The owners of two NFL teams–the Cleveland Browns and the Washington Redskins–both reached out to their sad fanbases earlier this week. The teams, who are 1-7 and 2-5 respectively, enjoy two of the most loyal fanbases in all of sports, but those fanbases have had their patience tested with front office instability and questions over the the long-term prospects of their current personnel, especially at quarterback. Redskins owner Daniel Snyder said he was “apologetic” to a small group of reporters after a fundraising event.
“We feel frustration and are disappointed for our fans,” Snyder told the crowd. “Obviously our performance to date is not what we expected, and we hope to turn that around.”
“I feel bad for the fans. I feel sorry for the fans, and we’re very, very appreciative of our loyal fan base,” he said. “We just feel terrible. We’re disappointed. We’re embarrassed, and we hope to get it going soon.” –ESPN.
Browns owner Randy Lerner actually met with two members of Cleveland’s famed “Dawg Pound” during a two-hour meeting earlier today.
The season-ticket holder, aka “Dawg Pound Mike,” one of the best known members of Cleveland’s rabid bleacher section of fans, spent two hours on Tuesday meeting with Lerner, who stepped away from a turbulent week and his busy schedule for the visit.
Randall and his friend, Tony Schafer, have been encouraging others to stay out of their seats for the opening kickoff of Cleveland’s next home game on Nov. 16 to protest the Browns’ futility.
“It was great,” Randall said. “How many owners would spend two hours meeting with two fans? None.” –Tulsa World.
Of course, other crappy franchises have found other ways to combat oncoming fan apathy. Like the Bengals, who sit at 5-2 and atop the AFC North division. That sounds a lot better than any apology.
Cleveland Browns quarterback Brady Quinn has put his Cleveland-area home on the market, according to an “industry source” reported by ESPN. Quinn started the first three games of 2009 before being benched by Browns coach Eric Mangini in favor of Derek Anderson, he of the Pro Bowl season two years ago, and not much since. was benched in favor of Derek Anderson, whose 2-for-17 performance last Sunday against Buffalo did nothing to change his coach’s mind. Now Quinn wants out.
According to the industry source, with the struggling economy it could take up to six months or a year to sell upper-end homes in the Cleveland area. The asking price is $775,000 for the five-bedroom, five-bathroom house, which is 4,561 square feet.
Quinn bought the Avon Lake property in June of 2007, just two months after he was drafted in the first round by Cleveland, the source confirmed. via.
Between watching former teammate Braylon Edwards thrive in greener pastures on national television earlier this week and realizing that he can’t hit the escalator clauses in his contract from the bench, Quinn is ready to get out of Ohio. But who would take him, considering that we’re now a month into the season? I understand there’s plenty of brown-eye happening in San Francisco. That really sounds more like Brady’s scene. also. also.
Less than a week after punching out on of LeBron James’ “kids,” Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards was literally kicked out of Cleveland. And I thought all those references to LeBron “owning the town” were just figurative. Braylon was sent to the Jets for wide receiver Chansi Stuckey, linebacker Jason Trusnik, and two draft picks, reportedly a 3rd- and a 5th-round pick.
The trade comes just two days after a Cleveland man accused Edwards of assault outside a nightclub in the city. The man is a friend of Cavs star LeBron James, who said Edwards’ alleged assault was motivated by “jealousy.”
This is the second major trade between the Browns and Jets since Mangini joined Cleveland after being dismissed by the Jets in January. The Jets acquired the fifth overall pick from the Browns in April, and then selected Sanchez with the choice. via.
Yeah, what the hell is up with the big trades? Is Mangini raiding the Browns? We’ll know in three months, depending on whether or not the entire Jets locker room ends up with a staph infection. also.
The “Friends of Lebron” tag makes its debut on With Leather today as we discuss this bizarre story of Cleveland Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards allegedly punching out Edward Givens, who works as an events promoter-slash-Friend of LeBron. I have no idea why I spelled out the slash there.
A police report gives these details: Givens was talking to the suspect outside the club when the suspect started an argument. The suspect then punched Givens with a closed first on the left side of his face. Givens told officers he would seek treatment at Lutheran Hospital.
The suspect’s name on the police report is redacted. But multiple sources and the victim say the suspect is Edwards. via.
Givens wasn’t surprised that the NFL’s droppingest receiver came after him outside of View Ultralounge & Nightclub early Monday morning.
“Everyone knows Braylon has a problem with LeBron. So I had to speak up for myself. The conversation started to escalate. As some of his teammates started to pull him back, he punched me. I have a black eye and a cut. I’m not a violent guy.
“As long as I’ve known Braylon, I’ve allowed him and his friends to come into our events free of charge. Whatever jealousy he has with LeBron, he felt he needed to take it out on me.”
Braylon would probably do well for himself to get to bed a little earlier and stop dropping so many passes. But this…this is just weird. Dude PLAYS IN THE NFL. And not well, either. Why’s he punching out club promoters? Why not punch out somebody that deserves it? Like Larry Dolan. Or Eric Mangini. Or anyone living in Cleveland that’s not friends with LeBron.
Cleveland Browns head coach Eric Mangini is 0-4. He’s the aberration of the Parcells-Belichick pedigree, who already has alienated his players faster than a ex-stripper widow from a Charlie Sheen movie. But things were looking up in Cleveland yesterday… He managed to take the Bengals, who had been playing very well of late, to overtime. Guess how that turned out?
After Palmer and his teammates convinced their coach to gamble on fourth-and-11 with just over one minute left, Palmer scrambled for 15 yards to set up Shayne Graham’s(notes) 31-yard field goal on the final play of overtime, giving Cincinnati a 23-20 victory over the winless Cleveland Browns on Sunday. via.
This was after Cleveland blocked a field goal and an extra point earlier in the game. And then the other opposing coach HAD TO BE CONVINCED BY HIS QUARTERBACK TO PLAY FOR THE WIN IN OVERTIME. The Bengals, longtime authors of The Suck Book in the AFC North, are 3-1 and have a realistic shot at the wildcard, if not the division. Cleveland, however, seems to have nowhere to go but down. If you enjoyed watching the Lions go 0-16 last year, watching Mangini and the Browns do it will be even better.
Life hasn’t been going too great for Brady Quinn. After being named the starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns prior to the first game of the season by head coach Eric “Respect My Authori-tah!” Mangini, Quinn was unceremoniously benched at halftime during last week’s 34-3 loss to the Baltimore Ravens and was replaced by Derek “Horse Balls” Anderson. Brady was 6-8 for 34 yards with an interception when he was pulled. Oh yeah, then Anderson came in and crapped the bed even worse, going 11-19 for 92 yards with three interceptions.
To add insult to injury, Mangenious elected to go with Anderson as a starter today against the Bengals (at the time of writing, Cleveland was losing 14-7 at halftime and Anderson is 6-16 for 130 yards with a touchdown).
But even after the benching, Quinn’s week got so much worse. Rapper Common was in Cleveland Thursday night to perform a concert. First of all, who in the heck is Common? I’m not too hip on the hip hop. Is he a good rapper, like that Fresh Prince guy?
Anyway, here’s what happened:
During a performance at Cleveland’s House of Blues Thursday night, Common dissed Quinn during a freestyle. He rapped that he “won’t mess up like Brady Quinn,” and then mentioned Derek Anderson in the next verse. After the audience reacted to the diss, it was noticed that Quinn was actually in the house along with several teammates. Ouch. via. via.
Yowsers. That was probably the most embarrassed Quinn has felt since he had to tell his parents he wasn’t gay.
Now his folks don’t know what to think. And here his dad had his “I love my dead gay son!” speech all ready. You know, if something unfortunate were ever to happen to his confused boy. I do not mean to imply that somebody wants Quinn dead, but how else was I going to be able to incorporate that Heathers reference? Blogging ain’t easy, kids. Sometimes you have to fly by the seat of your leather chaps.
