Cleveland Browns Pre-season football: Nirvana To Some - Like Me XII
Posted August 11th, 2007 by George Thomas
Ken Dorsey the savior is in. Romeo Crennel has said that Dorsey deserves a chance to play in the pre-season. Waddya wanna bet he gets his shot here and he's let go ASAP? Just an observation. Have we seen the end of him in a Browns jersey? Can ya tell we're in garbage time, rotate them in, rotate them out.
Quinn's putting his plays on his wrist. Looks as if we're gonna see what the rookie's got - other than $8 million guaranteed.
Good lord, no Quinn and Dorsey is sacked for a safety. I gotta tell you. My colleague Marla Ridenour is sitting next to me here praying for Quinn to enter the game, along with everyone in the freakin' stadium.
The paper's Browns beat writer, Pat McManamon makes a salient observation: "We have a 9-9 tie. The most dreaded words you can hear in pre-season."
Of course that may not last long considering the Chiefs had a decent return on the punt to give them back the ball after the safety.
A nice defensive stand give the Browns the ball back and Marla is almost aghast at the fact that Quinn isn't in there. Time's a draggin' now. Other members of the media are calling for Quinn's entry.
I love football, but this is akin to being victimized in the Spanish Inquisition.
Well that kickoff return makes Quinn's appearance irrelevant. Not that the offense has been sparkling at all..
August 12th, 2007 at 12:27 am
How do you know that Quinn was putting plays on his wrist? For all we know, it could have been a grocery list, instructions for Charlie Weis' next stomach-staple surgery, or Jeff Garcia's private cell phone number.
I think it would be a bad idea to have Quinn play this early. Let the fans hoot and holler for him, like they did for Luke Witte. I figure by the tenth game, at the very latest, he'll have made his entry during a game's third quarter. Then, for Romeo's Last Stand, he'll be thrown like chum to the sharks as the starter for the rest of the season. If Quinn's not starting against Arizona on December 2, I'll be shocked.
August 12th, 2007 at 8:39 am
A bad idea to play one of your competing QBs in a meaningless pre-season game? Yeah, great strategy there. Let's get absolutely no barometer of what BQ can do in pro game situations now, so that when we finally do insert him in a real game, it'll just be a surprise for both him, the coaches and fans. Some people.
Why is it that Terry Pluto makes more sense (as a writer) than the Browns entire coaching staff? How was either QB supposed to develop a rhythm last night, with rotating every series? And why not play the starters, with Frye and Anderson, well thru 3 quarters? Aren't you trying to evaluate talent? Next week, I expect and WANT to see Quinn for at least as long as Ken Dorsey's planned minutes last night–2 quarters. Give the fans what they want. Because we all know the losses will soon begin piling up and our pre-season joy will evaporate.
August 12th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
If you want surprises, then send in a rookie that doesn't even know the plays yet, and watch him get killed. SURPRISE! They didn't trade away a couple of high draft picks so they can ship Pretty Boy back home in a body bag.
August 13th, 2007 at 12:02 am
Is there any post you don't have a dumb*** remark for? Must really s*** to be you.
August 13th, 2007 at 1:00 am
Gosh, I love Internet comment sections. I proffer that a high-priced prize rookie quarterback without any practice or a clue should not be in a football game until he at least knows some plays to avoid getting himself decapitated, and some Victorian poet responds that it must really be the pits being me. Gee, that's nice.
Hmm, that name looks familiar … hey, ain't this the same poet that said in George's Vick suspension thread that women tolerate getting the crap beaten out of them because they want the money and the perks? Gee, that was nice, too. Until then, I was naive enough to believe the feminist movement had lost a bit of steam. Gloria Steinem, Sports Fan.
But never mind the nonsense. What's 'ol George think? Should Quinn be a sacrificial lamb? Or do two high draft picks warrant doing this the right way?
August 13th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Alan:
Good to see you still wave the flag of discontent. What do I think? Now don't have a heart attack, Alan, but in this case I agree with you.
Quinn hadn't been in camp long enough to get any time in that game. He shouldn't have been in there at all. Three days of practice? Then dealing with the hub-bub? Then trying to win over teammates? Let alone trying to get any semblance of rhythm with any receiver.
In Saturday's game he was better off looking at the game from exactly where he stayed for all four quarters - the sideline. Now, next Saturday is a different story. He'll have more than a week in camp, more reps and, if he has any sense whatsoever, he'll put in extra time working with receivers, so he'll be ready.
August 19th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Hey George, the Browns played again last night and Brady got in the game. It looked like he put in some extra time, between all the fashion shoots.
August 21st, 2007 at 12:33 am
Hey, George, as the new guy on the Buckeyes Beat, what octane gas are you going to use for all those scouting missions down I-71? My guess is your employer won't spring for anything greater than 87. That's if they pay for your gas at all. You might have to shuck your own corn and pour it into the tank.
August 21st, 2007 at 8:31 am
Uh, Alan: there's something called cable television these days and there's absolutely no reason George will have to travel all the way to Columbus.
He has a feel for the place, having spent a vague period of time on campus already, as he's noted a few times before. If a game's not televised, he can always follow the action on one of the student websites.
Don't put any crazy ideas like travel in the new owners' heads; we've lost enough good men already!
August 21st, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Why do some bloggers, this one in particular, post something new, like, every three weeks? Defeats the point, doesn't it?
Disagreed with the overall tone of George's column today in the ABJ. Very few are leading all-out charge to anoint Brady "king" and "starter" from Day 1. But we ARE very anxious to see him perform with some players other than the scrubs in mop-up time. Few would argue that, even at this early point in his career, he is any worse than the other Terrible Trio of QBs Savage has assembled. Are we just going to "write off" this season as another "lost cause," conceding wins, just because we're too afraid to play our potentially-best QB? Let's see what Brady and the front-line offense is made of…and why not do it during pre-season, so we CAN avoid the on-the-job training, if necessary, when the games actually *count.* ?
August 21st, 2007 at 8:37 pm
They're all just backpedaling from Pluto's crazy quarterback column Sunday, supposedly written before Quinn got in the game in the fourth quarter Saturday night, according to Pluto's weasly followup piece on Monday.
It can be a real gas reading these guys, sometimes.
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:24 am
I must have missed the weasly followup piece. What weasly followup piece?
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:42 am
Pluto wrote the next day how his previous article was written under such tight deadlines that he finished it before the fourth quarter, etc., etc., as if to show he wasn't moved by the Golden Boy's performance, like all the dumb bandwagoning fans.
Now today McManamon's saying Quinn should in fact be given a start. It's dizzying but at least they're not in total agreement like they usually are, I guess.
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:44 am
Hey, George, now that you, half of the BJ chick attack, and occasional emergency utility man Windhorst have been deemed to be the Browns reporters for the 2007 season, when the hell are we going to finally see a one-on-one print interview with Pretty Boy? Seriously. Not one of those team coverage malarkey soundbite locker room things, but an actual cohesive coherent long-form face-to-face interview with some real probing questions.
And please, do not instead substitute a laughable dot the i's and cross the t's e-mail "interview" with Quinn's agent, as in the ridiculous zero-credibility method in which all the local sportswriters are forced to conduct their farcical question and answer sessions with Big Dan "My Bread And Butter Mortgage Business Continues To Set Amazing Boffo Record Numbers" Gilbert.
August 23rd, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Anyone find it odd that a certain 'commenter' keeps talking about how good looking our "Pretty Boy" quarterback is, and is fixated on that open-shirt cover? Now he want's "probing" questions. What is your problem, dude? Do you just not like Brady Quinn for some reason, or do you like him a "little too much?" Guess we all have our thoughts on that.
August 24th, 2007 at 12:38 am
Yes, probing questions. If indeed that is a rat you're smelling, although I suspect you're really whiffing something else. Who's talking about "good looking?" You are. I'm merely referring to him as "Pretty Boy." It would have been "Boobie," but I've been informed that's already been taken.
Yes, probing questions, smelling rat. As in questions that are harder to answer and shed a deeper light than that silly softball TV interview that followed the Lions game.
August 24th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Alan, still cynical I see. Believe it or not, I will be traveling to cover the Buckeyes, but I'll have to do it on a skateboard and when my legs get tired use the two horses that will have been jogging along side me. As for a probing one on one interview with Quinn, if you want to discuss that it will have to be in a private conversation and not on the comments section here. In short: drop me an email. I'll either write back, or if you leave a phone number, I will call, Alan.
August 24th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
E-mail or phone call? George, I'm not requesting that you ask Quinn if he wears crotchless chaps during Mardi Gras, I'm asking you to finally get something published for the readers, something that's curiously been missing from every newspaper that covers the Browns in its sports pages. Where's a newspaper interview with Quinn, let alone any local newspaper sports interview that doesn't resemble an outtake from Larry King's Greatest Hits?
By the way, if your horses ever need some serious equine
veterinary care, you should know that OSU's veterinary hospital is top-notch.
August 26th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
If you don't want to discuss it privately, Alan, all I can suggest is not complaining about it.
August 27th, 2007 at 7:49 am
A curious exchange to say the least, George.
First, you won't reveal the dark secret behind the reason your paper hasn't been quoting the highest profile Cleveland Brown since Bernie Kosar, but you'll tell the website's most prolific (and probably the paper's most critical) poster "off the record"? Then you write that if said poster doesn't want to get with the program and serve as your leak, he should just zip it?
Are you trying to land a job with the Bush Administration or something?
August 27th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
larry, I'll be totally honest, I have absolutely no idea what's happening here, either. Either George is going completely goofy on me, or Alberto Gonzales has been posting as George.
… Hey, wait a minute here. I just re-read your comment. larry, are you saying with a straight face that you're not as critical about the paper as I am? Some of these guys around here may indeed get my opinionated juices really flowing, but I am the most prolific? Under my own name, I guess I'd be a contender, but there are plenty of folks on the website that are far more prolific than I'll ever be. Only you'd never know it, because they repeatedly post using 600 different screen names.
Regardless, I really don't want to know the "dark secret." I would ask George off-the-record, but frankly, I saw the original "Faces of Death" in the early 80s, and I still have nightmares about it. I'm a bit of a pansy when it comes to darkness.
August 27th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
You're probably right about me and all of the sockpuppets on these blogs, alan, and I wasn't trying to criticize you in any way. I was just wondering about the Woodward and Bernstein routine.
August 28th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
larry, it has to be assumed that Quinn's agent, and Quinn's marketing team, assuming he has one, has expressly forbid any one-on-one interview with Quinn. Like James' PR team has done with Windhorst and the other local yokels. I can think of no other rational explanation.
September 3rd, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Hey, George, I realize you didn't originally think you were going to get this much responsibility in the sports department, but come on. I agree with the guy that mentioned this earlier. Either regularly write in your blog, or tell the online folks to use this space for something else. Maybe delicious cheesecake recipes, or something.
With that being said, until I read your Buckeyes story, I had absolutely no idea that Youngstown State is called "the Penguins." So I learned something practical today.
September 6th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Geez guys, can't I adjust to a new role in peace?
September 6th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Are you finishing up your bachelors degree down there, George?