The Cleveland Browns’ 19-17 victory over the San Francisco 49ers was one of the most impressive wins of the 2023 season. Despite playing a practice squad quarterback in P.J. Walker and entering the game as a double-digit underdog, the Browns managed to beat the undefeated Super Bowl favorites. Sitting at 3-2 in a less competitive than expected AFC, Cleveland appears to be well positioned moving forward despite all of the uncertainty surrounding Deshaun Watson. Still, that hasn’t stopped some Browns fans from calling for head coach Kevin Stefanski to be fired.
It isn’t unusual for football fans — especially in Cleveland — to call for a coach’s job after a loss. But following a monumental win? That’s where 92.3 The Fan’s Anthony Lima decided he’s had enough.
So much so, that the co-host of The Ken Carman Show with Anthony Lima threatened to stop taking listener calls, a staple of the program. During an epic rant on Tuesday morning, Lima took issue with the tired trope of fans calling for a coaching change.
“I’m inviting people to leave. This is going to be a waste of time every day. We’re just going to get the same 10 callers,” Lima said.
“Tell them we’re not going to take the calls,” Carman, whose voice was still hoarse from celebrating the Browns’ win, replied.
“Can we do that? I want to be an engaging show that’s available for everybody, that we don’t censor callers. We actually probably should start a little bit,” Lima said. “What I don’t understand is how we’ve become this lowest common denominator thing. And I’ve been critical of Kevin. I’ve said, there are other coaches I’d rather have right now than Kevin. But I don’t see the fruits of that today after we beat the 49ers and Ken lost his voice and we were having so much fun over the last two days. I don’t understand how that’s condensed, it’s distilled into taking calls about firing the coach. So if you guys want to fire him after that win, then I really don’t want to take calls going forward because you’re just going to want to fire him after every game.
“It’s an exercise in futility going forward for these fans. I can’t believe that we have gotten it down to the basic level of just wanting to fire the coach after every game. You’re smarter than that. I thought we were a better football town than that. And I thought this whole thing was a buildup into something more special, more spectacular than just doing “fire the coach radio” after a win over the 49ers, a team that nobody thought we had a chance to beat going into this game… you had a practice squad XFL hero go in rainy conditions and you beat the 49ers and we’re doing “fire the coach radio.” I’m sorry, I have no interest in doing that going forward. I really don’t.”
Anthony Lima had a great rant about 92.3 The Fan callers and how they view Kevin Stefanski. pic.twitter.com/1TX9Vu65l6
— 92.3 The Fan (@923TheFan) October 17, 2023
While Cleveland is in the Midwest, its sports talk radio often feels like the Northeast and it’s worth noting that 92.3 The Fan program director Andy Roth has a background in New York and Philadelphia. But while Cleveland’s airwaves are often caller heavy, to Lima’s point, the content gained from the calls still needs to be (somewhat) rooted in reality — although this rant certainly made for a nice payoff.
For what it’s worth, Stefanski is receiving plenty of praise elsewhere following Sunday’s big victory.
