This Team Must Lose Out or Nothing Will Change!

[HoosierCat]

No, no, no, not the Bengals, silly. This team. Y'know, the one coming to town this weekend.

Oh, the tears of unfathomable sadness! Mmm - yummy!

A Cleveland Browns' fan's lament: 20 years of misery -- Bud Shaw Blog

By Bud Shaw, The Plain Dealer

November 24, 2009, 8:07AM

CLEVELAND -- A day after the Browns scored 37 points and somehow lost to a team that had won two of its previous 33 games, Eric Mangini implied the Detroit Lions were faking injuries to disrupt Brady Quinn's operation of the no-huddle offense.

That had to be the plan, right? Because, I guess, a team would have to fake injuries to slow down such a vaunted attack as the one the Browns put on display a week earlier in a 16-0 shutout loss to Baltimore.

After watching that game film, what choice did Detroit have except to clinch and hold on to stop the beating.

Lions coach Jim Schwartz, who worked with Mangini in Berea under Bill Belichick, denied the accusation.

Let's see. Mangini is estranged from Belichick. Now this with Schwartz. Mangini's future ex-friend George Kokinis came saying he was thrilled with the opportunity to work with his old pal, and departed disenchanted and with an escort out of the building.

All worked together here. What could possibly be the common denominator in those fallouts?

I woke up Tuesday to a somewhat lengthy but heartfelt email from a reader who spoke to the cumulative and staggering effect of the last 20 years of mostly inept football from the Browns.

I see glimpses in my neighborhood that many have reached the breaking point. Guys who went together on season tickets for years gave them up this year. Not only do they no longer get together to watch the Browns on TV, they miss chunks of games. One neighbor in particular has been seen blowing leaves between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Sundays.

I think Randy Lerner would love for an football executive to come in and tell him (and the fans) that Eric Mangini is the right man for the job. It would save Lerner another payoff to another fired coach or GM.

That's downright scary to some who have so much emotion and money invested in this franchise..

Here's the email. The fear seems to be that a few meaningless wins at the end of such a dismal season may only give Lerner an excuse to perpetuate his latest mistake.

You can decide how representative it is of your state of mind.

"Bud:

I can't find myself surprised by anything Mangini says or does anymore. For a guy who got caught cheating himself to be again accusing someone else of cheating (and another "friend" no less) just causes me to think that anything is possible under his rule.

Well, except for wins.

I watched my best friend, who I have never seen waver from anything but fierce loyalty to the Browns, root for the Lions this past weekend. Even with the offensive explosion, he was rooting HARD for the Lions to drive down and win it in the end. If nothing else did, that made me realize just how much damage Mangini (and, really, Lerner) had done to this franchise.

I'm a cynical guy. I have a history of rooting for my team to fail when I think the organization is filled with knuckleheads, but to see my buddy John do it gave me chills. He even called me today and said he was bummed because he was worried that Big Ben's injury might give the Browns a chance in that game. He's going to root against the Browns in the PITTSBURGH GAME!!!

The Browns might be finished with a lot of fans after the turmoil of the last 20 years. Let us not forget that Modell had burned every bridge in town, including with the fans, by the time he left. 20 years of either disgust or apathy takes a long time to fade away. Just look at the Indians. They ensnared the fans again when they were winning, but those fans stopped coming in droves even before the winning finally stopped. And, of course, it only took a couple of bad years for attendance to drop off the map so badly that not even an ALCS appearance was able to create a bump the next season.

All those years I prayed for Modell to sell the team, and now here I am back in the same situation. I am Einstein's definition of insanity. But, of course, so is Randy Lerner."

Mike

[COB]

I sense the impending creation of the DPR (dawg pound revolution). A website run out of a 400 lb unemployed steelworker's mom's basement, and a logo of Che in a dog mask.

This whole implosion in Cleveland is absolutely delightful.

[kingwilly]

I sense the impending creation of the DPR (dawg pound revolution). A website run out of a 400 lb unemployed steelworker's mom's basement, and a logo of Che in a dog mask.

This whole implosion in Cleveland is absolutely delightful.

it is baffling.

When they brought Mangina in, I laughed like crazy.

Get rid of Braylon. Implode. implode. implode.

week after week, it gets worse.

I am eager to see the Bengals flex some offensive muscle on the browns D. If the Lyons can hang 37 on them, the Bengals should be able to post more than 45.

[COB]

I sense the impending creation of the DPR (dawg pound revolution). A website run out of a 400 lb unemployed steelworker's mom's basement, and a logo of Che in a dog mask.

This whole implosion in Cleveland is absolutely delightful.

it is baffling.

When they brought Mangina in, I laughed like crazy.

Get rid of Braylon. Implode. implode. implode.

week after week, it gets worse.

I am eager to see the Bengals flex some offensive muscle on the browns D. If the Lyons can hang 37 on them, the Bengals should be able to post more than 45.

Just a comment on your "No Brat, not another end around!" quotation. It all made sense last Sunday. Five years or so of reverses were run to set up that one brilliant fake reverse he called on Sunday. It worked about as well as the regular reverses did - rejected.

[BlainThePain]

I sense the impending creation of the DPR (dawg pound revolution). A website run out of a 400 lb unemployed steelworker's mom's basement, and a logo of Che in a dog mask.

This whole implosion in Cleveland is absolutely delightful.

You know your team is bad off when the one bright spot is you have half of a good offensive line.

[DC_Bengals_Fan]

A website run out of a 400 lb unemployed steelworker's mom's basement

Trailers don't have basements, silly!

and a logo of Che in a dog mask.

That's funny as hell.