Colt McCoy signed with the Browns today...now let's get Joe Haden in camp and the rest of the team and get over this LeBacle summer we've had!
Friday, July 23, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Meet 'The Admiral'
As the pain from the LeBron James/Cleveland breakup recedes, there’s probably a good portion of sick-of-being-snakebitten fans that need at least a temporary reprieve from the local sporting scene.
Last week’s already infamous “Decision” – which featured James protectively surrounded by well-scrubbed adolescent props while wearing a $400 button-down from Barney’s of New York - may have snapped the will of many Cleveland fans. Like a wall that’s been pounded by waves year after year, eventually even the toughest edifice is going to erode into nothing, right?
It’s not like there’s much going on sports-wise in this post-LeBron recession, unless you consider the Cavs’ signing of Rockets’ restricted free agent guard Kyle Lowry to an offer sheet (which was quickly matched by Houston) a newsworthy event. Meanwhile, the Indians, standing as the badly dressed, pencil-mustached “Fredo” of the Cleveland sports’ triumvirate, are mired in a joyless season that seems to have little point or even the faintest glimmer of an upside heading into the future.
Even with all three of our teams on the downswing, I imagine most Cleveland fans aren’t going to abdicate their fandom as easily as the “so-called King” (thank you Dan Gilbert for giving us this biting zinger) did his throne. By the end of this month, in fact, I suspect we will be pinning our championship hopes on a new savior, one a bit more subdued and workmanlike than the nightclub-opening, celebrity-canoodling James.
Fans, I give you new Browns’ president Mike Holmgren.
Holmgren may not be “sexy” in either the looks or public persona department, but honey, he’s all we’ve got right now. To be fair to Randy Lerner, the much-maligned Browns’ owner has received nationwide praise for hiring Holmgren and GM Tom Heckert in an effort to stopper the revolving door that has been the Browns’ front office since the team’s return in 1999.
With James gone, Holmgren’s The Man around here until proven otherwise. For one, fans could proudly point to how refreshingly calm Berea has been this summer. Besides a few hiccups, like the looming suspension of Shaun Rogers over gun charges, the off-field mishegoss has been kept to a minimum, and most of the recent Browns’ discussion has actually centered on football. How novel!
Stability is a welcome change, even if, on paper at least, the Browns don’t look that much better than last year. And perusing the team’s seemingly murderous schedule, which includes out-of-division tilts against New England, New Orleans, the Jets and Atlanta, the city’s favorite franchise is probably facing a 6-8 win season at best.
That harsh reality hardly matters now as we slip into drowsy mid-summer and inch closer to the opening of NFL training camp. What’s important is the perception that Holmgren will right what has been an ever-listing Browns’ ship.
In keeping with the nautical theme, I’m offering Cleveland a nickname we can use for Holmgren. Although the Browns’ prez has the facial hair and, ah, generous carriage of the United Kingdom’s King Edward VII (1841-1910), I think “The Admiral” better suits him.
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Just look at the guy: That flushed face and walrus mustache should be commanding a fleet somewhere in the South Pacific. Put a sea captain’s hat on Holmgren (thanks to CST contributor Froms for the photoshop job above) and he could be plying the seven seas as easily as directing a pro football franchise.
Sure, it’s a stretch, but the U.S.S. Brownie has known nothing but choppy waters for most of the last 11 years. If Holmgren’s the man to bring this adrift franchise to port, he should forever be known as “The Admiral” in many a Cleveland fan’s heart.
Trust me, it works.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Benedict LeBron
Saw this on a message board.Check out what LeBron's Fathead is selling for.
http://www.fathead.com/nba/cleveland-cavaliers/lebron-james/
$17.41
1741 the same year Benedict Arnold was born.
BTW for those of you who don't know Dan Gilbert owns Fathead.
Sent from my BlackBerry®
Plain Dealer cover
The first time I've seen the PD do a full cover like this--editorializing and everything.
Dan Gilbert gets loose
Wow, I don't even know how to react...in an interview with the AP and then an open letter to Cavs fans, he destroys LeBron James. There will certainly be some self flaggelating necessary for the carte blanche they gave LBJ and his friends in the Cavs Kingdom, but nonetheless Gilbert seems to reflect that.
"people have covered up for [James] for way too long. Tonight we saw who he really is."
Open Letter to Fans from Cavaliers Majority Owner Dan Gilbert
Dear Cleveland, All Of Northeast Ohio and Cleveland Cavaliers Supporters Wherever You May Be Tonight;
As you now know, our former hero, who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier.
This was announced with a several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his "decision" unlike anything ever "witnessed" in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment.
Clearly, this is bitterly disappointing to all of us.
The good news is that the ownership team and the rest of the hard-working, loyal, and driven staff over here at your hometown Cavaliers have not betrayed you nor NEVER will betray you.
There is so much more to tell you about the events of the recent past and our more than exciting future. Over the next several days and weeks, we will be communicating much of that to you.
You simply don't deserve this kind of cowardly betrayal.
You have given so much and deserve so much more.
In the meantime, I want to make one statement to you tonight:
"I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE"
You can take it to the bank.
If you thought we were motivated before tonight to bring the hardware to Cleveland, I can tell you that this shameful display of selfishness and betrayal by one of our very own has shifted our "motivation" to previously unknown and previously never experienced levels.
Some people think they should go to heaven but NOT have to die to get there.
Sorry, but that's simply not how it works.
This shocking act of disloyalty from our home grown "chosen one" sends the exact opposite lesson of what we would want our children to learn. And "who" we would want them to grow-up to become.
But the good news is that this heartless and callous action can only serve as the antidote to the so-called "curse" on Cleveland, Ohio.
The self-declared former "King" will be taking the "curse" with him down south. And until he does "right" by Cleveland and Ohio, James (and the town where he plays) will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma.
Just watch.
Sleep well, Cleveland.
Tomorrow is a new and much brighter day....
I PROMISE you that our energy, focus, capital, knowledge and experience will be directed at one thing and one thing only:
DELIVERING YOU the championship you have long deserved and is long overdue....
Dan Gilbert
Majority Owner
Cleveland Cavaliers
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