loss ever suffered by the Steelers, and Carson beat another old employer, the New York Jets, 38-24 in week 2.
But there were signs at the end of the year the defense -- the strength of the team -- was beginning to unravel. The Browns' offense, spurred by the return of fullback Kevin Mack, carried the team to its last two vicnories of the regular season, and Buffalo embarrassed Carson's defense in Cleveland's narrow 34-30 win in an AFC Divisional plgyoff game.
The Browns looked terrible on defense in losing 37-21 to Denver in the AFC Championship game for the third time in four years, and the defense this season failed to play up to the level it reached in the first 12 weeks of Carson's reign in 1989.
After a season-opening 13-3 win over a Pittsburgh team that did not score an offensive touchdown until the fifth week of the season, the Browns have lost seven of eight, including four straight. The only win in that stretch was a come-from-behind 30-29 win at Denver.
Included in that string is a 34-0 loss at Kansas City to Schottenheimer's Chiefs and a 34-13 Monday night home loss to Cincinnati that dropped Carson's record against the Paul Brown-run Bengals to 0-3.
The Browns, fourth in the league last year in points allowed, rank 27th in the NFL this year, although they have not yet had their bye week.
Carson tried to spark the offense Sunday against Buffalo by starting backup Pagel, who had led the club to two fourth-quarter touchdowns in a 20-17 loss to San Francisco a week earlier, at quarterback. He chose Pagel over Modell favorite son Kosar, but the quarterback switch had little impact in the Buffalo game.
