Silence is golden – very much so.

 

Nothing is something – something really good.

 

That’s if you’re the Browns and it’s training camp.

 

Camp started a week ago today. By this time the last two years, Browns camp was a circus, with quarterback Johnny Manziel acting crazy and General Manager Ray Farmer and head coach Mike Pettine acting like little boys as they tried to find how many ways they could undermine each other.

 

It was a dysfunctional situation to say the least, which served to be such a distraction that the Browns got buried in their own foolishness. That they were able to sift through all that junk and still win three games is amazing, but disgusting.

 

Major dysfunction – potentially even more damaging on a grander scale — was once again lurking as the Browns entered camp this year. Running back Isaiah Crowell had drawn the ire of the entire country with his disgusting Instagram post regarding police. Then there was the reinstatement of suspended wide receiver Josh Gordon, whose incredible ability on the field is matched only by his incredible inability to stay out of trouble off the field.

 

Smartly so, the Browns publicly addressed both issues just as camp was starting, thus getting everything out on the table and out of the way, at least for now. The club made sure there was no time for rumor and innuendo to rear their ugly heads. Meanwhile, Crowell and Gordon have done their part from the get-go by saying and doing all the right things.

 

Like a good play, the Browns couldn’t have drawn up a better scenario.

 

Credit the team’s hierarchy for that. From owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam to Vice President of Football Operations Sashi Brown to head coach Hue Jackson and all of his assistants, they have created an environment where rebuilding the football team – not all the off-the-field zaniness of the recent pass – is the first and only priority.

 

It may not be glitzy.

 

Or wild and crazy.

 

Or hot and sexy.

 

Or unpredictable.

 

And as such, media members are not happy.  Instead of having salacious stories dropped into their lap day after day after day – several times a day in some cases, in fact – they have had to sort out boring, run-of-the mill stories on their own. They’re having to write about football.

 

How not-so-cool is that?

 

Whatever potential this year’s Browns have, they now have a much, much, much better chance to reach it than they’ve had in a long time. There is nothing – there will be nothing – diverting their attention.

 

Oh, sure, something eventually will happen that will get everyone talking. That happens every year with every team. It’s unavoidable. It’s just how things work, for whatever reason.

 

But when it happens to them this year, the Browns will be ready. They’ll have a well-thought-out plan in place to manage the situation and quell it before it gets out of control. Then they’ll quickly get back to the business of football.

 

And the quietness of it all will be the best thing the Browns have heard – or not heard, as it were – in several years.