BELICHICK WAS RIGHT – AGAIN, STILL
By STEVE KING
6-30-18
Bill Belichick has been a big fan of – and, more importantly, a good friend of – Jim Brown since the head coach’s days in Cleveland with the Browns from 1991-95.
As such, then, I paid particular attention when Belichick said recently that he’s afraid that Brown’s contributions to the game – he’s the greatest player ever, bar none, at any position, not just running back – and society will be forgotten at some point.
Brown is 82 and still serves as special advisor to the Browns.
At first, I thought Belichick was wrong. He’s one of the greatest coaches of all-time – perhaps even THE greatest – but, as I figured, that doesn’t mean he’s a genius in other areas.
Then I heard something that convinced me that Belichick was indeed correct with his opinion.
Michael Wilbon, whom I respect greatly and whose opinion I value just as much, made a comment the other day on his popular “Pardon the Interruption Show” ESPN TV show with Tony Kornheiser that just about knocked me out of my chair.
Wilbon said in a matter-of-fact manner that Bill Walsh is the coach who spawned the modern passing game in the NFL.
Again, I really like Wilbon. He knows his stuff, and he knows his sports history.
And I have tremendous respect – there’s that word again – for all of the contributions that Walsh made to football, especially the passing attack. There’s a reason why he’s in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
But even with all that, Wilbon is wrong – dead wrong. And the guy who would tell him that if he were still alive is none other than Walsh.
Walsh said any number of times that everything in the modern passing game comes from Paul Brown, under whom he worked with the Cincinnati Bengals and the man who is known as “The Father of Modern Football” for all of the innovations he brought to the game.
But Brown, as iconic as he was – and still is, in many respects – died in 1991, and he last coached a game 43 years ago. That’s a long time in both respects. As such, he’s fading from memory.
And if Paul Brown, who, incidentally, coached Jim Brown in Cleveland for the first six years of his career, can be forgotten, so, too, can Brown one day.
That’s sad – for both men.
Now, does this mean that the same thing could happen to Bill Belichick?
Yup.
IF IT CAN HAPPEN TO WINSTON …
6-29-18
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston is in trouble.
Again.
Still.
Only this time, it’s more serious than ever. This time, he’s going to sit the first three games of the year after being suspended by the NFL for his involvement in an incident with a female Uber driver.
It was going to be tough anyway for the Bucs to win any of their first three games – against the Saints in New Orleans in the opener followed by visits by the defending Super Bowl champions Philadelphia Eagles and then the Pittsburgh Steelers. But without Winston, the Bucs have virtually no chance in any of those contests. The best they can hope for is to be competitive.
It’s bad enough for an NFL player to do something stupid off the field. But it’s even worse when that guy is the quarterback – the face of the franchise.
And that’s who – what — Winston is.
With all that, then, Winston’s irresponsibility – his decision not to take care of his business, not to act like the face of the franchise and the leader of the Bucs – has been a kick to the teeth of all his teammates. He has let them down greatly.
What will he say – what can he say – to them in the locker room?
Saying “Sorry” won’t cut it.
But this a is a Browns website. So, then, you might say, “What does tis have to do with the Browns?”
A whole lot, and thank you for asking.
Rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield, whom the Browns expect to be their face of the franchise at some point, has had some … uh, history with not behaving himself on – and off – the field. He has said he’ll do the right thing, and the Browns say he’ll do the right thing.
But until he actually goes out and does the right thing – not just once, but every day, all day – there will be a fear by some that he will get himself into trouble as well.
Let’s hope – let’s pray – that Baker Mayfield is paying full attention to the Jameis Winston disaster. More specifically, let’s hope – and pray – that he is learning a valuable lesson from it.
SOME GOOD ‘LIST’ NEWS FOR A CHANGE
6-28-18
The Browns have been near the top on more than enough bad NFL lists recently.
That goes without saying – it’s what a team has to expect – when it goes 0-16 in 2017 and 1-31 over the last two seasons.
It’s enough to make your head hurt – a lot. Excuse me while I take two aspirin.
Two minutes later: OK, I’m back.
But take heart, Browns fans, for your team is now near the top of a good NFL list. In a story in Wednesday’s USA Today, Nate Davis rates the Browns No. 3 when it comes to emergency quarterback options. They are behind only, in order, the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, who have Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles backing up Carson Wentz — that’s incredibly strong – and the New York Jets, who have former Brown Josh McCown and Teddy Bridgewater playing behind rookie Sam Darnold.
That’s right, the Browns are not near the top of just any ol’ list, but rather a list of quarterbacks – albeit emergency, or back-up, ones. When’s the last time that anything good has been said or written about the Browns when it comes to quarterback?
Yeah, it’s been a while.
Anyway, here’s what Davis has to say about the Browns: “New arrivals Tyrod Taylor and Baker Mayfield led their previous teams to the playoffs in 2017, though the Bills don’t recruit nearly as well as Oklahoma, so advantage to Taylor (already anointed as Cleveland’s Week 1 starter, for what it’s worth). But assuming Mayfield plays at some point, the Browns will either have a guy with a 91.2 career passing rating in the NFL or a Heisman Trophy winner drafted No. 1 overall in reserve … to say nothing of capable veteran Drew Stanton.”
In the rest of the AFC North, the Baltimore Ravens are No. 8, the Pittsburgh Steelers 13 and the Cincinnati Bengals at 31, or next-to-last.
THE LOSS OF THE GREAT DON ROGERS
6-27-18
Wednesday marks the anniversary of one of the darkest, saddest moments in Browns history.
It’s when the world lost a truly wonderful young man, and the Browns lost one of their best and brightest young stars on a team that we know now was full of them.
It’s also when, for all intents and purposes, the Browns lost the 1986 AFC Championship Game – and probably the one in 1987 as well.
It was 32 years ago, on June 27, 1986, that standout free safety Don Rogers died of a cocaine overdose at a bachelor part on the night before he was to have been married. He was just 23.
Rogers, taken in the first round, at No. 18 overall, in the 1984 NFL Draft out of UCLA, had played two years with the Browns and likely would have developed into the best safety they have ever had – better even than the great Eric Turner, who also played at UCLA, better even than the great Ken Konz, who anchored the back end of those impressive Browns defenses of the 1950s, and better even than the great Thom Darden, a Sandusky native whose 45 career interceptions are a club record.
Yes, all those guys were tremendous – very much so — but none of them had the combination of strength, speed, power and hands that Rogers possessed. He delivered hits like a sledgehammer. Sometimes, he hit opposing players so hard that you held your breath until they got up in one piece.
Everybody knew that the loss of Rogers would really hurt the Browns secondary – and really, the defense overall – but no one had any idea – not even the slightest – how devastating it would be.
But it didn’t take long to find out. Without Rogers back there, there was no one to stop Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway on “The Drive” in the 1986 AFC Championship Game that the Browns ended up losing 23-20 in overtime. Absolutely no doubt about it, at some point in that march, the presence of Rogers would have put a halt to it and clinched the win for Cleveland. Elway would have known better than to take off and run, lest he get clocked by Rogers, or to try the middle of the field on passes, less the receivers get blasted by Rogers.
Elway didn’t wait until the end of the 1987 AFC title contest before passing the Browns silly. He did it almost from the start of the game in Denver’s eventual 38-33 triumph. But again, that would not have happened had Rogers been playing.
All these years later, those losses – and so much more so, obviously, the loss of Rogers — still sting.
May you rest in peace, Don Rogers.
SACKING THE HEISMAN WINNER – TWICE!
6-26-18
Even though Baker Mayfield is no longer playing for the Oklahoma Sooners, the Browns rookie quarterback is making news – big news, really – in college football.
Let me explain.
Chris Johnson and Eric Single of sportsillustrated.com recently put together a story on their list of the top 100 players in college football for the 2018 season. It is a great read. It is definitely worth checking out.
Their No. 1 player? It’s probably no one you’ve ever heard of – University of Houston defensive tackle Ed Oliver. That’s not the real story as far as Browns – and for that matter, also Sooners – fans are concerned. Rather, it’s in the description of Oliver by Johnson and Single and what first attracted them to Oliver:
Here it is:
“We’ve been waiting to unequivocally say, ‘Ed Oliver is the best player in the country,’ for two long years, ever since he sacked Baker Mayfield twice in the first game of the 2016 season and it was pointed out that that was a true freshman out there, terrorizing Oklahoma and its future Heisman winner on national television in his college debut. After two years of watching the 6’3″, 290-pound former five-star recruit slice through offensive lines that spent all week worrying about containing him, swim through the backfield with the agility of a cornerback and rip down ballcarriers with one hand, it’s clear now that there’s no one else like Oliver in the country.
“His 39.5 tackles for loss over two seasons (2017 included a knee injury that held Oliver back in a couple of games) can’t be chalked up to the quality of his regular competition. In fact, in one sense the AAC, with its abundance of quick-strike offenses and shifty playmakers, is the perfect setting to marvel at the way Oliver storms the pocket with no regard for who’s trying to block him, blowing up plays before they get off the ground.
“His early-March announcement that he would declare for the 2019 NFL draft—before the 2018 draft had taken place—appropriately set the expectations for his junior season. Pull up his official player page on the Houston Athletics website here in mid-June and note that a UH sports information department staffer has helpfully listed no fewer than 54 honors bestowed upon him in the two years and change he has been a Cougar. Every p.r. flex has been deserved, and there will be more to come when the 2019 draft cycle begins in earnest and he finds himself on the short list for the No. 1 overall pick. But first, he has one last fall filled with superhuman highlights for college fans to enjoy.”
Somebody needs to ask Baker Mayfield when training camp begins in about a month.
SIZING UP THE BROWNS QUARTERBACKS
6-25-18
With veteran starter Tyrod Taylor and rookie back-up Baker Mayfield, the Browns have, at least on paper, their best set of quarterbacks in the expansion era.
The Browns also have their shortest set.
Both quarterbacks are listed at 6-foot-1, but that’s being kind. They are more like an even 6 feet.
In a day and age in football, especially in the NFL, when bigger is better, specifically at quarterback, having two passers that short is really an anomaly. For that matter, having two quarterbacks that short would have been an eye-raiser 25 years ago.
Think of it this way: The Browns have two guys the size of Brian Sipe. Sipe, the triggerman of the Kardiac Kids from 1978-83 (he first joined the team in 1972 but didn’t come of age until six years later when Sam Rutigliano arrived as head coach), was just 6 feet tall. But it didn’t stop hm from excelling. After Pro Football Hall of Famer Otto Graham, Sipe and some guy named Bernie Kosar – perhaps you’ve heard of him — are the two best quarterbacks in Browns history. Sipe used to talk about finding lanes to throw through, which, in essence, is what Taylor and Mayfield do.
Because they are the same size, Taylor should – we say should because there has to be a good, trusting relationship in place between them – be a good teacher to/mentor for Mayfield. Along with that, Taylor doesn’t have anywhere close to the arm that Mayfield has. He’s had to learn all the little things – do all the little things – to make up for that.
If Mayfield can pick up on those nuances and implement them into his game, then by combining that with his arm, he should – again, we use the word “should” – become just that much better potentially.
And by doing that, then Mayfield would be making up for his size disadvantage, just as Taylor has.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ART
6-24-18
Art Modell’s birthday was Saturday.
The late former Browns owner, who was born in 1925 in Brooklyn (New York, not Ohio), would have turned 93. He died on Sept. 6, 2012 at the age of 87.
His birthday came and went with hardly a mention. For one thing, it’s the middle of the summer “season,” with the start of training camp still a month away. So, with everybody in the NFL taking a three-week vacation to get rested, recharged and ready for the grind ahead, football is the last thing on anyone’s mind, anywhere. That’s even the case in football-crazy places like Cleveland, where the sports focus is on the streaking Indians and the impending decision by LeBron James on where he will play next season.
As such, then, Modell isn’t even on the radar in these parts.
But that’s not to say he has faded from the memory of Browns fans. Hardly. That will never happen – never, ever in a million years.
Yes, the fans have moved on, but they haven’t forgotten what Modell did following the 1995 season when, after pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes, he moved the Browns to Baltimore. As the story is written in Baltimore, Modell graciously gave back to Cleveland the Browns’ name and history for an expansion team that would begin playing in 1999. The truth of the matter is that the other NFL owners told him he had to do it or else they would veto his move of the original Browns to Baltimore. Then – and only then – did he relent.
As a beat writer, I knew Modell and liked him. I really did. He was a good man – honest, kind, generous, accommodating, charitable and fair.
Then he moved the team and completely changed the narrative on his legacy. That wiped out all the good stuff.
And it will forever keep him out of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which, in Art Modell’s eyes, was a stiff, stiff price to pay for his greed and inability to be a good businessman.
THE DIFFERENCE IS ALSO THE … COACHES
6-23-18
Jonathan Jones, a good writer for sportsillustrated.com, did a piece on why he doesn’t believe Hue Jackson when the Browns head coach talks about veteran Tyrod Taylor clearly being the guy – the starting quarterback — ahead of rookie Baker Mayfield.
Jones says that Jackson last year made all kinds of proclamations about his starting quarterback and reneged on all of them. So why should anything be different this time?
Well, for two reasons, one of which I explained in my last post in that comparing Taylor and Mayfield, who may be the Browns’ best quarterback combination, to Cody Kessler, Brock Osweiler and DeShone Kizer, who were arguably the worst, is like comparing apples and oranges.
But, as mentioned, there’s another reason, and it has to do with the addition of Todd Haley as offensive coordinator this year.
Last year, Jackson was the only offensive mind – quarterback mind – on the coaching staff. This year, he is not the No. 1 guy. It is Haley.
Don’t under-estimate for a minute the presence of Haley. He’s the guy on offense now. He’s the guy on the quarterbacks now.
Sure, Jackson has a big say – he’s the head coach, remember? – but General Manager John Dorsey didn’t bring in Haley – woo Haley, recruit Haley, sell Haley – to come in here to be an offensive-quarterback subordinate to Jackson. Rather, Haley was brought in to run the offense, period, and run the quarterbacks, period, so Jackson could concentrate on what he should have been concentrating on all along, and that is running the team.
Plus, let’s be honest, Haley came here with a “wink, wink” from Dorsey that if Jackson messes up badly again to start the season, then Haley could well be named the head coach since team owner Jimmy Haslam and the GM have sent down the edict that the Browns have to start winning games – NOW.
So Jonathan Jones – and everybody else – need to take what Hue Jackson says about the quarterbacks with a grain of salt. Instead, pay attention to what Todd Haley says about them. His are the only words that really matter on the subject.
AN INTERESTING STORY – BUT IT ISN’T ACCURATE
6-22-18
Jonathan Jones of sportsillustrated.com wrote an ineresting article on the Browns’ quarterback situation the other day.
He pointed out that Hue Jackson at this time last year said a series of strong things about his quarterbacks, and the Browns head coach reneged on most of them. After giving the job to first Cody Kessler and later Brock Osweiler, Jackson ended up handing it to rookie DeShone Kizer. As such, then, Jones isn’t paying a lot of attention to what Jackson has said this year about making veteran Tyrod Taylor the starter, deciding to keep rookie Baker Mayfield, the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft, as the backup, and sticking with that order for the foreseeable future.
While I respect Jones and can certainly understand how he came to his conclusion, I absolutely, positively do not agree with it all – not in the least bit.
First of all, comparing Kessler, Osweiler and Kizer – not so much Kizer, really, but Kessler and, most of all, Osweiler, a terrible quarterback – to Taylor and Mayfield on anything close to a level basis is ludicrous. And that’s putting it mildly.
The truth of the matter – something that Jones didn’t, couldn’t or chose not to figure out – is that Jackson last year kept changing his choice of quarterbacks from Kessler to Osweiler and then finally to Kizer because he discovered that the first two guys couldn’t play — not at all. Concerning Jaskson’s comments to which Jones alluded, Hue was doing what any coach should do by talking up Kessler and Osweiler. He has to support them in public. It is important to keep their confidence up.
Jackson finally went to Kizer in desperation. He had no other choice. It was the team’s best chance to win.
That the Browns after that still didn’t win any games at all last year is a clear, emphatic statement about just how bad Kessler and Osweiler were, and still are.
That should have been in the story Jones wrote. But, unfortunately for everybody involved, most notably Jonathan Jones, it wasn’t.
And there’s one other prominent thing that wasn’t in the story, but should have been, and I will tell you what that is in my next post.
ANOTHER NATIONAL VIEW OF THE BROWNS
6-21-18
I said in my last post that I would reveal the last of Tuesday’s three national stories about the Browns. And, as I said, this is one with which I disagree wholeheartedly.
This story, by sportsillustrated.com’s Jonathan Jones, is:
“I don’t have a single doubt that Tyrod Taylor has earned the right to be the Cleveland Browns’ starting quarterback heading into training camp. He went 22-20 over three years as the Bills’ starter while accounting for 65 touchdowns against 16 interceptions.
“ ‘I know it was given in the beginning, but he still had to do the things that were going to let him be the starting quarterback here and he’s done that,’ Hue Jackson told reporters last week.
“But just how long will Taylor hold on to that top spot this summer, especially as No. 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield makes his run to be the Week 1 starter? Jackson has made similarly strong proclamations about his starting quarterback before. A look back at what he had to say about three different QBs—none on the level of Taylor or Mayfield—at different points last summer:
“July 26: ‘Cody Kessler will walk out there first. He deserves a chance to walk out there first.’
“Aug. 7: Brock Osweiler is named the preseason starter. ‘This thing is not over by any stretch. This is the decision I’ve made at this time.’
“Aug. 23: DeShone Kizer named the starter for the third exhibition. ‘…this is the next step he needs to take and he deserves this opportunity.’
“Aug. 27: Kizer is named the Week 1 starter. ‘He’s earned the right to play through his preparation.’
“Taylor and Mayfield won’t make this decision easy for Jackson… whenever he reaches the final decision.”
I’ll comment on this in my next post.
GOOD NEWS: BROWNS GET SOME LOVE IN THE NEWS
6-20-18
The Browns were extremely prominent in the national sports media conversation – three times over — on Tuesday, twice in a positive manner and the other in a misguided way – at least in my opinion.
Nate Davis, a writer at usatoday.com, is really intrigued with the Browns’ signing on Tuesday of offensive tackle Greg Robinson. Here’s his piece:
“Joe Thomas was the No. 3 pick of the 2007 NFL Draft. Could the Cleveland Browns replace him with the man who was taken second overall seven years later?
“The team signed tackle Greg Robinson, once taken out of Auburn with that lofty selection by the St. Louis Rams in 2014, Tuesday as it continues to collect options in the wake of Thomas’ offseason retirement.
“Robinson played in 46 of a possible 48 games with the Rams but was a major disappointment, being traded to Detroit following the 2016 campaign. He filled in for injured left tackle Taylor Decker for six games in 2017 before suffering his own season-ending ankle injury.
“Robinson could get another shot in Cleveland as new man on the blind side, a post where Thomas notched 10 consecutive Pro Bowl nods before tearing a triceps muscle last season. Tackle was long the rare strength on a roster that has otherwise been woefully deficient. But Thomas no longer felt he could live up to his own Hall of Fame-caliber abilities, and solid right tackle Mitchell Schwartz signed a big contract with Kansas City following the 2015 season.
“The Browns also have Shon Coleman and newly signed Chris Hubbard as tackle options. Veteran Donald Stephenson is another but has been suspended for the first two games of the 2018 season for substance abuse violations. Veteran Joel Bitonio and rookie Austin Corbett — both played tackle at Nevada — seem better suited to guard in the NFL, but either could go outside.”
Also at USA Today, columnist Mike Jones, in a piece entitled, “Taking stock of NFL’s offseason,” listed the Browns’ major moves at No. 2 among his 10 top takeaways from the offseason work headed into training camp. He wrote this about the club, calling it “Cleveland’s aggressive makeover”:
“The Browns held our attention in 2017, but only because it’s hard to look away from an 0-16 train wreck. But new General Manager John Dorsey has directed an aggressive offseason, which included the acquisition and extension of wide receiver Jarvis Landry and trades for quarterback Tyrod Taylor and defensive back Damarious Randall. In the draft, they landed players they hope to be future cornerstones in Baker Mayfield (No. 1 overall) and cornerback Denzel Ward (No. 4). The Browns appear to have the pieces in place to improve — a must for Hue Jackson after going 1-31 in the last two seasons.”
The one I don’t agree with, will be the focus of my next post. It discusses a topic I just reference on brownsdailydose.com.
WHAT WOULD WILLIS AND MOTLEY SAY?
6-19-18
I can’t quit thinking about Terrell Owners’ decision, for whatever reason, to boycott his own induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in a little less than two months.
It’s just crazy.
What’s the next thing in his life that the former wide receiver will refuse to show up for?
Dinner?
Family functions?
Taking a shower?
What?
Owens is, of course, an African-American, and as such, I wonder what Bill Willis and Marion Motley would say about his decisions to snub his nose at the Hall of Fame and stay away on enshrinement weekend?
Willis, from Columbus East High School and Ohio State (he was on the Buckeyes’ first national championship team in 1942), and Motley, a Canton McKinley High School product, were the two players who permanently broke the color barrier in pro football coming out of World War II when they starred on the first Browns team in 1946 in the All-America Football Conference.
Willis, a middle guard, and Motley, a fullback, both played in Cleveland from 1946-53, and both are in the Hall of Fame.
Willis and Motley endured a lot of abuse – a whole heckuva lot — mentally, emotionally and physically. When I interviewed Willis in 2005, about two years before he died, he told me, in detail, about some of those things. That he – and Willis – took all that and never fought back, which have set the movement of African-American players back decades, it enabled Owens to have a much, much, much better situation – not a perfect situation, mind you, but one that was tremendously better — by the time he got to the NFL exactly a half-decade later.
There is no way at all that Bill Willis and Marion Motley would have ever boycotted their HOF induction ceremonies in protest of that horrible treatment. They knew that there were bigger issues, and it was to be looking forward instead of looking back. They knew they couldn’t change history, but that they could change the future. So they focused their efforts on tomorrow, not yesterday.
Perhaps Terrell Owens would be better served to do the same.
STARTING JOB TAYLOR-MADE FOR A VETERAN
6-18-18
Everybody – or at least plenty of people – are putting a whole lot of focus on the fact that veteran Tyrod Taylor has won the starting quarterback job for the Browns over rookie Baker Mayfield.
These people are saying – and writing – that it’s a really big deal.
What?
How is it a really big deal? How is it any kind of deal? How is it even just a news story?
News flash. Stop the presses. Breaking news. Bulletin. We interrupt this program for …
Huh? Are you kidding? Really?
Unless Taylor got hurt during the spring work, which includes the OTAs, minicamps and, a lot of people forget, also the strength and conditioning program, he wasn’t going to lose the job heading into training camp in about five weeks. There was absolutely, positively no way. He could have thrown every passing attempt into the ground or sailed it over the fence and into the homes – and one church – that surround the practice fields on three sides at Browns Headquarters in Berea, and he still wouldn’t have lost his job.
Likewise, Mayfield could have looked like the second coming of Otto Graham, Frank Ryan, Bill Nelsen, Brian Sipe and Bernie Kosar all rolled into one, and he wasn’t going to win the job. It just wasn’t going to happen. It just wasn’t in the cards.
Browns head coach Hue Jackson said all along that the job was Taylor’s and it wasn’t going to change, and he meant it. But apparently, not everyone believed him. I don’t know why that was, for it seemed pretty clear, pretty obvious and pretty common-sense.
The Browns last year started a rookie in DeDhone Kizer, and the results were disastrous. Sure, Kizer was the best quarterback they had, but still, you just can’t go with a rookie in game 1. You just can’t. And the Browns, especially Jackson, learned that painful lesson in an 0-16 finish.
So, with much more of an emphasis being placed on winning this season, neither Mayfield nor any other rookie was going to be in the lineup from the get-go. It was going to be Taylor.
Gee, I thought everybody knew that long ago.
But I guess that wasn’t the case.
Yikes!
TRYING TO BE NICE, BECAUSE THAT’S WHO HUE IS
6-17-18
People who are longtime readers of this site – we certainly hope you’re in that group, and if so, thank you very much, but if not, we appreciate that you’ve found us and are coming back for more – know that one of our mantras is that we’re going to read between the lines.
Sure, we listen to what these coaches, players, general managers and owners say, but more importantly, we listen to how they say it and as such, what they really mean. A lot of times, there’s a huge difference between what they say, and how they say it. Thy mean two separate things entirely.
Such was the case last week during the team’s full-squad minicamp when Browns head coach Hue Jackson was asked to evaluate Shon Coleman’s work in trying to fill the Pro Football Hall of Fame-sized hole created at left tackle by the retirement of Joe Thomas in the offseason.
Specifically, Jackson was asked if Coleman’s performance last season at right tackle gives an indication that he can succeed at left tackle against top NFL pass-rushers, and here’s what he said:
“We will see. We have not played a game with him over there. Shon has done a good job. Shon has worked extremely hard. He deserves the right to have this opportunity to see if he can be the left tackle. We will know more about that once the pads come on and it is an everyday get after it session. I think him and Myles, every day he is finding out because those are the kind of guys that he is going to have to block at that position week in and week out.”
While Jackson, a good guy, was trying to be nice and not throw Coleman under the bus, especially since Thomas, whom the team really respects and wants to honor, thinks he can do the job at left tackle, it was backhanded compliment stuff.
In essence, Jackson was saying, “Coleman is out there and working hard and has improved, but I don’t think there’s any way on God’s green earth that he can do the job at left tackle.”
So there you have it. Don’t give Hue a lie-detector test on that one.
LOOK NO. 2 AT K2
6-16-18
Perhaps it’s not the best time to wonder “what if” with former Browns tight end since, as I pointed out in my last post, he is in so much trouble with the law right now.
But at the same time, perhaps it’s a great time to do so because these off-the-field struggles remind us of the fact that there was once greatness predicted for him on the field.
Winslow, of course, was taken by the Browns with the sixth overall pick in the 2004 NFL Draft and then missed all but two games of his first two seasons because of leg injuries.
He came back in 2006 and had a super “rookie” season, tying Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end Ozzie Newsome for the team record with 89 receptions. He followed that up with 82 receptions in 2007, giving him 171 for those two years. In terms of catches in consecutive seasons, that total is second only in Browns history to Newsome’s 178, earned with two 89-reception efforts in 1983 and ’84. Newsome never came close to those totals for the remainder of his career, but still set a Browns mark with 662 career receptions.
I remember talking with Winslow about all that in the 2008 training camp, telling him that if he continued at anything close to the pace he had in the previous two seasons, he would have challenged Newsome for the career receptions record. I pointed out to him that even if he fell a little short of the mark, he would likely still finish second because the current No. 2 total, turned in by Gary Collins, is exactly half of Newsome’s, at 331.
But that’s pretty much where it ended for him in Cleveland. He got just 43 catches in an injury-plagued 2008, after which he was traded by head coach Eric Mangini to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. With them, he had 218 catches over a three-year span.
After finishing his career by playing one game for the New England Patriots in 2012, and 12 with the New York Jets in ’13, he had accumulated 469 receptions for 5,236 yards and 25 touchdowns. If those statistics had all been earned with the Browns, then he would be second on the team in catches and fourth in yards.
Too bad he didn’t stay long enough to do that.
Nonetheless, those numbers are not bad – not bad at all — for a guy who, after getting so banged up in those first two seasons in Cleveland, was just a shadow of himself physically for the rest of his career. What might he have done if those health issues hadn’t occurred?
We’ll never know. We can only speculate.
WINSLOW FACING SOME BIG-TIME PROBLEMS
6-15-18
As you have no doubt heard, former Browns tight end Kellen Winslow Jr., the No. 6 overall pick in the 2004 NFL Draft, is in big, big trouble.
He was arrested Thursday at his home at his home in Encinitas, Calif. on a warrant. He is charged with nine counts, including two of kidnapping with the intent to commit rape, two of rape, one of forcible sodomy and two of residential burglary.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of the alleged victims. Those are terrible crimes to which no one should be subjected.
And our thoughts and prayers also go out to Winslow, who was to have been arraigned Friday. Let’s hope that when it’s all sorted out, he’s innocent.
But merely with all those charges being levied against him – law enforcement doesn’t charge people with crimes unless they’re pretty certain of the evidence they’ve gathered – he’s in a very serious situation.
Then there’s also the fact that Winslow, now 34 and with his NFL playing days well behind him (he last played in 2013, with the New York Jets), was arrested last week after police responded to reports of a possible burglary in a mobile home park. He was held on $50,000 bail on one count of first-degree burglary and then released early last Friday morning.
This only makes his predicament worse.
The Browns – and head coach Butch Davis, who had recruited him to the University of Miami before leaving to take the Cleveland job in 2001 – were thrilled to get Winslow in the draft. He was going to be the big, fast, strong and sure-handed downfield threat the team’s passing game sorely needed.
But, as we all know, it didn’t work out as planned, at least not with Browns, with whom his time was filled with what may stand as a team record – certainly at least in the expansion era — for misfortune, drama and controversy.
And now there’s more of that. Only this time, it has nothing to do with football, which epitomizes the seriousness of what he’s facing.
More on Kellen Winslow Jr. in my next post.
NOW HERE’S A QUOTE WE CAN USE
6-14-18
A lot of times, NFL players aren’t great interviews.
All up through their careers, beginning way back in high school, they’ve been schooled by their coaches not to say anything provocative that will get them or the team in trouble. So they end up repeating what the coaches say in meetings and during practice. The result is that there is a lot of coach-speak going on.
And to be honest, it’s kind of boring. Actually, it’s really boring.
That’s why I found what Browns running back Duke Johnson said Tuesday as the team’s mandatory full-squad minicamp was getting under way, so refreshing, so interesting, so truly enlightening.
It came when Johnson was asked how good the Browns offense could be this season. The inference, obviously, was that it was going to be pretty good. But just how good did Johnson think it could be?
Here’s what he had to say:
“I talk to my family and my brothers all the time about how, on paper, we have a solid team — a very good team on paper. But again, we have to come out and perform. Everyone has to be on the same page. Everyone has to know what we are doing, game in and game out. We just have to make sure we prepare like we want to win.”
That, my friends, was an intelligent and honest comment.
The Browns have been 1-31 the last two seasons, including 0-16 in 2017. And their offense – or lack thereof, as it were – was a big reason for that. The offense was downright putrid. It was painful to watch.
With that, then, the Browns are going into 2018 starting at the bottom of the barrel offensively. They can’t get any lower.
So before anyone starts waxing poetic about how good the Browns offense is going to be this year, perhaps we should begin by saying how it might not be as bad.
Good for Duke Johnson that he said that in so many words.
YOU GOTTA LIKE GORDON’S STYLE
6-13-18
Players in every sport at every level have to believe in themselves.
If they don’t believe in themselves, then who is going to believe in them?
To be sure, excelling in sports is about the mental and emotional aspect as much as it is the physical aspect.
With all that having been said, then, you have to admire the spunk – and confidence – of Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon. It is impressive. I like it. I like it a lot – a whole lot. I only wish more players on the team had it. If so, then the Browns would be in a better place. They would not be trying to climb out of the cavernous hole they’ve dug for themselves after finishing 1-31 the last two seasons, including 0-16 last year.
For openers, Gordon said the other day as the Browns began their full-squad minicamp that will close their offseason work that veteran starter Tyrod Taylor and rookie backup Baker Mayfield are the best quarterback combination the club has had in the time he’s been here.
Good for him that he said that. Again, if he doesn’t believe in the Browns, then who will?
Yes, Taylor, who helped carry the beleaguered Buffalo Bills to the playoffs last season before being traded to Cleveland in the offseason, and Mayfield, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, are a pretty good pair. The Browns have had no one like them in the expansion era, especially since 2013, when Gordon arrived. But it’s not raising the bar very high, for the Browns have struggled mightily since that time.
So you have to take what Gordon said with a grain of salt.
Then there’s Gordon’s other comment, even more bold – much more so, really – that the Browns have the best group of wide receivers in the NFL.
Ok.
The Browns are definitely improved in that department, but the best in the NFL?
Not there yet. Not even close, really.
But the most confident group? With Gordon helping to lead the way, along with the outspoken Jarvis Landry, the Browns are right up there among the league’s best.
And again, that’s a good thing. It’s much better than the alternative.
RACKING UP THE ZEROES
6-12-18
Well, at least the Browns are consistent.
That is, they’re viewed as being consistent.
And that’s not a good thing at all.
The Browns, of course, are coming off an 0-16 season. That’s reflected in a recent story on player rankings by veteran NFL writer Pete Prisco of cbssports.com.
The Browns have no one listed his list of the league’s top 100 players for 2018. No one is zero. So you might say that they’re 0-100.
Yikes!
Here’s what Prisco wrote:
“Who are the NFL’s best players?
“Who is the best quarterback? Top pass rusher? Receiver?
“The debate is settled with my 2018 list of Top 100 NFL players, a list that looks back at the 2017 season, but also ahead to 2018.
“That means injured players from a year ago, players like the Houston Texans’ J.J. Watt and Odell Beckham Jr. of the New York Giants, are still featured prominently near the top of the rankings since they appear to be healthy again – or will be by the time camp rolls around.
“The one player who continues to have injury concerns is Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck, who still hasn’t thrown a football after shoulder surgery, so I left him off this list. If healthy, he’s in the middle of it.
“The top overall player for the second straight year is Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. He missed time last year with a shoulder injury, but he’s the best player in in the league when on the field.
“He edges out Tom Brady, who is right there in the second spot. The rest of the top 10 features a lot of usual suspects, but there are a lot of new entries this year throughout the top 100.
“If you’re wondering what team has the most players, it’s the Jacksonville Jaguars with eight in the top 100 – six of them defensive players — just edging out the Los Angeles Rams, who have seven.”
OK, so for the Browns, then there’s nowhere to go but up.
AN OPEN LETTER TO TERRELL OWENS
6-11-18
Dear Terrell:
Congratulations!
Congratulations for being a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s 2018 class of inductees. That’s quite an honor. It’s well-deserved.
And congratulations on being one of the strangest people I’ve ever seen, and one of the most disrespectful. In addition, you’re not very smart, either.
When the news broke that you will not be attending the induction ceremony, I thought I was hearing things. But I wasn’t.
It’s true.
And I can’t understand it.
Why would you deny yourself of that experience? And why would you deny your family members, friends and former teammates and coaches of seeing you on that big stage in Canton on that special night. It’s magical. It’s one of the seminal moments of an inductee’s life. Everyone who goes through it says that – with a bunch of exclamations points behind their comments. You absolutely don’t want to miss it.
It’s not like there’s going to be a do-over. Once you sit it out that evening, the whole thing is gone and the focus at the HOF turns to getting ready to vote on the 2019 class during next year’s Super Bowl weekend.
Perhaps you’re upset that you had to wait several extra years to get inducted. I have no sympathy for you. The list of guys who fall into that category is long, so get in line.
It’s just the way it works. As you players say, it’s a process.
Maybe it’s that you have some special political or social message to send to everyone. That’s fine. But don’t you realize that using your speech at Canton in an event that’s televised internationally would be a great way to do it? Didn’t that ever occur to you?
But here’s what bothers me the most: The people in Canton work really, really hard to pull off Hall of Fame weekend. Hundreds and hundreds of people even volunteer to help. Without them, it would be impossible to do.
And by saying “thanks, but no thanks” to attending, you’re dissing those wonderful, well-intentioned folks in the worst possible way. You may as well have spat upon them.
In the end, though, it’s a free country and you certainly have the right to do what you want. Just as you can choose not to show up, we can choose not to miss you. And we won’t.
Not at all. Not now. Not ever.
Trust me on that one.
Boycott that, my friend.
Sincerely,
Steve King
LET’S ALL TRY TO GET ALONG
6-11-18
Browns head coach Hue Jackson said rookie No. 2 quarterback Baker Mayfield is doing a great job of being respectful of starter Tyrod Taylor and at the same time being competitive and doing all he can to unseat the veteran.
That may or may not be true. We’ll never really know for sure – at least not for a long time. It would come after the NFL’s statute of limitations has expired — that is, when everyone involved has moved on.
But as for right now, what do you expect Jackson to say?
Even if it were true, and even if he wanted to, Jackson isn’t going to blurt out, “Oh, man, Baker is having a real problem in his relationship with Tyrod, and I just don’t know what I’m going to do.”
For obvious reasons, that would be disastrous.
Indeed, the situation the Browns find themselves in – two quarterbacks who can lay claim to the starting job — is the most delicate – by far – in all of professional sports, or just sports in general.
Taylor, of course, has already been proclaimed the starter for the season by Jackson. That was, without a doubt, the right move. He’s a veteran and played a big role in helping the long-suffering Buffalo Bills make the playoffs last season. With the Browns absolutely, positively needing to win games this season, Taylor is the right man for the job.
At the same time, though, the Browns didn’t take Mayfield No. 1 overall in the NFL Draft so he could stand forever on the sideline while wearing a ball cap and holding a clipboard. At some point, he’s going to get the keys to the car.
Now, if Jackson – and, of course, General Manager John Dorsey – mess this up as those keys go from Taylor to Mayfield – that is, if it’s handled clumsily and splinters the team along with ruining the careers of both quarterbacks – then the club will crash and burn and the coach and GM will be fired.
So it behooves Jackson to say that Mayfield is doing a good job in his interaction with Taylor. And if it’s really true, then that’s all the better.
GORDON, BROWNS GET MAYFIELD’S RESPECT
6-10-18
Browns rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield said the other day how impressed he is with veteran wide receiver Josh Gordon.
Mayfield said he has never played with anyone who has anywhere close to the skill set of Gordon, who, of course, has a unique combination of physical abilities in that he is incredibly big, strong, powerful and fast, and has great hands.
I say this because when Mayfield first came to the Browns after being taken No. 1 overall in the NFL Draft six weeks ago, he probably thought that, based on the team’s 1-31 record the last two years, there would be no talented players. After all, if there were, then the Browns would have done better, right?
I’m sure that a lot of college players, particularly the ones from the biggest and best programs, have that impression if they come to bottom-of the-barrel NFL teams. They soon find out that even the worst pro clubs have much more talent than any teams in college. They could crush all the top college squads.
By realizing that yes, the Browns have plenty of talent – most all of it young — on both sides of the ball, especially when it is compared to that of college teams and players, it got Mayfield’s attention. It made him understand that the opportunity is there for him, somewhere down the road when he takes the reins of the Browns, to do some great things.
The last thing the Browns want, or need, is for Mayfield to have a “too cool for school attitude” about the club, thinking that is made up of a bunch of crummy players. He needs to realize – and it is apparent that he does now – that even though his Oklahoma team made it to the college playoffs while the Browns needed binoculars to see the NFL playoffs, Cleveland could have beaten the Sooners like a drum. As such, we know that the Browns have the respect of Mayfield and that he is fully engaged in the process of trying to work his way into a starting role.
NEVADA IS THE TEAM THAT DESERVES TO BE KNIGHTED
6-9-18
In 1999, the expansion Browns lost their first eight games and went on to set a franchise record for losing with a 2-14 record.
This came after the Browns acquired some “name” players, giving fans – and even some team executives – hope that they could do the impossible and not just contend for a playoff berth, but actually earn one.
An expansion team in the playoffs?
Yeah, perhaps.
Oh, well.
It was a nice thought.
Last fall, the Nevada Golden Knights began their NHL expansion season with a lot of hope, too – but all of it for down the road.
For that first season, there was no hope – absolutely none. Indeed, not even team execs thought they had any chance to be successful right away. And they said so.
Come on, expansion teams don’t contend for anything other than futility. Everybody knows that.
It takes time – perhaps even a long time – to build a winner from scratch. Everybody knows that, too.
Right?
Wrong, as it turns out.
The Knights came out of nowhere to have the best season ever for an expansion team in any sport, going all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals before losing to the Washington Capitals 4-1 in a series that ended Thursday night.
As the Knights kept magically advancing through the playoffs, to the utter shock of everyone, I couldn’t help but think about those 1999 Browns – and, for that matter, also the 1970-71 Cavaliers, who finished just 15-67 in their expansion NBA season.
All sports records are made to be broken.
They really are.
Or so it is said.
I believe in that adage, too, so much so, in fact, that I believe what the Knights did will never, ever be broken. I just can’t imagine an expansion team winning it all. I just can’t.
So while the NHL world is celebrating the fact that the long-suffering Washington Capitals finally won their first league championship, I think the much more significant accomplishment was turned in by the runner-up Nevada Golden Knights.
THE NO. 1 PICK FOR MOST IMPACTFUL
6-8-18
Quarterback Baker Mayfield is waiting – patiently or not, it doesn’t matter one bit because he doesn’t have a choice in the matter; he has to wait – for his time to make an impact on the Browns.
Who knows when that time will come, but it isn’t now.
But the skill-position rookie who will have the biggest influence on the Browns offense in 2018 is running back Nick Chubb. There is absolutely no question about that.
A second-round choice in the NFL Draft, Chubb recently signed his contract with the Browns. It’s for four years and is worth $7.4 million,
That’s not big news at all. With the implementation of the rookie salary cap, one of the smartest things the NFL has ever done, none of these rookie contracts mean much. There is only so much money to be handed out. You can’t break the bank to sign these guys, like you could in the old days.
But the fact that Chubb is now officially in the fold is a reminder of just how much he can add – just how much I think he will add – to the Browns. That has gotten lost with all the attention focused on Mayfield, which is understandable because quarterbacks who are drafted No. 1 overall are always going to dwarf everyone and everything else on the team, especially when the quarterback in question as a No. 1 overall-sized personality.
Chubb is a tough inside-the-tackles runner who can also run very well – probably just as well – on the outside. The Browns haven’t had anyone like him – not even close, really — since they’ve been back.
Having Chubb to go along with ex-Ohio Stater Carlos Hyde, a veteran power back, and Rudy Johnson, who just signed a three-year contract extension worth $15.6 million, will give the Browns a three-pronged running attack, which is also something they’ve not had in the expansion era.
So, keep an eye on those guys – that is, if you can just take your eyes off Baker Mayfield for a minute.
OWNING UP TO WHO WAS REALLY AT FAULT IN 1999
6-7-18
What a shame it is that former Browns Director of Football Operations Dwight Clark earlier this week finally succumbed to his nearly 1½-year battle with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
He was only 61.
Once it was confirmed that Clark had ALS, the prognosis was known. You don’t beat that vicious killer. You only stave it off a while. And that’s exactly what Clark did – bravely so and in a classy, uplifting way, with a smile on his face and a joyous spirit in his heart.
Clark, of course, will always be known for making “The Catch,” with the lanky, 6-foot-4 wide receiver soaring high to grab a touchdown pass from Joe Montana as the San Francisco 49ers beat the Dallas Cowboys in the 1981 NFC Championship Game. It launched them on their great decade-and-a-half run.
In the 49ers’ biggest game against the Browns during that time – a Sunday Night Football affair on Nov. 29, 1987 at Candlestick Park when both teams had their sites set on the Super Bowl – Clark caught three passes from Montana, including a 40-yarder for a TD in the second quarter, as the hosts won 38-24.
When the Browns came back into the NFL in 1999, former longtime 49ers President Carmen Policy was given that same job title in Cleveland, along with a 10-percent piece of the team by owner Al Lerner. Policy and Clark were close, so it came as no surprise that the Youngstown native hired him to run the football part of the new organization.
It’s well-documented that it didn’t work out – not at all. But we’re not going to revisit that. It serves no purpose and, more than that, it’s not the moral thing to do at this point.
But what we will point out – and what hasn’t been pointed out, at least not enough times – is that anyone would have failed if placed into the situation in which Clark found himself. The new Browns were purposely set up to fail by the other NFL owners. Lerner and Policy didn’t get awarded the franchise until Sept. 8, 1998, and they didn’t get the keys to the team headquarters in Berea for another month and a half. To expect the Browns to be able to draft well and field a competent team for the 1999 season was not just a stretch. It was an impossibility.
So don’t get mad at Clark for that. Get mad at those goofy owners.
MAYFIELD AND WARD MOVIN’ ON UP
6-6-18
It should come as absolutely no surprise – none at all – that quarterback Baker Mayfield has been moved up to the second-team offense and cornerback Denzel Ward has been promoted to the first-team defense by head coach Hue Jackson as the Browns begin the third and final week of their OTA practices.
The Browns didn’t take Mayfield at No. 1 overall, and Ward, from Nordonia High School and Ohio State, at No. 4 in the NFL Draft six weeks ago so they could be buried deep on the bench for any longer. Not hardly.
The Browns have gone 1-31 overall the last two years for a reason, and it was that they didn’t have enough good players. The first and fourth draft choices should, by virtue of where they were taken, be really good players. If not, then General Manager John Dorsey and his top talent-evaluators are going to get fired at some point down the road.
Mayfield is not ready to start – not at all, not even close to it. The starter is veteran Tyrod Taylor, and he will remain in that spot for the foreseeable future. That’s the way it should be. There will come a time when Mayfield will certainly be the starter, but that time isn’t now.
Being No. 2 puts Mayfield closer to that. It gives him a better view of what’s going on.
Nothing against Drew Stanton, who was demoted from No. 2 to No. 3 to make room for Mayfield, not really for what he didn’t do but for what the Browns think the rookie can do, but Stanton isn’t the answer to the Browns’ longtime quarterback problems in any way, shape or form – not now, not ever.
As for Ward, the Browns finished last season in desperate need of top-flight cornerbacks. The ones they had were slow and ineffective. Buckeyes fans know that Ward is fast and a playmaker.
So it’s a good move – a really good move but definitely not a surprising one — for the Browns with both players.
ONLY QUESTION IS IF BROWNS GOT BETTER
6-5-18
It’s early June.
The NFL Draft has been over for five weeks.
Free agency is all but done – at least for the time being.
The big news now in the NFL is the OTAs – the offseason team activities, which is a big, fancy term and set of initials for guys running around in shell shoulder pads and short pants while playing two-below football.
Yikes! A lot to do about next-to-nothing.
In less than a month, the NFL will pretty much shut down for three weeks so everyone can go on vacation, get some rest and relaxation and prepare for the start of training camp in late July and the long haul of a season that lies ahead.
As such, then, it’s not exactly the time when any significant news is being made.
But there are exceptions, of course. There are always exceptions to the rule.
The Browns were that exception on Monday when they agreed to terms with free-agent linebacker Mychal Kendricks, a former member of the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, on a one-year, $3.5 million contract.
It’s not often that a team gets better – perhaps even a lot better – at this time of year, but it’s quite possible the Browns did just that in adding Kendricks.
Reportedly, allegedly, supposedly, the Browns have told Kendricks that he will start in their 4-3 defense. If so, then where will he play? After all, the Browns already have three pretty good linebackers in Jamie Collins, Chris Kirksey and Joe Schobert. Who will sit if he plays? That’s what everybody wants to know. In fact, it is, to many people, the central focus of the story.
I can understand that – to a point.
But what I can’t understand is why at least part of the focus – or, really, the main focus – is that regardless of where he plays, and how much he plays, the Browns are much better off than they were only a few days ago in that they now have a talented linebacker – another talented linebacker – in Mychal Kendricks.
And a team can never have enough talented linebackers – or, for that matter, talented players at any position. That’s especially true for a club that is coming off a winless season and a 1-31 mark over the last two years.
If the linebackers the Browns had in those two seasons were so great, then why did the club do so poorly? Why couldn’t those guys lift the Browns to oh, perhaps, four wins? Four wins aren’t very much at all – especially in two seasons, for goodness sake — but the Browns got nowhere close to that.
Those are the questions I want to ask, and should be getting asked, from everybody around here.
THE BOTTOM LINE(R) ON OFFSEASON SPORTS
6-4-18
So you think that pro sports teams are overdoing it a bit when they ask their players to be careful with what they do, and how they do it, in the offseason?
Well, think again.
Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews III, the son of former Browns standout linebacker Clay Matthews Jr., suffered a broken nose the other day during a charity softball game in Appleton, Wis.
The younger Matthews was pitching when the batter lined a shot to his face. He fell to the ground, stayed there only a moment or two and then walked briskly off the field with his face buried in his glove, hiding the severity of the injury.
Matthews will have to have surgery to repair his nose, which is obviously not good, but it could have been a lot worse. The next time, the Packers might ask him to play another position, or not at all.
When the elder Matthews first came to the Browns, they had a basketball team that played charity games all over the region. Most clubs had such teams, and in fact had had them for decades, dating all the way back to the late 1940s and early ’50s. Pro football wasn’t a big-money endeavor back then – at least certainly not to the level it is today – so players had to go out and find jobs in the offseason to supplement their incomes. Basketball was an easy way to do that. The players got paid a stipend for hooping it up against pick-up teams from various communities.
Way back in the day, the Cleveland newspapers would even run a two- or three-inch story of the games, including a box score of who tallied how many points.
But sometimes, the players would get hurt. Usually, the injuries were minor, but not all the time, which, understandably, greatly frustrated the teams, especially the coaches, whose livelihoods were based on winning. Winning became harder when a key player – someone who means as much to his team as Matthews III does to the Packers — suffered a serious injury on Tuesday night in February in Akron, Canton, Painesville, Elyria, Sandusky, Wooster or Youngstown.
Now the players get their “stipend” in the offseason by showing up to their teams’ strength and conditioning program sessions. The basketball teams have all but faded into memory.
It’s a lot safer – a lot better for everyone involved – that way, as Clay Matthews III found out.
STILL A REALLY GOOD JOE
6-1-18
A couple days after one Browns defensive back displayed, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that he knows absolutely nothing about Cleveland, its teams and its sports fans, a former Browns defensive back displayed, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that he is a Phi Beta Kappa on all those subjects.
I’m talking, of course, about Browns safety DeMarious Randall tweeting that the Cavaliers – who play in Cleveland, where his new team also happens to be based – have no chance against the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals that started Thursday night.
So, Randall is a leading candidate, at least from the Cleveland chapter of voters, for the “Ignorant Idiot Athlete of the Year” award for 2018.
Meanwhile, former Browns cornerback Joe Haden – the young man with the killer smile who continues to bleed all things Cleveland even though he is no longer there – wore a pair of Cavaliers shorts to a recent OTA practice of his present employer, the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Haden gets it.
He has always gotten it.
There’s no reason to believe that he will ever cease to get it.
That, and the fact he was a great corner for the Browns for a good period of time, is why he was one of the most popular players the club has had in the expansion era. He is a guy you root for – except for perhaps when he’s playing against the Browns.
As for Randall, I’m sure he’s going to perform well for the Browns. On a team that desperately needed a quality veteran safety to play on the back end with second-year pro Jabrill Peppers, he will be a perfect fit and a valuable piece of what should be a much-improved secondary on what should be a much-improved defense.
But he needs to get his head right. What he tweeted out might not sound like much of a problem to some people, but it is. It definitely is. It shows a lack of common sense.
Perhaps DeMarious Randall should give Joe Haden a call so he has a full understanding of what’s right – and what isn’t.
