Re-Verba-rations

The Cleveland Browns housecleaning continues.
The Plain Dealer reported today offensive tackle Ross Verba will be shown the door before the day is out, being paid only a $465,000 roster bonus.
Verba was arguably the Browns' best offensive lineman since first coming to the team in 2001. Granted, that's kind of like being named the world's fastest turtle, but parting with any offensive lineman that has reasonable talent such as Verba has is a bold step. It also shows at least an effort by the Browns to not take any crap, at least from players not named Winslow who have omnipresent hall-of-famers for fathers.
Verba whined his way out of Cleveland. After seeing the contracts offensive line pickups Joe Andruzzi and Cosey Coleman got from the Browns, Verba wanted his share of the pie. There's nothing wrong with that, but Verba seemed to go about it all wrong. He tried to call general manager Phil Savage and the Browns front office out in public, taking his beef to the media, threatening a holdout.
As Reuben Droughns has found out, that's a bad idea. Eventually, the running back came slinking back to Cleveland when he realized the Browns weren't going to trade William Green after all.
The departure of Verba is the parting of one more player who gave this team an off-the-field public relations headache in the past year. Verba's perpetual-college-freshman party lifestyle is no secret, with seedy characters allegedly coming and going during all hours from his Westlake home. Last season, a woman cried sexual assault after a party at his house, and even if the alleged incident wasn't directly his fault, Verba became just another flawed Butch Davis acquisition.
The Browns have prepared for Verba's departure by adding linemen L.J. Shelton, and yesterday, Marcus Spears, in free agency.
Nobody will confuse either Shelton or Spears with perennial all-pros, but in Cleveland, that's not even the first order of business. Getting players who know how to conduct themselves off the field is a more basic need.