Real NFL football is finally here as the Cleveland Browns kick things off with the opening of their training camp today in Berea, Ohio. As the first team to officially take the field for the 2010 season, the spotlight is shining on an organization that appears to be making strides toward respectability. Nowhere is that more evident than in the way the Browns went about the business of setting up their organizational structure and hierarchy during the offseason.

For so long in the NFL it seemed as if the prevailing wisdom was to simply build an organization in which all of the key decision makers had worked together and were very familiar with one another. Think Miami Dolphins, for example. Bill Parcells was hired by former owner Wayne Huizenga to be the football Czar, so to speak, who oversees all football operations. The first thing Parcells did was bring in a general manager in Jeff Ireland and a head coach in Tony Sparano with whom he had worked in Dallas and was very familiar. The benefits of such an arrangement are fairly obvious. There is a high level of trust and comfort. It ensures that everybody is on the same page with a similar if not identical philosophy. Clearly, it has worked out for the Dolphins as they won the AFC East title in Year One of this regime and appear poised to make another run in 2010. But there could be some limits.

If everyone has the same philosophy and goes about their business the same way, is progress sometimes stifled? Ingenuity can be created by bringing together people with different backgrounds or viewpoints. That's why you have to like what is going on in Cleveland.