Spent Wednesday at the Browns, talking to a lot of players about Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens. It would be a shock, beyond stunning, beyond astounding if TO does not have a huge day Sunday against the Browns secondary. The Browns can win, but they won't stop Owens, who figures to treat the Browns corners like a pair of inexperienced second-year starters. If Mel Tucker has any secrets stashed on how to stop the most explosive receiver in the league, this is the Sunday to use them. More on TO in tomorrow's Beacon Journal.

As for the injured guys, quarterback Derek Anderson seemed fine, as did WR Braylon Edwards. Jamal Lewis, though, sounded iffy. He said he'd try to practice and see how it went. And he said the only thing that fixes a hamstring is rest. Safeties Brodney Pool and Sean Jones were both on the field for the part of practice open to the media, and KR/WR Joshua Cribbs was even seen running around a little. It would be a huge surprise if Cribbs played, though. Two guys did not practice: OG Rex Hadnot and LB Kris Griffin. Both should miss the game.

On a conference call, Cowboys coach Wade Phillips was asked if Adam "PacMan" Jones would play any receiver this weekend. His response: "Well … we're not telling." Kind of sounded like the thought had crossed his mind. If it hadn't, it probably should. Dallas has no healthy or experienced depth beyond TO and Patrick Crayton.

Edwards pronounced himself ready to go, but did admit that the cut on the back of his heel did come close to his Achilles' tendon. … TO was on the conference call for the Cowboys, which was disappointing because had Tony Romo been speaking we could have asked some questions about Jessica Simpson. … My good friend Andre Knott, he of SVSM, discovered this interesting tidbit: Crayton and Donte Stallworth both had the same amount of receiving yards last season - 697.

Some more quotes from some of the principals:

• Owens on the sign he ripped down after scoring the last time he played in Cleveland Stadium: "I'm not real worried about what happened in the past."
• Owens on whether he became more team-oriented after he left the Eagles: "I think I'm pretty much the same person. I think maybe my choice of words has changed with the questions that are directed toward me. I think I changed the way I answer questions, but I think I'm the same pretty much across the board."
• CB Brandon McDonald on facing TO: "I'm looking for every challenge I can get … I'm trying for every challenge and I'm not backing down from the guy."
• McDonald, speaking of himself and fellow CB Eric Wright: "We're guys who like to compete. I think that's one of our major pluses. We like to get things done."
• Browns coach Romeo Crennel on how Anderson looked in Monday's practice: "Not as sharp as they could have been. Hopefully the rest of the week we can get him sharp."
• Crennel on whether he'd prefer facing a team in the opener that did not have a Terrell Owens lining up across from his corners: "I don't think it makes much difference who you open with, because they're going to get thrown on and going to get tested. Whether they can stand up to the test is the question. You just have to wait to find out."

Marla Ridenour talked to the boss, and they decided it would be a good idea for me to cover the Brett Favre news conference. Sweet of her. Every reporter in the greater New York-New Jersey-New Philadelphia area was there, and he spoke in a room smaller than his walk-in closets. No matter, since Marla figured it was a good idea, I did as well. So I took the elevator down to where Favre was speaking and ran across Brett Reynolds, the Browns vice president for sales and marketing. For a second, it seemed like a good idea to interview this Brett since it'd be less crowded, but then it didn't seem like people would be that interested in Brett Reynolds. At the room, we were informed that the Jets had picked the New York and national folks who would be allowed in. The Beacon Journal did not make the cut — neither did most of the Cleveland media, or Adriana Lima. So we shuffled around outside the room until Favre appeared. When he did, it seemed like the world might be interested in seeing what we saw.

Here, Favre arrives.

Here he holds up his new Jets jersey.

Here a female photographer sits on the shoulders of another female to get the photo. The reporter in front seems a bit more concerned with what is happening there than what Favre is saying.

Finally, this is what the hallway outside looked like.

At this point, it seemed like a good time to head up to the press box.

Made my way out to Browns camp on Monday and caught most of the morning practice. The conclusion after watching one workout: The dog days are hitting. This was not the crispest of workouts, though Travis Wilson did make a nice over-the-shoulder catch of a pass thrown by Brady Quinn. Yes, that was Travis Wilson who made the catch – he’s been a guy I’ve picked on a bit, so I thought it important to point out his good play.

This sloppy practice should not be a surprise. Every team has them. The only concern with the Browns and their sloppy practice is they bounce back and not let it be a sign they are allowing the excitement and fervor get in their heads. Things can change in a hurry with a team (see the Indians, Cleveland) and the Browns are not good enough yet to just be good because they want to be. They have to work to make sure they are good.

Spent a good amount of time talking to Jamal Lewis for a story that will appear in Tuesday’s Beacon-Journal. The more I talk to Lewis, though, the more I’m impressed. There’s a lot to be said for a guy who looks you in the eye and answers a question. I had heard for years that Lewis was a good player, good teammate and a pro. It was hard to believe all that when he went to jail for a few months in 2005 for allegedly using his cell phone to set up a drug deal. Folks in Baltimore thought it was a vendetta based on the flimsiest of evidence, but Lewis did go to the hoosegow, which made some of the positive stuff hard to swallow.

But seeing Lewis up close and dealing with him on a professional basis has made me wonder if I was wrong to judge from afar. Lewis seems as professional as they come, and his teammates have a great amount of respect for him. His offseason work (the subject of tomorrow’s story) and his effort to come to camp the lightest he’s been since he was in college show a guy who understands himself and his craft. Lewis has the right approach, and the right attitude. He has to be one of the shrewdest pickups in the Phil Savage era.

Couple more thoughts on Lewis –

A great many years back, the story was circulated by some Browns that Lewis guaranteed he’d set a single-game rushing mark against the Browns. In truth, he didn’t. He merely responded when Browns linebacker Andra Davis told him the Browns wanted him to carry the ball 35 times in an upcoming game in Baltimore. If I get that many carries, Lewis said, I’ll set a record. Hearing him now makes it easier to hear him then. Lewis speaks with a matter-of-fact honesty that is impossible to make into anything other than what it is – a statement of fact on his part. One can hear him chewing through some grapefruit or Grape Nuts or other healthy food and saying what he said.

Lewis also is a guy who recognizes what happened before him. He mentioned he plays for a team that had Jim Brown, and how he wants to live up to that legacy and how he knows Brown is often watching practice. Which makes a person think back to when he ran for 2,066 yards in 2003 and had a chance to break Eric Dickerson’s single-season record. Dickerson openly rooted against Lewis in the season finale (a true show of class that few have matched since). Lewis shrugged when he came short, said it was more important his team won and he had had a great year. Lewis also said Monday that he knows Cleveland is just more than an hour from Canton, home to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. When the likelihood that he would top 10,000 yards this season was mentioned to him, Lewis said it would mean he has “about 8,000 more to go.”

Why do I tell those stories? Because I think they illustrate why Lewis is so impressive.

A long time ago, I heard an NFL coach say that players typically enter the league wanting fame. That’s their first motivation. Second, they want money. But the coach said when they get the fame and money and realize something is missing, they start to play for championships. Lewis is at that point. He knows he can be successful, but after eight years in the league he now freely admits he’s playing for success, but also for a championship.

One of Lewis’ offsseason hallmarks is his work in a sand pit that he himself built at an Atlanta high school. When the sand pit was mentioned to Davis, who has worked with Lewis the past two offseasons, Davis exhaled deeply and rolled his eyes. And he talked not about how tough it is to run in sand, but how hot the sand is and how he has to run fast just to get through it.

A couple different topics —

Enjoyed this take on training camp quarterback competitions from Ross Tucker, who spent a training camp with the Browns. Tucker was a bright, engaging guy, and his words on quarterback competitions make sense. Like when he says deciding a quarterback based on training camp “is at best flawed, at worst negligent.”

The more that comes out about Brett Favre, the more nutty the Packers and their management sound. Sorry, but there’s just no way a team tells a player like Favre he cannot come back and compete for the starting job. But that’s what happened. ESPN’s Chris Mortensen talked to Favre, and Favre said of a recent conversation with GM Ted Thompson: “I asked Ted [Saturday], 'Am I welcome in the building if I report?' And Ted was just about shattered. He said, 'Brett, you can't do that — you'll get me fired.' I told him I'm not trying to get anybody fired. So Ted asked me to let the guys report and let's try to resolve this over the next two or three days." What in the world kind of sense does that make? In the five months since the NFC Championship Game, Favre has become a liability? I would tend to agree with the opinions in this column, which basically states that the guy whose legacy is going to be ruined by this is Thompson. The day Brett Favre cannot even COMPETE for his job is the day one has to wonder what they’re putting in the cheese in Packers headquarters. Be an interesting season in Green Bay if the Packers go 6-10 and Aaron Rodgers struggles or is injured. Probably be a more interesting offseason watching the cheese-head fans run the management team out of town.

So now word breaks that Cavs guard Delonte West is mulling a two-year offer to play in Moscow. West is a restricted free agent, and according to Yahoo.com he is pondering a $10 million deal. Gee, I wonder who (the agent) leaked that information (negotiating ploy), and for what reason (to get the Cavs to blink). Here’s a thought: If this report is true and if West wants to go to Moscow, well he should just go. Just leave. Now. West was not starting or playing a lot in Seattle when Cleveland traded for him. He became a starting point guard. He played on the same team as LeBron James. He’s on a very good team, and James now trusts him (which showed when James gave him the ball in that game-winning situation in Washington). He played for fans that embraced him. He’s playing in the NBA, with the best players in the world. He’s not going to find a situation that’s a whole lot better. Cleveland isn’t Paris, no, but it sure as hell isn’t Moscow either. Wouldn’t you love to see how beautiful Moscow is in mid-January? There’s a reason they wear those ridiculous hats and drink all that vodka, right? If West thinks Moscow with a bunch of new guys is a better place to play basketball than on a team that likes him and respects him and helps him and has LeBron, if money is all that matters to him, well then he should just go. Otherwise, just work out a deal and leave this other laughable stuff out of things.

Jayson Stark of ESPN.com says the Indians are about to trade Casey Blake to the Dodgers for a hard-hitting catcher and hard-throwing pitcher. It would be a shame to see a good guy like Blake go, especially because he’s hitting and having a decent year. This is a trade I scratch my head about a little bit. Winning teams have guys like Blake on the roster, and if the Indians plan to win next year it might be a good idea to have him on the roster.

The optimism at Browns camp really is bubbling over. Part of me says that’s great, that the fans deserve optimism and the Browns are coming off a 10-win season. But another part of me says that I’ve seen a lot of “optimistic” openings to training camp since 1999, and that optimism went south in a hurry. So let’s be optimistic, but let’s also give it some time – like until a game is played – before putting the bubbly on ice.

Hear that the Packers made it clear to Brett Favre soon after the season that they did not welcome him back. So Favre has been operating under the impression since February that Green Bay wanted to “move on” (as if he has rabies or something). This notion baffles a lot of inside-football folks, who think it’s poppycock to think that the Packers will be as good with Aaron Rodgers as they were with Favre. As was mentioned, Mike McCarthy brought in a brand new offense and new terminology when he was hired three years ago. Favre struggled the first year, got better the second and showed he understood things last year. He should be able to pick right up this year, yet the Packers tell Favre they do not want him back? Makes no sense. Zero. Zip. Nada. There’s one concept in professional sports: Win. Teams try to win, fans cheer to win. I don’t know anyone who buys a ticket to see a team try. They buy to see the team win. Period. Somehow in five months Aaron Rodgers became a better quarterback than Brett Favre. I repeat: Makes no sense.

Anyone see what Washington’s Gilbert Arenas had to say about losing to the Cavs two of the past three years in the playoffs? Here is is, according to the Washington Post sports blog: "It's kind of when you think about it. Everybody says we can't get past Cleveland. Cleveland beat us one year, that was three years ago. The other years they've just been beating up on some hurt dogs. We just want to get our fair shot when we're healthy at the right time, because two years we showed what kind of team we are….We were rolling, we were top five in the league, and that's what kind of team we are when we're healthy. When we're healthy that's the kind of team we are, we're a top five team in the league." Arenas was asked what he told his teammates after the playoffs: “You guys played the whole season without me and you guys made it to the playoffs. Tell Cleveland to play without LeBron. I don't think they won a game last year."

Let’s see, the Cleveland Browns are a playoff-caliber team in need of an improved pass rush. They have Kamerion Wimbley, Willie McGinest and Antwan Peek to generate the “edge” rush – and when exactly did it become an “edge” rush anyway – but more pass rush is always good. There was a perennial Pro Bowl player on the market, a guy who as recently as two seasons ago was the Defensive Player of the Year. Name of Jason Taylor. Could have been acquired for less than a first-round pick. Taylor played in college at Akron, and now he plays professionally in Washington. He was traded to the Redskins yesterday.

Should the Browns have tried to acquire Taylor?

Let’s admit first that Taylor’s salary cap hit this season is $8 million. I have no idea if the Browns can fit that, but I would hazard a guess that given the increase in the cap the past two years finding the room for Taylor’s deal would not have been a major problem. We proceed here on that assumption.

Second, let’s admit that it’s easy to look back and second-guess. Taylor already is traded. It’s almost moot to discuss it now. But it’s also fun. And at various points this offseason the Dolphins made it clear they would not trade Taylor. Turns out it wasn’t that difficult a thing to do, and had the Browns wanted to acquire Taylor they might have been able to complete a deal.

Finally, it’s possible the Browns did try to acquire Taylor. They conduct their business in private and they don’t always call to solicit advice, so it’s entirely possible the team made a pitch or conducted some serious meetings to discuss the possibility and decided otherwise. I’m just pondering – and it’s a blog, and we all know what THAT means.

So let’s ponder …

Pro: Guy can rush the passer. Great pass rusher.
Con: He’s 33, and threatening to focus on his acting career after this season. Sound like another Browns great?
Pro: He’s a pro. Despite his desires to get out of Miami, he brings the right attitude to the locker room. Last year he won the Walter Payton Award as the league’s Man of the Year, which honors a player’s community activity as well as on-field play.
Con: He would fill the same role as McGinest – the elder statesman with a year or two left – and a team only needs so many of those guys.
Pro: He’s had at least 11 sacks in each of the last three seasons.
Con: How long can that last?
Pro: He leads the NFL with 117 career sacks.
Con: You want me to find a con for that one?
Pro: He can cut a mean rug.
Con: The Brown already have one dancing fool on the team in Shaun Rogers.
Pro: The Browns are close, very close, and when you’re close you should take your shot. Big risk can sometimes equal big reward.
Con: The Browns already traded next year’s third-round pick to Dallas for tight end Martin Rucker. Trading the second-round pick next year (which Washington did plus a sixth-rounder in 2010) would leave the Browns with one first-day pick – in the first round. The Browns had a zero-activity first day in this year’s draft. Line up too many of those in a row and suddenly the future is void.
Irrelevant thought: Washington gave up a second next year and a sixth the following? The only thing that would have made the deal more one-sided would have been to include a retired player doing nothing, a la the NBA.
Pro: Taylor could mean the Super Bowl!
Con: He could also tear his Achilles’ practicing a plie (how do you get that little funny mark over the “E” in Word anyway?).

The key question – is the possibility of acquiring Jason Taylor and adding 10 sacks going to make the difference in the Browns? This comes down to philosophy. Me, I believe the key to any successful defense begins and ends with the pass rush. Disrupt the quarterback’s timing and half the battle is won.

But I’m just a schmuck with a typewriter. I’m not sitting in Berea poring over films or discussing schemes. At one time in Berea “gap integrity” was a big issue. A colleague once quipped that when eating lobster he violated “lap integrity” by spilling butter on himself.

Alas, we digress.

The key fact about acquiring Taylor was his ability – which is a higher level than anyone’s on the Browns defense now, including Wimbley. Right now, Taylor is the kind of player Wimbley aspires to be.

But there’s his age. Joey Porter seemed like a decent player when Miami signed him a year ago; now he looks washed up. Things can go quick in football, and when they do there’s nobody waiting at the recliner to put the ability back in a body.

The other concern is the future, and how much a team mortgages for now. Some teams will do anything for now. The Browns don’t seem to be that kind of team. If a second-round pick were traded, that would mean the Browns would enter the 2009 draft with one first-day pick from the 2008 and 2009 drafts.

Travis Wilson excepted, these first-day picks are the lifeblood of a team, the heart and soul of the future. They are vital to maintaining any kind of consistent success. It’s hard to envision any team succeeding over time trading them all away. Too, once you make the first trade with a future pick, it snowballs because more future picks are all you have to trade as you go along.

That being said, the Browns also are a team that is pretty dadgum close. And if Taylor could make a difference, it might be worth it. Too, the Browns have a GM who is very adept at acquiring draft picks via trade, so perhaps he could recoup some lost picks in the future.

Tough call. Very tough call.

But if I were sitting in Berea, I’d have been on the phone with Miami. A lot.

On a separate matter … kinda miffed at Adriana Lima. Not only does she spurn dumpy Irish sportswriters for an NBA player, she has to rub our face in it. Could we not have done without this little “red carpet” show at the ESPYs? I mean, really now. Was this a sponsorship deal or something? Was this done because some of us couldn’t attend because we had to sort out the junk drawer? When’s the last time an NBA player sorted out his junk drawer? Or even HAD a junk drawer? Hrrmph. This keeps up she’s coming off this year’s Tupperware party list.

Michael Strahan retired Monday. Strahan was a very, very good defensive end, but were he not to play in New York we'd have heard less about him. He had a great year when he set the sack record, but was given the last sack when Brett Favre fell down at his feet. It was cheap. The past year Strahan's divorce was very ugly and very public. Look, Strahan was a very good defensive end. Had Favre not fallen down, he'd have still had an excellent season without the sack record. Love to have had him on the Browns. But his value and worth were inflated by the fact he played in New York.

Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 600th home run Monday. In an age of Bonds and McGwire and Palmeiro and Sosa and Clemens all helping themselves and their performance with steroids and HGH and the like, Griffey seemed to be the one guy who did not juice. He fought injuries, yes, but he never appeared to cheat. He merely swung the bat, honored his contract (nine years is a long one) and played the best he could — as this story and this story relate.

Griffey had this to say about what is important to him prior to the season in a story on cbssportsline.com: "Not embarrassing your family, not embarrassing your teammates, not embarrassing the organization, I think that's very important. Other than being at my house, I'm Ken Griffey Jr. the baseball player. That's all people really know me as, other than my friends and family. Not giving any more fuel to the fire, that's what I try to do. Having my family never being in the papers. Not having my teammates or the organization answer questions. Because it gets tiring. I feel bad for the guys going through it (the steroid scandal), but more so for their teammates, because they're the ones having to answer all of the extra questions."

It wasn't real pretty when Griffey wrangled his way out of Seattle to get more money in Cincinnati, but since he's been there he's been the one star who's never been questioned. In this day and age, an accusation is just around the corner. But with Griffey those accusaions have never surfaced. At least we can look at this one guy and feel his 600 home runs — a Hall of Fame number — are legit.