Thursday, October 18, 2012

Paul Ryan fuzzy on details on Cleveland Browns, tax cuts

New Browns owner Jimmy Haslam brought some high powered political friends to Browns training yesterday. I guess now we know what end of the political spectrum Mr. Haslam falls on! (His brother is, after all, the Republican governor of Tennessee.)

The more legitimate guest was lifelong Browns fan (and former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.) Rice is long on record supporting the Browns since her childhood in Alabama. Many a Browns fan was raised by parents who loved watching (or listening to) Jim Brown run during the Browns' Glory Days.

More recently, Rice was featured in a print campaign for the NFL's line of women's gear, rocking a Josh Cribbs jersey. No matter what your politics are, it's pretty cool to have someone that powerful as your team's supporter. Not that it did a hell of a lot of good through the disastrous Bush administration. (For the record, I mean a disastrous eight years for the Cleveland football world.)


On the other hand, Vice Presidential nominee and Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan showed up and made a fool out of himself. First, he referred to how much he liked watching Colt McCoy play at Oklahoma State. Naturally, this mixup of McCoy with Browns QB (and former OSU Cowboy) Brandon Weeden caused a lot of laughter with the players, and was summarized nicely in a tweet by Scott Fujita.

Later, Ryan asked Haslam if the Browns were an expansion team. Now one may excuse some mixup over 2 quarterbacks on team with limited, if any, national exposure. But to not know that the Browns have been around, since when, 1946? This attention to detail by the man conservatives think of as the brain trust of the right wing is quite revealing. 

Ryan did make friends with Joe Thomas, a player that Congressman Ryan can at least legitimately claim to have watched during Thomas' college days in Wisconsin. No word on whether the potential Vice Presidential nominee would share with the Browns offensive line any of the details of the tax cuts and offsetting details the Romney-Ryan team plan to implement, like he won't with the national media or the electorate. I guess this "unspecified tactics" thing goes pretty well with the Pat Shurmur school of coaching.

Chances are that Paul Ryan will pretend to root for the Redskins, Broncos, Jaguars, and Dolphins before this election cycle is done. Just hoping Condi doesn't likewise sell out the Browns. I'm guessing she won't. 
Details? Who needs 'em?
(Picture courtesy Chuck Crow, Plain Dealer)