Before I begin, I have to say that it pains me to do this. But I just feel that in this place and time, it must be done.

People from all over have asked me countless times, “What’s it like being from Cleveland? How do you put up with all the misery surrounding the city's sports?”

Honestly, I’m not sure how to answer that anymore.

After just 16 games and less than one full calendar year on the job, the Browns relieved head coach Rob Chudzinski of his duties following the team’s loss to Pittsburgh on Dec. 29. Cleveland lost its final seven games en route to a 4-12 mark.

https://twitter.com/RuiterWrongFAN/status/417485552536264704

Seriously? After one year? Chudzinski came into a situation in which winning was near impossible.

He had no quarterback for essentially the entire season. Brandon Weeden began the year in the pocket, and frankly, was a disaster. After he suffered an injury, on came hometown hero Brian Hoyer, who brought the Browns their only success of the year. The team won all three games that Hoyer started, despite him tearing his anterior cruciate ligament during the third game and missing the rest of the year.

So, through five games, the Browns were 3-2. But, the one shining light from those three games, Hoyer, would not see action for the remainder of the year due to the ACL tear. What ensued was a typical year of depression for the factory of sadness that is the Cleveland Browns.

Behind Weeden, but mostly washed-up journeyman Jason Campbell, the Browns went 1-10 to finish the year. The only win in that time was a 24-18 triumph over AFC North rival Baltimore right before the team’s bye week, and the stretch also included an epic meltdown in New England in which Cleveland relinquished a 12 point lead over the final three minutes.

Not to mention that the team traded its 2012 first round draft pick, running back Trent Richardson, early in September for a first round pick in the upcoming draft. While that move looks good now with Richardson struggling to produce in Indianapolis, the Browns replaced him with another washed-up veteran – Willis McGahee.

Ok, I get that the results were not exactly what Browns CEO Joe Banner, owner Jimmy Haslam and general manager Mike Lombardi were looking for. But given what Chudzinski had to work with, what were you expecting?

It’s not like the Browns were getting blown out every week. Their biggest loss was a 41-20 setback to Cincinnati in Week 11 – a Bengals team that Cleveland beat with Hoyer under center in Week 4.

The rumors began to circulate about an hour before kick-off in Pittsburgh. By the time the game ended, reports had all but confirmed the firing. Perhaps the craziest part of the entire situation included what Browns players had to say.

Offensive lineman Joe Thomas, who has been one contingent on a constantly changing team, said the following: “You look at great franchises. They don’t fire your coach after the first season. You can’t do it.”

https://twitter.com/SI_PeterKing/status/417491202724749312

The consensus in the locker room seemed to be one of support for the young head coach. Players seemed to like him. Fans liked him. One worker at the Browns organization in Berea, Ohio, told me that Chudzinski was “a nice guy. His family was nice.” No complaints there.

This leads me to believe that there had to be something more that we don’t know yet about this firing. You have to place blame on Banner and Haslam, the same guys who hired him less than a year ago and are now firing him.

The next head coach will be the fourth one in six years for the Browns. The last four coaches to be fired from the AFC North have all been employed by the Cleveland Browns.

This team, this program, this city is dysfunctional. More dysfunctional than Clark Griswold’s famous “Griswold Family Christmas” in the classic movie, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

https://twitter.com/THamzikELON/status/417463118155894785

Call it a circus, call it a struggle, call it a joke. It’s all three of those, and more. This franchise has barely shown any signs of improvement since returning in 1999. Frankly, what NFL fans have seen on the field in First Energy Stadium, is flat-out garbage.

Chris Palmer, the team's first head coach upon returning, was fired after two atrocious years, even by expansion standards. The city ran Butch Davis right out of town. He was so overwhelmed, it seemed like he was on the verge of a mental breakdown. The team turned former quarterback and No. 1 pick Tim Couch into absolutely nothing.

Four years of Romeo Crennel ensued, which did include a 10-6 mark in 2007. But overall, he was regarded as a terrible head coach. Eric Mangini was then hired in 2009, but was forced out after two years thanks to Mike Holmgren taking over in the front office.

And what did Holmgren do to fix anything? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Pat Shurmur proved to be a complete bust in his two years at the helm, and that brings us to Chudzinski.

Banner, Haslam and Lombardi should be applauded for taking action if they didn’t see what they liked. But, they’ve put themselves into a heck of a situation right now. The pressure is on now more than ever to bring in a head coach that will turn this team around and most importantly, win. If their next hire doesn’t do that, there’s no reason this regime should not be fired.

Also, who in their right mind would even want to come into a situation like this?

Banner and Haslam spoke at a press conference on Dec. 30, the day after the firing took place. Overall, they were quite laughable. The Cleveland media absolutely grilled the two, and everything seemed extremely scripted, but that's expected.

Yet, I've never seen a press conference with two people where one regularly finishes the other's answers before another question is asked.

But wait, there’s more! So, the front office complained about the team not showing effort towards the end of the season, right? Hmmm. This tweet from the Browns official account says otherwise:

https://twitter.com/Browns/status/417440584916152320

They fought all the way to the end? Did they really? But you’re going to remove the coach because you saw a lack of effort at the end?

Seems extremely contradictory to me.

This team did regress dramatically as the season went on, but once again, there was not much to work with. If it were me, I would have given Chudzinski another year. But then again, the organization may know something we do not.

The Browns have brought Cleveland lots and lots of misery over the last 15 years. And boy, it doesn’t seem to be ending any time soon.

On Dec. 28, we woke up to word that Andrew Bynum would be suspended indefinitely from the Cleveland Cavaliers and was reportedly being shopped around for a trade. That was truly bizarre.

I never dreamed how petty that would look come Dec. 29. For this whole situation, I go to a phrase thrown around a lot back in Cleveland, a city that hasn't won a professional sports title since the Browns won the NFL Championship (Yes, the NFL Championship; this was before the Super Bowl days) in 1964. But, there’s no better way to describe this whole ordeal.

“Only in Cleveland.”