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In Cleveland, hope dies last

Archive for the tag “Cleveland Browns”

26 Jun 2013

Browns release player no one knew was on the roster

The Cleveland Browns released linebacker Ausar Walcott on Wednesday after it was announced that Walcott is facing charges of attempted murder for allegedly punching a man in the head outside of The Palace Gentlemen’s Club* in New Jersey.

Walcott was an undrafted free agent out of the University of Virginia that the Browns just signed in May. Until the news broke on Wednesday few, if anyone, outside of Browns headquarters in Berea even knew that Walcott was on the team.

But that didn’t stop some people from trying to portray this as the “same old Browns” making mistakes.

Really?

24 Jun 2013

T.J. Ward is, if nothing else, adaptable

Heading into the 2013 NFL season, Cleveland Browns safety T.J. Ward is getting ready to play under his third defensive coordinator in just his fourth season in the league.

If nothing else, Ward sounds highly adaptable.

Over the weekend, Ward talked about the changes that defensive coordinator Ray Horton is bringing to Berea.

“He’s always ramped up; he’s always ready,” Ward said on the team’s website. “He’s always here to pump you up. You hear him on the field, and he’s always giving out checks and calls, running around. Besides that, it’s the ferocity of his defense. It’s an attack style, all downhill. We’re really getting after the guys. That’s what I’m most excited about.”

Of course, Ward embraced Dick Jauron’s defense two years ago when Jauron took over as defensive coordinator.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, TJ Ward and tagged Cleveland Browns, T.J. Ward | Leave a comment

20 Jun 2013

2 Comments

Mike Lombardi busy playing to his strengths

With NFL teams off until the start of training camp in late July, there is not much going on around the league (outside of New England, of course).

Which means it is the perfect time for Cleveland Browns general manager Mike Lombardi to do what he does best – get his friends in the media to make him look good.

First came this fan boy piece from Joe Fortenbaugh at National Football Post, who reminisces about all the notebooks that he has filled with all the wisdom that Lombardi has collected in his NFL career. Judging from his track record, it would seem like those are some pretty thin notebooks, but Fortenbaugh does let out the secret to winning football that Lombardi apparently has discovered, namely that if a team’s combined rushes and passes in a game are in the “high 40s” then you are watching a winning football team. (Fortenbaugh can probably forget about getting an invite to Berea on draft day after letting that cat out of its bag.)

Yep, it really is that simple (or so Lombardi would have us believe).

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Mike Lombardi and tagged Cleveland Browns, Mike Lombardi

15 Jun 2013

How bad are things right now in Cleveland sports?

How bad is it right now to be a Cleveland sports fan?

It’s bad, obviously, as to paraphrase one of Coughlin’s Laws, “everything in Cleveland sports ends badly, otherwise it wouldn’t be Cleveland.”

But just how bad is it compared to other historically bad times in Cleveland sports? (And, yes, we get that comparing poor eras is a very Cleveland thing to do.)

In a town where we know a lot about losing, it’s hard to think that right now is as bad as it has ever been, especially when you consider that the late 1970s through early 1980s seemed to be just as bad, if not worse, than the current streak we are witnessing from the Big 3 teams in town.

So how do the two eras compare?

To find out, head over to The Cleveland Fan.

(Photo by The Plain Dealer)

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, Cleveland sports and tagged Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, Cleveland sports | Leave a comment

14 Jun 2013

2 Comments

Tying up some loose ends on Josh Gordon’s suspension

It’s been a week now since the news broke that Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon was going to miss the first two games of the 2013 season due to a suspension.

Because the NFL Players Association does not allow for the release of the details over player suspensions, fans have been left to speculate as to why, exactly, Gordon is in trouble. To review, Gordon’s official explanation was the following:

“In February, I was diagnosed with strep throat for which a doctor prescribed antibiotics and cough medicine. Apparently, the medicine I took contained codeine, which is prohibited by the NFL policy. The policy terms are strict about unintentional ingestion, but the NFL has not imposed the maximum punishment in light of the facts of my case. Therefore, I have chosen to be immediately accountable for the situation. I sincerely apologize for the impact on my team, coaches, and Browns fans. I look forward to working hard in training camp and pre-season, and contributing immediately when I return in week three.”

There has been much written in the aftermath of the news about the suspension, with two of the better pieces coming here from friend-of-the-program Kanciki and this one from Mike Krupka at Dawgs by Nature. They both dovetail nicely with what we wrote earlier in the week, as Kanicki looks futher into Gordon’s background, while Krupka takes a look at the NFL’s drug policy.

After reading Krupka’s article we went back over the NFL’s Policy and Program for Substances of Abuse document (some title, huh?) to see if we had missed something and what we found helps makes Gordon’s suspension a little clearer.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Josh Gordon and tagged Cleveland Browns, Josh Gordon

11 Jun 2013

1 Comment

Is Owen Marecic a star in waiting for the Browns?

Cleveland Browns fans can certainly be excused for cringing over the past two years whenever they have seen fullback Owen Marecic in the offensive huddle.

After all, Marecic can’t really run the ball – just four rushes for eight yards in two seasons – and can’t catch ball very well – just five career receptions.

And he lost his starting spot last season to Alex Smith – a tight end.

According to some media reports, the third-year player out of Stanford is “under the gun to prove his lead-blocking is indispensable.”

Posted in Cleveland Browns and tagged Cleveland Browns

09 Jun 2013

What to make of the news on Chris Perez and Josh Gordon?

When we first heard the news about Chris Perez and Josh Gordon and their “indiscretions,” our first reaction was, are you kidding?

Then, after we heard more of the details, our reaction started to change a bit.

And the more we thought about the two incidents, the more our opinion changed. While we’re more disappointed in Perez and Gordon than anything else, we definitely view the two players in a different light.

The next chapters in these little dramas have yet to be written, but one thing is clear.

This past week has been one of those “only in Cleveland” weeks that we seem to get around here all too often.

For the full story, head over to The Cleveland Fan.

(Photo by The Plain Dealer)

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Indians and tagged Chris Perez, Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Indians, Josh Gordon | Leave a comment

04 Jun 2013

1 Comment

The 57 days of Trent Richardson

The Cleveland Browns opened their three-day minicamp on Tuesday with what some will have fans believe is chilling news: running back Trent Richardson will not take part in any practices until August.

“We don’t want his muscle strain to get any worse, so we’re going to rest him now and give him a full summer to prepare,” Browns coach Rob Chudzinski told ESPN after Tuesday’s workout. “He could have went out, if necessary, and practiced these next few days, but we just didn’t see any sense in it. I don’t know the medical (risks going forward), but he’s got a strain right now. I’m not concerned about anything else at this stage.

“My only concern, really, is Trent needing to stay into it mentally while he’s out. So far, he’s done a great job taking mental reps and getting into game shape.”

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Trent Richardson and tagged Cleveland Browns, Trent Richardson

30 May 2013

Are there any players Cleveland fans would not root for?

When the New York Yankees traded for Roger Clemens in 1999, Yankee fans were faced with a dilemma:

How do you root for a player that you despised when they played for a rival team?

Mike Lupica, writing in The New York Daily News, came up with the perfect phrase for Yankee fans to justify embracing Clemens through his steroid-aided years in the Bronx – Clemens was a player who was now “our guy, their jerk.”

We were reminded of that last week when the Cleveland Indians were in Boston playing the Red Sox. During Thursday night’s game, David Ortiz hit a no-doubt home run off of Zach McCallister and stood at home plate admiring his work (as batters are wont to do). That led friend of the program Brian McPeek to criticize Ortiz with this tweet.

27 May 2013

1 Comment

Do the numbers really reflect Trent Richardon’s value?

From the moment that he separated Philadelphia safety Kurt Coleman from his helmet in Week 1 of the 2012 season, Trent Richardson has been the kind of player that Cleveland Browns fans can get behind.

Even though injuries – including two broken ribs that he played with for nine games – limited his performance, Richardson still rushed for 11 touchdowns and 950 yards, giving fans hope that the best is yet to come.

But according to an analysis of rookie running backs by Cold Hard Football Facts, that may not be the case.

Posted in Cleveland Browns, Trent Richardson and tagged Cleveland Browns, Trent Richardson

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