Name: How ex-Colts GM Ryan Grigson has rebounded by helping Andrew Berry transform the Browns & avoid his mistakes
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How ex-Colts GM Ryan Grigson has rebounded by helping Andrew Berry transform the Browns & avoid his mistakes

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NEW!146sharesCLEVELAND, Ohio — On any given Sunday, Browns senior football advisor Ryan Grigson receives texts from up to eight NFL general managers needing an ear, sometimes even five minutes before their team is about to kick off."My wife (Cynthia) reminds me, ‘Ryan, it’s lonely at the top,'’' Grigson told cleveland.com. "'They don’t have anybody to talk to but you. You’ve been there.'''Fired by the Colts in 2016 after five seasons as GM, Grigson never hesitates to console members of the Distressed GM Club."I feel like it’s been my lot in life,'' he said. "I’m just kind of paying it forward with them, especially the guys that aren’t doing so well, guys that have gotten fired, or guys that are about to get fired, or they’re having trouble in paradise. I just have so much to share.''On Grigson’s way out, he was vilified by Colts players such as Reggie Wayne and Pat McAfee, who described him as arrogant and gruff and said the firing was long overdue. Others blamed him for not protecting 2012 No. 1 overall pick Andrew Luck, who retired last season because of yet another injury, this time an ankle.Never mind that Grigson won Sporting News Executive of the Year in 2013 and produced three straight 11-5 seasons before his two 8-8 campaigns with no playoffs."Just look me up,'' he said. "You’d never believe we won any games.''A former NFL player and career-long personnel man, football is all Grigson knows. He had no idea what was next, so he went home to Cynthia and his six kids, and began hanging out with his 2-year-old son J.J. “the one that got past the goalie" after his five older siblings."He’d go everywhere with me,'' Grigson said. "We’d go to breakfast, the car wash, he was just my buddy. It was pure gold.''Rocked to the core, Grigson knew he had to change. First on the list? Completely transform the way he dealt with people. Specifically, lead from the heart."Once you step into a crucial conversation to where there’s potential for it to get hot, let that person know you’re speaking from the heart,'' he said. "It just disarms everything. Then both people can feel safe in the conversation, and that person can understand that you’re really truly coming from a place that’s good.''Having lost his father when he was young, Grigson felt like he had to be the tough guy and fight through things on his own."There’s no sense in hunkering down,'' he said. "I personally used to draw strength from feeling like it was me against the world. I know there are players that play with a chip on their shoulder. I was kind of an executive with a chip on my shoulder.''His 97-year-old grandmother, who fed him good Polish food and wisdom all of his life, especially after his father passed, told him ‘you catch more flies with honey than vinegar’ after the firing."I told her, ‘grandma, you don’t bring the honey. You bring the vinegar,''' Grigson said. "She said ‘that’s because I have to get you right.'''The All-Consuming GameIntensely competitive and passionate about the game, Grigson let it consume him."You lose your sense of self sometimes and you don’t sleep,'' he said. "You’re non-existent at home, and even when you’re there with at the table, you’re not really present. There aren’t many people that really understand the GM job. It’s a great thing, but you can get lost in it, and you need to hit the reset button.''When Grigson saw how the Colts players viewed him, he took it to heart."It’s funny how you get something pointed out to you and then you’re like ‘geez, why in the hell did I not do that before?'’' he said. "Because really that’s easy for me. But you go through a couple of losses and the honeymoon’s over and things can change.''While hanging out with J.J. and taking his fearless self-inventory, Grigson had a chance to take a job far away from his family."It was for a pretty high position and I was trying to claw my way back,'' he said. "But the thought of leaving that little guy, I couldn’t wrap my mind around it.''Andrew Berry, who had just taken the job as Vice President of Player Personnel with the Browns, persuaded Grigson to come to Cleveland under new team president Sashi Brown as a senior personnel executive."I knew he’d be a great fit within the organization and with the existing group,'' Berry told cleveland.com. "I knew he had top-notch integrity and knew he was really good at his job.''Grigson and Berry, a seven-year personnel man for the Colts, had hit it off in Grigson’s first year as GM in Indy, and became extremely close. Berry was a 25-year-old west coast scout living in San Jose at the time, and Grigson convinced him to move to Indy as Pro Scouting Coordinator."He said, ‘it’s an opportunity that no other individuals in the league in your age-range would have,'’' Berry said. "He said ‘you’re going to grow, develop and contribute a lot with what I have in mind.’ He bet on me and I took a leap of faith.''Grigson had gotten some inside intel on the young scout from a confidante who’s son at played at Harvard with Berry, a four-year starting defensive back there."He told me that not only was Andrew known to be the smartest kid on the team at Harvard, but he was known as one of the smartest kids at Harvard, so that obviously got my attention,'' Grigson said. "I was like ‘okay, that’s not normal, and we should probably get this guy in the building.'’'The bond was actually forged in the weight room during Grigson’s early days in Indy."He’d be in there power-cleaning at like 6 a.m. and I was like ‘What’s this guy’s deal?'’' Grigson said. "Where’s the chink in his armor?''In their four years together with the Colts, Grigson never found one."He’s so nice and he’s really easy-going, and he’s brilliant and all of those things, but I’ve always told people, don’t mistake his kindness for weakness because there’s a lot of inner strength in Andrew,'' Grigson said.Berry was on call for Grigson 24/7 during those years, often getting a text at 10 p.m. to study two guys and help choose the right one."He was in the fire with me with a handful of other guys on the day-to-day,'' Grigson said. "I never realized until later how much he appreciated that. I liked him being with me when things were tense and tough because he was also someone where at those moments when we might feel like the sky is falling, I could flip it and say something and we could have a great laugh. He doesn’t take himself too seriously.''A rising star in the NFLThe problem was, Grigson knew he wouldn’t have him for long."First it was a college that came after him and I wouldn’t let him out and I said ‘just wait, man, the world’s going to be your oyster here soon,'’ he said. "So of course, the very next year, Sashi came calling and Andrew left.''Berry lured Grigson to Cleveland after the draft in 2017, but he was fired in January after new GM John Dorsey took over. Grigson headed West as senior football consultant to John Schneider in Seattle in 2018 and 2019, and Berry left the Browns to serve as Howie Roseman’s Vice President of Football Operations in Philadelphia in 2019 while Dorsey and his crew ran the show in Cleveland.When Berry returned to Cleveland in February as the youngest GM in the NFL at the age of 33, Grigson jumped at the chance to return. An Indiana native, he felt at home here the first time around and was crushed to be let go."It was such a pit in my stomach that I never really got to sink my teeth into anything in Cleveland,'' he said. "I’m 100% Polish and there’s a Polish village, I love the fans, I love the unis. I called my brother one day and said ‘You’d think I was looking at my grandma’s house in Indiana out at Lake Michigan.’ It’s blue collar, it almost had the same smell. I always felt I had a kinship with it, and I always felt like I had unfinished business.''In Cleveland, Grigson was soon on call for Berry 24/7, just like Berry was for Grigson in Indy, often getting those late-night calls to watch tape."I say to him jokingly sometimes, you’re just getting even with me,'' Grigson said. "I get it.''He’s determined not to let Berry make the same mistakes he made in Indy, especially failing to build a stronger offensive line sooner to protect Luck, who was hit 118-plus times from 2012-16, most of any QB in football, according to Sharp Football. Luck played with a lacerated kidney in 2015 and sat out 2017 with a shoulder injury before retiring prior to last season with an ankle injury that failed to heal properly."It’s one thing he’ll readily admit is that he wishes he would’ve accomplished that a little bit better when Andrew was there,'' said Berry. "It’s something he really pounded the table about here in the offseason, the importance of [o-line quality and depth] to our long-term success.''Grigson also never hid from the "Wall of Shame'' that every personnel exec has. Front and center is former Browns running back Trent Richardson, whom he traded a 2014 first-round pick for in 2013. The former No. 3 overall pick in 2012, Richardson flamed out after two seasons and was released."Ryan was never afraid to be aggressive,'' Berry said. "Every GM is going to swing and miss, but Ryan owned all of his decisions. Then he’d work tirelessly and relentlessly to correct a mistake. And he never operated out of fear of a past failure.''Berry’s favorite part of Grigson is his impersonations, not of celebrities, but of their co-workers."He has one for everyone,'' Berry said. "He’ll do other people while you’re around, but he’ll never do you when you’re actually in the room. Everything from the voice, the intonation, and the mannerisms, and they’re just spot on. He just needs to be around the person for like one or two times, and then he gets it super quick.''Berry built a brain for a robot at Harvard and earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in computer science in four years, but he loves to belly-laugh with the best of them, and Grigson provides that for him and others."The more seasons I have under my belt, the more I realize how important that is,'' Berry said.But Grigson could also bring down the hammer, which is why he earned the tyrant label when he left Indy."Ryan cares about the people that he works with,'' Berry said. "He’s very passionate and hyper-competitive. And he’s a very demanding boss, but I actually view that in a good way. [The young scouts] got it from Ryan, but we’re thankful now because it instilled a discipline that’s enabled us to be better at our jobs.''Grigson, who won a Super Bowl with the Rams in 1999 and lost one with the Eagles in 2005, takes pride in those three 11-5 playoff seasons, including a trip to the AFC Championship Game. In his first season, he turned the team around from 2-14 to 11-5 to earn that Executive of the Year Award."It’s not like I’m Jack the Ripper,'' Grigson said. "Regardless of the mistakes I’ve made, I’ve been in this league a long time, with four different teams, and I’ve really only had a handful of losing seasons, like three, including that year in Cleveland (0-16) that I wasn’t part of the draft or free agency. I’m not perfect as a football man but I at least know what it’s supposed to look like and really feel like.''He gets choked up talking about how grateful he is for the chance to bring Cleveland a winner, especially after what he’s been through."This is a football town,'' he said. "You’ve got helmets on the water tower. It’s like okay, ‘this is football country.’ I know how special it is and how special winning will be.''Being in Cleveland reminds Grigson of his close friend and former Browns GM Tom Heckert, whom he worked under for seven seasons in Philadelphia. Heckert died in 2018 at the age of 51 of a long and rare illness, and Grigson saw the toll the GM life took on him. "He always told me, ‘this job is good for one divorce and one heart attack,’'' Grigson said.On Sunday, when the Colts come to town, Grigson’s phone will undoubtedly blow up again with stressed-out GMs needing his guidance, and he’ll be happy to oblige."I’m an open book,'' he said. "I have no shame, I’m fine with who I am, and the past is the past. I still feel like I did some really good things, and it’s over. I’m sinking my teeth into something now that I’m so excited about and I love the challenge.''New Browns face masks for sale: More Browns coverageNote to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.

NEW!146sharesCLEVELAND, Ohio — On any given Sunday, Browns senior football advisor Ryan Grigson receives texts from up to eight NFL general managers needing an ear, sometimes even five minutes before their team is about to kick off."My wife (Cynthia) reminds me, ‘Ryan, it’s lonely at the top,'’' Grigson told cleveland.com. "'They don’t have anybody to talk to but you. You’ve been there.'''Fired by the Colts in 2016 after five seasons as GM, Grigson never hesitates to console members of the Distressed GM Club."I feel like it’s been my lot in life,'' he said. "I’m just kind of paying it...

How ex-Colts GM Ryan Grigson has rebounded by helping Andrew Berry transform the Browns & avoid his mistakes

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