[Allsports#1]

PITTSBURGH -- Hard as it is to believe, the Browns have fired coach Rob Chudzinski after only one season.

At about 9:35 Sunday night, the team sent out a release announcing they fired Chudzinski after his 4-12 inaugural season, one that ended with a 20-7 loss to Pittsburgh Sunday for the club's seventh straight loss and tenth in 11 games.
The team called a press conference for 12:30 p.m. Monday and issued the following unattributed statement:
"We appreciate Chud's passion for the Browns, and we have great respect for him both personally and professionally. We needed to see progress with this football team. We needed to see development and improvement as the season evolved and, unfortunately, we took a concerning step backward in the second half of the year.
"Our fans deserve to see a consistently competitive team. We have high standards, and there's an urgency for success. When we believed we were not positioned to achieve significant progress in 2014, we knew we had to admit that a change was needed, and move forward.
"Browns fans are the most loyal and passionate supporters in the NFL. We're fully committed to bringing them the winning football team they deserve."