Originally Posted by NFL.com

Cleveland Browns general manager Michael Lombardi hasn't been seen by the media since he was promoted to GM a few weeks ago. That's by design.

"I'm just being very honest," Banner told the Plain-Dealer Monday at the NFL Annual meeting Monday. "Mike is a little bit of a lightning rod. Distraction won't serve anybody's interests. He's got a tremendous amount of work to do right now, and whether that's good, bad or fair or not it doesn't really matter. It's just the reality of the situation."

Lombardi is only a "lightning rod" in Cleveland. Many media members and some fans don't seem to be big fans based on Lombardi's last stint with the team during the Bill Belichick era. Lombardi's introductory press conference when he joined the team was combative to an almost comical degree from an outsider's perspective. (We're sure the Browns found it less funny.)

"It attracts a lot of attention and it gets a lot of strong reaction and I think it's better for us right now and better for him to keep things calm, low key, focus on his work and then kind of more gradually let that situation take care of itself," Banner said Tuesday.

It makes sense for the Browns to keep Lombardi out of the spotlight when introducing new free agents if he's going to be the focus. Plenty of GMs keep a low profile; it hasn't exactly stopped Kevin Colbert in Pittsburgh or Ted Thompson in Green Bay from doing a great job. Although hiding Lombardi may give the Cleveland media more to complain about.