What follows is a news item that will appear in Friday's Beacon-Journal. I include a slightly expanded version on the blog, with no comments … because it is news:
A second Cleveland Browns player suffered a serious injury in the team's post-practice ""opportunity period."
Keith Grennan, a practice squad defensive end, ruptured a patella tendon Thursday and will have surgery Monday.
He will be sidelined for at least eight months, perhaps one year. Cameron Foster, Grennan's agent, confirmed the injury, but said he did not know details that led to it happening.
The story was first reported on AOL's Fanhouse.com, and was confirmed by league sources.
Grennan and rookie running back James Davis both were injured in the post-practice period when coach Eric Mangini gives his rookies and young players extra time.
Wrote AOL: "… the fact that another player has been injured during the opportunity period is only going to strengthen the belief around the team that Mangini's draconian coaching methods are exposing the players to unnecessary risk."
Mangini calls the post-practice sessions an "opportunity period" because players have the opportunity to improve their skills.
"It’s all different areas," Mangini said the day after the win over Buffalo, "where we’re trying to help guys get better at skill sets, give them some concentrated attention, because those practice squad guys don’t really get a lot of chances to do the things that we’re doing.
"It’s the same thing with some of the younger guys. They may get chances, they may not get chances, but you want to keep developing them so that they don’t lose the season, they don’t lose each one of those days."
Others disagree.
"You're forcing them out there after they've already practiced and they're tired and you're putting them at risk," one league source said. "That's why Jamal Lewis said what he said. Kids are out there for three hours … something's going to break."
Thursday Lewis said the Browns are a physically drained team after dealing with lengthy practices all season long.
The source — who works for an NFL team – called for the league to investigate the post-practice practices, and said if they happened back to the days when Mangini coached in New England then the investigation should go back that far.
The league source said rookies must "volunteer' — the word was used loosely — to stay on the field for an extra 30 minutes after a two-and-a-half-hour practice, and then take part in one-on-one full-speed drills.
Davis hurt his shoulder in a drill, and though various reports claimed he was not wearing pads at the time he was hurt the league cleared the Browns of any wrongdoing.
Mangini said all drills are supervised, with coaches present. Players were in pads when Grennan was injured. Mangini also said when describing the drills that Bill Belichick ran them, and that they have helped younger players.
"It’s designed to help them have the best chance to bump up," Mangini said.
AOL quoted an NFL Players Association spokesman saying the NFLPA would look into the situation.
Oy vey. Another ridiculous situation. And other ridiculous story not broken by the beat writer(s) at the Plain Dealer or the beat writer(s) at the Beacon Journal. I'm not sure which situation is more ridiculous. Or pathetic. I'll be fair, and just rate it a tie.
Seriously, Pat, are you sure you don't want to go back to the Browns beat? I can be very persuasive, I'm quite confident I can convince your editor to give you a better desk much closer to a window.
So this begs the question, who wouldn't want to come play for this Cleveland team?
Alan, I love what I'm doing.
Not even if I get you a better desk? Not even if I read your daughters' new favorite website that you talked about earlier? Here, I'll prove I'm reading it. I actually read Keith Grennan's post over there. This is a direct cut-and-paste, with Grennan's misspellings and everything:
"Today I got hit in the face with a ball during P.E. My mom told me when I get hit with something I should just fall over, so I tried it. The teacher freaked and sent me to the nurse who sent me home saying I should go to the doctor to see if I had a concusion. When I told my mom she laughed and wrote me a fake note. Guess who's not participating in gym for three weeks? MLIA"
Sorry. Nope.
i would love to have the "opportunity" to kick mangini in the nads.
Pat, don't know if you caught the segment on NPR( I know Alan didn't) where another kidfriendly website was mentioned: myparentswereawsome.com sounds like something the girls would like.
It would seem the "spartan attitude"Jim Brown espoused when he played is ,what,"old school".C'mon,ever watch the movie "The 300",now that was extreme conditioning. The Browns have a knack for finding underperforming athletes(use that word loosely) and complainers .Botom line, the talent is not there and Mangini will be gone at season's end.A brushhog should be run through the org.and they should start from scratch.
I wonder why the NFL cleared the Browns in the Davis incident, and whether the NFLPA has dropped that matter? The article states the team has been running these "post-practice" practices since the early 90s and I wonder if that's true and it's been happening under Palmer, Davis, etc.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
They are only going to get better if they practice.
ken, this guy was cut by Mangini from the practice squad on October 9, then was picked back up for the practice squad on October 20 after Mangini decided to cut a different guy. Now, his NFL career is over.
Now you are actually comparing Mangini's stiffs and his uhh … "non-mandatory" drills to the great Jim Brown (the great player, not the great woman-beating bully) and those computer-generated muscles on the great gladiators in the movie "300?"
Ken, you know what's "old school," as you put it? A guy who would walk into Mangini's office and sit down with the man and sit there like two men and discuss issues. You know, something a "professional" like Jamal Lewis should do. You know, something a "professional" like Jamal Lewis refuses to do. You know, something a "professional" like Jamal Lewis was *elected* to do as co-captain of his offense. You know, something like Jamal Lewis is too freakin' insubordinate to do when he instead airs his grievances to a delighted media. You know, something like Jamal Lewis, in this conveniently absent quote from Ridenour's piece, somehow overlooked to print when Lewis was asked why he doesn't just go into Mangini's office and discuss it with him. And remember, this is the exact same guy who was *elected* by the players to be a players' team leader.
Here, I quote from Jamal Lewis what Ridenour wouldn't in response to why Lewis has never discussed one single issue, including the issue of the lengthy practices, with the team's very own coach: “Because that’s not my role. It hasn’t been my role with any coach that I’ve ever been with." Ladies and Gentleman: The Cleveland Browns' Co-Captain.
Not only is Mangini a real piece of work, but the local media should really occasionally alter its focus from Mangini (and Lerner) every once in a while. Because they repeatedly see "it's all about me" "veterans" as actually being deemed as "professional." It's incredible.
The entire organization, from top to bottom, including its egregiously insubordinate "co-captain" who's averaged a pathetic 3.4, 3.6, 3.6 and 3.6 yards-per-carry in four of the past five seasons, is an outright disaster.
Oh, and Brian D., that's not totally true, that I never listen to NPR. I tried years ago, it's a boring snoozefest, but I've listened to NPR intentionally only for two purposes: One, I occasionally listen to Harry Shearer's weekly program. Two, in 2003, when he was plugging his album "Come Poop With Me," I listened to an interview with Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog. I can never get enough of talking dogs that speak with an Eastern European accent and smoke cigars during their act.
i can't put too much blame on jamal. playing in the city of cleveland for the browns must feel like soul death. i know when i lived in cleveland it felt like a ten ton hammer was pounding my skull on a daily basis. the only sane option is escape.
terje, who's blaming Lewis? But if this "it's all about me" chump is actually "respected" as a "professional" both throughout the local media and throughout the league itself, then this is a bad prison movie. Ebert would rip it.
cleveland makes you do and say some stupid things. i'll let lewis slide. lake erie air attacks brain cells and blunts reasoning.
So…
they suck because they practice too much?
sigh…same old arguments,
" These guys make a lot of money, therefore we expect them to be mute robots – don't get tired, don't speak out, don't complain about ten hour bus trips, etc. etc."
RedHawkRick, what do you not understand about the concept of a co-captain very consciously and very completely shirking his elected role, and instead choosing to air his boss' dirty laundry out in public? To you, that's professional?
Lewis has already announced his retirement, so he knows no other front office can blackball him for pulling this insubordinate crap. He's got only eight games to go. The results on the field plainly show that Mangini has done a horrible job, but what Lewis pulled with the media would get any other co-captain on any real team anywhere else consisting of real "professional" players … well, he'd be benched and put permanently in the doghouse. Two carries a game and stiffed out of his possibility of meeting incentive clauses in his contract.
And when I say "no other front office," I mean another team's front office that would have been initially willing to take on other eroded stiffs, like Edgerrin James. Because retirement or not, Lewis would be Cleveland history after this season.
Holy cow, can't the Browns just cut him now? It's not like he's helping them win games or anything.