It's Monday morning, and the writing is on the wall in Cleveland.
After Sunday's 24-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Pat Shurmur delivered what likely was his final postgame news conference as coach of the Browns. He and general manager Tom Heckert are expected to be fired this week after two uneven seasons in Cleveland.
Speaking with emotion about his players and his time coaching the Browns, Shurmur admitted he hadn't spoken with new owner Jimmy Haslam or CEO Joe Banner "in quite some time," per The Plain Dealer.
Pressed again about his fate, Shurmur repeated himself.
"I don't know," he said. "Again, I haven't spoken with Jimmy or Joe," jabbing at reporters more than once to "call your league sources."
A local television station captured footage of Shurmur toting boxes to his car Sunday night. Players earlier in the day described the coach as emotional after the loss dropped the Browns to 5-11 and Shurmur to 9-23 over two seasons.
"To me, he was trying to hold back the tears," Browns linebacker D'Qwell Jackson told the newspaper. "He put everything into it. He was just emotional about it. He was passionate about it. The players, we appreciate him, we'd run through a brick wall for him, and it's just too bad we couldn't get a win for him."
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