It's a new day, Cleveland sports fans -- especially Cleveland Browns fans.
Hard to believe that just 10 years ago, the three Cleveland sports teams were owned by Randy Lerner (Browns), Larry Dolan (Indians) and Gordon Gund (Cavaliers). All three were pretty weak owners.
Today, only one of that "vaunted" triumverate is left, and it's the worst one of the three. But we'll discuss that later.
Earlier this week, Lerner -- who inherited the Browns from his father, Al, during the 2002 season -- sold controlling interest in the Browns to truck stop magnate Jimmy Haslam III for a price close to $1 billion. Lerner will retain a 30-percent interest in the Browns for the next four years before Haslam has the option to buy him out (which he likely will).
Haslam, a native of Knoxville, Tenn. and the CEO of the Pilot Flying J franchises of filling stations and truck stops, had been a minority owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2008. While owning his minor shares, he described himself as a "1,000-percent Steeler fan."
Sorry to the four-letter "Worldwide Leader," but Haslam buried that statement within seconds of his first press conference as the Browns owner.
He referred to the Steelers as "that team from the other state" numerous times. He acknowledged the class of the Rooney family and what he took away from them, but also made it perfectly clear that, other than Pilot Flying J, the Browns are now Numero Uno in his heart.
If he was a 1,000-percent Steeler fan, he's now a 1 billion-percent Browns fan.
Of the three owners I referenced, I liked Lerner the best. Lerner was everything that Art "Judas" Modell wasn't -- a billionaire owner who liked to be in the background. Lerner grew up a Browns fan and would do anything to help the Browns. Unfortunately, he was ill suited to be the Browns owner, and it hurt the franchise.
Sure, it didn't hurt them in the pocketbook, but it hurt them on the field.
Lerner constantly threw his millions on people he believed would fix the Browns fortunes for the better. Butch Davis, John Collins, Phil Savage, Eric Mangini and (most recently) Mike Holmgren were given a lot of money to help the Browns start winning more games. Only recently has there been a sign of progression. But, starting from the team's lone playoff berth in 2002, it's been a forgettable tenure for Lerner.
First, Carmen Policy was bought out by Lerner, and Policy subsequently retired following the 2003 season. Policy was Al Lerner's closest confidant with the expansion Browns, but the younger Lerner knew Policy's rhetoric was turning off members of the media and fans.
Following the 2003 season, Lerner gave Davis a four-year contract extension. Davis was gone with five games remaining in the 2004 season.
Collins, who had been an executive with the NFL for 15 years, was given Policy's job as team president in 2004. Collins hired Phil Savage from the Baltimore Ravens as the new general manager and Romeo Crennel as the new head coach. However, Collins and Savage clashed from the get-go and Collins wanted Savage fired by the end of the 2005 season. Lerner sided with his GM, instead firing Collins. Collins has since done pretty well for himself, serving as the NHL's Chief Operating Officer since 2008.
Savage, meanwhile, struggled in the personnel department and was an absantee GM for most of his tenure while he was out on scouting missions. Finally, after just one winning season and a drop from 10-6 in 2007 to 4-12, Lerner fired both Savage and Crennel following the 2008 season.
Lerner ignored the advice of many within the NFL when he quickly hired Eric Mangini to be the head coach in 2009 without hiring his GM first (many GM candidates refused to work with Mangini and took other jobs, such as Scott Pioli). Mangini brought in his friend George Kokinis from the Ravens to be the GM, but Kokinis was run out midway through the 2009 season and Mangini was rumored to be fired by the end of that season after the Browns stumbled to a 1-11 start.
Lerner found Holmgren, fresh off his retirement as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, and hired him to be the team's president and de-facto "face of the franchise" in 2009. The Browns reeled off four consectutive wins to end the 2009 season, which saved Mangini's job for another year (even though his philosophies clashed with Holmgren's and his hand-picked GM, Tom Heckert from the Eagles). After another 5-11 season, Holmgren fired Mangini and most of his coaches and started bringing in coaches who shared his vision of a West Coast offense and a 4-3 defense.
The first year of Holmgren, Heckert and Pat Shurmur was not good. The team struggled to a 4-12 season and looked miserable in the process. However, Heckert had been drafting very well during his three seasons, and his most recent draft had the fan base buzzing with the selections of running back Trent Richardson and quarterback Brandon Weeden in the first round.
This turned out to be Lerner's cue to sell. Supposedly, the NFL helped broker the sales talks between Lerner and Haslam, and the talks wound up going very smoothly. From the time Haslam met Lerner, it only took 31 days for the sale to be completed.
Lerner took criticism for owning the English soccer team Aston Villa, and supposedly "spending more time and resources" on them. He also took criticism for not being more visible for the fan base. They viewed his shyness being apathetic toward the Browns.
I don't think Lerner's heart was in the wrong place. In fact, I think it was in the right place. He really, really, really wanted the Browns to succeed, to make his late father proud. Unfortunately, he was ill-prepared to be an NFL owner and never really got it, or wanted to get it. He wanted to keep the team in his family for generations. But, in the end, he found a family with even more passion for the NFL and football, a family who would keep the Browns in Cleveland and use every available resource to turn the team into a winner both on and off the field.
If Lerner didn't care, he wouldn't have strove for the assurance (and gotten it in writing) that the team would not be moved by a new owner. If Lerner didn't care, he probably wouldn't have strongly suggested to Haslam that they don't put a logo on the iconic orange helmets.
Lerner cared, which is more than I can say for the other guys on that 2003 list. It appears he found a guy who cares just as much, but with much better resources, in Haslam.
And, that, my fellow Browns fans, is sweet, sweet music to our ears.
***
Haslam has hinted at changes. Such as, selling the naming rights to Cleveland Browns Stadium, which Al and Randy Lerner did not do (they sold naming rights to the four gates, though), and tweaking with the Browns uniforms.
How much tweaking, who knows. However, the Browns are one of the few NFL teams that have not changed their uniforms one iota. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to find a throwback Browns uniform, because they've, by and large, remained the same since 1946, although the helmet the first few seasons was white.
Sure, they've experimented over the years -- orange pants, brown pants, orange jerseys -- but the design has mostly remained the same.
Even the Steelers tweaked their uniforms a bit, changing the size of the numbers on the front of their uniforms to a more aero-dynamic font.
While I'm a very hardcore traditionalist when it comes to the Cleveland Browns, to be honest, if the team's winning, I don't care what they look like. Yes, I would prefer they keep the Brown and Orange colors (and I can't see why they wouldn't abandon them). But both the Indians and Cavaliers have undergone numerous uniform changes over the years. They don't have the same standing in this town as the Browns do, but you hear less sniping about the uniforms if the team plays well than if they stink.
You listen to Haslam talk, and you can't help but be won over by the guy. By the end of his press conference, I found myself nodding my head and clapping my hands. I was ready to run through a wall for the guy, and I just met him.
Imagine the impact that will have on a team of football players.
Haslam is a "hand's on" guy, but he won't be as intrusive as Modell was. He has way more money and resources than Modell ever did.
For now, he seems willing to let Holmgren, Heckert and Shurmur stay the course, but you can bet it's a must-win season for these three. Another step backward, and Haslam won't hesitate to clean house.
I can remember when Dan Gilbert bought the Cavs from Gund in 2005, and almost immediately, he fired coach Paul Silas and essentially fired GM Jim Paxson (although he let Paxson finish out the season). He sunk his own resources into refurbishing Gund Arena with new seats, a new scoreboard and more anemnities (and, a new name). The Cavs reached the playoffs in Gilbert's first full season of ownership and were in the NBA Finals his second.
Gilbert is widely recognized as the best sports owner in Cleveland, and he's the same guy who failed to re-sign LeBron James (although, the failure is not Gilbert's). Haslam's only been in town for a few days, and he's quickly vaulted up to No. 2 on the depth chart.
A new voice at the top may be just what this franchise needs. This town is a football-mad town with some of the most passionate fans in the world. Browns victories are a matter of civic pride around here.
Welcome to Cleveland, Jimmy Haslam. We're ready to welcome you with open arms.
***
This brings us to No. 3 on the depth chart, Larry Dolan.
The contract to purchase the Browns was barely dry when fans were already begging Haslam to look into buying the Indians. They had already been begging Dan Gilbert to buy the Indians for years.
Dolan may not be the worst owner in Indians history. He may not be the worst owner in Cleveland sports history -- Modell's got that space nailed down, and Ted Stepien is a close second. But, he's definitely not among the best.
If you look at the Indians history, they've been permeated by bad ownership. You had William R. Daley, who tried to move the Indians to Seattle in 1962. You had Vernon Stouffer, who quickly mismanaged his money, tried to play 30 home games at the New Orleans Superdome in 1972 (MLB quickly intervened) and then reneged on a handshake agreement to sell the team to a group headed by George Steinbrenner and instead sold it to Nick Mileti.
Mileti was a great owner for the Cavs and 1100-AM. He was not a good owner for the Indians, other than he saved the team from being moved.
In 1982, the Indians were owned by a dead guy. Seriously. Steve O'Neill, one of Steinbrenner's partners with the Yankees who bought the team in 1978, died. For four years, the Indians were owned by his trust and were in limbo.
When you factor in Modell was still in town in 1982 and Stepien owned the Cavs as well, that may have been the worst triumverate of Cleveland ownership EVER.
Heck, even the Indians' very first over, Charlie Somers, was so broke that he had to sell "Shoeless" Joe Jackson's contract to the Chicago White Sox and had to sell to Jim Dunn because of almost $2 million of debt (which was a lot of money back in 1916).
But Dolan deserves to be mentioned with all of those shady characters.
As the Indians continue to spiral downward -- remember when fans debated about whether Chris Perez had "a point" when the Indians were in first place in May -- pressure is on the Dolans to make some wholesale changes.
Manny Acta's lethargic managerial style is wearing thin on the fans, and it seems to be rubbing off on his lethargic players.
Chris Antonetti's moves (or lack thereof) show a big-league roster devoid of talent and a minor league system devoid of prospects.
Mark Shapiro, who proves that waste can flow upstream in the Cleveland Indians organization, continues to oversee an organization that is hemorraging money, not drawing fleas to Progressive Field and is getting the bejesus beat out of it on a nightly basis. He can see that the team only has two of its own first-round picks in their current minor league system and only has Michael Brantley to show for three trades that he pulled the trigger on -- the deals of CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez (with Justin Masterson's terrible performance over the last month or so, I no longer consider him a "bright spot" among those three trades).
Shapiro and Antonetti decided it was a good idea to spend $5 million on a player who was so injured, that he hasn't even played an inning this season -- Grady Sizemore.
They decided it was a good idea to pick up $5 million on a 39-year-old pitcher named Derek Lowe who led the NL in losses. He teased the fans and the brass with a good first two months, but then he pitched like the 39-year-old guy he really is and is now out of a job with two months remaining in the regular season.
Despite their need for a right-handed bat with some pop, they continue to keep Russ Canzler and Matt LaPorta mired in Columbus. How much worse can they be from the litany of Casey Kotchman, Jack Hannahan, Shelly Duncan, Aaron Cunningham, Johnny Damon, Vinny Rottino and Jose Lopez the Indians trot out with a straight face night in and night out.
Shapiro and Antonetti decided that they didn't have the assets to make a splash at the trading deadline, and were too gun-shy to turn into sellers and deal Shin-Soo Choo, Chris Perez and Justin Masterson, so they sat on their hands and did nothing. The Indians have lost nine straight games in disturbing fashion since the front office gave them this ringing endorsement.
If Dolan doesn't find a buyer for his team (which he should have done years ago), he needs to sack up and clean them all out, because they're taking his money for a ride. Shapiro's ship has sailed long ago, and Antonetti is nothing more than Shapiro's puppet. Acta will never be anything more than a mediocre major league manager, and you have a PR bonanza waiting in the wings as his bench coach, Sandy Alomar Jr.
I guarantee the Tribe could do very little in the offseason, but if Alomar gets named manager, they will sell a few thousand more season tickets. Cleveland is loyal to its own.
The Dolans turned a $30 million profit last season and did absolutely nothing with that money. They'll never turn a $30 million profit in Cleveland again unless they go to the World Series or spend absolutely nothing on the product you see on the field.
Sell the team, Paul and Larry. If you can't man up to the fact that your baseball people are inept, than it's time to sell to someone who knows what the hell they are doing.
Fans want wins more than the so-called "bottom line." Fans don't care about market sizes and baseball economics. Fans would be happy if the Indians had a team like the Royals, filled with promising young talent, rather than the jokers they have here.
If Larry Dolan is truly a fan of the Indians like he claims he is, he needs to take a page out of Randy Lerner's book and sell them. Because Larry Dolan the owner is letting down Larry Dolan the fan.
Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Time is now for Tribe
With Sunday's 4-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles, the Cleveland Indians were on the verge of swept at home for a four-game weekend series and also fell below .500 for the first time since April.
The "Friends of the Feather" were trying to drum up interest in attending the ballpark and give the lowest-average attendance in Major League Baseball a boost this weekend with tons of giveaways, including discounts on parking and deals with Cleveland's RTA system to transport fans to and from the ballpark. It worked, with an average of 30,000 fans for the three weekend games.
However, most of those fans may not come back after seeing the Indians struggle offensively against the Orioles and watch former Indians legend Jim Thome torment the team with his best games since Baltimore acquired him a few weeks ago from the Phillies.
With July 31 looming, the Indians' brass have to make a tough decision -- do they become buyers to salvage their dwindling playoff chances, or do they look at Detroit surging and the White Sox holding steady and decide to become sellers?
Larry Dolan, Mark Shapiro and Chris Antonetti have to know that, if they become sellers after promising the fans that they would "go for it" in 2012, the attendance for the remaining two months will become almost microscopic and general fan interest would disappear. However, with several contracts coming up (with little chance of re-signing those players) and with several holes needing to be filled -- and a minor-league system that is depleted once again -- the best business decision might be to start shopping those players for some young prospects.
However, Indians fans are tired of hearing about "good business decisions" and "bottom lines" and "market sizes." They are tired of seeing a team put together with shoestrings and bandages on the cheap with the hope that they can take some teams by surprise and slide into contention.
Last season, a skeptical fan base was won over by a 30-15 start that seemed to come out of nowhere. Those Indians quickly proved that the hot-start was a fluke, as they were lapped by Detroit for the Central Division crown and wound up finishing two games under-.500.
Last year, Antonetti decided to become a buyer (reversing a common trend by Shapiro of being sellers at the deadline) and gave up their two most recent first-round draft choices (Drew Pomeranz and Alex White), along with two other good prospects, for pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez. Jimenez was signed through 2012, and Antonetti tried to sell the fan base on the deal by saying that not only put them contention in 2011, but also in 2012.
Jimenez struggled upon joining the Indians last year, and has been Jeckyl and Hyde this season -- looking like Cy Young one game and like Micheal Young the next. He has been one of the reasons why the Indians' starting pitching has been mediocre at best.
The Tribe also did very little in the offseason to show the fans they were serious about contending in 2012. Supposedly, they pursued Carlos Beltran, Josh Willingham and Carlos Pena, but were either outbid or outspent for all three. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand-grenades, and Tribe fans don't want to hear about how "close" the front office came to spending their cash.
They thought they freed up $9 million when they declined Grady Sizemore's club option. However, they spent that money back on Sizemore ($5 million guaranteed) and on 39-year-old starting pitcher Derek Lowe (even though the Braves picked up $10 million of the $15 million he was owed). Sizemore hasn't played a single inning this season and may not play at all. Lowe got off to a terrific start in 2012, but has since crashed back down to earth over the past two months.
Besides those "riveting" moves, the Indians settled for Casey Kotchman to fill the first base hole and waited until after spring training to sign the aging Johnny Damon to fill the left field hole. Both have been disappointments.
Neither have added any butts to the seats.
If the Indians truly want to be contenders and not pretenders, they need to find a legitimate right-handed bat to play either left field, third base or first base (or two) and they need to find another starting pitcher, because the current crop -- Lowe, Jimenez, Justin Masterson, Josh Tomlin and the AAA-duo of Jeanmar Gomez and Zach McAllister -- have been disappointing and inconsistant.
With the artist formerly known as Fausto Carmona being granted a work visa by the U.S. government and having to serve a three-weeks suspension by MLB for falseifying his identity, that does give the Indians a live arm for the stretch run. However, Carmona is the same guy that lost 15 games last season and, in reality, only had one good season -- 19 wins in 2007 -- during his major league career. How much help is this guy, at three years older than he was listed and under a different name, going to really be?
The additional wild-card team in each league has put a record-number of teams in contention for the postseason as July comes to a close. That includes the under-.500 Indians, who have the benefit of playing in the weakest division in the American League.
Shapiro foreshadowed a potentially quiet offseason when he Tweeted about how all the teams in contention limits the amount of players that could be available and limits the amount of "sellers" there will be. He quickly downplayed it, but it sent a loud signal that the Indians may not do much.
Players such as San Diego's Carlos Quentin and Chase Headley, Minnesota's Willingham (who the Indians refused to give an additional year to during the offseason) and the Cubs' Bryan LaHair and Alfonso Soriano are the big names that could be available. Either one would be a welcome addition to a lineup that has struggled and does not have an identity.
Pitching-wise, Chicago also takes the stage with Ryan Dempster and Matt Garza available. Philadelphia is also supposedly dangling Cole Hamels. Any of those three would immediatley vault to the top of the Tribe's pitching rotation.
Offense wins in the regular season, but it's pitching that wins in the postseason. Fans of the 1995 Indians know that all too well. This starting rotation will not win many postseason games the way it's currently constructed, especially since they've now lost more games than they've won in the regular season.
The back-end of the bullpen has been light's out. Even with Chris Perez's "foot-in-mouth disease," he's only blown two saves all season (both, however, were three-run saves; one was on Opening Day and the other was the final game of the first half). Set-up man Vinnie Pestano has inherited 11 runners this season, and none have scored. Pestano and Perez have formed about as lockdown of a back-end of the bullpen as you can imagine, and it's a big reason why the Indians have won as many games as they've had.
However, they may have part with one of those players (Perez being the front-runner) in order to make the rest of the team better, either for the short-term of the long-term. A closer like Perez becomes a luxury on a team that's no longer in contention. A team that's willing to deal a top hitter may want Perez to help their bullpen. Fortunately, Pestano seems to have the makeup and moxie (without the mouth and the gestures of Perez) to become a top-of-the-line closer.
Shin-Soo Choo's contract is up after this season, and there is very little chance he re-signs with the Indians. His agent Scott Boras is ruthless and can drive up a player's value by simple negotation tactics. The Indians will not afford him. Despite him being the best outfielder currently on the team, Choo could be dealt.
Another player that has value is Asdrubal Cabrera. The two-time All-Star shortstop has made some dazzling plays in the field that remind Tribe fans of Omar Vizquel (however, he lacks Omar's charm and affability). The Indians have a shortstop of the future in Francisco Lindor, who has opened a lot of eyes in the low minor leagues. Lindor is still a few years away from conrtributing, and Cabrera is under contract for a few more seasons after signing an extension. But, he could command an bounty.
However, if the team becomes buyers, Lindor is one name that other GMs will ask about. By far, he's the best prospect in the Indians' minor leagues, and he is still playing in Class A.
The Indians can hope that Matt LaPorta and Russ Canzler will command interest, but you can hope in one hand and crap in the other and see which one fills up first. The Indians' refusal to bring up LaPorta and Canzler, despite their offensive struggles, sends a loud signal to the other teams that they have given up on them. They would be considred nothing but "throw-ins" in any trade and not as the main bargaining chips.
If the Indians want to keep up fan interest, they may have to become buyers. They need to show the skeptical and angry fan base that they really do want to win. Sadly, most fans (including Joe Cleveland) believe the opposite.
Joe Cleveland does not envy the Dolans, Shapiro and Antonetti right now. They are, essentially, in a no-win situation.
Become buyers, and you risk giving up some future prospects for a short-term fix that may not be enough (as we saw last season). However, it shows you are proactive to the fans and gives your team a legitimate chance of making the playoffs and having a winning record.
Become sellers, then you risk turning off your fan base even more than it already is. However, you see that this season will be one in the red anyway and see a division race that is starting to spiral away, and you try to replenish the shelves that have been bare thanks to numerous squandered first-round draft choices and the recent Jimenez trade for another chance to make a run in a few seasons.
Or, you simply stand pat and don't do anything. You watch this team continue to spiral downward, while winning a few games here and there, but then watch in the offseason as Choo, Sizemore, Hafner and many others walk away with nothing to show for them.
Best of luck, Indians. You are caught between a rock and a hard place, and you only have yourselves to blame for putting yourselves in this position.
***
Speaking of trades, the Cavaliers are rumored to be in the mix during the on-going Dwight Howard saga.
Howard, who may have become the NBA's newest heel, replacing LeBron James, for the way he's dragged the Orlando Magic organization through the mud over the last two seasons, wants out. However, he claims he only wants to sign with the Brooklyn Nets (why, I have no freaking idea).
The Los Angeles Lakers, who recently added point guard Steve Nash to their already potent lineup, want Howard to give them a lineup that Miami can only dream about, even with the discounted signings of Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis. But, they do have, arguably, the second-best center in the NBA in Andrew Bynum.
Bynum, however, has worn out his welcome in L.A. with his frequent injuries and his constant butting heads with the coaching staff. He used and abused Mike Brown, the former Cavs coach who cow-towed to LeBron's every need and whim while he was here, last season with the Lakers, and Brown is fed up.
Orlando also has several big contracts that they have to unload to make things work. So, they need to find a team with a lot of cap room. That team is the Cavs.
Bynum, who supposedly expressed an interest in signing with the Cavs as a free agent in 2013 in order to play with up-and-coming point guard Kyrie Irving, is on the Cavs' radar. Anderson Varejao, one of the last remaining links to the LeBron Era and is a fan favorite based on his style of play, would be dealt to Orlando for a three-way swap of centers.
However, the agents for both Bynum and Howard are saying that they won't sign contract extensions for either of their new teams and want to test the free agent market after the 2013 season. The Cavs and Lakers, respectively, would be able to sign both players to more money and more years than other teams. However, we've seen in the past that that guarantee doesn't mean squat.
A lot of media members are advocating against acquiring Bynum. They think he's a cancer and injury-prone. They wonder if he would re-sign with the Cavs or if he would be the latest to make a decision to go elsewhere. They wonder how he would jive with a young lineup of Irving, Tristan Thompson and new draft picks Dion Waiters and Tyler Zeller.
They wonder how he would react to playing for a strict taskmaster like Byron Scott, a coach who isn't afraid to challenge his players.
Joe Cleveland says, if you can make this deal, even without the guarantee of a new contract, you do it.
Bynum instantly makes the Cavs a playoff team and puts them in the top four in the Eastern Conference. He would easily be the best Cavs center since Brad Daughterty played (yep, that includes Zydrunas Ilgauskas). With an emerging point guard in Irving to serve as a facilitator, Bynum could have one of the best seasons of his pro career.
Perhaps a strict coach like Scott, who Bynum supposedly respects, is what he needs to be reigned in. Some players will challenge coaches to see how long of a leash they will be given. Phil Jackson was not a disciplinarian, but he had the rings to command respect (it didn't stop Bynum, but Jackson believed in treating the players like "men"). Mike Brown came to the Lakers with the reputation of being LeBron's enabler, and he did little to change that perception.
And, to be honest, if Bynum decides to test the market, can you imagine what the Cavs could land in a "sign-and-trade" deal? OK, so they didn't get much in the sign-and-trade for LeBron James. However, the Cavs had their hands tied at that point. LeBron was going to sign with the Heat. If they wanted something, ANYTHING, to show for him, they had to give him that extra year Miami couldn't give him and make the deal.
Bynum won't be going on ESPN with any "Decisions" any time soon. The Cavs would have more freedom to pursue the best deal, whether it's re-signing him to keep him or re-signing him to acquire more assets.
I don't think Chris Grant has the cojones to make this kind of deal, especially after they balked at the earler three-team deal with the Nets that could have brought Kris Humphries to Cleveland. However, if they are serious about speeding up Irving's learning curve and putting the Cavs back in the playoff picture sooner, Dan Gilbert and Grant need to sign off on this deal and make it so.
***
With Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III signed and sealed, it's only a matter of time before Trent Richardson signs with the Browns, along with their other first-round choice, Brandon Weeden.
I expect Richardson to sign by Tuesday at the latest, and Weeden to follow shortly after. I would not be surprised to see the Browns announce the signing of both players on the same day.
Just in time for training camp to begin.
While the Browns didn't do much in free agency, they used the draft to do an overhaul of the offense that is more drastic than we've seen in quite some time.
The Browns could be starting rookie draft choices at QB (Weeden), RB (Richardson), WR (Josh Gordon), RT (Mitchell Schwartz) and FB (Brad Smelley). Rookies like Travis Benjamin and Josh Cooper could easily make the team and be immediate contributors at receiver, while guard Ryan Miller could be a regular contributor as he competes with incumbant starters Jason Pinkston and Shawn Lavaeo.
It is somewhat surprising that two respected football outlets aren't giving the Browns more due. Pete Prisco of CBS Sports predicts the Browns will go 1-15, while ProFootballTalk.com ranked the Browns 32nd out of 32 teams in the preseason.
We can take solace in the fact that most of the same media outlets were saying the same things about the Cincinnati Bengals at this point of the offseason, and the Bengals wound up finishing 9-7 and made the playoffs.
Joe Cleveland's ready for some Browns football!
Until next time, remember that Cleveland rocks!
The "Friends of the Feather" were trying to drum up interest in attending the ballpark and give the lowest-average attendance in Major League Baseball a boost this weekend with tons of giveaways, including discounts on parking and deals with Cleveland's RTA system to transport fans to and from the ballpark. It worked, with an average of 30,000 fans for the three weekend games.
However, most of those fans may not come back after seeing the Indians struggle offensively against the Orioles and watch former Indians legend Jim Thome torment the team with his best games since Baltimore acquired him a few weeks ago from the Phillies.
With July 31 looming, the Indians' brass have to make a tough decision -- do they become buyers to salvage their dwindling playoff chances, or do they look at Detroit surging and the White Sox holding steady and decide to become sellers?
Larry Dolan, Mark Shapiro and Chris Antonetti have to know that, if they become sellers after promising the fans that they would "go for it" in 2012, the attendance for the remaining two months will become almost microscopic and general fan interest would disappear. However, with several contracts coming up (with little chance of re-signing those players) and with several holes needing to be filled -- and a minor-league system that is depleted once again -- the best business decision might be to start shopping those players for some young prospects.
However, Indians fans are tired of hearing about "good business decisions" and "bottom lines" and "market sizes." They are tired of seeing a team put together with shoestrings and bandages on the cheap with the hope that they can take some teams by surprise and slide into contention.
Last season, a skeptical fan base was won over by a 30-15 start that seemed to come out of nowhere. Those Indians quickly proved that the hot-start was a fluke, as they were lapped by Detroit for the Central Division crown and wound up finishing two games under-.500.
Last year, Antonetti decided to become a buyer (reversing a common trend by Shapiro of being sellers at the deadline) and gave up their two most recent first-round draft choices (Drew Pomeranz and Alex White), along with two other good prospects, for pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez. Jimenez was signed through 2012, and Antonetti tried to sell the fan base on the deal by saying that not only put them contention in 2011, but also in 2012.
Jimenez struggled upon joining the Indians last year, and has been Jeckyl and Hyde this season -- looking like Cy Young one game and like Micheal Young the next. He has been one of the reasons why the Indians' starting pitching has been mediocre at best.
The Tribe also did very little in the offseason to show the fans they were serious about contending in 2012. Supposedly, they pursued Carlos Beltran, Josh Willingham and Carlos Pena, but were either outbid or outspent for all three. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand-grenades, and Tribe fans don't want to hear about how "close" the front office came to spending their cash.
They thought they freed up $9 million when they declined Grady Sizemore's club option. However, they spent that money back on Sizemore ($5 million guaranteed) and on 39-year-old starting pitcher Derek Lowe (even though the Braves picked up $10 million of the $15 million he was owed). Sizemore hasn't played a single inning this season and may not play at all. Lowe got off to a terrific start in 2012, but has since crashed back down to earth over the past two months.
Besides those "riveting" moves, the Indians settled for Casey Kotchman to fill the first base hole and waited until after spring training to sign the aging Johnny Damon to fill the left field hole. Both have been disappointments.
Neither have added any butts to the seats.
If the Indians truly want to be contenders and not pretenders, they need to find a legitimate right-handed bat to play either left field, third base or first base (or two) and they need to find another starting pitcher, because the current crop -- Lowe, Jimenez, Justin Masterson, Josh Tomlin and the AAA-duo of Jeanmar Gomez and Zach McAllister -- have been disappointing and inconsistant.
With the artist formerly known as Fausto Carmona being granted a work visa by the U.S. government and having to serve a three-weeks suspension by MLB for falseifying his identity, that does give the Indians a live arm for the stretch run. However, Carmona is the same guy that lost 15 games last season and, in reality, only had one good season -- 19 wins in 2007 -- during his major league career. How much help is this guy, at three years older than he was listed and under a different name, going to really be?
The additional wild-card team in each league has put a record-number of teams in contention for the postseason as July comes to a close. That includes the under-.500 Indians, who have the benefit of playing in the weakest division in the American League.
Shapiro foreshadowed a potentially quiet offseason when he Tweeted about how all the teams in contention limits the amount of players that could be available and limits the amount of "sellers" there will be. He quickly downplayed it, but it sent a loud signal that the Indians may not do much.
Players such as San Diego's Carlos Quentin and Chase Headley, Minnesota's Willingham (who the Indians refused to give an additional year to during the offseason) and the Cubs' Bryan LaHair and Alfonso Soriano are the big names that could be available. Either one would be a welcome addition to a lineup that has struggled and does not have an identity.
Pitching-wise, Chicago also takes the stage with Ryan Dempster and Matt Garza available. Philadelphia is also supposedly dangling Cole Hamels. Any of those three would immediatley vault to the top of the Tribe's pitching rotation.
Offense wins in the regular season, but it's pitching that wins in the postseason. Fans of the 1995 Indians know that all too well. This starting rotation will not win many postseason games the way it's currently constructed, especially since they've now lost more games than they've won in the regular season.
The back-end of the bullpen has been light's out. Even with Chris Perez's "foot-in-mouth disease," he's only blown two saves all season (both, however, were three-run saves; one was on Opening Day and the other was the final game of the first half). Set-up man Vinnie Pestano has inherited 11 runners this season, and none have scored. Pestano and Perez have formed about as lockdown of a back-end of the bullpen as you can imagine, and it's a big reason why the Indians have won as many games as they've had.
However, they may have part with one of those players (Perez being the front-runner) in order to make the rest of the team better, either for the short-term of the long-term. A closer like Perez becomes a luxury on a team that's no longer in contention. A team that's willing to deal a top hitter may want Perez to help their bullpen. Fortunately, Pestano seems to have the makeup and moxie (without the mouth and the gestures of Perez) to become a top-of-the-line closer.
Shin-Soo Choo's contract is up after this season, and there is very little chance he re-signs with the Indians. His agent Scott Boras is ruthless and can drive up a player's value by simple negotation tactics. The Indians will not afford him. Despite him being the best outfielder currently on the team, Choo could be dealt.
Another player that has value is Asdrubal Cabrera. The two-time All-Star shortstop has made some dazzling plays in the field that remind Tribe fans of Omar Vizquel (however, he lacks Omar's charm and affability). The Indians have a shortstop of the future in Francisco Lindor, who has opened a lot of eyes in the low minor leagues. Lindor is still a few years away from conrtributing, and Cabrera is under contract for a few more seasons after signing an extension. But, he could command an bounty.
However, if the team becomes buyers, Lindor is one name that other GMs will ask about. By far, he's the best prospect in the Indians' minor leagues, and he is still playing in Class A.
The Indians can hope that Matt LaPorta and Russ Canzler will command interest, but you can hope in one hand and crap in the other and see which one fills up first. The Indians' refusal to bring up LaPorta and Canzler, despite their offensive struggles, sends a loud signal to the other teams that they have given up on them. They would be considred nothing but "throw-ins" in any trade and not as the main bargaining chips.
If the Indians want to keep up fan interest, they may have to become buyers. They need to show the skeptical and angry fan base that they really do want to win. Sadly, most fans (including Joe Cleveland) believe the opposite.
Joe Cleveland does not envy the Dolans, Shapiro and Antonetti right now. They are, essentially, in a no-win situation.
Become buyers, and you risk giving up some future prospects for a short-term fix that may not be enough (as we saw last season). However, it shows you are proactive to the fans and gives your team a legitimate chance of making the playoffs and having a winning record.
Become sellers, then you risk turning off your fan base even more than it already is. However, you see that this season will be one in the red anyway and see a division race that is starting to spiral away, and you try to replenish the shelves that have been bare thanks to numerous squandered first-round draft choices and the recent Jimenez trade for another chance to make a run in a few seasons.
Or, you simply stand pat and don't do anything. You watch this team continue to spiral downward, while winning a few games here and there, but then watch in the offseason as Choo, Sizemore, Hafner and many others walk away with nothing to show for them.
Best of luck, Indians. You are caught between a rock and a hard place, and you only have yourselves to blame for putting yourselves in this position.
***
Speaking of trades, the Cavaliers are rumored to be in the mix during the on-going Dwight Howard saga.
Howard, who may have become the NBA's newest heel, replacing LeBron James, for the way he's dragged the Orlando Magic organization through the mud over the last two seasons, wants out. However, he claims he only wants to sign with the Brooklyn Nets (why, I have no freaking idea).
The Los Angeles Lakers, who recently added point guard Steve Nash to their already potent lineup, want Howard to give them a lineup that Miami can only dream about, even with the discounted signings of Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis. But, they do have, arguably, the second-best center in the NBA in Andrew Bynum.
Bynum, however, has worn out his welcome in L.A. with his frequent injuries and his constant butting heads with the coaching staff. He used and abused Mike Brown, the former Cavs coach who cow-towed to LeBron's every need and whim while he was here, last season with the Lakers, and Brown is fed up.
Orlando also has several big contracts that they have to unload to make things work. So, they need to find a team with a lot of cap room. That team is the Cavs.
Bynum, who supposedly expressed an interest in signing with the Cavs as a free agent in 2013 in order to play with up-and-coming point guard Kyrie Irving, is on the Cavs' radar. Anderson Varejao, one of the last remaining links to the LeBron Era and is a fan favorite based on his style of play, would be dealt to Orlando for a three-way swap of centers.
However, the agents for both Bynum and Howard are saying that they won't sign contract extensions for either of their new teams and want to test the free agent market after the 2013 season. The Cavs and Lakers, respectively, would be able to sign both players to more money and more years than other teams. However, we've seen in the past that that guarantee doesn't mean squat.
A lot of media members are advocating against acquiring Bynum. They think he's a cancer and injury-prone. They wonder if he would re-sign with the Cavs or if he would be the latest to make a decision to go elsewhere. They wonder how he would jive with a young lineup of Irving, Tristan Thompson and new draft picks Dion Waiters and Tyler Zeller.
They wonder how he would react to playing for a strict taskmaster like Byron Scott, a coach who isn't afraid to challenge his players.
Joe Cleveland says, if you can make this deal, even without the guarantee of a new contract, you do it.
Bynum instantly makes the Cavs a playoff team and puts them in the top four in the Eastern Conference. He would easily be the best Cavs center since Brad Daughterty played (yep, that includes Zydrunas Ilgauskas). With an emerging point guard in Irving to serve as a facilitator, Bynum could have one of the best seasons of his pro career.
Perhaps a strict coach like Scott, who Bynum supposedly respects, is what he needs to be reigned in. Some players will challenge coaches to see how long of a leash they will be given. Phil Jackson was not a disciplinarian, but he had the rings to command respect (it didn't stop Bynum, but Jackson believed in treating the players like "men"). Mike Brown came to the Lakers with the reputation of being LeBron's enabler, and he did little to change that perception.
And, to be honest, if Bynum decides to test the market, can you imagine what the Cavs could land in a "sign-and-trade" deal? OK, so they didn't get much in the sign-and-trade for LeBron James. However, the Cavs had their hands tied at that point. LeBron was going to sign with the Heat. If they wanted something, ANYTHING, to show for him, they had to give him that extra year Miami couldn't give him and make the deal.
Bynum won't be going on ESPN with any "Decisions" any time soon. The Cavs would have more freedom to pursue the best deal, whether it's re-signing him to keep him or re-signing him to acquire more assets.
I don't think Chris Grant has the cojones to make this kind of deal, especially after they balked at the earler three-team deal with the Nets that could have brought Kris Humphries to Cleveland. However, if they are serious about speeding up Irving's learning curve and putting the Cavs back in the playoff picture sooner, Dan Gilbert and Grant need to sign off on this deal and make it so.
***
With Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III signed and sealed, it's only a matter of time before Trent Richardson signs with the Browns, along with their other first-round choice, Brandon Weeden.
I expect Richardson to sign by Tuesday at the latest, and Weeden to follow shortly after. I would not be surprised to see the Browns announce the signing of both players on the same day.
Just in time for training camp to begin.
While the Browns didn't do much in free agency, they used the draft to do an overhaul of the offense that is more drastic than we've seen in quite some time.
The Browns could be starting rookie draft choices at QB (Weeden), RB (Richardson), WR (Josh Gordon), RT (Mitchell Schwartz) and FB (Brad Smelley). Rookies like Travis Benjamin and Josh Cooper could easily make the team and be immediate contributors at receiver, while guard Ryan Miller could be a regular contributor as he competes with incumbant starters Jason Pinkston and Shawn Lavaeo.
It is somewhat surprising that two respected football outlets aren't giving the Browns more due. Pete Prisco of CBS Sports predicts the Browns will go 1-15, while ProFootballTalk.com ranked the Browns 32nd out of 32 teams in the preseason.
We can take solace in the fact that most of the same media outlets were saying the same things about the Cincinnati Bengals at this point of the offseason, and the Bengals wound up finishing 9-7 and made the playoffs.
Joe Cleveland's ready for some Browns football!
Until next time, remember that Cleveland rocks!
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Open mouth, insert foot
So, Indians closer Chris Perez was one of two Wahoos to be named to the American League All-Star Team, along with shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera.
Something tells me that Mr. Perez will be one of a tiny few on the AL roster who get booed by the crowd at Kansas City's Kauffman Stadium. In fact, he'll probably be the recipient of the loudest boos of the night for any player on any team.
I wonder how Perez will take it, considering how sensitive he is to being booed by a home crowd.
This is what happens when you run your mouth for no apparent reason, other than to rile yourself up. You suffer the consequences.
I wonder if Kansas City fans will do the "You can't see me gesture" to him if he enters the game and starts giving up hits. I wonder if someone will hold up a sign that says, "You drill us, we drill you!"
It appears the guy who calls himself "Pure Rage" isn't completely over the mentality of Cleveland fans and their long memories when it comes to his performances and the performances of his Indians' teams. His little popoff to the New York Times confirms it.
Perez seems like another Braylon Edwards. Edwards mostly dressed down Cleveland, the Browns organization and his teammates while he was here, and then lit into all of them the moment he was sent packing to New York to play for the Jets.
Browns fans booed Braylon, and booed him hard. And, they will continue to boo him ... that is, if he ever finds another NFL job.
The moment Perez leaves the Indians -- and it could happen sooner rather than later -- he will pull a Braylon and really let Cleveland know how he feels. He may stress that he doesn't want to go anywhere, but I believe that he's praying that the Indians fall out of contention so they will dangle him to the highest bidder.
Last week, while the Indians were in New York to play (and subsequently get swept by) the Yankees, Perez expounded on his earlier feelings about the fans.
He said fans seemed to care more about rooting against LeBron James and the Miami Heat than they do about rooting for the Indians.
It's head-scratching. It's just -- they don't come out. But around the city, there's great support. They watch it in the bars. They watch it at home. They just don't come."
A few Cleveland fans claimed that Perez was "speaking the truth." About what, Joe Cleveland wonders?
So, Perez -- a University of Miami graduate -- thinks that the people who support his team in the city he plays should "get over" LeBron James. Apparently, it's OK for Perez to keep an entire city, region, fanbase and franchise in limbo for three years while he drops cryptic hints, gives up on that franchise during his final playoff series, not return any phone calls from the media (or his franchise) after the season, even after that franchise dumped the coach and GM to placate him, and then go on national TV and say you're taking your so-called "talents" somewhere else.
Sure, it's OK for that guy to make disparaging comments about Cleveland after he leaves and throw your teammates under the bus ... then again, this is exactly what Perez has been doing all along.
All of his comments and off-color on-field demeanor simply riles up his opponents. Meanwhile, he sits in the sanctity of the bullpen for 8 innings and only pitches if his team has a lead and only pitches one inning when he does. His teammates, which aren't that good to begin with, find out that other teams are bringing their best and not holding back anything because they've gotten the proper motivation to do so.
Perez likes to talk trash abour the Browns and Browns fans. OK, Chris, let me throw some cold, hard facts your way.
The Cleveland Browns have 8 championshps, while the Cleveland Indians have 2 (and the Cleveland Indians have been around almost 50 years longer than the Browns have).
The Cleveland Browns have won a championship more recently than the Cleveland Indians have -- 1964 (Browns) to 1948 (Indians). Even though the Indians have been in the World Series two more times than the Browns have been in the Super Bowl since 1964.
Going back 10 years -- to 2002 -- the Cleveland Browns have had the exact same amount of playoff berths (one) and winning seasons (two) than the Cleveland Indians have.
So, Chris Perez, why, exactly, is your franchise better than the Browns? Do your history homework, son!
There really isn't a scientific reason as to why Cleveland is more of a football town than a baseball town. You factor in 8 homes games for the Browns to 81 for the Indians, and you can see why people go more ape-shit for the football home games. Plus, it's actually cheaper to go to a season's worth of Browns games than a season's worth of Indians games, when you factor in parking, concessions, travel, etc.
Perhaps the move (and the way the fans responded and the end result) only added to the Browns fervor. The fans showed what loyalty can accomplish when they got the NFL to make a ruling they've never done and gotten concessions (the guarantee of a franchise within a certain time frame, the complete history of the franchise retained, the NFL to kick in on a new stadium) the NFL has never allowed. Yes, the team has been mediocre (by and large) since they've returned. But, quite honestly, haven't all the Cleveland franchises been pretty mediocre during that span?
The Cavs had five straight playoff berths from 2005-2010 with LeBron James in town, even reaching the NBA Finals once. If any franchise wants to call "scoreboard" to the town, the Cavs deserve it, even with LeBron tucking tail and going ring hunting in Florida.
The Indians haven't had a winning season since 2007 (which, coincidentally, was the Browns' last winning season). That year, they had a 3-1 lead in the ALCS over the Boston Red Sox, with Game 5 being played at Jacobs Field with Cy Young winner CC Sabathia on the hill. Somehow, the Tribe blew it.
Perez wants to crow about how his team is "winning," but pennants aren't awarded because you had a great April and May. The Indians had a phenomenal April and May last season, only to finish two games under .500 and double-digit games behind Detroit for the AL Central crown. This season, they had a good April and May, but have struggled ever since Perez went nuclear on his own fanbase.
Yes, the team's offense and the inconsistant starting pitching and some of Manny Acta's moves are all to blame, and Perez still hasn't blown a save since Opening Day. But it seems AWFUL coincidental that the team's overall struggles occurred when Perez popped off the media about a so-called "lack of support" from his fan base.
Perez doesn't seem to get it. Unfortunately, his comments have made him somewhat of a cult hero to a sect of the fan base. But, Joe Cleveland sees a fan base that has struggled to back the Indians because of their apparent lack of supporting a winning product, from ownership on down, and realizes that the Indians blew a lead last year that very few franchises blow and wound up with nothing, and knows that a guy popping off about THEM being the problem and not his manager, his general manager, his president and his owners being the problem (which they are), and most of THEM will sit on their money and not feel as motivated to make the trek to Carnegie and Ontario on a summer night.
The Indians were 12-15 in June. They were 23-17 when Perez first popped off, and 40-39 now, which is 17-22 since May 19. They are barely over .500 and first place in the Central (which is what they were on May 19) seems like a distant memory.
I want the Indians to succeed. However, Chris Perez, if you struggle, Joe Cleveland will not be shy about letting you have it or letting you hear about it.
You drill us, we'll drill you!
Hope you're somewhere else after July 31, Chrissy. Vinnie Pestano should get three measly outs in the ninth inning just as well at a fraction of the salary, without being a lightning rod for controversy.
***
After LeBron led the Heat to the NBA title a few weeks ago, someone argued that LeBron's last Cavs team, the 2010 team, was just as good, if not better, than his current Heat team.
Of course, the main arguement for the pro-LeBron, pro-Decision people is that Cleveland never gave him the proper supporting cast, yadda-yadda-yadda.
Joe Cleveland did some research, and you might be surprised just how evenly these two teams match up.
If you're a stats guy, look it up. If you're a basketball guy, consider this:
STARTERS:
PG -- Mo Williams vs. Mario Chalmers (advantage Cavs)
SG -- Anthony Parker vs. Dwayne Wade (advantage Heat)
SF -- LeBron James vs. LeBron James (I'll give the slight edge to the Heat James because he wasn't afraid to play in the post, unlike his time with the Cavs)
PF -- Antawn Jamison vs. Chris Bosh (even)
C -- Shaquille O'Neal vs. Joel Anthony (advantage Cavs, even with Shaq on the downside, he would eat Anthony for lunch)
Cavs Bench -- J.J. Hickson, Delonte West, Anderson Varejao, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Daniel Gibson
Heat Bench -- Shane Battier, Norris Cole, Udonis Haslem, Mike Miller, Ronny Turiaf
Cavs get a major advantage here, even taking into account Miller's 3-point surge in Game 6. As Gibson showed in 2007, everyone catches lightning in a bottle sometime.
For you stat guys:
2012 Miami Big 3 (points-rebounds-assists)
Lebron James 27-8-6
Dwayne Wade 22-5-5
Chris Bosh 18-6-2
The key was LeBron himself. This year, he carried his team to a title. In 2007, he carried the Cavs to the finals. In 2009 and 2010 (and 2011 with Miami), he disappeared when it mattered, except for one fantastic buzzer-beating 3-pointer in Game 2 of the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals.
LeBron had the pieces around him here in Cleveland, regardless of what ESPN wants to revise in their own history books or what Cleveland-haters want to believe. It was LeBron who failed Cleveland, not the other way around.
I think that's what angers Cleveland fans more than anything. They know, deep down, that Miami's title should be theirs.
***
When the Cavs drafted Dion Waiters with the No. 4 pick last Thursday, Joe Cleveland's not going to lie -- I was pretty angry.
When the Cavs gave up their remaining three draft picks to acquire center Tyler Zeller, Joe Cleveland's mood didn't get any better.
How could the Cavs screw up this draft, I wondered? Why would they take a collegiate non-starter that they never worked out with their first pick, and then give up everything else for a white "stiff" center?
Well, I let it marinate for 24 hours, did some research, listened as the national pundits didn't lambaste the Cavs over an open spicket like I thought they would, listened as Byron Scott and Chris Grant beamed and boasted about the picks, and realized, well, I might have rushed to judgement.
Two of the Cavs' most glaring needs was an athletic 2-guard to team up with Kyrie Irving in the backcourt and an athletic, long center to clog up the middle. They may have filled those two needs with Waiters and Zeller.
Zeller is not a center like Shaq or Dwight Howard or Roy Hibbert. Zeller is along the lines of another guy named 'Z' that played with the Cavs for a long time, a finesse big man who has range. Unlike Ilgauskas, Zeller is more athletic and can get up and down the floor quickly while also disrupting things on the defensive end.
Waiters may be the most athletic player in this draft, in terms of skill set and intangibles. Waiters is confident in his own abilities. You need that to succeed in today's NBA. He can create his own shot while also meshing well with who he called "his brother," Irving.
All the Cavs were raving about the picks when they happened. The national media have given them high grades. Byron Scott can't want to get this young team out on the court for the 2012-13 season.
They are going to run, run, and run some more.
I'm still not 100 percent, but now I'm more anxious to see these kids in action than I was before.
Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!
Something tells me that Mr. Perez will be one of a tiny few on the AL roster who get booed by the crowd at Kansas City's Kauffman Stadium. In fact, he'll probably be the recipient of the loudest boos of the night for any player on any team.
I wonder how Perez will take it, considering how sensitive he is to being booed by a home crowd.
This is what happens when you run your mouth for no apparent reason, other than to rile yourself up. You suffer the consequences.
I wonder if Kansas City fans will do the "You can't see me gesture" to him if he enters the game and starts giving up hits. I wonder if someone will hold up a sign that says, "You drill us, we drill you!"
It appears the guy who calls himself "Pure Rage" isn't completely over the mentality of Cleveland fans and their long memories when it comes to his performances and the performances of his Indians' teams. His little popoff to the New York Times confirms it.
Perez seems like another Braylon Edwards. Edwards mostly dressed down Cleveland, the Browns organization and his teammates while he was here, and then lit into all of them the moment he was sent packing to New York to play for the Jets.
Browns fans booed Braylon, and booed him hard. And, they will continue to boo him ... that is, if he ever finds another NFL job.
The moment Perez leaves the Indians -- and it could happen sooner rather than later -- he will pull a Braylon and really let Cleveland know how he feels. He may stress that he doesn't want to go anywhere, but I believe that he's praying that the Indians fall out of contention so they will dangle him to the highest bidder.
Last week, while the Indians were in New York to play (and subsequently get swept by) the Yankees, Perez expounded on his earlier feelings about the fans.
He said fans seemed to care more about rooting against LeBron James and the Miami Heat than they do about rooting for the Indians.
“I don’t get the psyche,” said Perez, who grew up in
Florida. “Why cheer against a guy that’s not even in your city anymore? Just to
see him fail? Does that make you feel good? I could see if the Cavs were in the
championship, but that’s their mentality.
“They’ve had a lot of years of misery. They say, ‘You just
don’t understand because you don’t live here.’ O.K., maybe I don’t. But that
doesn’t mean it has to keep going.”
The Indians drew more than 3 million fans for six seasons in a row starting in 1996, the year the NFL Browns moved to Baltimore.
The new version of the Browns has not won a playoff game in its 13 seasons.
“That’s what I don’t understand,” Perez said. “Their whole
thing is, ‘We want a winner.’ Well, why do you support the Browns? They don’t
win. They’ve never won. They left. You guys blindly support them. I don’t
understand it. It’s a double standard, and I don’t know why.It's head-scratching. It's just -- they don't come out. But around the city, there's great support. They watch it in the bars. They watch it at home. They just don't come."
A few Cleveland fans claimed that Perez was "speaking the truth." About what, Joe Cleveland wonders?
So, Perez -- a University of Miami graduate -- thinks that the people who support his team in the city he plays should "get over" LeBron James. Apparently, it's OK for Perez to keep an entire city, region, fanbase and franchise in limbo for three years while he drops cryptic hints, gives up on that franchise during his final playoff series, not return any phone calls from the media (or his franchise) after the season, even after that franchise dumped the coach and GM to placate him, and then go on national TV and say you're taking your so-called "talents" somewhere else.
Sure, it's OK for that guy to make disparaging comments about Cleveland after he leaves and throw your teammates under the bus ... then again, this is exactly what Perez has been doing all along.
All of his comments and off-color on-field demeanor simply riles up his opponents. Meanwhile, he sits in the sanctity of the bullpen for 8 innings and only pitches if his team has a lead and only pitches one inning when he does. His teammates, which aren't that good to begin with, find out that other teams are bringing their best and not holding back anything because they've gotten the proper motivation to do so.
Perez likes to talk trash abour the Browns and Browns fans. OK, Chris, let me throw some cold, hard facts your way.
The Cleveland Browns have 8 championshps, while the Cleveland Indians have 2 (and the Cleveland Indians have been around almost 50 years longer than the Browns have).
The Cleveland Browns have won a championship more recently than the Cleveland Indians have -- 1964 (Browns) to 1948 (Indians). Even though the Indians have been in the World Series two more times than the Browns have been in the Super Bowl since 1964.
Going back 10 years -- to 2002 -- the Cleveland Browns have had the exact same amount of playoff berths (one) and winning seasons (two) than the Cleveland Indians have.
So, Chris Perez, why, exactly, is your franchise better than the Browns? Do your history homework, son!
There really isn't a scientific reason as to why Cleveland is more of a football town than a baseball town. You factor in 8 homes games for the Browns to 81 for the Indians, and you can see why people go more ape-shit for the football home games. Plus, it's actually cheaper to go to a season's worth of Browns games than a season's worth of Indians games, when you factor in parking, concessions, travel, etc.
Perhaps the move (and the way the fans responded and the end result) only added to the Browns fervor. The fans showed what loyalty can accomplish when they got the NFL to make a ruling they've never done and gotten concessions (the guarantee of a franchise within a certain time frame, the complete history of the franchise retained, the NFL to kick in on a new stadium) the NFL has never allowed. Yes, the team has been mediocre (by and large) since they've returned. But, quite honestly, haven't all the Cleveland franchises been pretty mediocre during that span?
The Cavs had five straight playoff berths from 2005-2010 with LeBron James in town, even reaching the NBA Finals once. If any franchise wants to call "scoreboard" to the town, the Cavs deserve it, even with LeBron tucking tail and going ring hunting in Florida.
The Indians haven't had a winning season since 2007 (which, coincidentally, was the Browns' last winning season). That year, they had a 3-1 lead in the ALCS over the Boston Red Sox, with Game 5 being played at Jacobs Field with Cy Young winner CC Sabathia on the hill. Somehow, the Tribe blew it.
Perez wants to crow about how his team is "winning," but pennants aren't awarded because you had a great April and May. The Indians had a phenomenal April and May last season, only to finish two games under .500 and double-digit games behind Detroit for the AL Central crown. This season, they had a good April and May, but have struggled ever since Perez went nuclear on his own fanbase.
Yes, the team's offense and the inconsistant starting pitching and some of Manny Acta's moves are all to blame, and Perez still hasn't blown a save since Opening Day. But it seems AWFUL coincidental that the team's overall struggles occurred when Perez popped off the media about a so-called "lack of support" from his fan base.
Perez doesn't seem to get it. Unfortunately, his comments have made him somewhat of a cult hero to a sect of the fan base. But, Joe Cleveland sees a fan base that has struggled to back the Indians because of their apparent lack of supporting a winning product, from ownership on down, and realizes that the Indians blew a lead last year that very few franchises blow and wound up with nothing, and knows that a guy popping off about THEM being the problem and not his manager, his general manager, his president and his owners being the problem (which they are), and most of THEM will sit on their money and not feel as motivated to make the trek to Carnegie and Ontario on a summer night.
The Indians were 12-15 in June. They were 23-17 when Perez first popped off, and 40-39 now, which is 17-22 since May 19. They are barely over .500 and first place in the Central (which is what they were on May 19) seems like a distant memory.
I want the Indians to succeed. However, Chris Perez, if you struggle, Joe Cleveland will not be shy about letting you have it or letting you hear about it.
You drill us, we'll drill you!
Hope you're somewhere else after July 31, Chrissy. Vinnie Pestano should get three measly outs in the ninth inning just as well at a fraction of the salary, without being a lightning rod for controversy.
***
After LeBron led the Heat to the NBA title a few weeks ago, someone argued that LeBron's last Cavs team, the 2010 team, was just as good, if not better, than his current Heat team.
Of course, the main arguement for the pro-LeBron, pro-Decision people is that Cleveland never gave him the proper supporting cast, yadda-yadda-yadda.
Joe Cleveland did some research, and you might be surprised just how evenly these two teams match up.
If you're a stats guy, look it up. If you're a basketball guy, consider this:
STARTERS:
PG -- Mo Williams vs. Mario Chalmers (advantage Cavs)
SG -- Anthony Parker vs. Dwayne Wade (advantage Heat)
SF -- LeBron James vs. LeBron James (I'll give the slight edge to the Heat James because he wasn't afraid to play in the post, unlike his time with the Cavs)
PF -- Antawn Jamison vs. Chris Bosh (even)
C -- Shaquille O'Neal vs. Joel Anthony (advantage Cavs, even with Shaq on the downside, he would eat Anthony for lunch)
Cavs Bench -- J.J. Hickson, Delonte West, Anderson Varejao, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Daniel Gibson
Heat Bench -- Shane Battier, Norris Cole, Udonis Haslem, Mike Miller, Ronny Turiaf
Cavs get a major advantage here, even taking into account Miller's 3-point surge in Game 6. As Gibson showed in 2007, everyone catches lightning in a bottle sometime.
For you stat guys:
2012 Miami Big 3 (points-rebounds-assists)
Lebron James 27-8-6
Dwayne Wade 22-5-5
Chris Bosh 18-6-2
2010 Cleveland Big 3
Lebron James 29-7-9
Antawn Jamison 19-8-1
Mo Williams 15-3-5
Lebron James 29-7-9
Antawn Jamison 19-8-1
Mo Williams 15-3-5
Miami has a plus-4 advantage in points, but just a plus-1 advantage in rebounds, while the Cavs had a plus-2 advantage in assists.
To me, what this shows is that, if LeBron had shown half the gumption and heart he showed this year that he didn't show in 2010, the Cavs would have won a championship that season.The key was LeBron himself. This year, he carried his team to a title. In 2007, he carried the Cavs to the finals. In 2009 and 2010 (and 2011 with Miami), he disappeared when it mattered, except for one fantastic buzzer-beating 3-pointer in Game 2 of the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals.
LeBron had the pieces around him here in Cleveland, regardless of what ESPN wants to revise in their own history books or what Cleveland-haters want to believe. It was LeBron who failed Cleveland, not the other way around.
I think that's what angers Cleveland fans more than anything. They know, deep down, that Miami's title should be theirs.
***
When the Cavs drafted Dion Waiters with the No. 4 pick last Thursday, Joe Cleveland's not going to lie -- I was pretty angry.
When the Cavs gave up their remaining three draft picks to acquire center Tyler Zeller, Joe Cleveland's mood didn't get any better.
How could the Cavs screw up this draft, I wondered? Why would they take a collegiate non-starter that they never worked out with their first pick, and then give up everything else for a white "stiff" center?
Well, I let it marinate for 24 hours, did some research, listened as the national pundits didn't lambaste the Cavs over an open spicket like I thought they would, listened as Byron Scott and Chris Grant beamed and boasted about the picks, and realized, well, I might have rushed to judgement.
Two of the Cavs' most glaring needs was an athletic 2-guard to team up with Kyrie Irving in the backcourt and an athletic, long center to clog up the middle. They may have filled those two needs with Waiters and Zeller.
Zeller is not a center like Shaq or Dwight Howard or Roy Hibbert. Zeller is along the lines of another guy named 'Z' that played with the Cavs for a long time, a finesse big man who has range. Unlike Ilgauskas, Zeller is more athletic and can get up and down the floor quickly while also disrupting things on the defensive end.
Waiters may be the most athletic player in this draft, in terms of skill set and intangibles. Waiters is confident in his own abilities. You need that to succeed in today's NBA. He can create his own shot while also meshing well with who he called "his brother," Irving.
All the Cavs were raving about the picks when they happened. The national media have given them high grades. Byron Scott can't want to get this young team out on the court for the 2012-13 season.
They are going to run, run, and run some more.
I'm still not 100 percent, but now I'm more anxious to see these kids in action than I was before.
Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Moving on ...
So, in case you were asleep in a cave, or deliberately blocked sports programming and sports feedback from entering your Facebook or Twitter universes this past week, you may not have realized that Cleveland's Public Enemy No. 2 got himself a championship.
Sorry, LeBron, but Art Modell will always -- even after he dies -- be Public Enemy No. 1. Then again, after the disgraceful way you left, "No. 2" just seems like a fitting description.
Joe Cleveland knew it was coming. I could see it in the way games in the NBA Finals were officiated, and I could see the way Oklahoma City was playing, that Game 5 was going to end with a Miami win. Fortunately, I had plans.
Myself, one of my best friends, and his girlfriend attended a fantastic concert in beautiful Downtown Cleveland. I deliberately did not check my phone, only focusing on the fantastic music I was watching being performed and on the awesome company I had.
I also took notice of the fact that the concert venue was right along the Cuyahoga River, a much-maligned symbol of Cleveland's national jokes. I could see the Terminal Tower all lit up, thought about the Horseshoe Casino opening up and the Medical Mart being constructed to the north of it and thought, "This is a fucking great town!"
Pardon my French, but it's true.
LeBron James may have decided he couldn't win one as a leader here, or never liked Cleveland to begin with, or the national media could add another punchline to a growing number of punchlines about Cleveland and its sports teams, but on this night, one that many in the outside media had believed would be a bleak one for the North Coast, I, Joe Cleveland, decided I was going to have a good time.
And, I did, all night long.
Finally, at about 1 a.m., I broke down and checked my phone for the score. There it was -- Heat 121, Thunder 106. It was over.
I took a deep breath, put my phone back in my pocket, and jumped behind the drum kit at a local establishment's jam night and played my heart out.
Who says music can't be theraputic?
Honestly, at the time, my feeling was indifference. It was as inevitable as a cliff-hanger ending in a soap opera, so I wasn't surprised. I had been bracing myself for the disappointment, so when it happened, I honestly didn't care.
I harckened back to watching the Baltimore Thieving Bastards win the Super Bowl in early 2001 (and we remember what a terrible year 2001 was, and it began with Judas hoisting up the Lombardi Trophy with that shit-eating sneer on his face). It broke my heart. But, the gods were kind to me that night. I won the jackpot in the "squares" at the Super Bowl party I was attending, and I promptly spent it all at the bar that night.
I had to get good and schnockered. I wanted the pain to go away -- and it did, for one night.
Sorry, LeBron, but your win was NOTHING compared to that.
Hell, even watching some of the Steelers' recent Super Bowl wins were harder to swallow than this. Bill Belichick's three Super Bowl wins in four years were worse.
There's been a few others that come close, like Manny Ramirez winning two World Series titles with the Red Sox, watching the Indians' back-to-back Cy Young Award winners Cliff Lee and CC Sabathia face off in Game 1 of the 2009 World Series, heck even seeing Jhonny Peralta have an All-Star season with Detroit after watching him stumble, bumble and sulk with the Indians for a few years. LeBron, your win was worse than those, so I'll give you that.
There's two things about the Cleveland sports fan base. On one hand, you have a bunch of die-hard, true-blood fans who bleed and sweat with their Browns, Indians and Cavs (and Ohio State Buckeyes). They may not be fans of all of them, but the ones they root for, they root for with a passion that just doesn't exist in many places.
On the other hand, you have a bunch of Cleveland self-haters. The guys who like to rub your nose in it at the office or at the factory or at the bar or on Facebook or Twitter when a Cleveland sports team fails, even though they themselves have lived in Cleveland (or Ohio) their entire lives. They are the people who don Steelers jersies because the Steelers are winning while the Browns are not. They are the closet Michigan fans who suddenly came roaring back after the Wolverines took advantage of Jim Tressel's demise this year and actually beat Ohio State at football for once. They are the ones with Yankees or Tigers hats.
And, they are the ones who suddenly, almost overnight, became LeBron James and Miami Heat fans.
My fear now is we'll suddenly see a lot more Miami "JAMES/6" jersies in public than we did two years ago or last year. Remember when that douchebag went to an Indians game wearing LeBron's jersey and got booed right out of Progressive Field? That will never happen again, I'm afraid.
The closet James fans could only recoil when their beloved turncoat failed to deliver on his promise of a championship last season, when he shrunk in the moment during the NBA Finals and the Dallas Mavericks slapped that snicker right off of his and Dwayne Wade's faces with a six-game beatdown that had everyone in Cleveland celebrating.
Folks want to say we're a bunch of "haters" -- which is funny, because those same people are Cleveland sports "haters" but don't see it that way. The ESPN's of the world, the same so-called Worldwide Leader of Sports, want to point their fingers down at you and me and say that it's time for us to "get over it."
I've been hearing that a lot from the clueless ones from Bristol, who are the very definition of frontrunners.
They didn't give two shits about the Miami Heat until LeBron went on their network and said that's where he was going (after they speculated for three straight years about LeBron joining the New York Knicks). Suddenly, they launched a Web page called the "Heat Index," complete with one of the Cavs' old beat writers, and had reporters stationed in Miami from the very first moment James, Wade and Chris Bosh reported to training camp all the way until the bitter end.
Sure, ESPN also kept the pressure on James with their scrutiny about "can he win the big one," or, "will he be the best player to never win a title?" Heck, even James' fans were starting to come up with excuses when the Heat fell behind, 3-2, to the aging Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Funny what six wins can do do those people.
James supposedly didn't have enough support around him to win a title last year or get to the Finals this year, just like he supposedly lacked with the Cavs. But, as soon as he won, those people forgot about those comments and could only fall down on their knees in front of their supposed, self-proclaimed "King" and worship to him to no end. They wanted to feel his "salvation" all over their faces.
These people make me sick.
Now, the national media feels that this win "validates" his decision to leave the Cavs and sign with Miami. Really? So his "Dream Team" could take two years to finally win won NBA Title, and have to win that NBA Title in a lockout-shortened season and after falling behind to both the Indiana Pacers and the Boston Celtics (and even the Thunder) in this year's playoffs?
I thought LeBron was going to win "not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven" NBA titles. It took him two seasons with two other All-Stars to finally win ONE.
When Kevin Durant and Ray Allen signed with Boston to join Paul Pierce, the Celtics won the NBA title in their FIRST YEAR together. They haven't won one since, but you get the point. And these guys were all in the tail-ends of their respective careers.
LeBron, Wade and Bosh were all in the so-called "primes" of their careers. The fact is, it took falling behind 3-2 to the aging Celtics for some switch to go off in LeBron's head.
He stopped deferring to Wade, who did not play great in this postseason, and started carrying the team himself.
This is what LeBron did in 2007 with the Cavs. That performance in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals was one that still gives me chills, and I hate the bastard now!
Of course, he disappeared in Game 6 at home, but a rookie named Boobie Gibson caught fire from beyond the 3-point arc and gave the Cavs their first NBA Finals berth ever.
In Game 5 of this NBA Finals, LeBron had a triple-double, but it was the kind of empty triple-double that he had in Game 6 of the 2010 Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Celtics, right before he ripped his Cavs jersey off and then ripped the hearts out of the fans who supported him through his seven-year career.
Like Gibson, it was Mike Miller who caught fire from beyond the 3-point arc and lifted the Heat to the win. Even in Game 4, when LeBron suddenly got "cramps" (perhaps they were menstral), it was Mario Chalmers who stepped up and capped a ferocious comeback to put the Thunder on the brink of elimination.
ESPN and all the national pundits of the world want you to "get over it" already. But Joe Cleveland lives here, is one of you, and I say, NO, YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO SQUAT!
If you want to get over it, great. If you still have feelings of anger and resentment, so be it. LeBron James didn't leave ESPN in the lurch. He left CLEVELAND in the lurch.
He embarassed this town, his old team and, quite frankly, himself when he did his special in July of 2010. He didn't have to do that. He didn't have to rub our noses in it.
He didn't have to preen and shuck and jive with his buddies Wade and Bosh the following night in Miami, promising a slew of championships that he found out just aren't that easy to win, even if you've supposedly "beat the odds" in doing it.
He didn't have to comment that all the folks who rooted against him could go back to their pathetic lives after his team lost Game 6 to the Mavericks last year.
He didn't have to film that ridiculous "What should I do?" commercial for Nike, which didn't help his image in the slightest.
And, he didn't have to toy with Cleveland's emotions midway through this season when he said he'd be open to coming back and playing with the Cavs.
LeBron James showed just how self-absorbed he really is when he called winning the NBA Championship "the best day of his life." Glad to know LeBron Jr. and Bryce Maximus or their mother that you finally got engaged to, Savannah, really don't matter that much to you, "champ."
Funny that LeBron's old high school coaches Keith Dambrot and Dru Joyce celebrated that title. However, LeBron didn't throw the love back at them in his postgame comments.
Funny that LeBron didn't even have any comments directed at Cleveland, although he couldn't resist taking a shot at Cavs owner Dan Gilbert when he said, "I have never, in life, taken any shortcuts."
Did those jersies you received as a "gift" from the sporting goods store, which cost your high school team an undefeated season, count as a shortcut?
Did that Hummer your mom "purchased" for you in high school, which had you investigated by the OHSAA, count as a shortcut?
Did skipping college to go straight to the NBA count as a shortcut?
How about getting all of your cronies hired to the Cavs? Did that count as a shortcut?
That three-year contract you signed with a player-option for a fourth (that you were never going to exorcise) after 2007, did that not count as a shortcut?
Convincing the Cavs to abandon all long-term planning and go for short-term success, like signing Shaq and squandering draft picks, did that not count as a shortcut?
And, as you realized that you couldn't deliver a championship to Cleveland, as you promised, you decided to tuck tail and sign with another team with two other All-Stars in the hopes that it would make you a champion.
That, by any definition, is a shortcut.
Dan Gilbert was right in calling you out. Unfortunately, he made some dumb comments (guaranteeing the Cavs would win a title before LeBron would was ridiculous, and, I'm sure, had ESPN piling on after LeBron won) that has cost him.
In a way, I'm relieved he won. It was tiring rooting for someone to fail so hard and so strong. The albatross is gone.
Sometimes, the best way to make something go away is to ignore it. I'm ready to ignore LeBron James and focus my energies on the teams and athletes we have here in town.
Teams like the Browns, who drafted two exciting offensive playmakers in Trent Richardson and Brandon Weeden, and have several players who are staying true to Cleveland, like Josh Cribbs and Joe Haden.
Teams like the Cavs, who drafted an exciting point guard in Kyrie Irving and are poised to add another exciting player with the fourth pick of Thursday's NBA Draft -- whether they move up or down or package picks or whatever.
Teams like the Indians, who, defying all logical belief, are still somehow in first place in the AL Central Division and are in position to be movers and shakers in a month at the trading deadline.
Teams like Ohio State, who brought in Urban Meyer to be the new head football coach and has immediately hit the ground running with a great recruiting class and some tough love (enjoy that one-game winning streak, Michigan). And their basketball team, that reached the Final Four again under Thad Matta and continually bring top hoops recruits to Columbus and succeed.
And, teams like Cleveland State, who are poised to become a mid-major breakout team after Butler left the Horizon League for the Atlantic-10. Gary Waters keeps bringing in talent that thrives in his system. The Butler roadblock to the NCAA Tournament has been lifted, and the Vikings are ready to kick down the door.
Let's not forget teams like Kent State baseball, that became the first team from the state of Ohio since Mike Schmidt's Ohio U. team in 1970 to reach the College World Series, and then sent No. 1-ranked Florida packing in a thrilling elimination game. Yes, a warm-weather sport like collegiate baseball can be successful in Northeast Ohio.
Congratulations, LeBron. You won a championship. So, when does Browns training camp open up?
Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!
Sorry, LeBron, but Art Modell will always -- even after he dies -- be Public Enemy No. 1. Then again, after the disgraceful way you left, "No. 2" just seems like a fitting description.
Joe Cleveland knew it was coming. I could see it in the way games in the NBA Finals were officiated, and I could see the way Oklahoma City was playing, that Game 5 was going to end with a Miami win. Fortunately, I had plans.
Myself, one of my best friends, and his girlfriend attended a fantastic concert in beautiful Downtown Cleveland. I deliberately did not check my phone, only focusing on the fantastic music I was watching being performed and on the awesome company I had.
I also took notice of the fact that the concert venue was right along the Cuyahoga River, a much-maligned symbol of Cleveland's national jokes. I could see the Terminal Tower all lit up, thought about the Horseshoe Casino opening up and the Medical Mart being constructed to the north of it and thought, "This is a fucking great town!"
Pardon my French, but it's true.
LeBron James may have decided he couldn't win one as a leader here, or never liked Cleveland to begin with, or the national media could add another punchline to a growing number of punchlines about Cleveland and its sports teams, but on this night, one that many in the outside media had believed would be a bleak one for the North Coast, I, Joe Cleveland, decided I was going to have a good time.
And, I did, all night long.
Finally, at about 1 a.m., I broke down and checked my phone for the score. There it was -- Heat 121, Thunder 106. It was over.
I took a deep breath, put my phone back in my pocket, and jumped behind the drum kit at a local establishment's jam night and played my heart out.
Who says music can't be theraputic?
Honestly, at the time, my feeling was indifference. It was as inevitable as a cliff-hanger ending in a soap opera, so I wasn't surprised. I had been bracing myself for the disappointment, so when it happened, I honestly didn't care.
I harckened back to watching the Baltimore Thieving Bastards win the Super Bowl in early 2001 (and we remember what a terrible year 2001 was, and it began with Judas hoisting up the Lombardi Trophy with that shit-eating sneer on his face). It broke my heart. But, the gods were kind to me that night. I won the jackpot in the "squares" at the Super Bowl party I was attending, and I promptly spent it all at the bar that night.
I had to get good and schnockered. I wanted the pain to go away -- and it did, for one night.
Sorry, LeBron, but your win was NOTHING compared to that.
Hell, even watching some of the Steelers' recent Super Bowl wins were harder to swallow than this. Bill Belichick's three Super Bowl wins in four years were worse.
There's been a few others that come close, like Manny Ramirez winning two World Series titles with the Red Sox, watching the Indians' back-to-back Cy Young Award winners Cliff Lee and CC Sabathia face off in Game 1 of the 2009 World Series, heck even seeing Jhonny Peralta have an All-Star season with Detroit after watching him stumble, bumble and sulk with the Indians for a few years. LeBron, your win was worse than those, so I'll give you that.
There's two things about the Cleveland sports fan base. On one hand, you have a bunch of die-hard, true-blood fans who bleed and sweat with their Browns, Indians and Cavs (and Ohio State Buckeyes). They may not be fans of all of them, but the ones they root for, they root for with a passion that just doesn't exist in many places.
On the other hand, you have a bunch of Cleveland self-haters. The guys who like to rub your nose in it at the office or at the factory or at the bar or on Facebook or Twitter when a Cleveland sports team fails, even though they themselves have lived in Cleveland (or Ohio) their entire lives. They are the people who don Steelers jersies because the Steelers are winning while the Browns are not. They are the closet Michigan fans who suddenly came roaring back after the Wolverines took advantage of Jim Tressel's demise this year and actually beat Ohio State at football for once. They are the ones with Yankees or Tigers hats.
And, they are the ones who suddenly, almost overnight, became LeBron James and Miami Heat fans.
My fear now is we'll suddenly see a lot more Miami "JAMES/6" jersies in public than we did two years ago or last year. Remember when that douchebag went to an Indians game wearing LeBron's jersey and got booed right out of Progressive Field? That will never happen again, I'm afraid.
The closet James fans could only recoil when their beloved turncoat failed to deliver on his promise of a championship last season, when he shrunk in the moment during the NBA Finals and the Dallas Mavericks slapped that snicker right off of his and Dwayne Wade's faces with a six-game beatdown that had everyone in Cleveland celebrating.
Folks want to say we're a bunch of "haters" -- which is funny, because those same people are Cleveland sports "haters" but don't see it that way. The ESPN's of the world, the same so-called Worldwide Leader of Sports, want to point their fingers down at you and me and say that it's time for us to "get over it."
I've been hearing that a lot from the clueless ones from Bristol, who are the very definition of frontrunners.
They didn't give two shits about the Miami Heat until LeBron went on their network and said that's where he was going (after they speculated for three straight years about LeBron joining the New York Knicks). Suddenly, they launched a Web page called the "Heat Index," complete with one of the Cavs' old beat writers, and had reporters stationed in Miami from the very first moment James, Wade and Chris Bosh reported to training camp all the way until the bitter end.
Sure, ESPN also kept the pressure on James with their scrutiny about "can he win the big one," or, "will he be the best player to never win a title?" Heck, even James' fans were starting to come up with excuses when the Heat fell behind, 3-2, to the aging Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Funny what six wins can do do those people.
James supposedly didn't have enough support around him to win a title last year or get to the Finals this year, just like he supposedly lacked with the Cavs. But, as soon as he won, those people forgot about those comments and could only fall down on their knees in front of their supposed, self-proclaimed "King" and worship to him to no end. They wanted to feel his "salvation" all over their faces.
These people make me sick.
Now, the national media feels that this win "validates" his decision to leave the Cavs and sign with Miami. Really? So his "Dream Team" could take two years to finally win won NBA Title, and have to win that NBA Title in a lockout-shortened season and after falling behind to both the Indiana Pacers and the Boston Celtics (and even the Thunder) in this year's playoffs?
I thought LeBron was going to win "not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven" NBA titles. It took him two seasons with two other All-Stars to finally win ONE.
When Kevin Durant and Ray Allen signed with Boston to join Paul Pierce, the Celtics won the NBA title in their FIRST YEAR together. They haven't won one since, but you get the point. And these guys were all in the tail-ends of their respective careers.
LeBron, Wade and Bosh were all in the so-called "primes" of their careers. The fact is, it took falling behind 3-2 to the aging Celtics for some switch to go off in LeBron's head.
He stopped deferring to Wade, who did not play great in this postseason, and started carrying the team himself.
This is what LeBron did in 2007 with the Cavs. That performance in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals was one that still gives me chills, and I hate the bastard now!
Of course, he disappeared in Game 6 at home, but a rookie named Boobie Gibson caught fire from beyond the 3-point arc and gave the Cavs their first NBA Finals berth ever.
In Game 5 of this NBA Finals, LeBron had a triple-double, but it was the kind of empty triple-double that he had in Game 6 of the 2010 Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Celtics, right before he ripped his Cavs jersey off and then ripped the hearts out of the fans who supported him through his seven-year career.
Like Gibson, it was Mike Miller who caught fire from beyond the 3-point arc and lifted the Heat to the win. Even in Game 4, when LeBron suddenly got "cramps" (perhaps they were menstral), it was Mario Chalmers who stepped up and capped a ferocious comeback to put the Thunder on the brink of elimination.
ESPN and all the national pundits of the world want you to "get over it" already. But Joe Cleveland lives here, is one of you, and I say, NO, YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO SQUAT!
If you want to get over it, great. If you still have feelings of anger and resentment, so be it. LeBron James didn't leave ESPN in the lurch. He left CLEVELAND in the lurch.
He embarassed this town, his old team and, quite frankly, himself when he did his special in July of 2010. He didn't have to do that. He didn't have to rub our noses in it.
He didn't have to preen and shuck and jive with his buddies Wade and Bosh the following night in Miami, promising a slew of championships that he found out just aren't that easy to win, even if you've supposedly "beat the odds" in doing it.
He didn't have to comment that all the folks who rooted against him could go back to their pathetic lives after his team lost Game 6 to the Mavericks last year.
He didn't have to film that ridiculous "What should I do?" commercial for Nike, which didn't help his image in the slightest.
And, he didn't have to toy with Cleveland's emotions midway through this season when he said he'd be open to coming back and playing with the Cavs.
LeBron James showed just how self-absorbed he really is when he called winning the NBA Championship "the best day of his life." Glad to know LeBron Jr. and Bryce Maximus or their mother that you finally got engaged to, Savannah, really don't matter that much to you, "champ."
Funny that LeBron's old high school coaches Keith Dambrot and Dru Joyce celebrated that title. However, LeBron didn't throw the love back at them in his postgame comments.
Funny that LeBron didn't even have any comments directed at Cleveland, although he couldn't resist taking a shot at Cavs owner Dan Gilbert when he said, "I have never, in life, taken any shortcuts."
Did those jersies you received as a "gift" from the sporting goods store, which cost your high school team an undefeated season, count as a shortcut?
Did that Hummer your mom "purchased" for you in high school, which had you investigated by the OHSAA, count as a shortcut?
Did skipping college to go straight to the NBA count as a shortcut?
How about getting all of your cronies hired to the Cavs? Did that count as a shortcut?
That three-year contract you signed with a player-option for a fourth (that you were never going to exorcise) after 2007, did that not count as a shortcut?
Convincing the Cavs to abandon all long-term planning and go for short-term success, like signing Shaq and squandering draft picks, did that not count as a shortcut?
And, as you realized that you couldn't deliver a championship to Cleveland, as you promised, you decided to tuck tail and sign with another team with two other All-Stars in the hopes that it would make you a champion.
That, by any definition, is a shortcut.
Dan Gilbert was right in calling you out. Unfortunately, he made some dumb comments (guaranteeing the Cavs would win a title before LeBron would was ridiculous, and, I'm sure, had ESPN piling on after LeBron won) that has cost him.
In a way, I'm relieved he won. It was tiring rooting for someone to fail so hard and so strong. The albatross is gone.
Sometimes, the best way to make something go away is to ignore it. I'm ready to ignore LeBron James and focus my energies on the teams and athletes we have here in town.
Teams like the Browns, who drafted two exciting offensive playmakers in Trent Richardson and Brandon Weeden, and have several players who are staying true to Cleveland, like Josh Cribbs and Joe Haden.
Teams like the Cavs, who drafted an exciting point guard in Kyrie Irving and are poised to add another exciting player with the fourth pick of Thursday's NBA Draft -- whether they move up or down or package picks or whatever.
Teams like the Indians, who, defying all logical belief, are still somehow in first place in the AL Central Division and are in position to be movers and shakers in a month at the trading deadline.
Teams like Ohio State, who brought in Urban Meyer to be the new head football coach and has immediately hit the ground running with a great recruiting class and some tough love (enjoy that one-game winning streak, Michigan). And their basketball team, that reached the Final Four again under Thad Matta and continually bring top hoops recruits to Columbus and succeed.
And, teams like Cleveland State, who are poised to become a mid-major breakout team after Butler left the Horizon League for the Atlantic-10. Gary Waters keeps bringing in talent that thrives in his system. The Butler roadblock to the NCAA Tournament has been lifted, and the Vikings are ready to kick down the door.
Let's not forget teams like Kent State baseball, that became the first team from the state of Ohio since Mike Schmidt's Ohio U. team in 1970 to reach the College World Series, and then sent No. 1-ranked Florida packing in a thrilling elimination game. Yes, a warm-weather sport like collegiate baseball can be successful in Northeast Ohio.
Congratulations, LeBron. You won a championship. So, when does Browns training camp open up?
Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Coincidence? The NBA wants you to think so
David Stern became the Commissioner of the National Basketball Association in 1984, at the heyday of Lakers-Celtics/Magic-Bird rivalry that helped transform the league into what it is today.
Since Stern took over, only EIGHT NBA franchises have won the Larry O'Brien Trophy, given to the champions of the league. Of those eight, seven are in what are deemed to be "major TV markets."
The list is:
Los Angeles Lakers (8 titles, 13 appearances)
Chicago Bulls (6 titles, 6 appearances)
San Antonio Spurs (4 titles, 4 appearances)
Boston Celtics (3 titles, 6 appearances)
Detroit Pistons (3 titles, 5 appearances)
Houston Rockets (2 titles, 4 appearances)
Miami Heat (1 title, 3 appearances)
Dallas Mavericks (1 title, 2 appearances)
Going back to 1979-80, when Magic Johnson entered the league, the list only bumps up to NINE franchises (Philadelphia 76ers in 1983). The Lakers have won the title 10 times since 1980, while the Celtics have won it four times.
Coincidence?
Even Major League Baseball, which operates without a salary cap and allows the larger market teams to outspend the smaller market ones, has more parity than this. And, the NBA has had a salary cap, although that cap is rife with loopholes and other exceptions that basically make it a "salary cap" in theory.
Nine championship franchises in 32 years? Eight of which are in major markets, and all of which had some sort of gimmick going for them (a superstar player, a team nickname, etc.)?
Throw in the list of teams that reached the NBA Finals during that span and lost, that number expands to just 18 different franchises. 18 franchises in a 30-team league.
The franchises that have thrown the "olive branch" include:
Portland Trail Blazers (2 appearances)
Utah Jazz (2 appearances)
New York Knicks (2 appearances)
New Jersey Nets (2 appearances)
Orlando Magic (2 appearances)
Phoenix Suns (1 appearance)
Indiana Pacers (1 appearance)
Seattle SuperSonics (1 appearance)
Cleveland Cavaliers (1 appearance)
Oklahoma City Thunder (1 appearance)
Philadelphia 76ers (1 appearance)
None of these franchises made the NBA Finals until 1990. From 1980-89, the finals were dominated by just five teams -- the Lakers (5 titles, 8 apperances), the Celtics (3 titles, 5 appearances), the 76ers (1 title, 3 appearances), the Rockets (2 appearances) and the Pistons (1 title, 2 apperances). All of the 76ers appearances came from 1980-83, which was before Stern took over. The Sixers have only made it back once during the David Stern era.
Stern also ushered in the era of the NBA Draft Lottery, which began following the 1984-85 season. Stern's reasoning behind the lottery was because there was a belief that the Houston Rockets and other teams were "tanking" games in order to land the No. 1 overall draft choice in 1984 (which was Hakeem Olajuwon; Michael Jordan wound going third to the Chicago Bulls after Portland selected Sam Bowie).
For the first two years, all of the non-playoff teams had an equal chance of getting the top pick. From 1987-89, only the top three picks were "randomly" selected out of a hopper -- the remaining teams filled out the fourth pick on down based on their win-loss records.
In 1990, they changed it to "weighted" system, so that the team with the worst record had the most chances of landing the top pick on down. However, after the Orlando Magic wound up with the top pick in the 1993 draft despite only having one chance to land it, the NBA tinkered with their theory again.
From 1994 through now, the NBA uses 14 numbered ping-pong balls and assigns a certain number of four-digit combinations to the non-playoff teams. The worst team has the highest number of combinations, on down. The NBA draws three four-digit combinations, and the teams with those combinations land the top three draft picks. Picks four on down are assigned based on record.
Only twice has the team with the worst record in the NBA won the lottery and gotten the top pick -- 1990 (New Jersey Nets; Derrick Coleman) and 2004 (Orlando Magic; Dwight Howard). The Cavs were tied with Denver for the worst record in 2003, but yet won the lottery and selected LeBron James.
The team that has won the draft lottery the most since 1985 is the Los Angeles Clippers. Twice, they traded that top pick, and both times, that top pick wound up in the Cavs' hands -- 1986 (Brad Daugherty) and 2011 (Kyrie Irving).
The first draft lottery is the most suspicious of them all. With Patrick Ewing being the projected top choice, and the Knicks struggling in the top-media market, it seems pretty coincidental that the Knicks landed the top spot.
First, before the envelopes were placed in the hopper, the deputy commissoner banged one envelope on to a counter-top. Just one envelope. That gave that envelope a bent corner. Then, Stern drew out three envelopes at once, fumbled around a bit, and dropped the other two back in the hopper. The envelope he kept had the bent corner. That envelope had the Knicks logo on it.
Only 16 different NBA franchises have landed the top pick in the draft lottery. A lot of them seem too coincidental to be true.
The Magic got back-to-back top picks in 1992 and 93, which they selected Shaquille O'Neal and Chris Webber, who was promptly traded for Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway. O'Neal and Hardaway helped the Magic reach the NBA Finals once (losing to the Rockets) before Shaq bolted for the bigger L.A. market, joining the Lakers. The NBA really wanted basketball to take off in Florida, and the Magic reaped the early rewards.
The San Antonio Spurs had become a good franchise once David Robinson was able to report following two years of Naval service duty. But, Robinson was injured and missed most of the 1997 season. That enabled the Spurs to finish with the third-worst record in the league, and they won the right to pick Tim Duncan, one of the most dominant big men coming out of college the NBA has seen in a while. Duncan and Robinson immediately transformed the Spurs into a franchise that would win four NBA titles.
In 2003, an Akron high school athlete had NBA scouts drooling. The Cavs were slagging in attendance after a few miserable seasons plagued by miserable roster decisions. Akron is only 30 miles south of Cleveland. Coincidence? Why not put the local phenom on the local team to inject life into a franchise that had just built a new downtown arena. For 7 years, it worked until that local phenom decided to sign with the Miami Heat as a free agent, who he's helped get to back-to-back NBA Finals berths.
In 2008, there was a Chicago high school phenom who went to Memphis for a year and entered into the draft. The Bulls had been struggling after Michael Jordan retired and needed a shot in the arm. What better way than to follow the LeBron-Cavs method. It's worked.
Before 1993, the once-proud 76ers had fallen on hard times, finishing with just 18 wins. What better way than to enliven one of the NBA's foundation markets by giving them the top pick, which turned out to Allen Iverson. Iverson was controvercial, but he turned the Sixers into must-see TV for a long time, even getting them to an NBA Finals.
In each of the last two seasons, two franchises lost two superstar players and then struggled in their wake. Both franchises wound up with the top-overall selection in the two most recent draft lotteries -- the Cavs (who lost LeBron) and the New Orleans Hornets (who lost Chris Paul and were owned by the NBA when Paul was traded).
Coincidence?
So, what does all of this mean, the stats on the lack of diversity atop the NBA's championship ranks and the holes in the draft lottery?
It basicially means that David Stern is the Vince McMahon of sports commissioners.
It means that the NBA is scripted and rigged.
Watching the most recent NBA Farce ... errr ... Finals between the Miami Heat and the Oklahoma City Thunder has conspiracy theorists, such as Joe Cleveland, beating their chests about how the NBA is rigged. The foul disparity between the two teams has been glaring. The referees are calling a lot more questionable fouls on the Thunder than on the Heat. There have been a few glaring no-calls, such as one on LeBron on a shot from Kevin Durant that could have tied Game 2 in the waning moments.
Tim Donaghy, a disgraced former NBA official who was busted betting on games he officiated, basically let the cat out of the bag in his book, "Personal Foul." I highly recommend any sports fan to pick up this book and give it a read.
Donaghy talks about how refs look the other way when superstars are involved, how certain refs will start calling fouls in favor of the losing team when a team opens up a big lead to try and make the games more competitive in the end, how violations like travelling, up-and-down, defensive three-seconds, and others get ignored, especially when superstar athletes are involved, and how sometimes, they'll nail a superstar with a call just to make a point.
He talked about how some refs would fraternize with the players. This was exposed during Michael Jordan's gambling bust, when it was revealed that he was hanging out with NBA ref Ed Rush Jr.
Basketball is one of the easiest sports to rig. Why do you think there are so many point-shaving scandals? Sure, teams have to make their shots, and sometimes, the ball just doesn't go into the little round cylander. But, refs can directly impact the flow of the game by their foul calls, or their non-foul calls.
All during the playoffs, there have been a lot cries from opposing fans and media about the seemingly preferrential treatment the Heat have gotten from the officiating crews during the postseason. This, on the heels of the draft lottery that seemed so obviously rigged that David Stern was outright asked about it on a national radio show (Stern embarassed himself by not denying it, but instead asking a rhetorical question about the radio host beating his wife), and the consipracy theorists are out in full force.
The Heat making the NBA Finals in back-to-back years is generating a lot of money for the league, the networks (specifically ESPN) and the sponsors, namely Nike.
Did you know that if LeBron James wins a championship, which could very well happen tomorrow night, it will generate $4 billion for Nike? Check out this link below:
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2011/05/19/lebrons-4-billion-ring/
Stern knows the networks love it when a major market is playing in the finals, or a team with a major superstar. One of the lowest-rated NBA Finals was the 2007 finals when the Cavs were swept by the San Antonio Spurs. Does it not seem surprising that the wheels began to churn in motion at that point for what transpired in July of 2010 and beyond?
In 2009, Nike would have loved an NBA Finals featuring Kobe Bryant's Lakers and LeBron James' Cavs. They even engineered a marketing campaign around it using puppets. Of course, the Orlando Magic had other plans and denied that from happening. Perhaps, at that point, Nike knew the NBA would never solidly get behind the Cavs and their championship dreams.
LeBron leaving the Cavs to sign with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh reeks of something right out of a professional wrestling script. Remember Hulk Hogan aligning with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall to form the New World Order (nWo) in 1996, and how much money pro wrestling generated from that maneuver through the early 2000s? This was LeBron's heel turn.
LeBron got the proverbial "chair shot to the head" last year when Dallas (led by one of the loudest consipracy theorists of them all in owner Mark Cuban) upset his "dream team" in the NBA Finals last year. This year, however, it appears to be time for the nWo to figuratively spray paint all over the NBA trophy.
Sure, a longer series might generate more dollars. However, a dominating Heat win reveals two things:
1. Super teams, regardless of their lack of chemistry and puppet head coaches, will always succeed in the modern NBA.
2. A superstar playing for a middling market may find it best to jump to a bigger lake when the time comes, because rarely does a middling market (such as Oklahoma City) get a moment of glory.
ESPN will start speculating on Kevin Durant's next move immediately after Game 5 ends (and the Heat win, although I'm praying for a miracle to happen) and won't let up until his contract expires or he demands a trade.
That's the way that it goes, unfortunately, and, as long as fans watch, Stern and his cronies will continue to get away with it.
One last thought: The NBA lockout cost every team 16 games of the regular season. That is the exact number of games that the Heat needed to win their "long awaited" NBA title. With those additional 16 games, Miami fell two wins short last season.
Coincidence?
This is why I love hockey and college basketball. This is also why, when I cover high school hoops, players get whistled for travelling one out of every five offensive possessions, and the players look to the refs and wonder why.
Screw you, LeBron James!
Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!
Since Stern took over, only EIGHT NBA franchises have won the Larry O'Brien Trophy, given to the champions of the league. Of those eight, seven are in what are deemed to be "major TV markets."
The list is:
Los Angeles Lakers (8 titles, 13 appearances)
Chicago Bulls (6 titles, 6 appearances)
San Antonio Spurs (4 titles, 4 appearances)
Boston Celtics (3 titles, 6 appearances)
Detroit Pistons (3 titles, 5 appearances)
Houston Rockets (2 titles, 4 appearances)
Miami Heat (1 title, 3 appearances)
Dallas Mavericks (1 title, 2 appearances)
Going back to 1979-80, when Magic Johnson entered the league, the list only bumps up to NINE franchises (Philadelphia 76ers in 1983). The Lakers have won the title 10 times since 1980, while the Celtics have won it four times.
Coincidence?
Even Major League Baseball, which operates without a salary cap and allows the larger market teams to outspend the smaller market ones, has more parity than this. And, the NBA has had a salary cap, although that cap is rife with loopholes and other exceptions that basically make it a "salary cap" in theory.
Nine championship franchises in 32 years? Eight of which are in major markets, and all of which had some sort of gimmick going for them (a superstar player, a team nickname, etc.)?
Throw in the list of teams that reached the NBA Finals during that span and lost, that number expands to just 18 different franchises. 18 franchises in a 30-team league.
The franchises that have thrown the "olive branch" include:
Portland Trail Blazers (2 appearances)
Utah Jazz (2 appearances)
New York Knicks (2 appearances)
New Jersey Nets (2 appearances)
Orlando Magic (2 appearances)
Phoenix Suns (1 appearance)
Indiana Pacers (1 appearance)
Seattle SuperSonics (1 appearance)
Cleveland Cavaliers (1 appearance)
Oklahoma City Thunder (1 appearance)
Philadelphia 76ers (1 appearance)
None of these franchises made the NBA Finals until 1990. From 1980-89, the finals were dominated by just five teams -- the Lakers (5 titles, 8 apperances), the Celtics (3 titles, 5 appearances), the 76ers (1 title, 3 appearances), the Rockets (2 appearances) and the Pistons (1 title, 2 apperances). All of the 76ers appearances came from 1980-83, which was before Stern took over. The Sixers have only made it back once during the David Stern era.
Stern also ushered in the era of the NBA Draft Lottery, which began following the 1984-85 season. Stern's reasoning behind the lottery was because there was a belief that the Houston Rockets and other teams were "tanking" games in order to land the No. 1 overall draft choice in 1984 (which was Hakeem Olajuwon; Michael Jordan wound going third to the Chicago Bulls after Portland selected Sam Bowie).
For the first two years, all of the non-playoff teams had an equal chance of getting the top pick. From 1987-89, only the top three picks were "randomly" selected out of a hopper -- the remaining teams filled out the fourth pick on down based on their win-loss records.
In 1990, they changed it to "weighted" system, so that the team with the worst record had the most chances of landing the top pick on down. However, after the Orlando Magic wound up with the top pick in the 1993 draft despite only having one chance to land it, the NBA tinkered with their theory again.
From 1994 through now, the NBA uses 14 numbered ping-pong balls and assigns a certain number of four-digit combinations to the non-playoff teams. The worst team has the highest number of combinations, on down. The NBA draws three four-digit combinations, and the teams with those combinations land the top three draft picks. Picks four on down are assigned based on record.
Only twice has the team with the worst record in the NBA won the lottery and gotten the top pick -- 1990 (New Jersey Nets; Derrick Coleman) and 2004 (Orlando Magic; Dwight Howard). The Cavs were tied with Denver for the worst record in 2003, but yet won the lottery and selected LeBron James.
The team that has won the draft lottery the most since 1985 is the Los Angeles Clippers. Twice, they traded that top pick, and both times, that top pick wound up in the Cavs' hands -- 1986 (Brad Daugherty) and 2011 (Kyrie Irving).
The first draft lottery is the most suspicious of them all. With Patrick Ewing being the projected top choice, and the Knicks struggling in the top-media market, it seems pretty coincidental that the Knicks landed the top spot.
First, before the envelopes were placed in the hopper, the deputy commissoner banged one envelope on to a counter-top. Just one envelope. That gave that envelope a bent corner. Then, Stern drew out three envelopes at once, fumbled around a bit, and dropped the other two back in the hopper. The envelope he kept had the bent corner. That envelope had the Knicks logo on it.
Only 16 different NBA franchises have landed the top pick in the draft lottery. A lot of them seem too coincidental to be true.
The Magic got back-to-back top picks in 1992 and 93, which they selected Shaquille O'Neal and Chris Webber, who was promptly traded for Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway. O'Neal and Hardaway helped the Magic reach the NBA Finals once (losing to the Rockets) before Shaq bolted for the bigger L.A. market, joining the Lakers. The NBA really wanted basketball to take off in Florida, and the Magic reaped the early rewards.
The San Antonio Spurs had become a good franchise once David Robinson was able to report following two years of Naval service duty. But, Robinson was injured and missed most of the 1997 season. That enabled the Spurs to finish with the third-worst record in the league, and they won the right to pick Tim Duncan, one of the most dominant big men coming out of college the NBA has seen in a while. Duncan and Robinson immediately transformed the Spurs into a franchise that would win four NBA titles.
In 2003, an Akron high school athlete had NBA scouts drooling. The Cavs were slagging in attendance after a few miserable seasons plagued by miserable roster decisions. Akron is only 30 miles south of Cleveland. Coincidence? Why not put the local phenom on the local team to inject life into a franchise that had just built a new downtown arena. For 7 years, it worked until that local phenom decided to sign with the Miami Heat as a free agent, who he's helped get to back-to-back NBA Finals berths.
In 2008, there was a Chicago high school phenom who went to Memphis for a year and entered into the draft. The Bulls had been struggling after Michael Jordan retired and needed a shot in the arm. What better way than to follow the LeBron-Cavs method. It's worked.
Before 1993, the once-proud 76ers had fallen on hard times, finishing with just 18 wins. What better way than to enliven one of the NBA's foundation markets by giving them the top pick, which turned out to Allen Iverson. Iverson was controvercial, but he turned the Sixers into must-see TV for a long time, even getting them to an NBA Finals.
In each of the last two seasons, two franchises lost two superstar players and then struggled in their wake. Both franchises wound up with the top-overall selection in the two most recent draft lotteries -- the Cavs (who lost LeBron) and the New Orleans Hornets (who lost Chris Paul and were owned by the NBA when Paul was traded).
Coincidence?
So, what does all of this mean, the stats on the lack of diversity atop the NBA's championship ranks and the holes in the draft lottery?
It basicially means that David Stern is the Vince McMahon of sports commissioners.
It means that the NBA is scripted and rigged.
Watching the most recent NBA Farce ... errr ... Finals between the Miami Heat and the Oklahoma City Thunder has conspiracy theorists, such as Joe Cleveland, beating their chests about how the NBA is rigged. The foul disparity between the two teams has been glaring. The referees are calling a lot more questionable fouls on the Thunder than on the Heat. There have been a few glaring no-calls, such as one on LeBron on a shot from Kevin Durant that could have tied Game 2 in the waning moments.
Tim Donaghy, a disgraced former NBA official who was busted betting on games he officiated, basically let the cat out of the bag in his book, "Personal Foul." I highly recommend any sports fan to pick up this book and give it a read.
Donaghy talks about how refs look the other way when superstars are involved, how certain refs will start calling fouls in favor of the losing team when a team opens up a big lead to try and make the games more competitive in the end, how violations like travelling, up-and-down, defensive three-seconds, and others get ignored, especially when superstar athletes are involved, and how sometimes, they'll nail a superstar with a call just to make a point.
He talked about how some refs would fraternize with the players. This was exposed during Michael Jordan's gambling bust, when it was revealed that he was hanging out with NBA ref Ed Rush Jr.
Basketball is one of the easiest sports to rig. Why do you think there are so many point-shaving scandals? Sure, teams have to make their shots, and sometimes, the ball just doesn't go into the little round cylander. But, refs can directly impact the flow of the game by their foul calls, or their non-foul calls.
All during the playoffs, there have been a lot cries from opposing fans and media about the seemingly preferrential treatment the Heat have gotten from the officiating crews during the postseason. This, on the heels of the draft lottery that seemed so obviously rigged that David Stern was outright asked about it on a national radio show (Stern embarassed himself by not denying it, but instead asking a rhetorical question about the radio host beating his wife), and the consipracy theorists are out in full force.
The Heat making the NBA Finals in back-to-back years is generating a lot of money for the league, the networks (specifically ESPN) and the sponsors, namely Nike.
Did you know that if LeBron James wins a championship, which could very well happen tomorrow night, it will generate $4 billion for Nike? Check out this link below:
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2011/05/19/lebrons-4-billion-ring/
Stern knows the networks love it when a major market is playing in the finals, or a team with a major superstar. One of the lowest-rated NBA Finals was the 2007 finals when the Cavs were swept by the San Antonio Spurs. Does it not seem surprising that the wheels began to churn in motion at that point for what transpired in July of 2010 and beyond?
In 2009, Nike would have loved an NBA Finals featuring Kobe Bryant's Lakers and LeBron James' Cavs. They even engineered a marketing campaign around it using puppets. Of course, the Orlando Magic had other plans and denied that from happening. Perhaps, at that point, Nike knew the NBA would never solidly get behind the Cavs and their championship dreams.
LeBron leaving the Cavs to sign with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh reeks of something right out of a professional wrestling script. Remember Hulk Hogan aligning with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall to form the New World Order (nWo) in 1996, and how much money pro wrestling generated from that maneuver through the early 2000s? This was LeBron's heel turn.
LeBron got the proverbial "chair shot to the head" last year when Dallas (led by one of the loudest consipracy theorists of them all in owner Mark Cuban) upset his "dream team" in the NBA Finals last year. This year, however, it appears to be time for the nWo to figuratively spray paint all over the NBA trophy.
Sure, a longer series might generate more dollars. However, a dominating Heat win reveals two things:
1. Super teams, regardless of their lack of chemistry and puppet head coaches, will always succeed in the modern NBA.
2. A superstar playing for a middling market may find it best to jump to a bigger lake when the time comes, because rarely does a middling market (such as Oklahoma City) get a moment of glory.
ESPN will start speculating on Kevin Durant's next move immediately after Game 5 ends (and the Heat win, although I'm praying for a miracle to happen) and won't let up until his contract expires or he demands a trade.
That's the way that it goes, unfortunately, and, as long as fans watch, Stern and his cronies will continue to get away with it.
One last thought: The NBA lockout cost every team 16 games of the regular season. That is the exact number of games that the Heat needed to win their "long awaited" NBA title. With those additional 16 games, Miami fell two wins short last season.
Coincidence?
This is why I love hockey and college basketball. This is also why, when I cover high school hoops, players get whistled for travelling one out of every five offensive possessions, and the players look to the refs and wonder why.
Screw you, LeBron James!
Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!
Friday, June 8, 2012
Can Browns stop the QB sieve?
If Brandon Weeden starts the season opener, as many expect, he'd be the sixth-straight different QB to start a Browns season opener, the eighth-different QB in the last 10 years, and the first true rookie to start a season opener since Cliff Lewis started the very first game in Cleveland Browns history back in 1946.
The expansion era hasn't been pretty for the Browns in terms of quarterbacks. Tim Couch has been the most stable QB the Browns have had, and he was sent packing after 2003.
However, you can even go back to the last few years the original Browns were in tact to see some unrest within the QB ranks. You can look at the last 21 seasons of Browns football, which spans 24 years (thanks to the three years the Browns didn't exist), and only three times has a Browns QB started all 16 games during that span (one Browns QB did it twice).
There have been 24 different starting quarterbacks for the Browns in those 21 seasons. Eight of those were from 1988-95, and 16 of them have been in the Expansion Era. There have been two seasons during that span where the Browns had to start four different quarterbacks, and five other seasons where the Browns started three different quarterbacks. They also played in six playoff games during that span, in which four different quarterbacks started those six games and five different quarterbacks played in those games.
We go back 21 years because that's when Bernie Kosar first injured his arm during the season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs. The year was 1988, and little did anyone know that the man under center was going to revolve more than the door outside the Cleveland Clinic.
1988
Record: 10-6 (0-1 playoffs)
Head Coach: Marty Schottenheimer
Postseason: Yes (Wild-Card)
Division Finish: Second
Opening Day QB Starter: Bernie Kosar
Season-Finale QB Starter: Don Strock (Postseason: Strock)
Other QBs who started: Gary Danielson, Mike Pagel
Other QBs who played: N/A
Leading Passer: Kosar
Noted: Kosar was injured in the second quarter of the season opener and missed the next six games. All told, he only started nine of the 16 games, suffering another season-ending injury in the second-to-last game of the regular season. Danielson broke his ankle in Week 2 and never played again. Pagel started in Week 3 (and won), but seperated his shoulder in Week 6 making a tackle after a blocked field goal and didn't play again until the Wild-Card game. Strock, who was literally summoned off of a golf course to sign after Kosar's injury, only started two games, but won both, including a huge 28-23 home win over the Houston Oilers in the season finale to clinch a Wild Card berth. Strock was injured during the Wild Card game and never took another NFL snap. Pagel finished the game, but couldn't lead the Browns to a victory. Schottenheimer resigned under pressure a few days after the playoff loss and immediately took over the Kansas City Chiefs.
1989
Record: 9-6-1 (1-1 playoffs)
Head Coach: Bud Carson
Postseason: Yes (Division Title)
Division Finish: First
Opening Day QB Starter: Kosar
Season-Finale QB Starter: Kosar (Postseason: Kosar)
Other QBs who started: None
Other QBs who played: Pagel
Leading Passer: Kosar
Noted: Kosar rebounded from the injury to start all 16 games. It would only be one of three times during this span of 21 seasons that a Browns QB will start all 16 games. Kosar struggled, throwing 14 interceptions compared to 18 touchdowns, with Marc Trestman fully running the offense. He also started the AFC Championship Game against Denver with a broken hand, using a special contraption to help aleviate the pain. Kosar threw two TD passes, but only completed 19 of 44 passes for 210 yards and three interceptions. This would be the third time in the last four years the Browns reached the AFC title game (and marked the fifth-straight playoff season). However, the Browns have yet to reach the AFC title game since then. This has also been the last time the Browns have won a division title.
1990
Record: 3-13
Head Coach: Carson/Jim Shofner (interim 7 games)
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Fourth
Opening Day QB Starter: Kosar
Season-Finale QB Starter: Pagel
Other QBs who started: None
Other QBs who played: Jeff Francis
Leading Passer: Kosar
Noted: Kosar struggled in 1990, starting all 13 games he played, but only throwing 10 TDs compared to 15 Ints. Kosar was pulled during a loss to San Francisco and Pagel rallied the team. However, the rally came up short and they lost, 20-17. The following week, Carson started Pagel over Kosar without telling the media or team owner Art Modell, and Carson was fired following a 42-0 blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills (and a 2-7 start). Kosar regained the starting job after the bye week, even leading the team to a 13-10 win over Atlanta in Week 14. However, he was injured following the game and Pagel started the final two games -- both losses. Shofner, who was the offensive coordinator, was not retained.
1991
Record: 6-10
Head Coach: Bill Belichick
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Third
Opening Day QB Starter: Kosar
Season-Finale QB Starter: Kosar
Other QBs who started: None
Other QBs who played: Todd Philcox
Leading Passer: Kosar
Noted: For the final time in his career, Kosar started all 16 games during the regular season. The Browns showed improvement under Belichick, winning three more games and being competitive in most of their losses. Kosar had his best season since 1987, throwing for 3,487 yards with 18 TDs and only 9 Ints. The Browns were 6-7 heading into December with an outside chance of competing for playoff berth. However, the team lost their last three games in a row -- 17-7 to Denver, 17-14 to Houston (in which kicker Matt Stover missed a chip-shot field goal on the final play), and 17-10 at Pittsburgh.
1992
Record: 7-9
Head Coach: Belichick
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Third
Opening Day QB Starter: Kosar
Season-Finale QB Starter: Kosar
Other QBs who started: Philcox, Mike Tomczak
Other QBs who played: Brad Goebel
Leading Passer: Tomczak
Noted: Kosar only started seven games, breaking his ankle during a Week 2 Monday Night loss to Miami. Philcox started the following game, a 28-16 win over Oakland, but he was injured following the contest. Tomczak, an Ohio State grad who was cut by the Chicago Bears prior to the season opener, was thrust into action in Week 3. Tomczak started eight games and played in 12, guiding the Browns to a 4-4 record in games he started. Kosar returned in Week 13 to lead the Browns to a 27-14 Monday Night win over Chicago and earned another win the following week against Cincinnati, 37-21, to put the Browns at 7-6. However, for the second-straight year, the Browns dropped their final three games in a row. Kosar was relieved by Tomczak during the 23-13 season finale loss at Pittsburgh and threw a TD pass.
1993
Record: 7-9
Head Coach: Belichick
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Third
Opening Day QB Starter: Kosar
Season-Finale QB Starter: Vinny Testaverde
Other QBs who started: Philcox
Other QBs who played: N/A
Leading Passer: Testaverde
Noted: Kosar didn't survive the season, being unceremoniously released following a 29-14 home loss to Denver in Week 10 after the season's second bye-week. The loss dropped the Browns to 5-3. However, they would only win two more games the rest of the season. Testaverde, a free agent acquision and Kosar's college teammate at Miami (Fla.), relieved in Week 3 and led the Browns to a come-from-behind 19-16 win over Oakland after they trailed, 16-3, in the fourth quarter. Belichick followed suit the following two games before permanently benching Kosar for Week 7. Testaverde started and led the the team to wins over Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. However, he was injured during the fourth quarter against the Steelers and Kosar came off the bench. Kosar didn't get the chance to lead a game-winning TD drive, as Eric Metcalf returned a punt 75 yards for the winning TD with two minutes remaining. With Testaverde injured, Philcox started the next four games, only winning one (17-13 over New Orleans). However, Testaverde came off the bench and led the team to the win, and he started the remaining four games, including a 42-14 win over the Los Angeles Rams in the second-to-last game. Kosar wound up signing with the Dallas Cowboys and played a key role in their Super Bowl-winning season.
1994
Record: 11-5 (1-1 playoffs)
Head Coach: Belichick
Postseason: Yes (Wild-Card)
Division Finish: Second
Opening Day QB Starter: Testaverde
Season-Finale QB Starter: Testaverde (Postseason: Testaverde)
Other QBs who started: Mark Rypien
Other QBs who played: N/A
Leading Passer: Testaverde
Noted: It was Testaverde's team for the first time, and he was under pressure from fans and media who were angry about Kosar's release. In a make-or-break season, the Browns had their best record since 1987 and snapped a four-year streak without a playoff berth. Testaverde only started 13 games (he played 14) due to injury, and still finished with more interceptions (18) than touchdowns (16). But, he threw for 2,575 yards. Testaverde was injured during a 37-13 win over the Bengals in Week 8, with the Browns sitting at 6-1. Rypien, who won a Super Bowl with the Washington Redskins in 1991, started the next three games, winning two of them. He relieved an injured Testaverde the following week in a 20-13 loss to Kansas City, but Testaverde returned for good the following week, going 3-2 the rest of the way. Testaverde led the Browns to a 20-13 Wild-Card win at home over New England on New Year's Day. However, he struggled against the Steelers the following week, completing 13 of 31 passes for 144 yards with a TD and two Ints in a 29-9 loss. Adding insult to injury, Testaverde was sacked for a safety late in the fourth quarter. The Browns haven't won a playoff game (or hosted a playoff game) since.
1995
Record: 5-11
Head Coach: Belichick
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Fourth
Opening Day QB Starter: Testaverde
Season-Finale QB Starter: Testaverde
Other QBs who started: Eric Zeier
Other QBs who played: Tom Tupa
Leading Passer: Testaverde
Noted: This was the year of the move. Modell announced he was moving the team on Nov. 6 -- at that point, the Browns were 4-5. However, word leaked of the move prior to the game on Nov. 5, in which the Browns were killed, 37-10, at home by Houston. Testaverde led the Browns to a 3-1 start, but was benched following a 23-13 loss to Jacksonville for Zeier, a third-round rookie out of Georgia. Zeier caught lightning in a bottle in his first start, throwing for 310 yards in a 29-26 OT win at Cincinnati. But then the move came, and the wheels fell off. Zeier only started three more games (all losses) before Testaverde took over for good. Testaverde led the Browns to an emotional 26-10 win on Dec. 17 in their final game at the old Cleveland Stadium, which snapped a six-game losing skid. Testaverde actually had a decent year, throwing for 2,883 yards with 17 touchdowns and 10 Ints. The franchise was renamed the Baltimore Ravens (Testaverde remained, but Belichick was fired shortly after the move was finalized), and the Cleveland Browns would be dormant for the next three seasons.
1999
Record: 2-14
Head Coach: Chris Palmer
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Sixth
Opening Day QB Starter: Ty Detmer
Season-Finale QB Starter: Detmer
Other QBs who started: Tim Couch
Other QBs who played: N/A
Leading Passer: Couch
Noted: The Browns were reborn as an expansion team, and veteran Ty Detmer was brought on to start and mentor the No. 1 overall draft choice out of Kentucky, Couch. However, after the Browns were whitewashed in their debut, 43-0, by the Steelers, Palmer instilled the raw Couch as the starting quarterback. Couch struggled as the Browns lost their first seven games of the season. Only a Hail Mary pass from Couch to rookie Kevin Johnson on the last play gave the Browns a 21-16 win over New Orleans, and Phil Dawson's 39-yard field goal with time running out gave the Browns a 16-15 win over the Steelers at Three Rivers. Other than that, there was a lot of disappointment. Couch started 14 of the 15 games he played in, throwing for 2,447 yards with 15 TDs and 13 Ints. Detmer started the season finale at home against the Colts and nearly led the Browns to an upset. However, the Colts got a field goal on the last play of the game to escape with a 29-28 win. Detmer never took another snap for the Browns again.
2000
Record: 3-13
Head Coach: Palmer
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Sixth
Opening Day QB Starter: Couch
Season-Finale QB Starter: Doug Pederson
Other QBs who started: Spurgon Wynn
Other QBs who played: Kevin Thompson
Leading Passer: Couch
Noted: Couch started his first season opener, and actually led the Browns to two wins in their first three games, matching their season total from the season before. However, things quickly went south for both the young QB and the Browns. Couch started the first seven games before breaking his throwing hand in practice right before a game against the Steelers. In stepped journeyman Doug Pederson, signed just before the season after Detmer tore his Achilles tendon and missed the whole season. Pederson only led the Browns to one more win -- a 19-11 home upset over Belichick's New England Patriots. In an act of utter desperation, Palmer started rookie sixth-round draft choice Wynn against Jacksonville, and Wynn never moved the Browns beyond the 50-yard line in a 48-0 loss. Pederson only threw two TDs and eight Ints. Palmer was fired following the season.
2001
Record: 7-9
Head Coach: Butch Davis
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Third
Opening Day QB Starter: Couch
Season-Finale QB Starter: Couch
Other QBs who started: None
Other QBs who played: Kelly Holcomb
Leading Passer: Couch
Noted: Will a clean bill of health and playing for a new head coach and new offensive coordinator in Butch Ariens, Couch has the best season of his young career, starting all 16 games -- the only time that has happened during the expansion era for the Browns. Couch threw for 3,040 yards with 17 TDs and 21 Ints -- all career-highs. Meanwhile, the Browns won three of their first four games, took a 4-2 record into the bye week, and were 6-4 going into December. Suddenly, this team was a playoff contender. However, the Browns lost five of their last six games, including a controvercial 15-10 loss to Jacksonville in which a fourth-down completion inside the red zone with 40 seconds remaining was overturned AFTER Couch had already run another play. Holcomb played at the end of a 31-15 blowout loss to Tennessee, throwing a touchdown pass. It was the only action Couch missed the entire season.
2002
Record: 9-7 (0-1 playoffs)
Head Coach: Davis
Postseason: Yes (Wild-Card)
Division Finish: Second
Opening Day QB Starter: Holcomb
Season-Finale QB Starter: Couch (Postseason: Holcomb)
Other QBs who started: None
Other QBs who played: N/A
Leading Passer: Couch
Noted: Couch was injured during the preseason finale, which allowed Holcomb to start the season opener. Opening up a QB controversy that never went away, Holcomb completed 27 of 39 passes for 326 yards and three TDs, but the Browns lost, 40-39, at home to Kansas City on the last play of the game. Couch returned in Week 3, leading the Browns to a come-from-behind 31-28 OT win over Tennessee. However, Couch was knocked out of a game two weeks later against Baltimore with a concussion (which drew scattered cheers from the crowd), and Holcomb led a furious rally from a 23-8 deficit. However, he threw an interception in the end zone on the final play of a 26-21 loss. Couch returned the following week and started every single game the rest of the season, leading the Browns to a 5-2 record down the stretch, including two come-from-behind wins over Jacksonville and Baltimore on the road. Couch was injured midway through the season finale against Atlanta, and Holcomb led the Browns to two second-half touchdowns in a 23-16 win, which punched their ticket to the postseason for the first time since 1994 and second time since 1989. In the Wild Card game, Holcomb shredded the Pittsburgh defense for 429 yards and three TDs. However, the Steelers rallied from deficits of 24-7 and 33-21 to escape with a 36-33 win.
2003
Record: 5-11
Head Coach: Davis
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Fourth
Opening Day QB Starter: Holcomb
Season-Finale QB Starter: Couch
Other QBs who started: None
Other QBs who played: N/A
Leading Passer: Holcomb
Noted: Both Holcomb and Couch played in 10 games and started eight, if there was ever a definition of a QB controversy. Holcomb started, based on his playoff performance against the Steelers, but struggled in the early going. He led the Browns to a come-from-behind 13-12 win at San Francisco, but was broke his ankle during the game, opening the door for Couch. Couch started the next four games, winning two, including a 33-13 win at Heinz Field (the Browns only win at Heinz Field ever) on a Sunday night. However, he was yanked during a 26-20 loss to San Diego for Holcomb, who rallied the team from a big deficit. Holcomb's best game came in a 44-6 blowout of Arizona at home, but he lost his job during a Monday Night game with St. Louis after throwing two killer interceptions just before halftime. Couch rallied the Browns in the second half of a 26-20 loss, and started the remaining three games of his Browns (and NFL) career. His final game was a 22-14 win at Cincinnati. Couch was released during the offseason and never took another NFL snap.
2004
Record: 4-12
Head Coach: Davis/Terry Robiskie (interim 5 games)
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Fourth
Opening Day QB Starter: Jeff Garcia
Season-Finale QB Starter: Holcomb
Other QBs who started: Luke McCown
Other QBs who played: N/A
Leading Passer: Garcia
Noted: Garcia was signed as a free agent to put a stop to the Couch/Holcomb QB carosel, and Garcia led the Browns to their only opening-day win of the Expansion Era, a 20-3 victory over the Ravens. However, that's about where the rays of sunshine ended for Garcia in Cleveland. He only started 10 games (and played in 11) before succombing to two different injuries. The first was during a 10-7 loss to the Jets at home. The second was after playing in just two snaps when he relieved an inefffective McCown during a 37-7 loss to Buffalo. Holcomb had one great game, throwing for five TDs and 413 yards in a 58-48 loss at Cincinnati (Davis resigned shortly after the game), but quickly fell back to earth and was injured. McCown, a rookie, was thrown into the fire with the Buffalo game and lost all four games he started. Holcomb returned for the season-finale, a 22-14 win at Houston. All three QBs would be gone by the time the Browns started the next season.
2005
Record: 6-10
Head Coach: Romeo Crennel
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Third
Opening Day QB Starter: Trent Dilfer
Season-Finale QB Starter: Charlie Frye
Other QBs who started: None
Other QBs who played: N/A
Leading Passer: Dilfer
Noted: Dilfer was signed as a free agent, and Akron product Charlie Frye was drafted in the third round as the heir apparent. Dilfer started 11 games, going 4-7 in his starts with 11 TDs and 12 Ints. Frye debuted during a 22-0 win over Miami in Week 11 and took over for an injured Dilfer in a Week 12 24-12 loss to Minnesota. He started the following week at home against Jacksonville and remained the starter for the final five games, going 2-3 in those starts. He beat Baltimore, 20-16, at home in the season finale.
2006
Record: 4-12
Head Coach: Crennel
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Fourth
Opening Day QB Starter: Frye
Season-Finale QB Starter: Frye
Other QBs who started: Derek Anderson
Other QBs who played: Ken Dorsey
Leading Passer: Frye
Noted: With Dilfer let go, it was Frye's job from the get-go in 2006. However, he quickly showed he wasn't ready to be an NFL starting quarterback, even if the fans wanted him to succeed because he was a Northern Ohio guy who grew up a huge Bernie Kosar fan. Frye started 13 games, going 4-9, throwing for 2,454 yards with 10 TDs and 17 Ints. He was injured during a 31-28 OT win over Kansas City, in which an unknown backup named Derek Anderson threw two fourth quarter TDs and drove the Browns to the game-winning field goal in OT. Anderson lost his next three starts, eventually getting injured during a 22-7 loss to Tampa Bay. Frye returned to start the season finale over Ken Dorsey, a 14-6 loss at Houston.
2007
Record: 10-6
Head Coach: Crennel
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Second
Opening Day QB Starter: Frye
Season-Finale QB Starter: Anderson
Other QBs who started: None
Other QBs who played: Brady Quinn
Leading Passer: Anderson
Noted: Frye barely beat out Anderson to start the season opener, but most everyone believed that first-round rookie Brady Quinn would eventually take over. After just a quarter-and-a-half of the season opener, Crennel pulled the plug on the Frye Era forever, inserting Anderson and then trading him the following day to Seattle. Anderson responded by putting together one of the best single-seasons a Browns quarterback has ever had, throwing for 3,787 yards with 29 TDs and 19 Ints. Anderson burst on the scene in his first start, throwing for five TDs in a wild 51-45 shootout win over Cincinnati, and kept it going for most of the first half. The Browns were 3-3 heading into their bye week following a 41-31 win over Miami, but came out with six wins over the next eight weeks to put them at 9-5 and right on the cusp of a playoff berth. However, Anderson threw four interceptions in a 19-14 loss at Cincinnati, which essentially killed their chances at a playoff berth. For his efforts, Anderson made the Pro Bowl, one of five members of the offense to do so. Quinn made his debut in the season finale, leading one drive just before halftime that resulted in a field goal.
2008
Record: 4-12
Head Coach: Crennel
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Fourth
Opening Day QB Starter: Anderson
Season-Finale QB Starter: Bruce Gradkowski
Other QBs who started: Quinn, Dorsey
Other QBs who played: N/A
Leading Passer: Anderson
Noted: Anderson quickly proved that his 2007 season was an abberation, starting just nine games (playing 10) and throwing for 1,615 yards with nine TDs and eight Ints. Following a loss to Baltimore, which dropped the Browns to 3-5, Crennel benched Anderson for Quinn in a Thursday night home showdown against Denver. Quinn played well in a 34-30 loss, throwing for 239 yards and two touchdowns, and won his first game as a starter the following week, a 29-27 come-from-behind Monday night win at Buffalo. However, that would be the last game the Browns, and Crennel, would win. Quinn was injured the following week, and Anderson was also injured a week later, leaving Dorsey as the only QB remaining. Dorsey went 0-3 as a starter, tossing 7 Ints to zero TDs, before he was injured in the second-to-last game. That meant Gradkowski, who was signed off the street just three weeks prior, started the season finale against the Steelers. It did not go well, and Crennel was fired the following day.
2009
Record: 5-11
Head Coach: Eric Mangini
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Fourth
Opening Day QB Starter: Quinn
Season-Finale QB Starter: Anderson
Other QBs who started: None
Other QBs who played: Josh Cribbs (Wildcat)
Leading Passer: Quinn
Noted: Mangini let the Quinn/Anderson QB controversy fester into the start of the season. Quinn got the nod, but it wasn't announced until just hours before kickoff of the season opener. In his only season as a true Browns starter, Quinn threw for 1,339 yards with eight TDs and 7 Ints. in nine starts (10 games). Quinn was yanked midway through a Week 3 blowout loss to Baltimore for Anderson, and Anderson started the next five games, winning only one. The win he had, Anderson only completed two passes, but it was enough for the Browns to beat Buffalo, 6-3. Quinn got the job back with the team at 1-7 for a Monday Night game with the Ravens (a 16-0 loss), before playing the best game of his life against Detroit (304 yards, 4 TDs, 0 Ints.) in a wild 38-37 loss that came down to the final play. Quinn started the next four games, picking up a home upset win over the Steelers, 13-6, and a 40-34 win at Kansas City. Quinn, however, was injured near the end of the game, and Anderson started the final two games, both victories, to give the Browns a four-game winning streak to end the season. The win streak saved Mangini's job. However, it did not save Quinn's or Anderson's, as both were sent packing by new team president Mike Holmgren.
2010
Record: 5-11
Head Coach: Mangini
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Third
Opening Day QB Starter: Jake Delhomme
Season-Finale QB Starter: Colt McCoy
Other QBs who started: Seneca Wallace
Other QBs who played: Cribbs (Wildcat)
Leading Passer: McCoy
Noted: Holmgren and new GM Tom Heckert brought in veterans Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace and drafted Colt McCoy out of Texas in the third-round as the "project quarterback." However, with Delhomme and Wallace knocked out with high ankle sprains after the first five games and a 1-4 start, McCoy was thrust into the fire against the Steelers. McCoy lost, but rebounded with wins over defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans and New England to improve the Browns to 3-5, before losing two close games to the Jets and the Jaguars. McCoy was injured during the Jaguars game, and Delhomme returned to face his former Carolina team. Delhomme guided the Browns to a 24-23 win over the Panthers and a 13-10 win at Miami to put the Browns at 5-7. Delhomme started just one more game, a 13-6 loss to the Bills, before McCoy took back over with three consecutive losses to Cincinnati, Baltimore and Pittsburgh to end the season. Mangini was fired the day after the Steelers' loss, and Delhomme was let go.
2011
Record: 4-12
Head Coach: Pat Shurmur
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Fourth
Opening Day QB Starter: McCoy
Season-Finale QB Starter: Wallace
Other QBs who started: None
Other QBs who played: N/A
Leading Passer: McCoy
Noted: McCoy, given the reins from the get-go, struggled in his first true starting season. Without the benefit of a true offseason due to the NFL lockout, and getting a new West Coast offense from Shurmur, McCoy and the offense struggled to pick it up. It was their lowest total point output since the expansion 1999 season. McCoy started the first 13 games, throwing for 2,733 yards with 14 TDs and 11 Ints, before getting knocked out of a Thursday Night Steelers game with a concussion. Wallace started the final three games and didn't fare much better, only throwing for two touchdowns. The Browns actually started 2-1 and 3-3 following a 6-3 win over Seattle before going 1-9 to end the season.
2012
Head Coach: Shurmur
Projected Opening Day QB Starter: Brandon Weeden
Other QBs on Roster: McCoy, Wallace, Thad Lewis
Noted: Weeden was drafted in the first round, 22nd overall, this past season. He is the Browns' third first-round QB selection of the Expansion Era, joining Couch and Quinn. Weeden is 28 years old after playing professional baseball in the New York Yankees system for five years before enrolling at Oklahoma State. McCoy is currently the backup competing with Weeden for the starting job, and Wallace has no chance at competing for the starting position. It will be interesting to see if McCoy sticks with the team through training camp. He could be a very good backup if his ego allows it.
Hope that was informative for you. Thanks to pro-football-reference.com for their game-by-game boxes and complete season breakdowns. Joe Cleveland may know a lot about the Browns, but it's easier to have things backed up by facts.
Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!
The expansion era hasn't been pretty for the Browns in terms of quarterbacks. Tim Couch has been the most stable QB the Browns have had, and he was sent packing after 2003.
However, you can even go back to the last few years the original Browns were in tact to see some unrest within the QB ranks. You can look at the last 21 seasons of Browns football, which spans 24 years (thanks to the three years the Browns didn't exist), and only three times has a Browns QB started all 16 games during that span (one Browns QB did it twice).
There have been 24 different starting quarterbacks for the Browns in those 21 seasons. Eight of those were from 1988-95, and 16 of them have been in the Expansion Era. There have been two seasons during that span where the Browns had to start four different quarterbacks, and five other seasons where the Browns started three different quarterbacks. They also played in six playoff games during that span, in which four different quarterbacks started those six games and five different quarterbacks played in those games.
We go back 21 years because that's when Bernie Kosar first injured his arm during the season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs. The year was 1988, and little did anyone know that the man under center was going to revolve more than the door outside the Cleveland Clinic.
1988
Record: 10-6 (0-1 playoffs)
Head Coach: Marty Schottenheimer
Postseason: Yes (Wild-Card)
Division Finish: Second
Opening Day QB Starter: Bernie Kosar
Season-Finale QB Starter: Don Strock (Postseason: Strock)
Other QBs who started: Gary Danielson, Mike Pagel
Other QBs who played: N/A
Leading Passer: Kosar
Noted: Kosar was injured in the second quarter of the season opener and missed the next six games. All told, he only started nine of the 16 games, suffering another season-ending injury in the second-to-last game of the regular season. Danielson broke his ankle in Week 2 and never played again. Pagel started in Week 3 (and won), but seperated his shoulder in Week 6 making a tackle after a blocked field goal and didn't play again until the Wild-Card game. Strock, who was literally summoned off of a golf course to sign after Kosar's injury, only started two games, but won both, including a huge 28-23 home win over the Houston Oilers in the season finale to clinch a Wild Card berth. Strock was injured during the Wild Card game and never took another NFL snap. Pagel finished the game, but couldn't lead the Browns to a victory. Schottenheimer resigned under pressure a few days after the playoff loss and immediately took over the Kansas City Chiefs.
1989
Record: 9-6-1 (1-1 playoffs)
Head Coach: Bud Carson
Postseason: Yes (Division Title)
Division Finish: First
Opening Day QB Starter: Kosar
Season-Finale QB Starter: Kosar (Postseason: Kosar)
Other QBs who started: None
Other QBs who played: Pagel
Leading Passer: Kosar
Noted: Kosar rebounded from the injury to start all 16 games. It would only be one of three times during this span of 21 seasons that a Browns QB will start all 16 games. Kosar struggled, throwing 14 interceptions compared to 18 touchdowns, with Marc Trestman fully running the offense. He also started the AFC Championship Game against Denver with a broken hand, using a special contraption to help aleviate the pain. Kosar threw two TD passes, but only completed 19 of 44 passes for 210 yards and three interceptions. This would be the third time in the last four years the Browns reached the AFC title game (and marked the fifth-straight playoff season). However, the Browns have yet to reach the AFC title game since then. This has also been the last time the Browns have won a division title.
1990
Record: 3-13
Head Coach: Carson/Jim Shofner (interim 7 games)
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Fourth
Opening Day QB Starter: Kosar
Season-Finale QB Starter: Pagel
Other QBs who started: None
Other QBs who played: Jeff Francis
Leading Passer: Kosar
Noted: Kosar struggled in 1990, starting all 13 games he played, but only throwing 10 TDs compared to 15 Ints. Kosar was pulled during a loss to San Francisco and Pagel rallied the team. However, the rally came up short and they lost, 20-17. The following week, Carson started Pagel over Kosar without telling the media or team owner Art Modell, and Carson was fired following a 42-0 blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills (and a 2-7 start). Kosar regained the starting job after the bye week, even leading the team to a 13-10 win over Atlanta in Week 14. However, he was injured following the game and Pagel started the final two games -- both losses. Shofner, who was the offensive coordinator, was not retained.
1991
Record: 6-10
Head Coach: Bill Belichick
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Third
Opening Day QB Starter: Kosar
Season-Finale QB Starter: Kosar
Other QBs who started: None
Other QBs who played: Todd Philcox
Leading Passer: Kosar
Noted: For the final time in his career, Kosar started all 16 games during the regular season. The Browns showed improvement under Belichick, winning three more games and being competitive in most of their losses. Kosar had his best season since 1987, throwing for 3,487 yards with 18 TDs and only 9 Ints. The Browns were 6-7 heading into December with an outside chance of competing for playoff berth. However, the team lost their last three games in a row -- 17-7 to Denver, 17-14 to Houston (in which kicker Matt Stover missed a chip-shot field goal on the final play), and 17-10 at Pittsburgh.
1992
Record: 7-9
Head Coach: Belichick
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Third
Opening Day QB Starter: Kosar
Season-Finale QB Starter: Kosar
Other QBs who started: Philcox, Mike Tomczak
Other QBs who played: Brad Goebel
Leading Passer: Tomczak
Noted: Kosar only started seven games, breaking his ankle during a Week 2 Monday Night loss to Miami. Philcox started the following game, a 28-16 win over Oakland, but he was injured following the contest. Tomczak, an Ohio State grad who was cut by the Chicago Bears prior to the season opener, was thrust into action in Week 3. Tomczak started eight games and played in 12, guiding the Browns to a 4-4 record in games he started. Kosar returned in Week 13 to lead the Browns to a 27-14 Monday Night win over Chicago and earned another win the following week against Cincinnati, 37-21, to put the Browns at 7-6. However, for the second-straight year, the Browns dropped their final three games in a row. Kosar was relieved by Tomczak during the 23-13 season finale loss at Pittsburgh and threw a TD pass.
1993
Record: 7-9
Head Coach: Belichick
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Third
Opening Day QB Starter: Kosar
Season-Finale QB Starter: Vinny Testaverde
Other QBs who started: Philcox
Other QBs who played: N/A
Leading Passer: Testaverde
Noted: Kosar didn't survive the season, being unceremoniously released following a 29-14 home loss to Denver in Week 10 after the season's second bye-week. The loss dropped the Browns to 5-3. However, they would only win two more games the rest of the season. Testaverde, a free agent acquision and Kosar's college teammate at Miami (Fla.), relieved in Week 3 and led the Browns to a come-from-behind 19-16 win over Oakland after they trailed, 16-3, in the fourth quarter. Belichick followed suit the following two games before permanently benching Kosar for Week 7. Testaverde started and led the the team to wins over Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. However, he was injured during the fourth quarter against the Steelers and Kosar came off the bench. Kosar didn't get the chance to lead a game-winning TD drive, as Eric Metcalf returned a punt 75 yards for the winning TD with two minutes remaining. With Testaverde injured, Philcox started the next four games, only winning one (17-13 over New Orleans). However, Testaverde came off the bench and led the team to the win, and he started the remaining four games, including a 42-14 win over the Los Angeles Rams in the second-to-last game. Kosar wound up signing with the Dallas Cowboys and played a key role in their Super Bowl-winning season.
1994
Record: 11-5 (1-1 playoffs)
Head Coach: Belichick
Postseason: Yes (Wild-Card)
Division Finish: Second
Opening Day QB Starter: Testaverde
Season-Finale QB Starter: Testaverde (Postseason: Testaverde)
Other QBs who started: Mark Rypien
Other QBs who played: N/A
Leading Passer: Testaverde
Noted: It was Testaverde's team for the first time, and he was under pressure from fans and media who were angry about Kosar's release. In a make-or-break season, the Browns had their best record since 1987 and snapped a four-year streak without a playoff berth. Testaverde only started 13 games (he played 14) due to injury, and still finished with more interceptions (18) than touchdowns (16). But, he threw for 2,575 yards. Testaverde was injured during a 37-13 win over the Bengals in Week 8, with the Browns sitting at 6-1. Rypien, who won a Super Bowl with the Washington Redskins in 1991, started the next three games, winning two of them. He relieved an injured Testaverde the following week in a 20-13 loss to Kansas City, but Testaverde returned for good the following week, going 3-2 the rest of the way. Testaverde led the Browns to a 20-13 Wild-Card win at home over New England on New Year's Day. However, he struggled against the Steelers the following week, completing 13 of 31 passes for 144 yards with a TD and two Ints in a 29-9 loss. Adding insult to injury, Testaverde was sacked for a safety late in the fourth quarter. The Browns haven't won a playoff game (or hosted a playoff game) since.
1995
Record: 5-11
Head Coach: Belichick
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Fourth
Opening Day QB Starter: Testaverde
Season-Finale QB Starter: Testaverde
Other QBs who started: Eric Zeier
Other QBs who played: Tom Tupa
Leading Passer: Testaverde
Noted: This was the year of the move. Modell announced he was moving the team on Nov. 6 -- at that point, the Browns were 4-5. However, word leaked of the move prior to the game on Nov. 5, in which the Browns were killed, 37-10, at home by Houston. Testaverde led the Browns to a 3-1 start, but was benched following a 23-13 loss to Jacksonville for Zeier, a third-round rookie out of Georgia. Zeier caught lightning in a bottle in his first start, throwing for 310 yards in a 29-26 OT win at Cincinnati. But then the move came, and the wheels fell off. Zeier only started three more games (all losses) before Testaverde took over for good. Testaverde led the Browns to an emotional 26-10 win on Dec. 17 in their final game at the old Cleveland Stadium, which snapped a six-game losing skid. Testaverde actually had a decent year, throwing for 2,883 yards with 17 touchdowns and 10 Ints. The franchise was renamed the Baltimore Ravens (Testaverde remained, but Belichick was fired shortly after the move was finalized), and the Cleveland Browns would be dormant for the next three seasons.
1999
Record: 2-14
Head Coach: Chris Palmer
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Sixth
Opening Day QB Starter: Ty Detmer
Season-Finale QB Starter: Detmer
Other QBs who started: Tim Couch
Other QBs who played: N/A
Leading Passer: Couch
Noted: The Browns were reborn as an expansion team, and veteran Ty Detmer was brought on to start and mentor the No. 1 overall draft choice out of Kentucky, Couch. However, after the Browns were whitewashed in their debut, 43-0, by the Steelers, Palmer instilled the raw Couch as the starting quarterback. Couch struggled as the Browns lost their first seven games of the season. Only a Hail Mary pass from Couch to rookie Kevin Johnson on the last play gave the Browns a 21-16 win over New Orleans, and Phil Dawson's 39-yard field goal with time running out gave the Browns a 16-15 win over the Steelers at Three Rivers. Other than that, there was a lot of disappointment. Couch started 14 of the 15 games he played in, throwing for 2,447 yards with 15 TDs and 13 Ints. Detmer started the season finale at home against the Colts and nearly led the Browns to an upset. However, the Colts got a field goal on the last play of the game to escape with a 29-28 win. Detmer never took another snap for the Browns again.
2000
Record: 3-13
Head Coach: Palmer
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Sixth
Opening Day QB Starter: Couch
Season-Finale QB Starter: Doug Pederson
Other QBs who started: Spurgon Wynn
Other QBs who played: Kevin Thompson
Leading Passer: Couch
Noted: Couch started his first season opener, and actually led the Browns to two wins in their first three games, matching their season total from the season before. However, things quickly went south for both the young QB and the Browns. Couch started the first seven games before breaking his throwing hand in practice right before a game against the Steelers. In stepped journeyman Doug Pederson, signed just before the season after Detmer tore his Achilles tendon and missed the whole season. Pederson only led the Browns to one more win -- a 19-11 home upset over Belichick's New England Patriots. In an act of utter desperation, Palmer started rookie sixth-round draft choice Wynn against Jacksonville, and Wynn never moved the Browns beyond the 50-yard line in a 48-0 loss. Pederson only threw two TDs and eight Ints. Palmer was fired following the season.
2001
Record: 7-9
Head Coach: Butch Davis
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Third
Opening Day QB Starter: Couch
Season-Finale QB Starter: Couch
Other QBs who started: None
Other QBs who played: Kelly Holcomb
Leading Passer: Couch
Noted: Will a clean bill of health and playing for a new head coach and new offensive coordinator in Butch Ariens, Couch has the best season of his young career, starting all 16 games -- the only time that has happened during the expansion era for the Browns. Couch threw for 3,040 yards with 17 TDs and 21 Ints -- all career-highs. Meanwhile, the Browns won three of their first four games, took a 4-2 record into the bye week, and were 6-4 going into December. Suddenly, this team was a playoff contender. However, the Browns lost five of their last six games, including a controvercial 15-10 loss to Jacksonville in which a fourth-down completion inside the red zone with 40 seconds remaining was overturned AFTER Couch had already run another play. Holcomb played at the end of a 31-15 blowout loss to Tennessee, throwing a touchdown pass. It was the only action Couch missed the entire season.
2002
Record: 9-7 (0-1 playoffs)
Head Coach: Davis
Postseason: Yes (Wild-Card)
Division Finish: Second
Opening Day QB Starter: Holcomb
Season-Finale QB Starter: Couch (Postseason: Holcomb)
Other QBs who started: None
Other QBs who played: N/A
Leading Passer: Couch
Noted: Couch was injured during the preseason finale, which allowed Holcomb to start the season opener. Opening up a QB controversy that never went away, Holcomb completed 27 of 39 passes for 326 yards and three TDs, but the Browns lost, 40-39, at home to Kansas City on the last play of the game. Couch returned in Week 3, leading the Browns to a come-from-behind 31-28 OT win over Tennessee. However, Couch was knocked out of a game two weeks later against Baltimore with a concussion (which drew scattered cheers from the crowd), and Holcomb led a furious rally from a 23-8 deficit. However, he threw an interception in the end zone on the final play of a 26-21 loss. Couch returned the following week and started every single game the rest of the season, leading the Browns to a 5-2 record down the stretch, including two come-from-behind wins over Jacksonville and Baltimore on the road. Couch was injured midway through the season finale against Atlanta, and Holcomb led the Browns to two second-half touchdowns in a 23-16 win, which punched their ticket to the postseason for the first time since 1994 and second time since 1989. In the Wild Card game, Holcomb shredded the Pittsburgh defense for 429 yards and three TDs. However, the Steelers rallied from deficits of 24-7 and 33-21 to escape with a 36-33 win.
2003
Record: 5-11
Head Coach: Davis
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Fourth
Opening Day QB Starter: Holcomb
Season-Finale QB Starter: Couch
Other QBs who started: None
Other QBs who played: N/A
Leading Passer: Holcomb
Noted: Both Holcomb and Couch played in 10 games and started eight, if there was ever a definition of a QB controversy. Holcomb started, based on his playoff performance against the Steelers, but struggled in the early going. He led the Browns to a come-from-behind 13-12 win at San Francisco, but was broke his ankle during the game, opening the door for Couch. Couch started the next four games, winning two, including a 33-13 win at Heinz Field (the Browns only win at Heinz Field ever) on a Sunday night. However, he was yanked during a 26-20 loss to San Diego for Holcomb, who rallied the team from a big deficit. Holcomb's best game came in a 44-6 blowout of Arizona at home, but he lost his job during a Monday Night game with St. Louis after throwing two killer interceptions just before halftime. Couch rallied the Browns in the second half of a 26-20 loss, and started the remaining three games of his Browns (and NFL) career. His final game was a 22-14 win at Cincinnati. Couch was released during the offseason and never took another NFL snap.
2004
Record: 4-12
Head Coach: Davis/Terry Robiskie (interim 5 games)
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Fourth
Opening Day QB Starter: Jeff Garcia
Season-Finale QB Starter: Holcomb
Other QBs who started: Luke McCown
Other QBs who played: N/A
Leading Passer: Garcia
Noted: Garcia was signed as a free agent to put a stop to the Couch/Holcomb QB carosel, and Garcia led the Browns to their only opening-day win of the Expansion Era, a 20-3 victory over the Ravens. However, that's about where the rays of sunshine ended for Garcia in Cleveland. He only started 10 games (and played in 11) before succombing to two different injuries. The first was during a 10-7 loss to the Jets at home. The second was after playing in just two snaps when he relieved an inefffective McCown during a 37-7 loss to Buffalo. Holcomb had one great game, throwing for five TDs and 413 yards in a 58-48 loss at Cincinnati (Davis resigned shortly after the game), but quickly fell back to earth and was injured. McCown, a rookie, was thrown into the fire with the Buffalo game and lost all four games he started. Holcomb returned for the season-finale, a 22-14 win at Houston. All three QBs would be gone by the time the Browns started the next season.
2005
Record: 6-10
Head Coach: Romeo Crennel
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Third
Opening Day QB Starter: Trent Dilfer
Season-Finale QB Starter: Charlie Frye
Other QBs who started: None
Other QBs who played: N/A
Leading Passer: Dilfer
Noted: Dilfer was signed as a free agent, and Akron product Charlie Frye was drafted in the third round as the heir apparent. Dilfer started 11 games, going 4-7 in his starts with 11 TDs and 12 Ints. Frye debuted during a 22-0 win over Miami in Week 11 and took over for an injured Dilfer in a Week 12 24-12 loss to Minnesota. He started the following week at home against Jacksonville and remained the starter for the final five games, going 2-3 in those starts. He beat Baltimore, 20-16, at home in the season finale.
2006
Record: 4-12
Head Coach: Crennel
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Fourth
Opening Day QB Starter: Frye
Season-Finale QB Starter: Frye
Other QBs who started: Derek Anderson
Other QBs who played: Ken Dorsey
Leading Passer: Frye
Noted: With Dilfer let go, it was Frye's job from the get-go in 2006. However, he quickly showed he wasn't ready to be an NFL starting quarterback, even if the fans wanted him to succeed because he was a Northern Ohio guy who grew up a huge Bernie Kosar fan. Frye started 13 games, going 4-9, throwing for 2,454 yards with 10 TDs and 17 Ints. He was injured during a 31-28 OT win over Kansas City, in which an unknown backup named Derek Anderson threw two fourth quarter TDs and drove the Browns to the game-winning field goal in OT. Anderson lost his next three starts, eventually getting injured during a 22-7 loss to Tampa Bay. Frye returned to start the season finale over Ken Dorsey, a 14-6 loss at Houston.
2007
Record: 10-6
Head Coach: Crennel
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Second
Opening Day QB Starter: Frye
Season-Finale QB Starter: Anderson
Other QBs who started: None
Other QBs who played: Brady Quinn
Leading Passer: Anderson
Noted: Frye barely beat out Anderson to start the season opener, but most everyone believed that first-round rookie Brady Quinn would eventually take over. After just a quarter-and-a-half of the season opener, Crennel pulled the plug on the Frye Era forever, inserting Anderson and then trading him the following day to Seattle. Anderson responded by putting together one of the best single-seasons a Browns quarterback has ever had, throwing for 3,787 yards with 29 TDs and 19 Ints. Anderson burst on the scene in his first start, throwing for five TDs in a wild 51-45 shootout win over Cincinnati, and kept it going for most of the first half. The Browns were 3-3 heading into their bye week following a 41-31 win over Miami, but came out with six wins over the next eight weeks to put them at 9-5 and right on the cusp of a playoff berth. However, Anderson threw four interceptions in a 19-14 loss at Cincinnati, which essentially killed their chances at a playoff berth. For his efforts, Anderson made the Pro Bowl, one of five members of the offense to do so. Quinn made his debut in the season finale, leading one drive just before halftime that resulted in a field goal.
2008
Record: 4-12
Head Coach: Crennel
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Fourth
Opening Day QB Starter: Anderson
Season-Finale QB Starter: Bruce Gradkowski
Other QBs who started: Quinn, Dorsey
Other QBs who played: N/A
Leading Passer: Anderson
Noted: Anderson quickly proved that his 2007 season was an abberation, starting just nine games (playing 10) and throwing for 1,615 yards with nine TDs and eight Ints. Following a loss to Baltimore, which dropped the Browns to 3-5, Crennel benched Anderson for Quinn in a Thursday night home showdown against Denver. Quinn played well in a 34-30 loss, throwing for 239 yards and two touchdowns, and won his first game as a starter the following week, a 29-27 come-from-behind Monday night win at Buffalo. However, that would be the last game the Browns, and Crennel, would win. Quinn was injured the following week, and Anderson was also injured a week later, leaving Dorsey as the only QB remaining. Dorsey went 0-3 as a starter, tossing 7 Ints to zero TDs, before he was injured in the second-to-last game. That meant Gradkowski, who was signed off the street just three weeks prior, started the season finale against the Steelers. It did not go well, and Crennel was fired the following day.
2009
Record: 5-11
Head Coach: Eric Mangini
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Fourth
Opening Day QB Starter: Quinn
Season-Finale QB Starter: Anderson
Other QBs who started: None
Other QBs who played: Josh Cribbs (Wildcat)
Leading Passer: Quinn
Noted: Mangini let the Quinn/Anderson QB controversy fester into the start of the season. Quinn got the nod, but it wasn't announced until just hours before kickoff of the season opener. In his only season as a true Browns starter, Quinn threw for 1,339 yards with eight TDs and 7 Ints. in nine starts (10 games). Quinn was yanked midway through a Week 3 blowout loss to Baltimore for Anderson, and Anderson started the next five games, winning only one. The win he had, Anderson only completed two passes, but it was enough for the Browns to beat Buffalo, 6-3. Quinn got the job back with the team at 1-7 for a Monday Night game with the Ravens (a 16-0 loss), before playing the best game of his life against Detroit (304 yards, 4 TDs, 0 Ints.) in a wild 38-37 loss that came down to the final play. Quinn started the next four games, picking up a home upset win over the Steelers, 13-6, and a 40-34 win at Kansas City. Quinn, however, was injured near the end of the game, and Anderson started the final two games, both victories, to give the Browns a four-game winning streak to end the season. The win streak saved Mangini's job. However, it did not save Quinn's or Anderson's, as both were sent packing by new team president Mike Holmgren.
2010
Record: 5-11
Head Coach: Mangini
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Third
Opening Day QB Starter: Jake Delhomme
Season-Finale QB Starter: Colt McCoy
Other QBs who started: Seneca Wallace
Other QBs who played: Cribbs (Wildcat)
Leading Passer: McCoy
Noted: Holmgren and new GM Tom Heckert brought in veterans Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace and drafted Colt McCoy out of Texas in the third-round as the "project quarterback." However, with Delhomme and Wallace knocked out with high ankle sprains after the first five games and a 1-4 start, McCoy was thrust into the fire against the Steelers. McCoy lost, but rebounded with wins over defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans and New England to improve the Browns to 3-5, before losing two close games to the Jets and the Jaguars. McCoy was injured during the Jaguars game, and Delhomme returned to face his former Carolina team. Delhomme guided the Browns to a 24-23 win over the Panthers and a 13-10 win at Miami to put the Browns at 5-7. Delhomme started just one more game, a 13-6 loss to the Bills, before McCoy took back over with three consecutive losses to Cincinnati, Baltimore and Pittsburgh to end the season. Mangini was fired the day after the Steelers' loss, and Delhomme was let go.
2011
Record: 4-12
Head Coach: Pat Shurmur
Postseason: No
Division Finish: Fourth
Opening Day QB Starter: McCoy
Season-Finale QB Starter: Wallace
Other QBs who started: None
Other QBs who played: N/A
Leading Passer: McCoy
Noted: McCoy, given the reins from the get-go, struggled in his first true starting season. Without the benefit of a true offseason due to the NFL lockout, and getting a new West Coast offense from Shurmur, McCoy and the offense struggled to pick it up. It was their lowest total point output since the expansion 1999 season. McCoy started the first 13 games, throwing for 2,733 yards with 14 TDs and 11 Ints, before getting knocked out of a Thursday Night Steelers game with a concussion. Wallace started the final three games and didn't fare much better, only throwing for two touchdowns. The Browns actually started 2-1 and 3-3 following a 6-3 win over Seattle before going 1-9 to end the season.
2012
Head Coach: Shurmur
Projected Opening Day QB Starter: Brandon Weeden
Other QBs on Roster: McCoy, Wallace, Thad Lewis
Noted: Weeden was drafted in the first round, 22nd overall, this past season. He is the Browns' third first-round QB selection of the Expansion Era, joining Couch and Quinn. Weeden is 28 years old after playing professional baseball in the New York Yankees system for five years before enrolling at Oklahoma State. McCoy is currently the backup competing with Weeden for the starting job, and Wallace has no chance at competing for the starting position. It will be interesting to see if McCoy sticks with the team through training camp. He could be a very good backup if his ego allows it.
Hope that was informative for you. Thanks to pro-football-reference.com for their game-by-game boxes and complete season breakdowns. Joe Cleveland may know a lot about the Browns, but it's easier to have things backed up by facts.
Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!
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