Holmgren: "I am very happy to announce that Josh Cribbs is going to be part of the Cleveland Browns for a long time. We already kind of hoped & knew that.We all know what type of a player Josh is. I haven't had a chance to spend a lot of time with him. In talking with people that I trust and know, he is a quality young man. He really cares about this team & the fans in this city that have been very good to him & he has been good to the fans. I just want to say that we are very happy as an organization that it was worked out. It was something that I really wanted to do when I came.I think you start with the philosophy of, we are going to make every effort to keep our core players, our best players, here with the team. Clearly, Josh is one of those. Now, his situation was different because he had a contract. Then you have to ask yourself the question, I want every player we have to want to be here & play & give me his best, give Eric (Mangini) his best. He had, in my opinion, outperformed his contract to a certain extent the more I studied it. How do we reward the player & @ the same time maintain our contractual integrity as an organization? Once we kind of figured out how we wanted to do that & I got both sides talking to each other again, we were able to do it.
I will be honest with you, the set up was a little unusual. I had never in all the contacts I have seen or done for players that played for me, the ask with three years left is unusual. When you are new, like I was, & you come into situations, I read it today, that certain representatives were talking, ‘Well, promises were made.' I believe you, but this is a new time, new people. We will get to each case as best we can, be as fair as we can, but we are going to maintain certain principles on how we are going to deal with these things. I trust we are here for a long time & so how we do things will eventually be figured out & maybe we can head off some of these things @ the pass. All I can say is I'm sorry if promises we made. If you don't have a promise from me, which I will hold to my promises, then we have to approach this differently. That's the best way to put it, I think. In Josh's case, they made a good point. I can say, ‘No, we aren't going to do it,' but that would be kind of silly. He had certainly earned the right to have the discussion @ the very least. Once we dove into it, someone's got to make the call so I made the call."
Cribbs:"I'd like to say I'm excited, first of all. It's been a long road and I owe a lot to the fans. I owe a lot to my family. I've been praying hard over these last couple weeks, months & it worked out. We reached a good compromise and I'm happy to wear this uniform proudly, as I have been saying the whole time. I'm glad to talk with "coach" Holmgren. He has a lot of things in store for this team. I'm happy to be here. For the fans & people @ the I-X Center. Putting up billboards, I owe a lot to them & I wanted to give them a lot of my attention & time. I'm excited to continue playing for the Cleveland Browns. The fans are a huge support system that I have here in Cleveland. All over in my travels from Miami for the Super Bowl and the Pro Bowl, the fan base was there. Every social network, internet site, the fans are there & they speak & I hear them. They give me motivation to go forward, so I owe a lot to them. I've just begun. I'm a baby in this league still."
!!!!!!NOTICE CRIBBS SAID "COACH HOLMGREN!!!!!!
-J.GEIDEMAN 2010'
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