What is HAPPENING to the game?

When I first started watch the NFL in the 70's, the hits were nasty and plentiful, concussions were left untreated and players with knee injuries usually had to retire. I am GLAD they now treat concussions to attempt to protect the players and that medical science has advanced to the point that torn knee ligaments can usually be repaired. But I miss hitting. Basically every line of defense has morphed into the size of the next one up since the 70's. Jack Lambert was a nasty linebacker who played at like 210 pounds...as a MIDDLE LINEBACKER. Safeties are around that size in today's NFL. The Browns picked up Paul Kruger from Baltimore in free agency to play outside linebacker...Kruger weighs 270! In the 70's that was standard defensive lineman size. Joe "Turkey" Jones, famous defensive end for the Browns, played at 250 pounds. Back in the day, it was the rare player on either line that tipped the scales at more than 300 pounds. Now EVERY offensive line in the league AVERAGES that or more. Playing weighs of 340 to 350 are common place. All this added size has been complimented by even more speed. 4.4 forty yard dash times used to be the fastest you would see. Now some players run 4.2's. All this added girth and enhanced speed does result in more violent collisions. The powers that be however appear to want to turn the game we love into two-hand touch. Basically if you breath on the quarterback they will throw the yellow flag. DON'T hit them in the head, DON'T hit them in the lower leg, DON'T hit them on the follow through of attempting a pass! The defense has no chance. If the defender launching himself to hit a receiver or ball-carrier and the offensive player ADJUSTS his body and you hit him in the head...penalty on YOU. I don't know HOW the NFL thinks these guys can go full tilt and then magically chance their trajectory in mid-air. Two plays as examples... Quinton Groves flies through the air to tackle Detroit quarterback Matthew Stafford late in the 4th quarter of a close game. Stafford released the ball AFTER Groves launched, Groves hits him and spreads his arms to not drive him into the ground. He actually put both palms on the ground on either side of Stafford...and got a roughing the passer penalty that kept the drive alive. Tashaun Gipson hits Green Bay tight end JerMichael Finley HARD...with his SHOULDER PAD. Finley ducks down INTO the hit and ends up motionless on the field. Finley ended up needing neck surgery and I wish him all the best, but GIPSON got penalized and did NOTHING wrong at all. The game is violent and people get hurt, they always have and they always will. UNLESS the league insists on going to even more ridiculous rule changes in the name of protection. Why not go seven on seven? Fire ALL defensive lineman, the NFL could start an American Sumo League for them I guess. Or put the quarterbacks in red jerseys and declare them off limits...the Super Bowl would be So exciting if the final score was 121-97 wouldn't it? Maybe...but I wouldn't be watching. I would be watching old NFL films of the game I used to love more than anything. GO BROWNS!

Alzado

Lyle Alzado was ferocious. He played for the Broncos, the Browns and the Raiders. As a defensive end, he was one of the very best. He seemed to play with an anger and hostility that was unrivaled in the league. The Browns got him from Denver in a trade in 1979 and he enjoyed three fine seasons with us. He finished his career with the Raiders and won a Super Bowl with them. Alzado was a perfect example of how a change of uniform could change my mind about a player. When he was with Denver, I thought he was the dirtiest player in the game.He got in countless fights and had a nasty habit of throwing helmets. I once saw him rip the helmet off of an offensive lineman and throw it. The announcer blandly stated that the guy was lucky his head wasn't still in it. I softened once he donned the orange and brown...thinking him to be more of a tough guy in a tough sport. Which was the truth of the matter? Probably both. After knee injuries forced his retirement, Alzado worked in the film industry making several movies and appearing on television. He attempted a comeback in 1990 that ended in training camp with another knee injury. He flatly stated that the NFL of his era was full of steroid users and that he used them himself for 20 years. He died after a battle with brain cancer in 1992. He spent the end of his life trying to convince youth of the dangers of repeated steroid use as he believed they led directly to his cancer diagnosis. He was of a warrior mentality and definitely a throwback from another era. Go Browns!

We was ROBBED

Mere words cannot describe how much I dislike John Elway. He could be the greatest humanitarian in history who donated all his money to charity and I wouldn't care. He could donate his ORGANS to charity and it wouldn't change my mind. Horse-face literally ripped the hearts out of Browns fans, not once but twice. The man reminded me of Bradshaw....only uglier (and that's saying something). All Browns fans are aware of "The Drive". Mr. Ed led the Broncos down the field with lucky last second throws, questionable calls by the refs and general blind ass luck. I personally counted at least five holding calls that the refs missed during that possession. I KNOW the refs didn't want to decide who was going to the Super Bowl, but the Denver offensive line shouldn't have been allowed to TACKLE us. Now I bet several of you are wondering how I can still harbor so much animosity after 27 years. The term "fan" is short for fanatic...and that should be enough of an explanation. I follow everything Browns related during the season, up to the draft, prior to training camp. Good, bad or otherwise, I will follow them until my dying day. After the drive tied it up, the game went to sudden death overtime. We got the ball first and did exactly nothing,went three and out. Trigger led the Broncos deep into our territory where we finally stopped them. Denver kicker Rich Karlis dutifully trotted out onto the field to attempt a field goal for the win and a trip to the Super Bowl. Dick Enberg had the call and appeared to try and jinx Karlis by mentioning a missed field goal the previous week that had helped the Browns advance. The kick was high enough, long enough....and the Broncos win! Except he MISSED. That kick sailed wide of the goal post and the two refs in the end-zone looked to each other to make the call. We was ROBBED. Now that I think about it, the following year, Byner crossed the goal line before he fumbled too. GO BROWNS! You can check out the video of the kick and decide for yourself... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2O7bDqMO0I

A Sunday Debacle

Well as the saying goes, "We are who we thought we were". Prior to the Battle of Ohio, I said we had a chance to win if we won the turnover battle...point validated. The Browns do not have the offensive firepower at present to overcome TWO blocked punts, THREE interceptions and a fumble recovered for a touchdown. Realistically almost NO NFL team would. Our defense played well once again. They are a legitimate top ten unit that should keep improving. The Bengals really couldn't establish the run OR the pass against them. Without the special teams disaster and offensive turnovers the game would have been extremely tight. I don't think we need to fire the punter or the special teams coach. We DO need to identify if the blocked punts were due to a breakdown in coverage, or if Lanning was holding the ball too long, so that the problem can be corrected. We outplayed Cincy on special teams in the first game, (of course we still had Travis Benjamin then) but they owned us in that aspect yesterday. You will not beat a team with a defense as good as the Bengals (or ours for that matter) making that many mistakes. Time to see what Chud can do to right the ship and get the squad focusing on the next game against Pittsburgh. The Steelers won again yesterday and have climbed out of the cellar to tie us and the Ratbirds at 4-6. Time to knock them back down again. Young teams tend to be inconsistent, so following them can be a bit like riding a roller-coaster...I'm starting to get a little bit seasick. Go Browns!

My Browns Starter Jacket

I once had a wife who was a Pittsburgh Steeler fan. (No, that's not why we divorced) She knew I loved the Browns as much as she loved Pittsburgh. Well my birthday is in the summer during training camp, and one year she decided to be really nice and buy me a Browns Starter jacket. In the 90's those things were all the rage. I loved it and couldn't wait for cold weather so I could start wearing it. The Browns started the year at 3-1 and many people, including Sports Illustrated, thought we would be in the Super Bowl that season. To my dismay the team dropped three in a row and staggered out to a 4-5 record. At that point owner Art Modell announced he had decided to MOVE the team to Baltimore during the next off season. I know I was personally in denial during that entire 1995 season. I honestly thought Modell was just grandstanding for a better stadium deal and that he would NEVER really take our team. Of course I was wrong...we lost the Browns. Modell is perhaps the most hated man in Cleveland history (Lebron might be close). The feeling of disillusionment was incredible. I was 32-years-old and had never been without the Cleveland Browns. In many ways it was worse than finding our Santa Claus wasn't real. The season wore on to its terrible conclusion and the team fell to 5-11. As I watched us beat the Bengals on television in the finale, I remember seeing a sign in the stands that read, "Baltimore sucks, Modell swallows". As the clock ticked to zero the players ran into the dawg pound to console the fans. People started ripping stadium seats out to take home and general bedlam ensued. It was total chaos. The owners may pay the salaries and build the stadiums, but the local fans really own the teams. The Browns gave us a break from our everyday lives. Whether it was being an arm chair general manager at the water cooler, or planning a trip to a home game we would anticipate for months, or the excitement of "next year" and the NFL draft, the Browns enhanced our lives. Personally after all was said and done, the only emotions I was left with were emptiness and anger. I literally didn't care at all about the NFL until 1999 when we got the expansion team. As for my prized starter jacket? I gently laid it upon my kitchen table and grabbed a razor blade knife. I cut the Browns logo out of it....flipped it upset down and duct taped it back on. I wore that jacket that way in protest for three years. GO BROWNS!

Bernie Kosar

LONG before he was a preseason play by play announcer for the team and the butt of many jokes (some justified, some not), Bernie Kosar was leading "The U" to a national championship. The whole swagger and attitude that became the University of Miami started back in Kosar's time there. Bernie was young, confident, smart and GOOD. He didn't just want to win, he EXPECTED to win. He grew up in Boardman Ohio as a Browns fan and made no bones about the fact that he wanted to play for Cleveland. The fans embraced the brash young star and loved it when the team picked him up in the supplemental draft. He immediately energized the team and the fan-base and quickly had the team in the playoffs. Watching Bernie, it was hard to tell exactly HOW he was so good. I don't know if he could outrun Dan Marino in a foot race, and his passes were rarely perfect spirals, but before all the injuries, he could surgically desect a defense and light up the scoreboard. Wounded duck for six should have been his battle cry. After leading the team to the brink of the Super Bowl and enduring the heartache of both "the drive" and "the fumble" in AFC Championship games against Denver, Kosar began to slow down due to repeated lower leg injuries. He was tough and always tried to stay in there and it cost him in the long run. The injuries robbed him of the lower leg strength needed to overcome his unorthodox side arm delivery and the interceptions grew. He was demoted to back up and eventually ended up in Dallas as the back up to Troy Aikman. While there, Bernie at last enjoyed the feeling of a Super Bowl Championship...something he was unable to bring to the lake despite all his efforts. Young Browns fans who only know him as the somewhat befuddled preseason play by play man owe it to themselves to view some of the old game tape. At his zenith, Bernie was one of the best and he was ours. Go Browns!

The Kardiac Kids

Just when the 70's had beat all us Browns fans down for the count...a tiny little quarterback named Sipe came to the rescue. The 70's was the Steeler's heyday, the Oilers had Earl Campbell, heck the Bengals had Ken Anderson. It was a rough time for us. The magical 1980 season changed all that and rekindled Super Bowl dreams for Browns fans everywhere. The team featured a 1000 yard rusher (Mike Pruitt), an all-world tight end (Ozzie Newsome) and Brian Sipe at quarterback. Sipe was listed at 5' 11" but looked shorter. When he stood back to pass, it always looked like he was looking straight up and heaving it toward the heavens. I don't really think he tossed it OVER his lineman as much as he threw it BETWEEN them. After limping to a 2-3 start, the Browns reeled off five wins in a row...many of the last second variety. Sipe beat the Packers with a touchdown pass with 16 seconds left, the Steelers with a 4th quarter pass to Ozzie Newsome and the Bengals with a Don Cockroft field goal at the 1:25 mark of the 4th quarter. They also LOST on a deflected pass to the Vikings as time expired and a Bradshaw to Swann touchdown in Pittsburgh with 11 ticks remaining. The Browns had a resiliency and fortitude that made them a threat to win every game. Sipe inspired confidence in the fans as well as his teammates. He led the team to an 11-5 record and the first playoff appearance for the Browns since 1972. Of course any Browns love story since the 60's HAS ended up being like Romeo and Juliet and ended badly. The playoff game against the Raiders ended as time expired on a Sipe interception in the end zone. Coach Sam Rutigliano was vilified in some circles for trying to pass, when a field goal could have won the game. He just didn't have confidence that Cockroft could kick us to the win on such a bitterly cold day in Cleveland when he had already missed two attempts. As the 70's gave way to the 80's, the Browns would once again rise from the ashes to make the playoffs...but some of those great teams may have wounded the fans even more than the Kardiac Kids loss and ultimately culminated in the biggest betrayal of all. But that's a story for another day. Go Browns!

Greg Pruitt and the Tear-Away Jersey

The Browns once had a running back who resembled Barry Sanders. (If you aren't old enough to know who Sanders was, you need look at some old NFL films and get up to speed.) He had the shake and bake moves, the amazing quickness and the burst to score every time he touched the ball. The man was Greg Pruitt and when the Browns got him in the draft from the Oklahoma Sooners, hand-offs were suddenly exciting by the lake. He was an All-American for two years in college and came to the Browns with high expectations. Pruitt was a scat-back, small even by the standards of the day, at about 5 foot 10 and 190 pounds. If any of us mere mortals had tried to play two-hand touch or flag football with him in his prime, I'm sure we wouldn't have been able to even put a finger on him. The NFL however was FULL of amazing athletes of much greater size that COULD and did lay hands on Greg. Pruitt was constantly making people miss and getting slammed to the ground by his jersey. So many guys were literally grasping at straws and snagging him that he decided to do something about it. When he started wearing very flimsy, tear away jerseys the opposition suddenly had a problem. When they caught up to him and grabbed his jersey, it simply ripped off of him and away he went, sort of like the Road-Runner when Wile Coyote got close. BEEP BEEP. Three Pro-Bowls and constant frustrated defenders later, the NFL finally decided the jerseys were giving Greg an unfair advantage. They passed "The Greg Pruitt Rule" that outlawed the tear away to balance the scales of justice once again. As a Browns fan..I think Pruitt was amazing and the tear away jersey was perfectly fair, at least until he finished his career with the Raiders. Go Browns!.

The Battle of Ohio

Good Morning Browns fans! While the Browns rested up and got healthy, we got to watch Baltimore and Cincy beat up on each other. It pained me to have to actually cheer FOR the Ratbirds on Sunday, but they eventually got the job done and knocked off the Bengals. The loss dropped Cincy to 6-4 heading into this Sunday's pivotal match-up with us. SHOULD we have any real chance against an experienced playoff team like the Bengals when their backs are up against the wall? Probably not. We have a journeyman quarterback and NO running game. That would seem to be a recipe for a ferocious pass rush and little offensive success for the Browns. The Bengals SHOULD come out flaming to try and knock down their northern state-mate quickly. BUT.... the Browns have already beat the Bengals this year without a running game to speak of...as the Ravens did yesterday. The Browns nasty defense is getting better week by week. They bring heat on nearly every play and Dalton can be rattled. The Bengals have an annoying habit (if your a fan) of playing up to or down to the level of the competition every week. A close physical contest favors Cleveland and their stout front seven. As a Browns fan, I want to be thankful for an improving team with a solid coaching staff that seems to have a bright future (FINALLY), but in the NFL, the time is NOW. If our nasty defense can dominate up front and stop the run we could actually sniff the playoffs THIS year. The start of Sunday's contest is crucial. Like Rocky Balboa against Clubber Lang in the second fight, the Bengals are gonna try and kill us quick. The longer the Browns can stay in the contest, the more confident we will become...and the heavier the nagging cloak of doubt will weigh on Cincy. Will we be victorious? I think it depends on the turn-overs. If we win that battle, I think we can win the war.

A Turkey for Thanksgiving Time

As we roll toward the holidays, I recall one glorious moment in the midst of Steeler Super Bowls and Browns futility during the 70's, when we rose up and knocked the behemoth from their lofty post. Chuck Noll was a great coach. He turned down trodden perennial losers in Pittsburgh into a dynasty, and they almost always pounded us into the ground. ALMOST always. I could never stand Terry Bradshaw...always thought he was over-rated and somewhat of a poser. It seemed he was ALWAYS being knocked out of the game and then he would always limp, shuffle and drag himself back in to be the hero who lead the Steelers to victory. The Steelers had won the last two Super Bowls and had perhaps their BEST team in 1976, but the wheels came off after playing us that October and they didn't even make the playoffs. Bradshaw didn't ride back in to the rescue after THIS hit. In wrestling parlance, Turkey Jones suplexed Bradshaw, twisting him in mid-air and screwing him head first into the ground.It was glorious. I remember my 12-year-old self screaming at the television, "Let's see you come back in after THAT Bradshaw!". We already had the lead and went on for one of our few 70's victories over the Steelers. It was glorious. The refs called a penalty on Jones and the fumble that occurred when Bradshaw lost consciousness didn't count...didn't matter. They couldn't stop running back Greg Pruitt and without Bradshaw the Steelers folded. Did I mention it was glorious?

A Fan since birth (maybe before)

I grew up a Cleveland Browns fan. The first game I remember watching with interest was the 1972 playoff game against the Miami Dolphins. Yes, THOSE Dolphins...the undefeated Super Bowl Champions. We SHOULD have actually WON that game and ruined their perfect season. I remember the outrage and the empty feeling when the clock ticked to zero and our season was over. If only Sherk had stayed healthy. In CLEVELAND, we have been dealing with career destroying staph infections since the 70's I was just a little kid, but those memories have never faded. Some teams use the term "snake-bitten" to describe themselves...if you look up the word in Websters, it has an illustration of "the fumble" and the caption "REALLY snake-bitten". The trials and tribulations of being a Browns fan are infinite. This blog will not be unique. EVERY team has die-hard fans with a lifelong perspective. It will however, be a labor of love and hopefully entertaining to fellow Dawg-pound alumni. See you tomorrow...GO BROWNS!!!