Paul DePodesta
Paul DePodesta
Paul DePodestais the chief strategy officer for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League. Formerly a front office assistant for the Cleveland Indians, Oakland Athletics and most recently the New York Mets, he was also general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The year after leading the Dodgers to their first playoff win in 16 years, he was fired after the 2005 club finished with its worst record in 11 years. He was the ninth general manager in the...
fact matter
The fact of the matter is, it was coming,
although conflict consistent creative critical direction dynamic elements goal move spent time together vision
We've spent a lot of time together lately, ... The goal was to become very comfortable with the direction we are going. Although creative conflict is healthy, it is critical to our vision for the GM/manger dynamic to have enough consistent elements to move forward.
happy lined perfectly unless
Unless everything is lined up, we'd be perfectly happy not doing it.
anybody despite frustrated hard incredibly jim terrific year
We were all incredibly frustrated with the way the year has gone, ... If anybody should be blamed, it should be me. I think Jim is a terrific manager. Despite how hard we tried, we couldn't get on the same page.
agent changes foundation free guy
We'll always have to make changes -- a guy or two will be a free agent -- but, hopefully, the foundation is now laid.
days few happened last
We feel comfortable we've addressed what's happened the last few days internally.
certainly fun
We know it hasn't been fun for them. It certainly hasn't been fun for us.
humble faces needs
We need to be humble in the face of uncertainty
mistake reality thinking
I think there are definitely things over the last year-and-a-half we would have done differently, ... I think we've at least learned as we go and hopefully we don't make the same mistake next time. ... I think if I said anything different to you, I'd be removed from reality.
anyone environment high maintain players team
The one thing they've done better than anyone else is find a way to incorporate young players into their team and yet do it in an environment in which they maintain very high expectations,
preferable
We're probably going to have to play it by ear. That's not necessarily the preferable way to go. But it's not something where we have a choice.
conference discussion sometime
We'd still be having this discussion (on the conference call) sometime this month.