Random Man Fed Browns Writer Tony Grossi a Completely Fake Head Coaching Rumor and He Ran With it

The Cleveland Browns' delayed head coaching search remains one of the NFL's most perplexing storylines. After all, they fired Freddie Kitchens way back on Dec. 29 and don't appear close to coming to a settlement.

There has been no shortage of hot commodities linked to the vacancy -- Josh McDaniels, Robert Saleh, Jim Schwartz, Brian Daboll, and Eric Bieniemy, to name a few. But do you remember when it was reported that Cleveland was considering Toronto Argonauts head coach Ryan Dinwiddie for the job? Well, that was the result of a random guy feeding Browns writer Tony Grossi a compeletely fabricated rumor via a cheesy text message.

It's worth noting that nobody truly took this rumor very seriously, including Grossi himself, but this is ultimately textbook negligence.

We understand the acclaim one would receive tabbing an unlikely name as a candidate for the Browns' head coaching job, but the fact that Grossi didn't simply huck this one right into the trash bin given that it came via anonymous text message is befuddling to say the least.

Grossi's story is behind a subscription wall, but Canadian football site 3DownNation aggregated it and presented the rumor as a legit report.

You can rest easy, Browns buffs. The Dinwiddie buzz was nothing more than a farce.