Regular season games in five weeks? Are you kidding?

By STEVE KING

This is ludicrous.

It really, truly is.

Actually, if there is a word, or a term, that has a stronger meaning than “ludicrous” – such as, perhaps, “unmitigated disaster” – then that is what this is.

That is, the fact that the Browns and the rest of the NFL teams will start their regular season games in about five weeks. Indeed, the weekend that includes Sunday, Sept. 13, when almost all of the teams will open, will be here before you know it.

And there’s no way, even in the minds of the most positive, hopeful and “the glass is half-full” people, that they will be ready, or even anything remotely close to it. To say anything else is to defy logic and basic facts of football, or, for that matter, any sport.

You can do a lot of things virtually.

You can meet virtually.

You can talk virtually.

You can learn virtually.

You can ask questions virtually.

You can study virtually.

You can work out virtually.

To be sure, there are virtually an unlimited number of things that you can do virtually.

But you can’t practice virtually.

You can’t hit virtually.

You can’t tackle virtually.

You can’t throw passes virtually.

You can’t hand off the ball virtually.

You can’t do the tip drill virtually.

You can’t do agility drills virtually.

You can’t kick field goals, or punt, virtually.

You just can’t. It’s impossible, obviously.

And those are the things that a team needs to do – over and over and over again, over a long period of days, weeks and even months – to get ready for a season.

Even then, though, those many repetitions often are still not enough sometimes to prepare a team to play a game that counts in the standings.

That’s especially true for young, building teams with first-time head coaches and a lot of new players.

That would include – gulp! – the Browns, the posture child of such.

More to come.  

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Cleveland Browns:

• “Odell Beckham Jr. renews commitment to Cleveland: ‘We got unfinished business’” (BrownsZone)
• Missing Cleveland Stadium (Browns Daily Dose)
• “Browns survey season ticket holders for comfort level about returning to FirstEnergy Stadium” (WKYC)
• ‘The Corner Brothers’ Frank Minnifield and Hanford Dixon
• “JC Tretter advocates players’ rights must be protected” (92.3 The Fan)
• “Baker Mayfield Named The Best College Quarterback Of The Last Decade” (BrownsDigest) 

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