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."