Red Right 88

In Cleveland, hope dies last

Archive for the category “Ben Roethlisberger”

24 Jan 2011

Sleazy people can be good at their jobs

Great read from Sam Mellinger at The Kansas City Star, who writes that just because Ben Roethlisberger is going back to the Super Bowl doesn’t mean he’s a good guy.

Mellinger writes: Roethlisberger is about to be deified by too many. He is the winner, the strutting quarterback fresh off helping the Steelers to a 24-19 win over the Jets in the AFC championship game on Sunday, and we’re about to get two weeks’ worth of redemption stories.

The narrative will be about a young man maturing, of working through mistakes and growing into an all-time great worthy of your admiration. Hopefully enough of us keep some perspective. One’s got nothing to do with the other.

Sleazy people can be good at their jobs.

Gerry Callahan from The Boston Globe came through as well:

This is, of course, is only the beginning. The two-week deification of Roethlisberger begins. It’s been less than a year since he plied a group of college girls with alcohol and allegedly had his way with one of them in the bathroom while his stooge cop friend stood guard. Now Roethlisberger kneels and prays on the field after games. Now there is hardly a reminder of the behavior that got him bounced from the league for six games (later reduced to four).

It will be interesting to see how Roethlisberger reacts when he arrives in Dallas and receives a daily dose of Milledgeville questions, but here’s a Super Bowl prediction for you: Somehow it will be easier for Roethlisberger to put his troubles behind him than it would have been for Michael Vick or even Brett Favre. By gameday, Roethlisberger’s story will be one of redemption and recovery, of a lost soul who is now found.

Mellinger and Callahan are right. After numerous stories came out in the preseason saying that Steeler fans and the Rooney family would never embrace Roethlisberger because he betrayed the “Steeler way,” that all went away as soon as he started throwing touchdown passes.

It’s going to be a long two weeks.

***

Peter King, in his Monday Morning QB column, had some soothing words for Browns fans still worried about the hiring of Pat Shurmur:

King writes: I start to seethe when I hear so many of the fans in Cleveland going crazy about the qualifications of Pat Shurmur to be the new head coach. Specifically, about how it’s agent Bob LaMonte’s hire, or that the fix was in because club president Mike Holmgren and Shurmur share the same agent, and LaMonte orchestrated the hire. Idiocy.

The Browns did what so many teams have done in the last five years: put a good franchise architect in place (or have a good franchise architect in place), then hire a coach to work with said architect.

The tote board: 12 of the 20 coaches hired into classic structures from 2006 to ’09 made the playoffs at least once; that’s 60 percent. Nine of the 20 (45 percent) won at least one playoff game. Five of the 20 (25 percent) won a conference championship game or Super Bowl.

Shurmur’s a smart, anonymous kid, on the same fame level as Mike Smith when the Falcons hired him. He might have the kind of accurate, smart kid who will make a good West Coast quarterback in Colt McCoy. I don’t know how good a GM Tom Heckert will be; we’ll see, but he has a good background in the game, the way Thomas Dimitroff had when he left the Patriots to run Atlanta. I know you’ve heard this before in Cleveland, but give the kid a chance, will you?

That’s the key part: Shurmur hasn’t run a practice, an OTA, a training camp or anything yet and some are ready to run him out of town.

And it’s not as if Mike Holmgren got rid of Paul Brown to bring in Shurmur. Eric Mangini was 10-22 with the Browns and 33-47 for his career. Shurmur deserves a chance to at least see what he can do before we start worrying about whether or not Holmgren made a mistake.

***

Speaking of the Browns and coaches, Mike Tomlin will be entering his fifth season as Pittsburgh coach this fall and will be facing his third Browns head coach in that time period.

***

Browns center Alex Mack is now on the Pro Bowl roster after Jets center Nick Mangold was injured in Sunday’s AFC Championship game. He joins left tackle Joe Thomas, who was named to the AP’s All-Pro team on Monday.

“I’m very excited to be able to go to Hawaii,” Mack said in a statement. “It’s unfortunate that Nick had to get injured for me to go, but I’m looking forward to representing the Browns. It has been a lifelong dream for me and from here on, it’s working to make many more. I’m excited to be going and I can’t wait to play in this game.”

This is the first time since 1981 that the Browns will have two offensive linemen at the Pro Bowl. That year, guard Joe DeLamielleure, center Tom DeLeone and tackle Doug Dieken were all selected.

Posted in Alex Mack, Ben Roethlisberger, Cleveland Browns, Joe Thomas, NFL, Pat Shurmur | Leave a comment
03 Sep 2010

Thoughts on the Browns exhibition season

When you arrive at the last preseason game of the year, as a fan and as a team you are just hoping to make it out of the game in one piece.

Unfortunately for the Browns and running back Montario Hardesty, that wasn’t the case Thursday night against the Bears.

After missing all of training camp and the first three preseason games with an injury, Hardesty finally got back on the field against the Bears only to see his season end with a torn ACL in his left knee (he tore his right ACL while playing in college at Tennessee).

“We are all very disappointed for Montario,” coach Eric Mangini said in published reports. “He’s worked extremely hard since he was drafted, he’s done everything we’ve asked him to do, and I’m sure he will be just as diligent with his rehab. It’s unfortunate but it opens the door for other guys to step up and contribute.”

You have to feel sorry for Hardesty, who worked hard to rehabilitate to try and get on the field for the Browns this year. I was watching the game when he got hurt and immediately thought “he’s done for the year” because that’s how it works here in Cleveland. You can’t just have a twisted knee, when a player goes down it has to be a season-ending injury.

The only bright spot is that, if the Browns had to lose someone to an injury, running back was the one position they could afford to have it happen. With Lawrence Vickers and a top-notch offensive line leading the way, the trio of Jerome Harrison, Peyton Hillis and James Davis, the expected trio to man the tailback position, should be very productive.

And in the long run, maybe sitting out a year and letting his body completely heal will be the best thing for Hardesty.

As for the rest of the game, there’s not much to say about backups playing against backups. Colt McCoy held his own, going 13-for-13, which is certainly better than going 0-for-13. And while there has been some criticism that he “only” passed for 131 yards, that’s 10 yards per completion and, the last time I checked, you needed 10 yards for a first down. So that’s not too bad.

I’m trying not to be worried that the Browns could not create any kind of pressure on the quarterback during the four preseason games. We’re willing to chalk that up to the Browns playing a simpler defense since the games don’t count. But still …

***

No surprise that Commissioner Roger Goodell cut Ben Roethlisberger’s suspension to four games. That means Roethlisberger will make his debut in Week 6 at home against the Browns, turning up the heat on what was already sure to be an intense game.

***

Ndamukong Suh fined $7,500 for trying to decapitate Jake Delhomme. That’s it? Be interesting to see how much the fine is when he does that to Brett Favre.

***

No they don’t. And no they didn’t.

***

Caught some of John Gruden’s over/under predictions on ESPN this week. In both the AFC North and the NFC North he believes every team will surpass the projected over in wins. I haven’t seen him talk about any other divisions, but from his tone I’m guessing that he will peg every team for the over in wins this year. He may be a good coach (debatable) and a decent announcer on Monday Night Football (debatable), but one thing he clearly is not is a math wiz.

***

Excellent start for the Three Lions with Jermain Defoe nailing a hat trick as England begins its quest to qualify for Euro 2012.

***

What everyone else is saying:

Posted in bad math, Ben Roethlisberger, Cleveland Browns, Jermain Defoe, Montario Hardesty, Ndamukong Suh | Leave a comment
13 Apr 2010

Sweet, sweet Schadenfreude

Ever since the Browns returned in 1999, fans have had to endure annual on-field beatings from the Pittsburgh Steelers along with the ridiculous notion from their fans and members of the national media that the Steelers are better than everyone else because they do things “the right way,” the “Steeler way.”

Well, the Steeler way has been taking quite a beating lately. First the on-going problems of wide receiver Santonio Holmes came to light: what a sweet guy he is. The Steelers finally ran out of patience and shipped him off to the Jets and, oh boy, is that going to be a fun training camp this year.

Which brings us to the ongoing escapades of Ben Roethlisberger. While no charges will be filed in his latest bar romp with a co-ed in Georgia, the quarterback may still face league or team sanctions.

And the media is starting to turn against him: Ron Cook in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette calls for a suspension; John Harris in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review says the team may jettison Roethlisberger; Pat McManamon at FanHouse says the Steelers should cut the cord; and even Terry Bradshaw has come out with harsh words.

And in what has to be the cruelest cut of all, a Pittsburgh company has pulled its beef jerky sponsorship with him. However will the yokels know what brand of beef jerky to choose?

It’s enough to put an extra hop in the step of Browns fans everywhere.

Posted in Ben Roethlisberger, Cleveland Browns, NFL draft, Santonio Holmes, schadenfreude | Leave a comment

Post Navigation