Cleveland Browns fans: What would you do?

Cleveland Browns fans have not been shy about what the team should do with running back Isaiah Crowell. So why do they continue to give a pass to Jim Brown?

This is always the worst part of the calendar for NFL fans and for the league’s 32 teams.

The league is deep into the five- to six-week stretch between the close of the off-season program and the start of training camp, a time where the players are free to do what they please and teams hope that all is well.

It was turning into a nice, quiet summer break for the Cleveland Browns.

Then running back Isaiah Crowell decided to go on Instagram.

It has now been almost a week since Crowell’s controversial (to put it mildly) post showing a drawing of a police officer being stabbed in the neck by a man in a black hood broke the peaceful calm and the fallout continues.

Crowell issued a formal apology that seemed a little too rehearsed, leading to Stephen Loomis, president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association, to jump in and threaten to stop police officers from working security at games this fall.

That led Crowell to issue a second, and more heartfelt, apology via his Facebook page, which included a pledge to donate his first game check this fall to the Dallas Fallen Officers Foundation. Having gotten his name in headlines for an entire news cycle, Loomis walked back from his earlier threat and accepted that Crowell indeed understood his mistake.

While Loomis was appeased, along with a portion of the Browns fanbase, it still seems likely that the Browns will issue some form of punishment to Crowell. After all, the team called the social media post an “extremely disturbing and unacceptable social media decision,” so an apology and a donation may only be the beginning for Crowell.

There is a segment of the fan base that has not been as forgiving, however, with calls for the Browns to cut Crowell immediately, if not sooner. Some have left it at that while others, far too many if we are being honest, took things down a very dark and ugly path.

We have a question for those people. If you want Crowell punished in the most extreme fashion for one emotional mistake, what would you do to a player who:

Allegedly threw a woman off the second-floor balcony of his home and hit a deputy sheriff who was investigating the incident? Would it matter that the player was not charged because the woman claimed the slipped and fell?
Was accused of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old woman in a Howard Johnson motel room?
Spent a day in jail for choking his golfing partner?
Was arrested for allegedly assaulting his live-in girlfriend, charges which were lated dropped after the woman refused to prosecute?
Was charged with making terrorist threats toward his wife?

Since the player in question is Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown, the question becomes rhetorical as the majority of Browns fans have chosen to either forgive or forget Brown’s off-the-field issues with the passage of time.

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On Thursday, the Browns posted a video about the statute honoring Brown that will be placed this fall at First Energy Stadium. We shared it on Dawg Pound Daily’s Facebook page where it has reached more than 3,400 people and received 145 likes.

On the team’s Facebook page the video has received more than 2,200 likes and generated almost 100 comments, almost of which talk about how proud fans are that Brown played for the team.

How is it that the same fan base can continue a 50-plus year love affair with one player while simultaneously making it clear they want nothing to do with another one.

If we were being cynical, we could make a case that many of those fans who want the team to release Crowell would have a different take if he was routinely putting up 1,500-yard rushing seasons. Instead, we’ll chalk it up to an emotional reaction to an inflammatory issue.

There is no excuse for what Crowell did on Instagram and, as a public figure, he needs to learn how to “think twice, post once” whenever he is on social media. (A lesson that many, many people still have not learned.) He also needs to continue to do more to be, in his own words “part of the solution” rather than be part of the problem. (Again, a lesson that many people could also learn.)

But for fans to call for Crowell’s release, while also ignoring Brown’s off-the-field issues, comes off as revisionist at best, hypocritical at worst.

Next: Browns using power run against edge rushers

So what do you say, Browns fans?

Still think the team should cut Crowell?

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