This is my least favorite part of the year from a sporting standpoint.
Not only are the NBA playoffs long gone, but the exciting aspect of free agency is in the rear view miror, too. Regular season baseball holds no draw whatsoever for me (at least, as an Indians’ fan). Football season is still two months off.
In fact, I was in a sports bar on Saturday night and the only coverage running on TV was of the British Open and Summer League basketball. Yikes.
I bring this up because, in a way, it highlights the state of the average Cleveland fan. With LeBron gone, many seem to think, what the hell do we do now?
Now, as I’ve written recently, practically everyone is underestimating the quality of the Cavs’ roster James left behind. They’ve already been written off as, if not a lottery team, certainly a team that won’t so much as sniff the 8th seed in the East. I disagree with this, but perception is reality.
Despite a recent surge, the Indians are still an ocean away from competing in the Central division. Carlos Santana has added some small bit of intrigue, but facts are facts. The Tribe is 12.5 games behind the White Sox, with both the Twins and Tigers only 1.5 games out of first themselves. It’s not impossible the team could get back into the race, but at this point it seems unlikely.
This leaves the Browns.
Energized by Mike Holmgren’s presence, some notable (if dubious) off-season moves, and a hold-over effect from the 4-game winning streak on which they rode out the 2009 season, the Browns have become the city’s undisputed sports focal point.
That said, no one (fans or pundits) seems to believe the 2010 Browns will be better than .500, and even that may be a near-miracle.
For now, though, they are once again the great hope.
This raises a semi-interesting question about expectation.
In my opinion, the Browns have enjoyed somewhat of an irrational golden age in the court of public opinion for the past several years. You can tell me that attendance was dramatically down this past season. That’s true. You could tell me that Browns fans have had no lack of venom to spew about the team, the coaching staff, the organization as a whole. That’s true too.
But I would argue that it’s also true that while in or near season, they’ve still dominated the sports discussion in the city.
More importantly, they’ve done this despite the fact that, by any measure, they have sucked all but two years since the franchise reboot.
Since that time, the burden of being THE team in Cleveland expected to win has seldom been on them. The Indians won at least 90 games per season from 1999-2001. The Cavs lucked into LeBron James in the summer of 2003. Appropriately enough, the Browns went 9-7 and made the playoffs in 2002.
Obviously, the Cavs weren’t expected to immediately shoot into title contention after the 2003 draft. But the mere hope and excitement around having the home-town phenom on OUR team, for once, may have been enough to keep people satisfied for a time—especially when the Cavs won 18 more games in 2003-4, barely missed the playoffs the season after, and then grew into a perennial playoff team and seeming powerhouse until, oh, about two weeks ago.
During that time, Clevelanders could look to the Browns as a favored son, partially because the hope for winning could be largely satisfied by someone else. In the years immediately after the Browns’ return, it was the Indians. Since 2003, it’s largely been the Cavs.
Now, though, the spotlight has squarely turned back to Berea.
Some historical perspective comes into play here, too. Since the Cavs completed the pro triumvirate in Cleveland with their inaugural 1970 season, there have only been 5 years out of a possible 40 where multiple of the city’s franchises have been competitive at once.
The only time that all three have been simultaneously good was 1994. The ‘93-94 Cavs got into the playoffs on a 47-35 record, but lost in the opening round; the ‘94 Browns went 11-5 and were hammered by the Steelers in the Divisional round of the post-season; and the ‘94 Indians were 66-47 when the lock-out crashed the rest of the season.
Aside from that magical year, the Cavs and Browns were both playoff teams in 1989 & 1990. The Cavs and Tribe were both playoff teams in 1985 & 1998.
That’s it.
The point? Almost invariably, there has only ever been one of the three teams “worth” following, i.e. if you define value in terms of the expectation that the team can truly compete week after week.
With James gone and the Cavs likely to embark on a longer-term rebuilding process, the weight falls once again on the shoulders of Randy Lerner’s team. I suspect this has already magnified the intensity of the pressure the organization feels.
They can no longer be the puppy that everyone loves, despite that it keeps whizzing on the carpet. For the first time in a long time, they are going to be expected to produce for the city.
Starting in about two months, we’ll all find out whether they’ve righted the ship just in time to shoulder the load. If not, it could be a long year for any Cleveland fan who isn’t willing to take the long view.
As Tim and I have been talking about how to handle the site this summer, in the wake of an Indians team that has almost nothing interesting going on, a Cavaliers offseason that will likely be dramatic and chaotic (but also only sporadically insight worthy), and a Browns preseason that, truthfully, seems entirely unappealing right now, two days before the start of the NBA Finals, I got to thinking about the concept of a fair weather fan.
Not being a fair weather fan is a trait I’ve held dear to my heart over the years. If I dig deep enough, I could probably provide physical evidence of $10 tickets I bought to watch Ricky Davis and Darius Miles run up and down the floor in Gund Arena. Dad can attest to several bucks spent watching the lousy Indians teams that inspired Major League in Municipal Stadium, and several more dollars blown in the 2000’s on tickets that allowed us to sit in the ass crack of Jacobs’ Field (Section 519). Tim will tell you about all the times we woke up in LA, still drunk from the night before, to wander to a bar by 10 AM so we could see a shitty Browns most likely lose.
The Cleveland pro sports teams have been my way of staying connected to my family and my hometown, as I’ve traveled outside of the state. Abandoning them, I’ve always thought, would be a travesty.
I’m not so sure anymore.
When it comes to making decisions on how to spend my disposable income and use my free time, I now have a lot of options. More than when I was a kid, and even more than when I was in high school and college. The internet has made more music, more movies, and more books available to me. My advancing age has opened the doors to recreational drinking, concerts, and bars. As a freelancer who only makes money if I’m producing content, I have a ton of work to do most days. I could even try to find a girlfriend or a wife (although that would probably take a Herculean effort).
In short, there’s a lot of life to live, and I’m not so sure that it makes sense to use all, most, or some of my free time watching the Indians lose 100 baseball games or Brady Quinn throw deep balls out of bounds to try to prove a point about how I’m loyal to the city of Cleveland and to its sports teams.
Of course, if I’m watching these bad games played by bad teams alongside good people then that changes things. Let’s say the hypothetical girlfriend I mentioned earlier is a big baseball fan … then, yes, I’d go to Indians games with her. Tim and I watched plenty of terrible basketball games together this past season, and I’d do it all over again. The communal experience that sporting events can create counts for a whole lot.
But rooting for the Indians and the Browns above all else in life? Living and dying on every pitch, every snap, every misplayed ball and batter left on base, every fumble and every occurrence of poor gap integrity … I think my time doing that is slowly coming to an end. I’ve got movies to write, people to meet, and life to live, after all.
Just trust that I’ll be there when there’s something compelling - or even potentially compelling - going on in Cleveland sports. Which, because its sports, which are always home to maximum drama, means I’ll be there a whole f’ing lot.
Try to keep all of this in mind as the Cavaliers offseason plays out (you had to know it was coming).
To give everyone a small break from our coverage of the NBA playoffs, I figured I would write about something that, I anticipate, could overwhelm Game 3 of Cavs-Bulls tonight all around the country and in Cleveland in particular: the fucking NFL Draft.
In general, I think the hype that exists over the NFL is absurd. My Twitter feed blew up on Tuesday when, of all things, the regular season schedule was released. Yes, the schedule is a big deal for the NFL and its teams, but why it is dramatic news for the casual fan I really don’t know. At the moment, I’m locked in a personal, internal debate over what is erroneously more hyped - the NFL Draft or the NFL preseason. I guess I’ll go with the preseason because at least the draft matters.
During a recent press conference, the Browns confirmed something I’d suspected for a long time: they had spoken to the St. Louis Rams about trading for the #1 pick in the draft and the rights to choose quarterback Sam Bradford. Why was I not surprised by this? Well, because all Mike Holmgren thinks about is QBs. When he falls asleep he dreams about them. When he has sex with his wife, he imagines a barrage of accurately thrown short passes leading a team down the field and into the end zone (I have no evidence to confirm this last statement, sadly).
In short, Mike Holmgren is a quarterback guy. Naturally, he’s going to want the best QB in the draft - especially if he thinks he’s a franchise player.
Historically speaking, all of the data on the NFL Draft says that picking in the top ten sucks. Picking a quarterback in the top ten sucks more. As Malcolm Gladwell wrote, nobody in the NFL knows how to pick a quarterback. The skills that are on display in college are not the skills needed to succeed in the pros. Predicting future success based on past success is always somewhat of a crap shoot, but with quarterbacks in the NFL, it’s a crap shoot and a shit show. Even worse, because of the salary structure in the NFL, a team has to commit an incredible amount of money to the first pick in the draft. They have to spend a load of money just to participate in a high risk gamble. More so, as we’ve written about before, football is not a sport in which one player can create a Super Bowl championship. It takes a lot of guys.
Logically then, it makes absolutely no sense to trade up to draft a quarterback at #1.
So what do I think the Browns should do in the draft tonight?
I think they should trade up to draft Sam Bradford.
Yes, this goes against everything I believe in, e.g. calculated risk and logic-based decision making. I rarely believe in “going with my gut.” Choices made from emotion tend to be misinformed.
Why then do I think the idea of trading up to get Bradford is a good one?
I have to admit that I have a great feeling about Bradford’s future as a pro. I have no evidence of this. I never even saw him play in college. I’ve come to this conclusion almost entirely because of how I saw Bradford handle himself while being interviewed after his shoulder was injured in the Fall. I was impressed with his poise, demeanor, and focus. When I looked for a picture of him to throw up at the top of this post, I found nothing “unsavory” after going through the first 5 pages of Google Image Search. There were no party pictures of Sam, bikini-clad photos of his girlfriend, or documents of his having been in a hot tub with four girls (Shout to Matt Leinart. The girl on the far left is a prototype, bro). I haven’t always been a big believer in character translating into winning, but I think my feelings on that subject have evolved over time. To be great, you need to be dedicated (unless you’re Tiger Woods, apparently). This other bullshit distracts you.
Having said that, I’m also a big believer in the importance of throwing accuracy at the quarterback position. Bradford is top tier in this department, according to reports. I also believe that if you put a man like Holmgren in charge of your team, and he sees a quarterback he believes in, you do what you can to go get him. Quarterbacks may not create Super Bowl Rings … but they are critical to getting one.
So what do I think the Browns will do?
I think they’ll either draft someone at the #7 spot or trade down. Logic and Tom Heckert will win. Plus, Holmgren will have the added bonus of then being able to pull a quarterback out of the dust in a later round - someone perhaps no one else believes in - and see if he can help make him great. Turning something into nothing is, after all, one of the biggest ego boosts for coaches and player personnel execs. It’s the reason so many bad players get drafted on potential.
We’ll see what happens around 8 PM tonight. I, for one, will be watching the Cavs.
On Monday, National Football Post’s Michael Lombardi dedicated part of his column to Mike Holmgren’s open statement that the Browns would not be picking Jimmy Clausen with the #7 overall draft choice. In case you missed it, here’s the quote:
“I wish I liked him more. You know how you have a type of player that you like? It’s not scientific. People like him a lot. He’ll go high. But it would be hard for me (to take him).”
As Lombardi points out, this is not a savvy move by a team’s top executive. Information, as we all know, is power. This is especially true when it comes to the draft. Buffalo is the only other team picking after the Browns in the top 10 that is also desperately in need of a franchise quarterback. (The Rams and Redskins have both been pegged as teams potentially looking to upgrade the position, but both choose ahead of the Browns at #1 and #4 overall, respectively.) Sam Bradford and Clausen are the only two quarterbacks that any draft expert I’ve seen has placed anywhere in the first round.
It’s entirely possible that the Rams pick Bradford, the Redskins pick Clausen, and the entire point is moot. But if the Redskins use their pick on a more workman-like position (say, OT, where they’re also deficient) the Browns have already blown any chance to pressure the Bills into trading up for the opportunity to pick Clausen. Holmgren has also potentially pissed off the front offices of both Kansas City (#5 pick) and Seattle (#6), both of which stood to gain from the same scenario. Don’t expect any deals with either of them any time soon.
This Clausen incident is just the latest in an established pattern. Holmgren has already made it clear by this point in his regime that truth-telling is going to be his default position. More than his spotty history in choosing personnel, this commitment to honesty is what concerns me most about the future of the Browns.
Think back to last year’s draft. The Browns had the fifth overall pick. They had so many gaping holes on both sides of the ball that they could have taken any number of impact players. But beyond their needs, the factor that made them the biggest wild card in the draft was Alpha Dog, whose defining characteristic as a coach and executive was the pathological commitment to hiding information from practically everyone. When the moment of truth came, the Browns traded down three times in the first round before tapping Alex Mack at #21 overall.
Now, we can debate all day whether trading down was the right move, either in general or for the specific compensation that Alpha received. But it’s indisputable that his unwillingness to show his hand gave him options—options that Holmie the Clown has already bungled away by giving an honest assessment of Clausen.
There’s a huge irony here that no one is talking about yet. That irony is the reaction of “the fans.” (Note: I’m putting this term in quotes to denote the same faceless, unified-in-basic-thought mob that writers like Terry Pluto cater to constantly…also known as ‘people who don’t read this blog’).
From everything I’ve read so far, “the fans” L-O-V-E Holmgren. They love him despite the fact that they don’t necessarily agree with some of the moves his regime has made, such as trading Kam Wimbley or signing Jake Delhomme to starter-level money. They love him enough to admit that they might be wrong about their personal feelings on these moves. In short, they love him enough to give him a chance.
Why do they love him like this? In the case of the quarterbacks, Lombardi suggests that it’s because of Holmgren’s reputation for developing quarterbacks as a coach. I agree with the analysis to some degree, but I also think that it’s only part of the equation. I would argue that the bigger component—bigger because it explains the pass he’s being given for every decision, not just the QBs—is that he’s made a commitment to being up front about his thoughts. To answer questions directly. To say what he means and mean what he says. In other words, a commitment to making “the fans” feel as though they have a window into the process.
Despite the love it’s gotten him from “the fans,” I could not disagree with this policy more strongly.
As we’ve stated over and over again since starting this blog, “the fans” should never be a factor in the front office’s decision-making, regardless of which sport it is we’re talking about. The reason is precisely because they are “the fans,” whereas the people making the decision are professionals whose jobs depend on seeing things that “the fans” don’t—and in many cases, shouldn’t—have access to. Pro sports executive is not a popularly-elected position, after all.
I’m sure there are people out there who would disagree with me on all these points. I know there are elements of “the fans” who would say that I’m not reading the reaction accurately, that they’re really just holding the jury out on Holmgren until they see whether or not this team will show marked improvement.
To me, though, this argument is garbage. Why? Because by the start of training camp last season, “the fans” (and some of the writers) were already calling for Mangini to be burned at the stake. From an executive standpoint, there is very little difference between Holmgren’s circumstance right now and Mangini’s at this time last year. Both replaced prior regimes that were extremely unpopular. Both immediately made some trades of skill players to accumulate draft picks (Kellen Winslow Jr vs. Kam Wimbley—and yes, I intentionally left Body By Quinn out of that comparison). Both made moves to bring in players who were not particularly highly regarded around the league as difference-makers (Abe Elam vs Seneca Wallace).
Yes, Holmgren is given credit for his successes as a head coach. But that’s not the role he’s fulfilling here. And yes, GM Tom Heckert is given credit for loading Philadelphia with talent. But he didn’t have total control there under Andy Reid. So in both cases, these men are occupying positions that are new to them.
I agree that both should be given the benefit of the doubt until the results can be judged in some tangible way. That said, it’s clear to me that the only reason Holmgren is being given this opportunity in the court of public opinion is because he’s ingratiated himself to “the fans” through his truth-serum campaign. I also strongly believe that the very strategy that’s buying him this time is ultimately one that puts the franchise in the worst possible bargaining position when it comes to the draft—a draft which, by all accounts, could be make or break for the Browns’ attempts to claw themselves out of the grave they’ve dug. Though I know he’s not consciously calculating it this way, it’s a flawed game plan: buy “the fans” off now while increasing the likelihood that you piss them off later by fielding a weaker team.
I have no idea how it’s all going to turn out. But if you’re looking to inspire confidence in this writer, Holmie, honesty is most definitely not the best policy.
*Photo is of DA’s wife’s friend, Sara Jean Underwood. Maybe this will make you like him more.
I knew the day was coming when DA would be released. I knew his time was probably up in Cleveland, even when I wrote my ode to the man from Oregon in October of last year.
And I’m okay with it.
This post won’t be about DA’s play during the regular season. Aside from a very good game against the Bengals, he wasn’t very good. I could write about how everything fell apart for DA once Braylon Edwards was traded and Jerome Harrison couldn’t recover from the pounding he took against Cincy. I could write about how Quinn wasn’t any better - except against the Lions. But this post isn’t meant to be stone cold analysis. It’s just meant to be a goodbye note, from one guy who writes too much to a guy who’s unemployed and looking for work.
I was happy to read DA’s response to Jeff Schudel’s email last night:
“The fans are ruthless and don’t deserve a winner. I will never forget getting cheered when I was injured. I knew at times I wasn’t great. I hope and pray I’m playing when my team comes to town [and] we roll them.”
The italics in the above quote are mine. He’s right. No one deserves to be cheered when they’re injured. Careers and lives could be hanging in the balance at that moment. No one in the stands knows. It’s unequivocally wrong to cheer when another person’s health has deteriorated … unless they’re evil.
DA may be a lot of things, but he isn’t evil.
If someone cheered when you were injured wouldn’t you be pissed? Wouldn’t you lash out if given the opportunity? Shouldn’t we, as fans, actually want our athletes to be angry when they’re insulted? That’s what the competitive spirit is all about. If DA has the will to destroy the Cleveland Browns and their fans, I applaud him.
It’s this attitude, in fact, that makes me believe DA may have a successful future somewhere else. Maybe his desire to crush Browns fans will be the fuel that inspires him to continue getting better.
Alpha Dog may not even have been stretching the truth when he said: “[DA] did everything we asked of him and it was a pleasure to coach such a competitive person.”
Highlight on the word “competitive.”
I was additionally pleased with DA’s apology, which had nothing to do, really, with what he said but how he said it. He didn’t say he was misquoted. He didn’t say I didn’t mean what I said. He didn’t wimp out like so many other athletes. He merely noted that there were a lot of great people in Cleveland and even some fans who actually supported him (clearly a reference to JMID and Tim’s run-in with DA at Hopkins International in October).
In other words, I’m happy DA is gone. Not for my sake, but for his.
