A little bit of this and a little bit of that …
You keep hearing, especially from me, that Browns head coach Hue Jackson is a good guy – a likeable guy.
His players would readily agree. He doesn’t drag them through the mud in public. He’s made it clear that the buck stops at his desk, so if there’s a problem anywhere, he says that he is the one at fault for it.
That was exhibited again Friday during Jackson’s press conference when he was asked if Matthew Dayes was the one who missed an assignment last Sunday, allowing the Pittsburgh Steelers to block a unit and fall on it in the end zone for a touchdown in the opening minutes in their 21-18 season-opening victory at FirstEnergy Stadium.
Jackson said that it was not Dayes but, even after pressed, would not identify who was at fault.
“It is Hue Jackson,” he said, talking about himself in the third person. “It is on Coach Jackson. It is Coach Hue Jackson’s problem.”
That’s true in a way, because if the player had been coached better, he wouldn’t have made the mistake.
Still, not enough coaches acknowledge that fact and take the blame. Give Jackson credit for having those big, broad shoulders and a lot of selflessness.
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In my humble opinion, the Browns have the best radio play-by-play announcer in the NFL in Jim Donovan, now in his 19th season after taking over at the start of the expansion era in 1999. Not every play-by-play man is good. But Donovan is. Actually, he’s great. Cleveland fans have it good in that they have Donovan and also the Indians’ Tom Hamilton, the best play-by-play man in the major leagues. Hamilton’s work during the team’s record-setting winning streak has been extraordinary. OK, just how did we get so lucky?
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And finally, it has been 22 years since the original Browns announced that they were moving to Baltimore following the 1995 season. That franchise was renamed the Ravens the next year and Cleveland went without football for three seasons, 1996-98. So, then, the new Browns are playing their alter-ego on Sunday. Does any of that still get you fans fired up?
