Archive for July, 2011

What’s going on in the NFL lockout just continues to get more and more confusing, as the players will not vote on a new collective bargaining agreement tonight, but the NFL Players Association did give player representative DeMaurice Smith and the executive committee a “vote of confidence” to finish the remaining aspects of the agreement.

Remember last weekend when we were all celebrating the potential end of the NFL lockout? How a deal could be in place by the end of this week? Well, there’s a line in Pulp Fiction that a character by the name of the Wolf says, taking place in the scene where everyone is able to clean all the blood out of the interior of a car, but it’s not appropriate by any means to put here. If you’ve seen the movie, though, you know what I’m talking about. The NFL Players Association is expected to vote today on the proposed new [...]

What is the first thing the Browns need to do once (at it appears that day will come next Monday) the free agency period begins? SPEND MONEY! Let me repeat that – spend money, not throw it away, or pretend that it’s free and spend frivolously. No, what the Browns need to do is spend money in a calculated effort to make this team better. “Well duh,” you say. I just want to point out the fact that this has not always been the case since the Browns return, though Tom Heckert and Mike  Holmgren have thankfully put a stop to [...]

It’s looking more and more like the agonizing NFL lockout could be coming to an official end this week, allowing teams to resume normal activities and prepare for the upcoming season. All teams will be have new issues to deal with that stem from the lockout but few teams, if any, will be facing obstacles quite as large as the Cleveland Browns’. Consider these points:

This past week has likely brought the best string of good news to come out of this painstakingly long lockout. The two sides agreed on a rookie wage scale and salary cap on Thursday and free agency rules for 2011 on Friday. This comes after stalled talks the week before and numerous other weeks of little to no progress, endless speculation, and much more wishful thinking and optimism than actual evidence that anything would ever get resolved.

On the heels of beat writer Tony Grossi expressing his excitement over seeing rookie defensive end Jabaal Sheard play in 2011, we figured we’d throw in some of his highlights in case you haven’t seen much of him yet. Specifically, these highlights are from Sheard and his Pittsburgh Panthers’ 2010 match-up against the Miami Hurricanes.

Meet the 2011 Cleveland Browns. They’re the new nice guys in the AFC North, but will they finish last? This was the off-season Ray Lewis predicted Armageddon, but even without football, the Browns have seen no players arrested. Nobody’s even managed to make a stink via Twitter or magazine. The organization has used this most recent rebuilding period to reinvent their culture and focus on character. This is what building a solid foundation is all about. Just look at the improvement:

Bill Hampton Jr., a former executive of the expansion Cleveland Browns, died Wednesday evening of a heart attack following the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles.

As a Browns fan, reading Steelers linebacker James Harrison’s comments was a delight. He threw his quarterback and running back under the bus and made a general fool of himself. To add to that, James Walker of ESPN cites that, among the Steelers’ myriad of other off-season distractions, as the potential unraveling of this team. No complaining here, right? Here are some more links for you on this Thursday afternoon: Unfortunately, Browns QB Jake Delhomme (for now) tops this list of the 25 Least Valuable Players in the NFL (Grantland) Check out tight end Ben Watson’s interview with the NFL Network [...]

Typically, I am all for an athlete speaking his/her mind, as it breaks up the usual monotony of by-the-book interviews and careful tip-toeing around what should really be said. For that, I respect Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison. By now, you’ve surely realized that the man simply doesn’t care what anyone else thinks. In the August issue of Men’s Journal, Harrison calls out not only commissioner Roger Goodell (which is to be expected at this point), but his teammates Ben Roethlisberger and Rashard Mendenhall.