Tom E. Curran • E-mail

Don't know who said it first, but it's still a pretty good turn of phrase ... "Once you start listening to the fans, it won't be long before you're sitting with them."

And for Romeo Crennel and/or Phil Savage, the day they could hypothetically be sitting next to Joe The Plumber in Section 108 appears to be drawing closer.

This week, Crennel announced he's pulling the plug on starting quarterback Derek Anderson and giving the offense over to second-year player Brady Quinn.

According to the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Crennel, the Browns head coach, met with general manager Savage about the move. Savage was OK with it based in part, according to a Plain Dealer source, on the idea that Browns fans would show no mercy if Anderson started poorly against the Broncos in prime time Thursday night.

Anderson has played poorly enough often enough to warrant being benched, especially with a promising second-year player behind him. But forecasting fan reaction and weighing that when making the move to the backup -- even if it was a side issue -- is a signal of an organization on the ropes.

Which the Browns appear to be.

The funny thing is, a lot of it has been beyond their control. The Browns' constant companion during Crennel's three-season reign has been bad luck. So bad that even when good fortune appears ready to smile on Cleveland, it turns out it's getting ready to spit.

Lost in the current feeding frenzy are the star-crossed details that led them here.

In 2006 -- months after Crennel's hiring -- they were aggressive enough to go and sign free agent center LeCharles Bentley. The top-rated free agent blew out his knee during the first 11-on-11 drill of training camp, contracted a staph infection (which has been a recurring theme for the Browns) and never played a snap for Cleveland.

In 2007, after a 4-12 season, they held the No. 3 overall pick and needed a quarterback. But they made the safe move and drafted Wisconsin offensive tackle Joe Thomas. Then, when Notre Dame's Quinn was still on the board at 22, they swung a deal to get him as well. Home runs on two key fronts. Huzzahs all around. Savage was toasted from coast-to-coast.

But a contract holdout by Quinn wiped out most of his 2007 training camp. He wasn't near ready to be a rookie starter in the NFL.

Journeyman Charlie Frye won the starting quarterback job coming out of camp over Anderson but only lasted part of the first game before Anderson replaced him. Anderson, it was assumed, would be keeping the seat warm for Quinn. Instead he went out and had a Pro Bowl season and led the Browns to the brink of the playoffs. Terrific, right?

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Not really. The Browns were now in a spot. Anderson was a restricted free agent at the end of the '07 season. Did the Browns want to risk losing Anderson with a still-unproven Quinn waiting to take over? Or did they want to keep their pennies-from-heaven Pro Bowler around and let Quinn continue to apprentice. They chose to re-sign Anderson through 2010 for $24 million. And -- following another trend for the Browns -- he's come out this season and played with maddening inconsistency.

This all plays out with the backdrop of an extremely serious rash of staph infections hitting the team. Seven separate known incidents involving six different players have arisen. Star tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. -- who lost a season in 2005 (pre-Crennel) after crashing his motorcycle -- has been afflicted twice. Last month, after dealing with his second bout with staph, Winslow criticized the team for its handling of the situation and was suspended for a game because of that criticism.

Said Cleveland wide receiver Joe Jurevicius, whose return to his hometown Browns as a free agent has been marred by a staph infection after surgery last January.

"There's been some numbers here, and it does make people open their eyes," he said last week after it was announced he wouldn't play in 2008.

Savage has come off particularly badly during the staph crisis. In April, he said Jurevicius was "fine" and called his contracting staph a "non-story." He was ripped by Winslow for allegedly not checking on the tight end when he had his most recent illness. And the tenor of Savage's dealings with the fallout -- defensive, accusatory and shrill -- has shown him to be fairly inept at crisis management. He's got some Barney Fife in him.

And he's absolutely tone deaf.

In talking about the decision to go with Quinn, Savage simultaneously backed and backed away from Crennel.

"It was Romeo's call," Savage said. "He's in charge of the 45 (players on the game-day roster). I have no problems with it. I told Romeo I could argue either way. I told him I'll stand behind him on it."

"I told him I'll stand behind him on it," has a far different ring than "I'll stand behind him on it."

Saying, "I have no problems with it," then saying in the same breath that you could argue against it? It'd be better if Savage had said nothing at all.

There's disarray in Cleveland. And if Quinn doesn't save the season, somebody's going to take the fall for it.

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